Paul Mulraney
Lecturer, Film
Paul is a lecturer in the School of Film and Television, teaching general film practice across all levels, with specialisms in production design, screenwriting and documentary.
His research interests lie in vernacular filmmaking – the use of existent people and places in the writing and production of independent, low budget cinema that spans the divide between narrative and documentary forms. This practical research is related to a thematic interest in the examination of inequality through storytelling, in the telling of stories about peripheral places and the people who live there.
Prior to academia Paul worked in the commercial film and media industry. Starting life as a scenic artist on pop videos (The Spice Girls, Sheena Easton) he moved through advertising agencies (AMV, BBH, CHI, Do) and production companies (BBC, Endemol, Nat Geo Channel), art directing both traditional and ‘future’ film projects with budgets that could fund 100 independent shorts.
External Links
Qualifications
Qualifications
| Year | Qualification | Awarding body |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | PGCHE | Falmouth University |
| 1999 | PgDip Creative Advertising | University College Falmouth |
| 1998 | BA (Hons) Fine Art | Sheffield Hallam University |
Honors and awards
| Year | Description |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Webby Awards - Best Integrated Media Plan - Lynx Lounge - Senior Art Director |
| 2009 | Revolution & DMA Awards - Best eComms Campaign - Knorr, Marco Pierre White - Senior Art Director |
Membership of external committees
WGGB - Writer's Guild of Great BritainResearch Interests
Research interests and expertise
Paul's documentary work includes the festival hit From the River (2022), and lost the archive documentary From the Culch (2023). Upcoming projects Redfish (2024) and Hip-hop Dar es Salaam (2025, in partnership with University of Johannesburg) explore exploitative factory fishing, and the emergence of Tanzanian rap music - both are rooted in marginalised communities and are built around analogue film archives, finding their production value in remarkable lost - or forgotten - footage.
Paul's films have screened at film festivals in Ireland, France, Italy, the US and across the UK. Screenings and papers delivered at national and international academic conferences including Leisure Studies (2022), Haunted Landscapes (2023), Visible Evidence (2023) and FIAT/IFTA/BFI Media Studies (2023).
Aware of the limitations of visual storytelling as a means of developing and pitching film projects, Paul’s creative practice has recently taken on screenwriting, with historical drama series Freeman (2021) reaching the semi-finals of international screenwriting competition Shore Scripts, and Fledglings (2020) reaching the quarter finals of Screencraft.
Research Topics
- Concept Design
- Feature Film Screenwriting
- Film and Television Development
- Production Design
- Short Film Screenwriting
Research Outputs
Publications and research outputs
Externally funded research grants information
| Collaborators | Currency | Funder | HESA Category | Project title | Value | Year ending | Year starting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | Creative England/ Feast | From the River | 1,000 |
Teaching
Areas of teaching
- art directors
- Business and Applied Technology. Transmedia and Convergence. Future Cinema in Film Practice. Philosophy in Film Practice. Globalisation in Film Practice. Project supervision of directors
- cinematographers
- copywriters
- screenwriters. Professional contexts in writing.
Courses taught
- Film BA(Hons)
- Creative Advertising MA
- Creative Advertising BA(Hons)
- Television & Film Production BA(Hons)
- Film & Television MA
Professional Engagement
Independent professional practice
- Creative director of communications agency AltShift
- Non-exectutive director of production company Seamonster Media Ltd
Social, community and cultural engagement
His films From the River and From the Culch featured in the centre of multimedia programmes in the Cornwall Mor Media Festival in 2022 and 2023. He is a frequent guest speaker, presenter and panel member at local community events and screenings within maritime and environmental contexts, including holding screenings and talks at Falmouth Yacht Club, Flushing Sailing Club, the Porthtowan Marine and Conservation Society Film Festival, presenting the Poly's screening of Chris Morris's A Year in a Field with director Q&A.
His expertise in storytelling and visual production is complemented by 30 years of experience working with sound. An encyclopaedic knowledge of underground music attests to a lifetime of crate digging and dj'ing. You can hear the results of this on his radio show Sound Travels (), a repostiory of three years of radio production for The Source 96.1FM.
Engagement with professional associations and societies
- HEA - Fellow
- WGGB - Writer's Guild of Great Britain
- DocSociety - Member
- Production Design Research and Education Network - Member
Professional esteem indicators
| Year | Description |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-2024: Student supervisees won 3 RTS awards |
| 2012 | 2012-2016: Student supervisees won 7 D&AD awards |
