North East students have been given the chance to put their name up in lights after starring alongside equipment and facilities used to make Hollywood blockbuster films.

Working in partnership with leading regional tech organisations, Gateshead College has brought together students from film production, scriptwriting, art, gaming, performing arts and music to produce a unique piece of work.

The college and its students worked in collaboration with Advanced Media Production at PROTO, Gateshead, a partnership between Digital Catapult, Target3D funded by InnovateUK. The final piece was performed in their studios where the students had access to performance- capture technology to deliver their project.

Phil O'Neil, Head of Department for Digital Technologies and Games at Gateshead College, said: “We created a very detailed brief where groups of students were set a real-world creative challenge.

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“Students were observed and judged from the initial stage and the winners from each area were then selected to work on the final production.

“They got the chance to put into practice a wide range of skills that they’ll need in their day-to-day future job and experience a genuine work setting. The project was highly collaborative, bringing together different disciplines to create a final production.”

Art and design students created the concept, film and TV students developed the script and directed the production, games students created the environments and worked as technicians on the production days. The college’s performing art students worked as actors, with hair and beauty students doing their make-up and music students created the backing track and sound effects.

Advanced Media Production at Gateshead is one of the first digital production facilities of its kind in Europe and Gateshead College has a well-established relationship helping prepare a workforce for the future, fostering local talent, and driving economic growth.

The global gaming market alone is expected to reach approximately £148 billion by the end of 2023, while the UK film industry contributes around £5.9 billion to the economy each year.

Clare Nicholson, Partnership & Engagement Manager at Advanced Media Production at Gateshead said “Our partnership with Gateshead College and latest collaboration is a shining example of how education and the real word tech industry can come together to create something unique.

“By providing students with access to our facilities and expertise, we’re not only nurturing their creativity but also equipping them with the practical skills necessary in this rapidly evolving industry.”