Sound/Image Cinema Lab

The Sound/Image Cinema Lab is a multifaceted teaching, research and film practice project that acts as a partner, resource and funder for Cornish and UK independent cinema of all forms and genres.

Falmouth University student film crew on beach location.

Project details

Project lead Dr Neil Fox
Centre alignment Centre for Pedagogy Futures
Start date  2010
End date  Ongoing

 

The Sound/Image Cinema Lab brings together Falmouth University’s expertise in higher education teaching and research with exceptional industry connections to create a ground-breaking model that delivers world-class education and career opportunities for students, while facilitating original, exciting and award-winning professional filmmaking in Cornwall.    

The Lab works by providing support to independent productions in the form of equipment, facilities, crew from our staff, student, and alumni bodies, and on occasion funding. The Lab was developed to be truly integrated with industry and to directly respond to challenges in the contemporary UK film sector. These challenges include the need for greater access to funding and resources, a need for greater diversity in regional places and voices on screen, as well as greater diversity of backgrounds behind the camera.  

The Lab works with industry through a model that is pioneering, both in that it embeds industry collaboration in its pedagogy and that it responds directly to the local needs of the film sector in Cornwall, as well as wider industry. 

Project team

Below you can see the project team that works on the Sound/Image Cinema Lab.

Professor Neil Fox profile picture

Professor Neil Fox

Professor of Film Practice and Pedagogy

As a proud first-generation university graduate from a working-class background in Luton, it is an h...

Professor Neil Fox

Dr Laura Canning

Course Leader, BA(Hons) Film

Laura Canning is Course Leader BA(Hons) Film and currently teaches on core modules in...

Dr Laura Canning

Mark Jenkin

Distinguished Professor of Film Practice at Falmouth University

Distinguished Professor of Film Practice Mark Jenkin is a filmmaker based in West Cornwall. He ha...

Mark Jenkin
Kingsley Marshall book cover Philosophical Reflections on Black Mirror

Dr Kingsley Marshall

Head of Film & Television

Dr Kingsley Marshall is Head of Film and Television at the CILECT and ScreenSkills accredited School...

Dr Kingsley Marshall

Rosa Mulraney

Senior Lecturer

A Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University specialising in post-production, visual effects and project...

Rosa Mulraney

Paul Mulraney

Lecturer, Film

Paul is a lecturer in the School of Film and Television, teaching general film practice across all l...

Paul Mulraney
Denzel Monk headshot

Denzil Monk

Senior Lecturer in Film

Denzil is a Senior Lecturer in Film specialising in producing at the School of Film & Television...

Denzil Monk
Beryl Richards Staff Profile

Beryl Richards

Lecturer TV Drama

Beryl directs film, TV drama and comedy. In TV, as lead director, she’s helped create many popular...

Beryl Richards

Partners

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

Outcomes & outputs

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:

Impact & recognition

  • Providing crucial routes for emerging UK independent filmmakers to make award-winning films that otherwise would not have been green-lit, or to create work to a standard they would otherwise not have been able to.  

  • Providing students and graduates with invaluable and inspirational on-set experience, fulfilling roles on and receiving credits on critically acclaimed and cinema-released films.  

  • Fostering a hub of filmmaking excellence, supporting Cornwall’s growing reputation as a screen cluster of national significance, and fostering Cornish cultural outputs  rooted in place and identity. 

Over the past decade the Lab has been responsible for the production, and co-production with national partners, of a series of narrative and documentary, short and feature films including Mark Jenkin’s BAFTA-winning Bait (2018) and BIFA-winning Enys Men (2022), Claire Oakley’s Make Up (2018), Martha Tilston’s The Tape (2021), Brett Harvey’s Long Way Back (2022) and A Year in a Field (2023), directed by Christopher Morris. 

We also co-produce and act as partners on short film productions that access greater professional opportunities for graduates and increase the visibility of the regional film industry and culture in Cornwall, all the while supporting the development of British independent filmmaking talent. The Lab is increasing its presence in documentary filmmaking and archival practices through a series of works with vernacular filmmakers inside and outside of the University.  

