The Media School

Channel 4 sends BU student to BAFTA

10 August 2010

First year Scriptwriting for Film and Television student Lawrence Martin

Bournemouth University (BU) student Lawrence Martin has wowed competition judges and been invited to BAFTA in November.

First year student Lawrence Martin has won himself a ticket to a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) red carpet premiere in November.

Lawrence, who is studying for a degree in Scriptwriting for Film and Television, is one of 12 entries shortlisted as part of the ‘My One Word’ scriptwriting competition held by Channel 4 Talent, The National Lottery and other production companies.

The competition was based around the proverb “a picture is worth a thousand words” and entrants were required to create a powerful story using only images and one word. Lawrence’s successful script involved an eight-year-old, football obsessed boy, his deaf mother and an accident occurring at a pelican crossing.

Lawrence said: “My script was selected out of hundreds to be one of the 12 short film screenplays developed by film industry executives and judged by award winning writers including Jonathan Harvey [novelist, poet, TV and radio writer]. Out of these 12, four scripts will be selected to be taken into production and shown at BAFTA. Even if I don’t get any further I’ll still be one of the 12 writers invited to a red carpet premiere at BAFTA in London.”

Dr Craig Batty, Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting at BU’s Media School encouraged Lawrence to enter the competition back in May.

Dr Batty said: “In such a competitive marketplace, it's so important to get yourself and your work out there and network like mad. Competitions like this, supported by big industry names, are extremely valuable and I'm thrilled that Lawrence has done so well at such an early stage in his degree course. I'm keeping everything crossed for him in the next round!"

Lawrence added: “BU has been invaluable with helping me achieve this. My writing has genuinely got much better over the last year. I’ve learned so much and had such an amazing time doing it!”