Our final day of Industry week saw two amazing FX woman grace our screens! Kate Walshe and Kate Benton (wow, that name is popular around here!)
First up was Kate Walshe, renowned SFX producer and Co-Director of Millennium FX! Having worked on titles like Watchmen, Doctor Who and Slaughterhouse Rulez, Kate's career has spanned across a great deal of notable work, and it's easy to see why she's a firm favourite for students to chat to and engage with during our Industry Talks.
Kate has been involved with a few of our industry weeks in the past, but this time was something extra special....and quite different from the norm. Her talk this week revolved around the amazing mythological creatures and folklore characters that inspire the designs that go into concepting. Creating backstories for characters is always a key part of making them believable to an audience once it hits the screen, and getting this knowledge of how to incorporate existing myths, legend and folklore stories is a fantastic help for our students. Students also got a chance to ask questions about the process of physically making these designs and concepts come to life.
Mythological Creatures are ubiquitous and infinitely interesting - we can learn a huge amount from the way their stories are told to help make our own character designs richer and more meaningful. -Kate Walshe
Kate had some great words to say about our course too!
The University of Bolton SFX for Film and TV dept is literally world class. I always get so excited to see projects made by the students there. It’s the perfect environment for creating the next generation of artists - incredible facilities and a team of skilled and passionate staff really do make it one of the best institutes to study SFX. As a result, it’s a course I recommend a lot to fledgling artists curious about their next steps towards a career." You can check out Kate's IMDB page for a closer look at her career, as well as Millennium FX's website.