National Film and Television School - History

History

The National Film School (the original name) opened in 1971, the work of four years of planning to create an institution to train personnel for the British film industry. Department of Education and Science had in 1967 recommended the creation of a national film school for the UK, and in 1969 an inquiry led by Lord Lloyd of Hampstead began to develop plans.

In 1970, a Scot named Colin Young (then chairing the University of California's Department of Theater Arts), was appointed as the School's first director. The NFS bought the old Beaconsfield Film Studios in Buckinghamshire and set about refitting it to professional industry standards. Young established four permanent departments - production, camera, editing and sound - and in 1971 the first intake of 25 students passed through the studio gates.

The curriculum in the early days was loosely structured; sporadic seminars and workshops were secondary to production, with students spending most of their time doing exactly what they had come to the School to do - making films. But by the early 1980s, Young felt this system no longer served the students' best interests and a more structured curriculum was introduced. Links with the Industry were strengthened, allowing students' idealism and creative talent to be matched with collaborative, financial and production expertise.

In 1982, the School changed its name to The National Film and Television School, as many of its graduates went on to make their careers in TV. That same year it launched a pilot project for re-training freelance industry professionals. This led to the establishment of the National Short Course Training Programme (now ShortCourses@NFTS), which has been running courses ever since on all areas of film and television production. By the early 1990s, the school had modified its original stance on course structure, deciding to provide specialisation at the time of entry. The first year still offered a general course, followed in the next two years by focused training in one of the ten specialist areas (direction, writing, editing, camera, sound, animation, design, producing, documentary and composing).

Colin Young retired in 1992 and was succeeded by Henning Camre, formerly Head of the National Film School of Denmark. Camre aimed for more balanced numbers in each of the ten specialist areas, creating separate departments with their own head tutors and curricula. He was also successful in securing a Lottery grant to install state of the art new equipment, positioning the School to take full advantage of new production methods offered by innovations in technology and ensuring that graduating students could compete with the best as they embarked on their careers.

Camre was succeeded in 1998 by Stephen Bayly, an NFTS graduate and film producer (Richard III, Mrs Dalloway). His first move was to reorganise the curriculum to run over two years, instead of three. Recognising a growing trend towards a requirement for academic qualifications, he sought to achieve this. Eventually, The Royal College of Art agreed to validate the School's courses and 2000 saw the first intake of students who would graduate with an MA. In 2002, Bayly introduced the first of the shorter Diploma courses, established to meet an urgent Industry need for properly trained sound recordists.

September 2003 saw Nik Powell, one of the UK's leading producers, to take over from Bayly. Powell has rapidly expanded the programme of new courses, introducing Diplomas in Producing & Directing Television Entertainment (now an MA), Digital Post-Production, SFX/VFX, Directing Fiction, and Script Development (a partnership venture with The Script Factory). Powell has reinvigorated the programme of visiting filmmakers, and set up a programme of masterclasses run at London cinemas for NFTS students and the public. He has also introduced a range of development deals with broadcasters and independent production companies to help new NFTS graduates get started and, in 2005, joined forces with NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) to launch NFTS Inc, a Creative Pioneer programme supporting graduates of any UK film school develop start-up businesses in the motion picture industry.

Today, the NFTS has around 160 full-time students, with a further two dozen part-timers on the Script Development course and about a thousand a year on its short courses. It is the only film school in the UK which boasts its own film and television studios, and post-production facilities rivalling those of professional companies. Its talented community of students makes around a hundred films a year on courses that are still over 90% practical and unlike anything offered at any other UK film school.

The NFTS also holds yearly graduation shows at the BFI Southbank (formerly known as the National Film Theatre). These are highly selective and invite-only events which showcase the student's projects to scounts and industry professionals, ensuring that the students receive maximum exposure.

The NFTS is a Skillset Film and Media Academy