A BU student wins three television marketing awards for a promo produced while on placement at Disney.
BA (Hons) Media Production student Nick Zerafa produced the video to promote The Incredible Dr. Pol show on National Geographic Wild.
Nick secured Gold for the Best Reality/Unscripted/Non-Fiction category, Gold for Use of Music with Original Lyrics, and Silver for Best Documentary or Factual Entertainment at the Europe Promax Awards 2021. Nick also won a bronze award for Best Entertainment and gold award for Best Kids categories at the Promax UK 2020 awards. Nick said: “I'm incredibly overjoyed with the results and it really is a dream come true!”
While on placement, Nick was tasked by the Creative Director to create something different to promote The Incredible Dr.Pol show.
Nick said: “I took the opportunity to do something that I had always wanted to do and decided to write a rap! I recorded a demo track and cut together a video and it went down really well with my bosses.
"I then got to work with some incredible graphic designers to bring to life my vision for the music video, they did such a fantastic job. I had the privilege to work with the amazing Daniel Barker who voiced the rap, though I did manage to sneak in myself and fellow intern, Matilda, into the mix as backing vocals. As a creative producer, you see a project all the way through from start to finish so you get a great appreciation for all parts of the creative process.”
Watch Nick's promo video:
He added: “With any project, there are always challenges. This rap was made throughout the summer, I was working 100% from home which was a challenge due to slower communication. I had to make sure I was concise and to the point when communicating, something that I struggle with a bit due to my dyslexia.
"The other main challenge was the fact this project wasn't exactly asked for so the budget was as close to £0 as I could get it. I had a very short amount of graphics time to work with, so I had to prioritise what I thought were the most important graphics to complete. I had to push for more a lot of the time, I was a bit of a vulture for when a designer became free for booking, but they really liked the project so they were very happy to work on it!”
Nick knew he wanted to go for the placement at Disney from his very first lecture at BU and said: “I thought to myself, that’s what I want to go for. A year later at the start of the second year of study, it was mentioned again when they talked about preparing for placements, I wasn’t sure if I had enough experience to go for a role at such a big company however I knew I’d have regretted not trying, I sent off my application and the rest is history.”
“If you've got a passion for creating in general, the BA (Hons) Media Production course is for you. The variety of modules is definitely the standout element of the course, in my opinion, this course opens far more doors than some of the other courses. Also, if you're unsure about what you want to do specifically but know you want to work in the media industry, then this is the course for you!
"Bournemouth University is incredibly well known in the media industry and there's a lot of incredible alumni who are in the industry now. I came to Bournemouth unsure of whether I'd have any chance in the media industry, I can safely say all those doubts are long gone."
Since graduating, Nick has managed to secure a role in the National Geographic Team at The Walt Disney Company as a Factual Producer!
"I can't thank The Walt Disney Company, more specifically Sasan & Helen, enough for their support, trust, and belief in me. I think it really shows that interns can make a huge difference when given a chance!"
Find out more about studying BA (Hons) Media Production.
