Mind Magic Studios were absolutely thrilled to support Pinewood's 2 day Futures Festival, probably the biggest free careers event in the UK for those of you who are thinking about embarking on a career in the film and television industry. This year saw all of the 4000 tickets get snapped up and its no great surprise when you look at what was on offer. If you missed out or are thinking of going next year, here's a short report of what the event was all about.
Guest speakers
A fantastic array of speakers gave talks and were to be seen wandering around and chatting to guests. We were particularly thrilled to see the speaker list included the legendary Brian Muir who sculpted Darth Vader. He has worked on some of the best loved films out there including Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Planet of the Apes, many Bond films and more recently Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a huge honour when Brian came over to speak to us on our stall and spent time talking to us about some of the iconic film sets that he has worked on.
Exhibitors
The exhibitor list read like a who's who of the UK film industry and included The Walt Disney Studios, The Imaginarium Studios, Industrial Light and Magic, Paramount Pictures and many more. Pretty much every aspect of the industry was featured in some way including extras agencies and logistics companies. There were demonstrations of motion capture and some fantastic displays including screen-used props. If you were a Marvel fan you would have gotten to see Robert Downey Jnr's Iron Man mask, Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield and Thanos' glove amongst other iconic pieces. A replica 1989 Batmobile and Jurassic Park jeep were also parked up for some great photo ops too.
We were hugely impressed to see the wonderful Terry Ackland-Snow manning a stall. This incredibly talented man has been a production designer and art director for a breathtaking array of films including many Bond films, classics such as Fahrenheit 451 and for you Henson fans he also worked on The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth. For Batman fans he is well loved for having co-designed the 1989 Batman Batmobile. Terry was hugely generous with his time and is an impeccable ambassador for the industry.
Photo ops
The UK Garrison, Reel Icons, The Rebel Legion and The Droid Builders Club, were all out at the event in force providing some Star Wars magic and galaxy busting photo opportunities. As members of the UK Garrison, Mind Magic Studios were thrilled to be invited along to the event with a whole array of our masks, prosthetics and props to talk to students and guests about how to get in to sculpting the SFX make-up industry. We sign-posted lots of guests to our blog article How do I become a special effects makeup artist or sculptor in the UK? for lots of links to courses and resources so check it out.
We would like to say a huge thank you to award-winning writer and director Marc Coleman of Double Dinner Films for joining us on our stand to talk about his perspective from the independent film industry. We've worked with Marc to design and produce masks, props and prosthetics for two films and so we brought along the screen-used masks from his comedy horror feature film Manfish and his upcoming 2024 feature film Members Club made with Blackwater Pictures.
Is the Pinewood Futures Festival for you?
If you're at school and thinking that you may want to get into the television and film industry then we really cannot recommend the Pinewood Futures Festival highly enough. Mind Magic Studios would like to say a huge blockbuster thank you to Pinewood Studios and all of the wonderful staff involved with the Pinewood Futures Festival for looking after us so well at the event.
We also want to extend an epic, creaturely bear hug to every guest who came to speak to us about what we do and how to get into the industry. We love inspiring you to follow your dreams and you inspire us with your incredible enthusiasm too! Believe in yourself, get to events like this to get the best advice possible, and the rest will follow.