| London Film School | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1956 |
| Type | private |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Campus | Covent Garden |
| Affiliations | CILECT |
| Website | [LFS Website http://www.lfs.org.uk] |
The London Film School (LFS) is a private film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, close to a hub of the UK film industry based in Soho. The LFS was founded in 1956 by Bob Dunbar[1] as The London School of Film Technique. It is recognised as a leading private film school in the United Kingdom it is only one of two institutions which solely provides post-graduate film courses in the United Kingdom. The LFS is a Skillset Centre of Excellence.[2]
The school's current director is Ben Gibson and its current chairman is Oscar-nominated Mike Leigh O.B.E.
Contents |
The London Film School is the oldest-established international school of film technique in the world, at 50 in 2006. Rather than try and create a national cinema, as so many government-funded schools have done, LFS from the outset fostered a broad, craft-based culture of excellence with students from more than 80 countries. Since 1956 the school has trained thousands of directors, cinematographers, editors and other film professionals now working across the globe. It is the most truly international school anywhere, with 70% of its students from outside Britain. This diversity fits very well in the melting pot of London.
In 1956 the Principal of the Heatherley School of Fine Art, Gilmore Roberts, set up a short course in film making, but before the applicants could enrol, found that his school had been sold from under him. He decided to continue the course independently, but could hardly have imagined that forty-five years later a thriving, multinational school, descended from his embryonic idea, would be working in a converted warehouse in Covent Garden, London.
After precarious early days, the School settled in Brixton as the ´London School of Film Technique´. It was set up around the belief that the future health of film making in Britain could be promoted by properly designed formal training for people entering the industry, then run on a traditional apprenticeship basis. Since there was little sign of any official action to carry out these plans, a group of enthusiasts decided to take the classic British way and constitute such a school.
The approach to the old school, through a gaunt passage and up winding brick stairs to a handful of rooms over shops in Electric Avenue, Brixton, was likened by an intrepid visitor to a set from "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari". In the early 1960s the school moved to premises in Charlotte Street in the West End. The 18th century warehouse in Covent Garden, in which the school has been since the mid 1960s, maintains a similarly dramatic and individual character.
In 1974 the school was re-named as LIFS, the London International Film School. The LIFS constitution, which remains in force, is very unusual. The School is a registered charity, a non-profitmaking company, limited by guarantee. All students become members of the Association, and, together with the other members, elect a Board of Governors on which they have representation. The Board of Governors has the overall responsibility for the management of the School. The current Chairman is the internationally renowned director and LFS graduate Mike Leigh. The school has always been completely independent, and remains so following the validation of its course by London Metropolitan University.
In 2006, students’ films were screened at 80 film festivals and they won 12 major, international festival prizes and a BAFTA nomination while in 2007 LFS students’ films played at 100 festivals and won 15 major prizes.
Filmmaking is taught on stages, and in workshops rather than in classrooms so the building functions like a studio. On the MA Filmmaking, students work on a minimum of six films, at least two as director, with all costs included in fees. In addition, the films are mostly made on film, including two 10 minute 35mm studio/location drama exercises. With an approximate annual intake of 60 student, and just 125 full time students at any one time on the MA Filmmaking course, it generates over 170 finished films a year. It's an exceptionally busy place.
LFS is a living creative community and not a short term 'immersion experience' or a commercial training product. It's a very independent non-profit school run by passionate and experienced filmmakers with 18 full-time faculty, including Les Blair and Mark Solomon, and a varied and hugely talented group of visiting lecturers, technicians and artists. The LFS hosts a masterclass programme that reflects the school's status: Abbas Kiarostami, Hanif Kureshi, Franc Roddam, Dick Pope, Seamus McGarvey and Stephen Frears have all been recent visitors and lecturers. Such is the School’s global reputation that Al Gore chose to launch Current TV in Europe at the School recently.
2008 has been year full of innovations and success stories for LFS. 2005 graduate Carlos Armella, following a major festival career for his documentary feature Toro Negro, won the Golden Lion in Venice for his short Tierra Y Pan. LFS filmmakers achieved over 30 first prizes at international film festivals. These included a record three awards at the Exposure UK Student Festival, one of which was the Grand Jury prize for Samuele Romano's Camille E Marriuccia and five awards at the Kodak Student Commercial Awards.
MA Screenwriting students also received accolades, including an International Emmy award for 2008 graduate Felicity Carpenter and Best Comedic Short at the prestigious BlueCat Screenwriting Lab Short Screenplay Awards in Los Angeles for 2007 graduate Gabriel Valejjo.
LFS attracted a group of leading figures from the cultural world to support its vision to create a new building incorporating the LFS Centre: a two screen centre for filmmakers and public, fostering innovation, internationalism and independence in cinema with seven day screenings, presentations, workshops and colloquia. LFS patrons are Chris Auty, Tony Elliott, Roger Graef, Christopher Hird, John Hurt, Hanif Kureishi, Charlie Parsons, Franc Roddam, Anthony Smith, Iain Smith, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Thomas and Alan Yentob.
In 2009 LFS launches Fast Forward, its first integrated groupings of 'upgrade' programmes for working professionals, offering a combination of intensive workshops, film crewing, mentoring and career strategy work. International projects presented by LFS will include A Few Euro Less, a sequel to the highly successful A Fistful of Euros, which brought together students, directors and producers from LFS, La Femis in Paris, the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest and the National Film School of Denmark, for a major workshop and screening event focussed on low-budget feature case studies. A Few Euros Less will take place in Budapest in June.
The school has produced many famous and successful alumni, including: