My RTS NI Student Award Win... And Coronavirus

Hey guys, so as you all know already from my slathering it ALL OVER my socials, my second year film Crème Brûlée or Chocolate Soufflé? won the RTS NI Student Award in the Comedy & Entertainment category!

Having filmed it this time last year (we were shooting Easter Monday!) and completing the edit for our May Belfast Met deadline, it really felt like forever since I’d properly even thought about it until my ex-lecturer Tommy Scott contacted the crew to let us know we had a nomination (I was on set for my final year film, and CBOCS could not have been further from my mind.

I was absolutely buzzing to be nominated and contacted everyone I knew and booked an early flight home from Salford because I HAD to be in Belfast for the ceremony. Well, we all know how that worked out for me! 😂

I’d been to the student awards every year from I started further education, even stage-assisting in 2018! It was always a really fun night, held in The Black Box in Cathedral Quarter, it always had a really fun buzz of excitement and a class mix of hopeful student filmmakers and industry professionals rubbing shoulders at the bar.

Having previously attended supporting friends who were nominated, and celebrating with them afterwards… 🍻🥂🍾🍸 I was so excited to finally have a film being considered. This was my year, it was my turn now! 

Having spent most of the academic year in Salford, with the crew all finishing their degrees scattered all over the UK we were using the awards as the perfect excuse to catch up (... 🍻🥂🍾🍸    👀)

Unfortunately, we didn’t get our reunion, with the awards understandably having to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak (and due to take place after the lockdown) we didn’t get to the Black Box this year.

With the winners being announced online, on the night of the awards, I happened to be doing a shift an agency gave me in a cheese factory (don’t ask) and was so zoned out and tired that I forgot all about the announcement. It was only when my friend called me on my break congratulating me 3 hours after the announcement that I found out that we won! 🎉🏆

I was absolutely over the moon. When I first attended the student awards in 2018 I had no experience at all in TV, was worried I’d be waitressing forever (still worried tbh), would never get my foot in the door and NEVER thought in a million years that I’d be on a crew that won one of those. 🏅

And now here I am, 2020, with 2 industry credits before graduating Uni and now having been the producer on an RTS Student Award-Winning film! 

So what happens next is that CBOCS will progress to be considered in the RTS National Awards held in London (in June, so hopefully it can go ahead!) and the crew are all invited (and all planning to) attend!

The RTS Committee also really made up for not being able to hold a ceremony, as now 2 members from each winning crew is invited to attend the RTS NI Programme Awards in November!!! Held in The Mac every year, a ticket to this black-tie, infamous-for-the-craic event is highly coveted even by industry professionals at the top of their game!

I’m so excited and buzzing that Crème Brûlée or Chocolate Soufflé? won this year and can’t wait for it to finish the festival circuit so we can make it public. 

However, as much I’d like to, I can’t take all the credit, I owe the ‘RTS-Student-Award-Winning-Producer’ label to the phenomenal cast and crew we had, listed below: 🎬

Written and Directed by Michael Murray-Draine

Producer: Stacey Burns

Directors of Photography: Ronan Karicos & Calum Russell

Sound Mixer: Mark Hanna

Boom Operator: Dylan Kane

Location Manager: Jack Devlin

Cast:

Sheila (Head Chef): Rachel Murray

Gabriel (Dessert Chef): Tommy Wallace

Ezmee: Tara Lynne O’Neill

Charles: Chris Robinson

Lou: Matthew Cavan

I’d love to give our amazing (professional!) cast an extra thank you, because spending their time on our coursework was so generous and my GOD were they brilliant THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! ✨💫🎉🏆💗🌟🤩🙌🏻💃🏻✨

🏆📣‼️🎉 And to the rest of the crew/the boys/the lads/my FRIENDS, WE DID IT LADSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! 🎉‼️📣🏆