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Dr JonathanWardle is director of the National Film and Television School and his vision includes making its students ready to be industry leaders
I n a world where some would question whether study or experience is the best way to break into the filmmaking industry, the National Filmand Television School (NFTS) claims to offer the best of both worlds, with a line-up of courses that are carefully geared towards delivering the skills and contacts that specific roles demand. Heading up the school is Dr Jonathan Wardle, whose previous experience includes establishing postgraduate partnerships with the BBC, Guardian and Sony Computers Entertainment Europe at Bournemouth University, and writing
the Creative Skillset ‘Build Your OwnMA’ framework. Made director of the NFTS last year, he’s responsible for developing a number of new courses working in partnership with organisations including Sky, Channel 4, Discovery Networks International, the BBC and Aardman. We caught up with him to hear his take on the world of filmmaking and education. We teach what other schools don’t It was a huge privilege to get the job of director last year after working at the NFTS since 2012. When I first joined the School it had 240 students and taught a very core
set of courses, but nowwe’ve got over 500 students and teachmore behind-the- camera courses than any other film school in the world. We teach everything from assistant camera to production accounting and script supervision, which are areas no other film school teaches. So the School changed and strengthened in that period by having that diversity of students. We’remore popular than Oxford and Cambridge! I think it’s fair to say we don’t have problems with applications in core areas. Actually, the numbers show that we
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PRO MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2018
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