Former King Edward VI College student Matt Sedgley, from Bedworth, has won best Music Video 2015 and Overall Winner 2015 at the WJEC Moving Images Awards held in London last week.
Studying Film, Media and Photography A levels at the college Matt was encouraged to enter the awards by his Film Studies teacher. There were over 700 entries in total with over 120 in the best music video 2015 category.
Jeremy Points, Head of Creative Media Arts at WJEC said “Judges thought the sophistication of the camerawork and editing in this performance–based music video was staggering and felt that the humorous narrative framing were completely appropriate for an indie band music video. Amazing work for a student which is indistinguishable from professional music videos!”
Matthew was over the moon with the results and said. “To not only win in our ‘best music video’ category but to then go on and take the prize of best overall video across all the categories was phenomenal. To be awarded and praised like that for something YOU created is just an amazing feeling. It was so surreal seeing your work on a huge cinema screen.”
The music video itself is for a local band called ‘The Ellipsis’ which in fact was set up by another former Music and Music Technology student John Connearn who is from Hinckley.
The British Film Institute / WJEC award judges stated “Another example of a really very well constructed, professionally shot music video. A lot of thought has gone into the setting. The sound quality was of a really very high standard. Sophisticated filming and editing clearly established the individuals within the band and held the interest of the audience.”
Matt continued “The quality of videos were very high but to actually see these talented peoples creations was incredible, I was in awe at some of them so its safe to say I was honoured when they called my name for the main award. It was a fantastic evening. Thank you to everyone who was involved, especially to WJEC and BFI Southbank for putting it on.”
Matt cited Radiohead as an inspiration and since the awards has received this message from drummer Philip Selway “Congratulations on your award – really well deserved. You capture the energy and personality of the band brilliantly. Radiohead once did a video in a disused swimming pool for a song called Anyone Can Play Guitar – yours is better!”
Jaskirt Boora, photography teacher at the college said “We are all incredibly proud of Matthew’s achievement. He started with us with some video making skills, however through his studies in Film, Media and Photography it has been wonderful to see his confidence and quality of production in film making grow to a professional standard. Matt has already done workshops this year with our current students and will be back in the New Year, which we are delighted about. It’s an enriching experience for our current students to work with and hear from someone who has recently completed their A Levels and is working professionally in the industry and winning national awards. We wish Matthew all the best and look forward to seeing what he does next.”
The video can be seen on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuMp-hvH64