TV stars join Wrexham Media students to premiere their first short film on the big screen
Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2024
A true-crime dramatic short film created, written and produced by three Wrexham University students was officially premiered on the big screen to a packed audience, including some well-known faces from television to celebrate.
Media Production students Simon Jones, Benjamin Drake and Robin Wooder unveiled their short film, ‘Shattered Innocence’, which is centred around a group of university students, who discuss their experiences during their first year, and the challenges they encounter.
Filmed on location on campus at Wrexham University, ‘Shattered Innocence’ features the talents of local actors from the Wrexham Academy of Screen Acting, who all attended the screening – including Academy director and founder, Dean Fagan – best known for his role as mechanic Luke Britton in Coronation Street.
Flint-born BAFTA nominated actor and director, Ian Puleston-Davies also attended the event in support of the trio’s efforts. Ian is best known for his role as builder Owen Armstrong in Coronation Street.
Simon Jones, who organised the red-carpet style celebration event, said: “Shattered Innocence has been a hugely rewarding and fulfilling project to work on. It completely pushed us as a trio to our limits but I’m really proud of the end-result and delighted with the positive – but also emotional – reception we had from audience members, following on from the screening.
“We were blown away by the feedback we received. It was also wonderful so receive such positive comments from BAFTA nominated, Ian Puleston-Davies.
“On behalf of myself, Ben and Robin, we’d like to thank everybody involved for allowing us to showcase our short film is such a special way. A heartfelt thank you to our lecturers, wider University colleagues, as well as everyone from the Wrexham Academy of Screen Acting. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
Glenn Hanstock, Senior Lecturer in Creative Media at the University, said: “A huge congratulations to Simon, Ben and Robin for what they’ve achieved with this project.
“Their ambitiousness and eagerness has truly paid off – it is no mean feat for just three people to direct, shoot, produce and edit a short film but they pulled it off phenomenally and on top of all that hard work and effort, have organised a brilliant premiere to celebrate their works.
“They truly are trailblazers and I’m proud of what they’ve managed to achieve with us by replicating the sort of environment that they will go onto work in, in the real-world on productions.”
The screening was followed by an audience question and answer session, which was led by Dean Fagan, founder and Director of the Wrexham Academy of Screen Acting.
Dean added: “It’s been fantastic for us to support this project, led by Simon, Ben and Robin – and it was brilliant to round it off by watching it on the big screen.
“We are incredibly grateful of this opportunity that our students were part of and were completely blown away by the finished product. The narrative, storyline and footage was absolutely phenomenal. Simon, Ben and Robin should feel extremely proud of what they’ve achieved.”
Following on from the premiere event, ‘Shattered Innocence’ was premiered the following evening on Youtube. You can watch it in full here.
Photo captions:
- From left, Dean Fagan, actor and Wrexham Academy of Screen Acting founder and Director; Ruby Snape, actor and Wrexham Academy of Screen Acting Co-Director; Media Production students, Simon Jones and Benjamin Drake.
- From left, Simon Jones; Glenn Hanstock, Senior Lecturer in Creative Media; and Benjamin Drake.