We have partnered and collaborated with organisations including: BBC Films, the BFI and BFI Doc Society, Creative England, Film4, iFeatures, Screen Cornwall and Screenskills. In the process, the Lab has been successful in helping to shift perception around the film-making abilities of student and graduate talent and building recognition of universities as an important partner in the production process for independent and micro-budget films.  

Project media

The Lab has provided a number of opportunities for Falmouth University students and graduates to work on professional filmmaking sets.

On set of Bait
Brown Willy behind the scenes
Long Way Back trailer

Project news

Dark haired woman looking over her shoulder
Enys Men Woman

Rolling Stone rates Falmouth-produced horror in top 5 films

19 December 2023

Mark Jenkin's 'Enys Men' lands fourth place in Rolling Stone's '10 Best Horror Movies of 2023' list.

Rolling Stone rates Falmouth-produced horror in top 5 films
Shooting on Bodmin Moor for Dean Puckett's debut feature film
Dean Puckett Film Shoot BTS 10

Photo credit: Jake Cunliffe, Television BA(Hons) graduate

Filming wraps on Falmouth lecturer’s new folk horror film, crewed by students and staff

17 August 2023

Images above by Jake Cunliffe, Television BA(Hons) graduate Falmouth University’s emerging film...

Filming wraps on Falmouth lecturer’s new folk horror film, crewed by students and staff
Letters spelling 'King Henry' with some of them different colours
King Henry title image

Falmouth graduates leading the production of new LGBTQ+ short film

22 March 2023

Two Falmouth graduates are heading up the production team behind 'King Henry'.

Falmouth graduates leading the production of new LGBTQ+ short film
Middle Watch film poster - animation still of periscope coming out of the sea (in blue and black hues)
Middle Watch Poster

Middle Watch narrowly misses the win at 2023 BAFTAs

21 February 2023

The Falmouth community was rooting for the team behind short animation Middle Watch during Sunday’...

Middle Watch narrowly misses the win at 2023 BAFTAs
Film poster for ENYS MEN shows woman wearing jeans and red coat standing amongst yellow gorse. Text reads: From the director of BAIT, ENYS MEN, a film by Mark Jenkin
Enys Men Poster

Mark Jenkin’s ENYS MEN in cinemas 13 January

05 January 2023

ENYS MEN, Mark Jenkin's highly anticipated follow-up to the BAFTA-winning BAIT, will be hitting UK c...

Mark Jenkin’s ENYS MEN in cinemas 13 January
Students on a production shoot for film Enys Men
Enys Men - Production - Credit Steven Tanner

Sound/Image Cinema Lab wins bronze at Reimagine Education Awards 2022

08 December 2022

Falmouth University film teaching and research project Sound/Image Cinema Lab has been awarded bronz...

Sound/Image Cinema Lab wins bronze at Reimagine Education Awards 2022
A man in a yellow coat sits atop a cliff, the ocean set behind him
Enys men Mark

Enys Men to be released in the UK by the BFI

05 October 2022

Enys Men, the latest feature film to be written and directed by Falmouth University’s Distinguishe...

Enys Men to be released in the UK by the BFI
a poster listing screenings for the film 'Long Way Back'
Long Way Back poster

Lecturer's film Long Way Back to be released in cinemas

25 August 2022

Long Way Back, the third feature film to be written and directed by Falmouth University Associate Le...

Lecturer's film Long Way Back to be released in cinemas
A filmmaker crouches behind his camera amongst shrubbery
Final crop

Enys Men premieres in Cannes

20 May 2022

Enys Men, the latest feature film to be written and directed by Falmouth University’s Distinguishe...

Enys Men premieres in Cannes
Place and white image of a man using a film camera with a crowd in the background
Backwoods director

Sound/Image Cinema Lab film makes its way to SXSW in new Folk Horror documentary

22 March 2022

The award-winning short film Backwoods, which was developed by Falmouth’s Sound/Image Cinema lab, ...

Sound/Image Cinema Lab film makes its way to SXSW in new Folk Horror documentary