{"id":3973,"date":"2023-11-28T11:18:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T11:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/?p=3973"},"modified":"2023-11-28T11:18:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T11:18:20","slug":"film-ba-qa-with-course-leader-laura-stephenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/film-ba-qa-with-course-leader-laura-stephenson\/","title":{"rendered":"Film BA \u2013 Q&A with Course Leader, Laura Stephenson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our Film BA has an international reputation for its academic and practical teaching. Students are taught in our purpose-built studio facility at our Harrow campus<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and their films have been shown at festivals globally and won a host of honours and awards including Royal Television Society Awards, a Student Academy Award and Grierson Best Student Documentary Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are proud of our strong links with the film and screen industries, which provide our students with countless opportunities. In addition to regularly inviting industry professionals as guest lecturers, our academics bring extensive experience to their teaching. We spoke with Laura Stephenson, the new course leader for the Film BA, about her impressive industry and academic experience and her new role as course leader.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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I was born and raised in New Zealand and attended film school as an undergraduate. I specialised in post-production editing. However, my professional career has been in pre-production, development and sometimes performance! I\u2019ve been on-and-off living in the UK since 2004 including Wales, England and the Republic of Ireland. I adore California but have yet to find a path to living there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a professional working within the film industries, what have been some of your career highlights?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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To be honest my career highlight has been connected more to academia than industry \u2013 getting nominated for the Times Higher Education Award for Most Innovative Lecturer in 2022 was very humbling. This nomination was based on the work I did for a Gender and Media Production module which brought human rights policy into the discussion of screen industry inclusion and equality, with an emphasis on keeping individuals safe from abuses of power (in response to the #metoo movement).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these academic achievements are significant, there have been numerous professional moments that have been personally meaningful and motivating. Notably, meeting senior crew members who contributed to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and earned Oscars for their work in visual effects and production design. This was a surreal experience, especially given that The Lord of the Rings was the catalyst for my passion for film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one trip to California I met Arthur Schmidt who won two Oscars for his editing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit <\/em>and Forest Gump. <\/em>Arthur\u2019s father (also of the same name) was also a film editor and had edited the legendary Some Like it Hot<\/em>, which I had recently been teaching editing of to my undergrad students in Auckland, and there I was lunching with the editor\u2019s son a few weeks later!<\/p>\n\n\n\n