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City College students get 'creative catapult' into BBC job

3 April 2008

Two City College Multimedia students, Chris Kelly and Lindsay Stevens, are part of a young creative team that has just won a prestigious BBC commission. The students were involved in Creative Catapult, a project to encourage entrepreneurship in young illustration and animation graduates organised by digital media support organisation Wired Sussex and digital media agency Kanoti. Twenty young creatives had been given the chance to work on a 'live' brief for the BBC to create a 'viral' animation promoting two BBC campaigns, and the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of how to successfully develop and pitch innovative ideas to clients. (Viral marketing aims to encourage internet users to pass on a 'marketing message' to other users, creating the potential for massive growth in the original message's online exposure and influence). No guarantee was originally given by the BBC that the work would actually be used but the winning team's pitch was of such high quality they agreed to commission it. Now Chris and Lindsay, along with their team-mates Kyle Bean and Natasha Hodgkins, will work with industry partner Kanoti to produce a thirty second trailer for the BBC Learning campaign 'Bare Facts'.

Phil Jones, director of digital media support organisation Wired Sussex, says:

'Creative Catapult has shown once again that Brighton really is a hotbed of young creative talent, particularly within digital media. City College is making a vital contribution to local multimedia training and judging by the quality of Chris and Lindsay's work, the College is setting exceptionally high standards for its students. It's also fortunate that there's an incredibly diverse and buoyant local industry which can help talent like theirs to grow.'

Chris Kelly says:

"You had to have a lot of confidence in your ideas to succeed in this project and at City College, our tutors are constantly encouraging us to raise our game and try new ways of approaching things. I think this helped me rise to the challenge for Creative Catapult."

The BBC's Ben Ledden says:

'As soon as we saw the storyboards we could see it working as a viral promo. It jumped off the page - a brilliantly simple concept that delivered a serious message with a light heart. The team had really thought about their audience and found the right kind of visual and storytelling style to appeal to them.'

Micheál O'Connor, Multimedia Course Leader at City College, says:

"Chris has the perfect balance of skills and attitude you need for a course at this level. He's very good technically and really creative. I think Chris's success in this project proves that the College is able to stretch people and give them confidence to push themselves out into the industry and it also helps gives us a higher profile when it comes to attracting the next intake of students."

Creative Catapult was supported by the BBC and a range of industry professionals. The four-month long project, funded by the Area Investment Framework and supported by Skillset and Lighthouse, involved a series of daytime workshops and evening seminars in central Brighton. Motivational talks were given by industry professionals including Nick Goffey of Dom & Nic, who have produced video work for Supergrass and the Chemical Brothers.

For press enquiries, please call Brian Bell, Marketing Communications Officer, on 01273 667788 Ext. 488 or email bb1@ccb.ac.uk

About City College Brighton and Hove: Founded over 100 years ago, City College Brighton and Hove has become an international centre of excellence. Every year over 2,000 full-time and 10,000 part time students as well as many international and European students choose City College as their education provider. The College provides training to over 2,000 businesses and has a 'City Business Skills' department which focuses on employers' needs. Offering over 700 courses from basic level to pre-University level, City College is working with its partners to develop the workforce of the future.