Short film competition winners

29 April 2009

LJMU students have been chosen as the winners of the Environment Agency's first ever short film competition. The film will feature in a campaign launched by the Environment Agency to highlight the issues of climate change.

Emily Webber, Samantha Pickles, Jen Robinson, Karen Turley and Sarah Butler, all Screen School students, fought off close competition from universities across the region with their short film entitled 'Human After All.'

Focusing on water efficiency, the film aims to get across important messages about climate change to the business leaders of tomorrow. The competition also provided an opportunity for students from the region to showcase their talent.

The winning entry has now been professionally produced as a short film and makes use of performance capture technology, the first time it has been used in the UK.  It also includes voice-overs from recent Celebrity Big Brother contestants Terry Christian and Coolio, following their heated debate over climate change during their time in the house.

The judging panel was made up of experts from the film and TV industry including Liverpool's own Phil Redmond and environment ambassadors who praised all the entries for their imaginative approach to the serious messages in the briefs.

Paul Harrison, Luke Evans, Terry Trytz, Victor Gould and Jamie Hertherington also from LJMU, were shortlisted from 70 entries for their interpretation 'Don't Wash Our World Away.'

Suzanne Hughes, Regional Communications Manager at the Environment Agency said: "Climate change is happening and the students of today are going to be the business leaders of tomorrow. They are the ones who are going to have to live with, and adapt to, climate change. It is important that they understand the very real issues which they will face.

"The aim of this competition was to engage with students and young adults in an innovative and exciting way. We wanted to get them involved, spread the word amongst their peers and ultimately get people to think twice about some of their behaviours and issues."

LJMU Honorary Fellow Pete Postlethwaite, who is also backing the campaign, commented: "It's great to see students getting involved with a project as vital as this. Obviously it's imperative that people realise, first and foremost, that climate change is actually happening, and secondly that we need to act now. The younger generation of today will no doubt be the leaders of tomorrow. This inspired competition has given some of them the chance to get really involved with these vital issues and speak, through film making, directly with their peers. We have the Environment Agency to thank for this."

The winning short film can be viewed at www.tomorrowsworldcompetition.com