Budding filmmaker wins regional award with comedy inspired by Vic and Bob

Brad Hedley, centre, with Callum Simpson, right, and university lecturer Ian McPake.

Brad Hedley was part of the University of Sunderland team which won the best student entertainment category for their absurdist comedy, The Importance of Acquiescence.

"I acted in it and did the sound for it,” said Brad, who graduated last summer with a degree in digital film production.

"It was a great experience and fantastic to win the award.”

The 21-year-old hopes it will help him land a career in the industry.

"I’m applying for film roles here, there and everywhere and just hoping that things take off on the acting side or crew side,” he said.

"I’ve been into film for as long as I can remember and was about 13 when I started learning about it with Kris Deedigan’s MyLife Productions in Alnwick.”

For now he is preparing for the coming visitor season at Alnwick Castle – location of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the first two Harry Potter films – where he will be a film tour guide.

The film, inspired by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s double act and the surrealist movement of the mid-20th century, is about a young woman whose day is interrupted when an uninvited film crew take over her home, hell-bent on making her the star of their film.

Callum Simpson wrote, directed, and produced the film, as well as taking up the roles of cinematographer and production designer.

The 22-year-old, from Stockton, said: “We’re all incredibly proud and excited, it was completely unexpected and a really great justification of all of our hard work over the past three years.

“The greatest part for me is the validation of our work as something that is good enough to be recognised on such a level outside of university.

“Winning an RTS award has given me renewed motivation to continue carving out a career in the film industry.”

The awards are given each year to showcase the best of television and student production across the North East and Border region.

All the winners will go forward to this year’s RTS Student Awards Final in London on Friday, June 24.