RTS Student Masterclasses 2019

Documentary masterclass with Arthur Cary

Arthur Cary (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

From comedy to docs, via reality TV: “With my writing partner from university, I was writing script-based comedy… we got close a few times to getting things away but it wasn’t quite working,” recalled Cary.

He landed a job as a runner at Endemol, working on BBC Three show Celebrity Scissorhands and then Big Brother: “I exploited every connection I had at Endemol and got a job at North One, which used to make a lot of Cutting Edge [documentaries] for Channel 4.”

Drama masterclass with Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith

Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

“It all started in sixth form college,” recalled Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan. “We were already friends, having grown up in the same area, and we discovered we were very much into movies; not just watching them but actually wanting to make them – and, specifically, to write them.

“We would write scripts on notepads… and I would exchange my pages with Marlon and we discovered we were ripping off… the same film-makers and doing really bad versions of their movies.”