Young film-maker's breakthrough

A VIRAL TV ad made for nothing by MMU students has been shown at a Cannes film competition attended by John Landau, producer of Avatar and Titanic.

Suzanne Riley and Mark Farnworth, aged 20, made the whimsically beautiful ‘Look Closer’ ad after signing up to film-making site Mofilm.

The ad - for US telecoms giant AT&T - came second out of hundreds from across the globe.

“This was the first film competition either of us have entered and with no budget, we did not expect to nearly win it!” said Suzanne, a BA Film and Media Studies undergraduate.

Brit pack

“Making an ad for an American company, we thought being British would count against us, so we were amazed to hear we had come second.”

Using just a borrowed camera and sheets of paper, the pair, from Preston, were invited to make a film after signing up to Mofilm’s Cannes Lions Video Contest.

Rather than attempting to ape hi-tech ads of glossy products, the pair opted to pare the idea of technology and creativity right back to basics.

“We wondered what we could make with the equipment we had in our university rooms and hit on the idea of using a simple material like paper

Imagination

“Look closer at a piece of paper and it can be made into whatever your imagination wishes – an aeroplane, a football, confetti, a fan, a book, a form of communication - and so on.

“We wanted to conclude on the thought that if we can seek new possibilities behind paper, where could technology take us?”

The film shot over four days in the summer using a mix of ‘stop motion’ technique and short video clips, also includes their own soundtrack made with a 4 track recorder and an acoustic guitar.

Suzanne, who is currently on a work placement in London at Dennis Publishing added: “We made the film for nothing and won $1000, so if you’ve got a great idea, we say go for it!”

Paul Bason, Director of the Creative Manchester Initiative at MMU, said: “The success of these students just goes to show that talent is not related to how old you are.

“Companies like Mofilm are developing new ways of producing content for international brands and it is really exciting that our students are taking advantage of these opportunities and proving that they are as good as filmmakers from anywhere else in the world.”

See the ad here

There are scores of young film-makers at MMU, many of them on Art & Design courses such as Interactive Arts, Contemporary Film and Video and Illustration with Animation.