Sound/Image Cinema Lab

Based at Falmouth University's School of Film and Television, the Lab is, and has been, responsible for the production and co-production of a series of narrative and documentary, short and feature films since the start of the 2010s.

It supports national and regional feature film productions following a strategy of accessing greater professional opportunities for students and graduates, increasing visibility of regional film industry and culture in Cornwall and supporting the development and potential of British independent filmmaking.

Around the middle of the 2010s the strategy and direction of the Lab crystallised and partnership and production activity increased significantly. Alongside co-producing feature films, the Lab is a funder and executive producer of micro-budget feature films. The Lab provides the majority of production funding, production resources and festival/release support for filmmakers willing to engage with its Filmmaker In Residence scheme, whereby the opportunity to make a feature film is offered in return for working with a majority student crew. These feature film productions also form the core element of the development of teaching and learning strategies within the school as well as academic research into the teaching of cinema.

The Lab also co-produces and partners on short film productions that access greater professional opportunities for graduates in particular, increase visibility of regional film industry and culture in Cornwall and support the development and potential of British independent filmmaking talent. One of the main drivers of this facet of Lab activity is in providing graduates of the School of Film & Television with career enhancing opportunities that may quicken their career trajectory, whilst simultaneously providing current students the chance to learn from professionals and graduate professionals and be able to visualise their own trajectories with greater clarity.

For a range of feature narrative and documentary, and short films the Lab has partnered and collaborated with:

• Baracoa Pictures
• BBC Films
• BFI
• BFI Doc Society
• Bosena
• Creative England
• Early Day Films
• Elation Pictures
• Film4
• iFeatures
• o-region
• Quiddity Films
• Screen Cornwall
• Screenskills
• Unstoppable
• Western Light Pictures

A key cultural and economic result of all this activity for British cinema is that the production of films that would otherwise not get made, or would be made with significant limitations and compromises attached, has been possible and these productions have provided significant learning and career opportunities and experiences for Falmouth University students and staff.

Within the region, the Lab has emerged as central to the professional and cultural development of a continued and growing Cornish film economy and identity.

Feature films produced, co-produced and supported by the Lab include:

• Enys Men (2022)
• Long Way Back (2022)
• The Tape (2021)
• Make Up (2019)
• BAIT (2019)
• Songbird (2018)
• Wilderness (2017)
• Brown Willy (2016)
• Bronco's House (2015)

• Film4 will co-finance writer/director Mark Jenkin's next film, Enys Men, which is due for release in 2021. Further development and production support will come from Sound/Image Cinema Lab. You can read more about the production here.
• The Sound/Image Cinema Lab won the Innovative Pedagogy Award at the 2020 University Industry Innovation Network conference.