Laura pursued Film and TV at ECA because of the programme’s experimental nature and space for developing new and bold ideas. Whilst studying, Laura was able to work alongside students across different courses to make and contribute towards a large variety of films and productions. Here, Laura found a passion for scriptwriting which led them to script supervisor and editor roles. Laura’s hardwork was recognised with several awards such as the Best Student Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival New Visions Competition in 2022.

Since graduation, Laura has been selected to join a script editing programme with ScriptEd and has worked as a Freelance Editor for companies such as Radiance Films.

Why ECA?

Along with loving the city of Edinburgh, I chose to study at ECA particularly because of the Film and Television BA (Hons) course’s focus on creativity, experimentation with film and TV as well as pushing and developing ideas. That was something I found really interesting and wanted to explore, along with the technical and theoretical aspects of the course. I also really like ECA’s set up of collaborating with people from other courses to help you produce short films. For example, Performance Costume students and Textiles students assisting with costumes or music students assisting with the sound design. I felt this gave a really nice atmosphere to ECA and felt that it was somewhere I would be happy to be for four years.

Tell us about your time at ECA

In my first year of my four year course at ECA we did a project a week, which was a great way to become less precious over ideas, become more critical of ideas and churn out more work. I was also really excited to work on graduation films and take on roles I’d never done before, such as Script Supervisor and Sound Designer. Both students and lecturers were really supportive and I was really pleased I won a RTS Scotland Student Television Award 2020 for my sound design work on Alex Starr’s ECA graduation film The Lost Sock. 

In my second year, I continued collaborating on student films and was pushed to complete roles I’d never consider such as 2nd Assistant Camera. During my third-year, there was the Covid lockdown and so I had to complete a film on my own. This did teach me a lot and meant I had to multi-task. I made a short comedy drama in my flat and had to be creative with the camera equipment, like using a cardboard box for barn doors!

In my final year, I was Script Supervisor and Assistant Director/Cinematographer on two other graduation films and I made my own graduation film, a dark comedy drama called ‘The Dead Cat Strategy’. It was really nice to bring together what I’d learnt throughout the course and tell a story in a genre I really love. Filming my graduation film is one of the nicest memories of my time at university as everyone, in all stages of production, was so supportive, enthusiastic and keen to help. I was really pleased that my graduation film won Best Student Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival New Visions Competition 2022 and Best Comedy Drama/Entertainment and Best Production Design at the RTS Scotland Student Television Awards 2023. 

If I were to do the course again, I wouldn’t do anything drastically different. I was really pleased with how the course was set out and how it pushed me. If anything, I would try and collaborate on more projects in pre-production.

Tell us about your experiences since graduating

I was really sad when I left! Since graduating, I’ve visited Edinburgh a lot and every time I think it would be really lovely to be back at ECA. When I graduated, I knew I wanted to work in Scripted Television in either script editing or production management. Through the Film and TV BA (Hons) course I was able to work out what roles I felt most comfortable in, what format I enjoyed working in and what skills I felt I was most proficient in. By collaboratively working on ideas and developing scripts and then working on sets as Assistant Director and Script Supervisor, I gained skills that are very transferable to the role of Script Editor. Similarly, there have been so many times on student film productions where I have had to develop and utilise skills that are needed in TV production management.

Since graduating, I have been working as a Freelance Editor. This began when one of my tutors at ECA, David Cairns, offered me a job as the Editor on a project for Radiance Films. Since then, I have edited video essays for multiple companies, both with David Cairns and with companies who have reached out to me to complete work for them after working with David Cairns. This has been a really great experience in having my first professional job post-graduation, as well as gaining editorial skills that do feed into my aspirations to be a Script Editor. Recently, I have been chosen to be part of the ScriptEd programme ran by Screen Yorkshire, a script editing training programme with a possible work placement at a production company. This is something I am really excited about and feel I can use the skills and attributes I have learnt at ECA.

Alumni wisdom

For someone beginning their first year, I’d say use your first couple of years to push ideas, work out what kind of stories you want to tell. Be excited to experiment, to have loads of different ideas, abandon loads of ideas and enjoy working with others to develop and figure out how to make an interesting short film. 

For someone graduating, I would say to use the daunting nature and uncertainty of graduation to be excited that actually could happen, therefore really good things could happen.