Each year we invite Confetti HE students, their friends and families to our Degree Showcase, where we display their work and celebrate their achievements. This year was special as we were able to hold our first in-person showcase in two years, and we made up for it with not one but two events! Read on for the highlights including the 2022 ‘Student of the Year’ award winners.
Music
Our Music Showcase served as a launch event for the 2022 Confetti/Denizen Single, ‘Critter’ performed by student band, Drive Through Hazy.
Students from across courses (Live and Technical Events, Audio and Music Technology, and Music Performance) and curriculum areas (Film Production and TV Production Technology), worked collaboratively to pull off a real one off event: seeing a TV style broadcast being brought together live!
Final year Live & Technical Events student, Joe Haley worked as front of house sound engineer, he said:
“The event went really well. The band sounded really good live (and even better on the stream), and we didn’t face any significant issues along the way. For my final show as a student here at Confetti, I’m very happy with how it turned out.”
Drive Through Hazy, a duo comprised of Bridget Holmes on vocals and Joe Antill playing guitar, performed three tracks at the showcase, including Critter and a track called ‘Appetising’ that appears on this year’s Confetti album release! Further to their performance, Bridget and Joe gave an interview where they reflected on the experience of making the single:
“It’s been so much fun, it’s been such a wonderful opportunity.
“We’ve had so much support in making the single with the help of an accomplished producer, Shuta Shinoda (Hot Chip/Anna Meredith/Ghost Poet).
“It’s been amazing to have a marketing and PR team to sort of guide us on our journey and help us with our branding.
“We’ll also be playing Splendour Festival in July, and so we’re very excited for that!”
As part of the showcase, awards were presented to the ‘Student of the Year’ across all Music degree courses, and recipients included Ellie Torrance (Music Performance), Luke Tookey (Audio and Music Technology), and Ethan McKenna (Live and Technical Events). Specials awards also went out to Jay Martin for ‘Poster of the Year’ and Tracy Kpani-Addy for ‘Excellence in Performance Award’.
A big congratulations goes out to these students for their hard work and dedication, check out some photos of the awards being received below:
Games and Media
Following Music’s showcase, our Games and Media degree students delivered their own on Tuesday 14 June. For the event, Metronome’s Atrium and Bar area were transformed into an exhibition space for students, their families and friends.
The quality of work produced this year is incredible; from glossy games artwork created by Games Art students, to immersive game demos developed by Games Technology students. Not to mention a series of impressive showreels projected on the big screen, captured by Film Production and TV Production Technology students.
We even had some industry guests floating around checking out the exhibitions. Guests included Matt Toone, Citadel Miniatures Designers Development Manager for Games Workshop, and Nick Higgins and Damon Mitchell from Ludorati Games Café. We were also treated to a visit from Andy Afford, Managing Director at STENCIL, a creative design agency that provide lots of work experience opportunities for our students, learn more about our partnership with STENCIL here.
This year was the first time we’ve been able to provide an in-person showcase for two years, and final year BA (Hons) Games Art student, Alexandra Barnett was keen to take advantage of the opportunity, she said:
“Its been a tough few years with COVID, and we’ve really banded together as group of students.
“Today’s showcase means a lot to me, to be able to share my work.
“It’s nice to have people coming up to me, asking questions and showing an interest in my work.
“I’m a mature student, I flunked out of college when I was 16 on a games course and just went straight into work.
“But it was always my dream to come back to education and get a university degree in games art and that’s all I wanted to do.
“I genuinely can’t believe I’ve done it – and now, to be showing the work that I’ve created over my 4 years at Confetti is awesome.”
Later in the evening, Confetti tutors were delighted to present ‘Student of the Year’ awards to the most hard-working and driven individuals across Confetti Games and Media degree courses. This year’s winners included: India Toon (Film Student of the Year), Jurate Trimonyte (Best Cinematography), Reece Bourne (Best Interactive Film), Clarice Bishop (TV Student of the Year), Adam Oldfield (Best Documentary), Eleanor Green (VFX Student of the Year and Best VFX Project), Luca Selwood (Graphics Student of the Year), and Alexander Coleman (Best Graphics Project), with the award for ‘Best Film’ going to Fine Lines.
A special award was given to 2nd Year Television Production students, Louis Leivers and Albert Natan for ‘Best Documentary’, we caught up with them to find out about their experiences studying at Confetti and the importance of the Degree Showcase, Louis said:
“It’s been nice to get involved this year. The editing of our projects had already been done, however, for the Showcase we worked hard to create a montage of all of our best bits.
“The work you see on screen, some of it is client work, some of it is stuff that we’ve done in Uni. Thanks to Confetti, we’ve been able to produce trailers and documentaries, we’ve also completed some client work.
“The most notable client was the Nottingham Wildcats basketball team, for them we were each given our own specific video brief. Ours was for their sponsor Organ(y)c – a natural and organic feminine hygiene brand.
“The showcase is an opportunity for us to show off our work and to demonstrate what the course can provide. It’s also a great chance to network, and above all, just to relax and celebrate our achievements.”
Albert Natan added:
“I think Confetti’s excellent for providing industry opportunities – compared to my friends studying media and TV elsewhere, they don’t get half as many as we do.
“We’ve been offered work experience quite often and from that work we’ve managed to build contacts in the industry. This had led to further work experience and now paid work as freelancers. Thank you Confetti!”
Are you interested in attending events and getting hands on experience as part of your studies? Book onto an open day to find out more about all the opportunities on offer here at Confetti.
