Students produce concert film
Media students at New College Durham have produced a tribute to the 1986 striking miners, from rare archive footage.
Second year students were given the opportunity to edit footage from a fundraising event, Concert for Heroes, which took place at The Royal Albert Hall in 1986, in aid of the sacked miners.
The concert featured a number of popular artists including Paul Weller, Lindisfarne, Hank Wangford, Tom Robinson and The Flying Pickets.
The footage, which has never been seen before by the public, was found untouched, after 30 years, in director Ian Krause’s garage.
Luckily, it was still in good condition so the students got to work at editing it.
Groups of media students each worked on half hour segments from the 10 hour footage and it also gave them an opportunity to find out more about the strike, the history of the area and the plight of the miners.
The student’s filmed new interviews for the film with the people involved, and visited Easington Colliery.
The final edited version, which lasts for one hour 25 minutes, took eight months for the students to complete.
Media lecturer at New College Durham, Stuart Drummond, said: “This project has been one of the most ambitious and exciting projects I’ve been involved with as a media lecturer, and it has presented both myself and the students with a fantastic opportunity to engage with the local area and its history, as well as enabling them to develop professional filmmaking and editing skills.”
This ambitious project was brought to New College Durham by local musician Neil Griffin, who performed with his band The Fabulous Wildon Brothers at the concert.
Neil, who is a governor at the college, said: “I was amazed to find that Ian still had the original tapes from all those years ago and it’s really exciting that people will now be able to see it after 30 years.
“To play at the Royal Albert Hall, which is such an iconic and symbolic venue, was certainly the pinnacle of my musical adventures over the years and to be able to see the footage after such a long time is really exciting.
“The students from New College, Durham have done a fantastic job in editing the footage and putting together a film that really captures the atmosphere of the occasion.”
The film was screened at the Drama Studio at New College Durham recently and was first previewed at The Miners’ Hall at Redhills, Durham in run up to Durham Miners’ Gala in July.
Students, Sophie Earl, 19, said: “Working on the Heroes gig was an amazing opportunity. I loved learning about the history behind the mining strikes and seeing some footage from that time.
“It was fascinating being a part of a film shoot we did in Easington and seeing the village compared to the stock footage we were given from the strikes, and seeing the affect it had on a local community.”
“Students from New College Durham have done a fantastic job” NEIL GRIFFIN