Ravensbourne students host a live broadcast for Teenage Cancer Trust

Students from five Ravensbourne courses have united to broadcast a live event for Teenage Cancer Trust. The project is led by two of our BA (Hons) Digital Television Production students, who envisioned the idea for their Final Major Project. The broadcast will take place on Friday 9 April 2021.

Lauren Telling and Niamh Duffy, who will act as director and producer for the project, established the relationship with the charity themselves, and managed to secure the nationwide broadcast of their work across all of its regional Facebook pages on Friday 9 April at 6.00pm.

The 60-minute live broadcast is called ‘A Night with Teenage Cancer Trust’ and will be realised through the combined efforts of around 30 students from various Ravensbourne degree programmes. This includes students from our BSc (Hons) Digital Television Technology, BA (Hons) Digital Television Production, BA (Hons) Digital Film Production, BA (Hons) Editing and Post Production and BA (Hons) Motion Graphics courses.

For an industry that is often male-dominated, the production stands out as a largely female-led project both in front of and behind the camera, featuring a female lead engineer, artists and more.

It will showcase fundraising tips and tricks shown in a series of short films, interviews and challenges, all filmed from a Covid-secure studio by the student team. A highlight are its ‘Rave on the Roof’ segments, which include live performances from two up-and-coming singer-songwriters, Lily Denning and Sola Fae, who were filmed live on the roof of the Ravensbourne building against the iconic backdrop of the Greenwich Peninsula.

Lauren and Niamh scoured Instagram to find and book the artists, and used booking site StarNow to cast and audition their presenters, Emily Brewster and Aron Clark.

They said they were motivated to go above and beyond their project brief because they wanted to create something with a lasting impact. Aside from directly raising the money themselves, a crucial aim of their broadcast is to inspire others to launch their own fundraising ventures.

The night aims to be uplifting and educational, as well as entertaining, and will share some of the less widely known truths about the effects of cancer.

The broadcast is the culmination of a series of fundraising efforts by the pair in recent months, which have so far raised £1,279 for the charity. Their campaign has seen Niamh take on a 25-mile walking and running challenge in December and Lauren complete an eight-hour workout session in January.

They have created a ‘Text to Donate’ number which will be used during the live show to help raise more money (GIVE TO 70500). Viewers can also donate via their dedicated fundraising page.

Niamh said: “I always knew that I wanted to create a live studio broadcast that will either be for children or to help children. I spoke to Lauren over dinner about an idea to have a charity broadcast as we both have family members that have had help from so many different British charities. We spoke to a few charities and Teenage Cancer Trust was the most interested and creative. If we can inspire one person to sell cupcakes, do a run or skydive, then they have helped so much more.”

Lauren said: “This broadcast is more than a university project, it is a passion project! I am so grateful to been given the opportunity to represent such an amazing charity and help raise money when they need it the most. I have watched this project grow from an idea Niamh and I had while out for dinner to a nationwide broadcast. I hope this will be the start of many collaborations with Teenage Cancer Trust and am so proud of the work my team and I have put in to make it a reality.”

Audrey Aquilina, course leader for Digital TV Technology, said: “TV students at Ravensbourne embraced the challenge of producing a live show in the very tight window available to them post lockdown restrictions. Months of planning with students across courses as well as teaching and support staff went into ensuring they were ready to start production on the very first day they could re-enter Ravensbourne's campus, so that no production days were lost following the disruption due to Covid-19.”

Teenage Cancer Trust initially agreed to put out the broadcast on its South East Facebook page, but was so impressed by the quality of their work that it will now be viewable across all seven of its regional Facebook pages.

You can watch the broadcast on Friday 9 April at 6.00pm on the following Teenage Cancer Trust pages: The Midlands, East Anglia, Wales & South Wales, South East, Scotland, Yorkshire, the Humber & North East and North West & Cumbria.

Thank you to all of the students working on ‘A Night with Teenage Cancer Trust’:

Lauren Telling – Director

Niamh Duffy – Producer

Joshua Sweet – Production Manager

Emma Bolton – Production Assistant

Mia Cowen-Dixon – Autocue

Annabelle Philpott – Vision Mixer

Morgan Richards – Lead Engineer

Joey Houldsworth – GFX Op

Mariam Alim – VTs Op

Rebekah Wright – Support Engineer

Bojan Zunic – Head of Lighting

Ethan Arif – Lighting Assistant

Camille Quitevis – Racks

Charlie Stalker – Head of Sound

Charlotte Kavanagh – Sound Assistant

Cerys Irons – Sound Engineer

Robert Clark – Floor Manager

Matthew De Ath – Floor Manager

Melissa Grima – Set Designer

Henry Simpson – Camera Op

Tod Osinaike – Jib/Head of Cameras

Sam Sharpe – Camera Op

Alex Stripe – Camera Op

Jay Damiral – Support Engineer

Kieran Waters – Transmission Engineer

Holly McCandless-Desmond - Photographer