Students call for Portmanteau project time limit extension to enable creative freedoms

By Filip Nowicki

Students on a creative media college course in Leicester are pressing to be given a time-limit extension to allow them to match their full vision for their final project and to get a separate screening.  

They are seeking the extension so as not to have to cut down the segments of their Horror Portmanteau as they are currently limited to making it no more than about 45 minutes long, which would force directors to make their own segments only about five minutes each.  

Some involved are also concerned about the levels of gore in parts of the film

Director of the Sci-Fi Horror segment Kill-Switch, Cameron Cody Wall, 18, said: “A personal worry of mine was that families of the first years may come to see maybe their son’s music video, or their grandson’s short film project, only for it to be followed up by some of the most gruesome thing they’ve seen since Vietnam.” 

Students on the Leicester College Creative Media Practice (TV and Film) course are working on a horror portmanteau 

For their final film project, the students are making a horror portmanteau, which will consist of eight segments and one overarching plot of a detective investigating separate cases, each being a different genre or horror. 

Crew watching the rehearsal of the "Truth Telling" segment taken by Cameron Wall
Focused: the Crew watching the rehearsal of the “Truth Telling” segment (Pic by Cameron Wall)

Each student on the course takes up a position of directing part of the film, with students including Eve O’Brien and Hannah Broadley-Becker taking up both Directorial and Producer roles, with Ms O’Brien directing the overarching plot and Mx Broadley-Becker directing the Possession, Body-Horror genre segment in the film.  

Other students have taken up responsibilities such as Mr Wall doing both makeup effects for the gore within the film and working as writer, director and cinematographer for the sci-fi horror segment of the film, Killswitch.  

In order to fulfil their full vision, the students have asked for an extension on the permitted run-time of the film, to prevent having to cut short some of the segments.  

If their request is denied, the portmanteau will premiere on June 18 at the Sue Townsend Theatre. However, if they are granted the extended duration, the film will premiere later.  

Once complete, the film will be published on the college’s Youtube channel over the summer.  

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