A student from London College of Communication (LCC) has won Best LGBTQ+ Film at New Renaissance Film Festival, a festival that champions emerging filmmakers across the country.
BA (Hons) Film and Television graduate Lewis Simpson’s short film He’s The One is a musical story of love at first sight as it clashes with the realities of gay dating; told through queer bars, Hollywood-style dream ballet sequences and the overlooking of several red flags.
It’s based upon Lewis’ own experiences of the queer dating scene, especially within the context of open relationships, while also serving as a love letter to the musical genre. As his graduate film, He's the One marks his first foray into the world of filmmaking after life at the College.
Lewis’ film was screened as part of the New Renaissance Film Festival, held in London over 2 days at the Close-Up Cinema in Shoreditch on 3-4 October. Founded in 2015, the New Renaissance Film Festival aims to discover and recognise new filmmakers, with a passion for showcasing the finest independent cinema.
With cash prizes on offer of up to £2,500, the festival has a strong bench of notable alumni, including stars like Sarah Snook, Tatiana Maslany and Whoopi Goldberg.
We caught up with Lewis to learn more about making He’s the One – from the genesis of his idea back in 2019 all the way through to the experience of winning the award.
I find that lots of my work is shaped by my experiences as a dancer. I really enjoy working with music and movement direction as part of my films – even in moments where you may not realise the actor's movements have been timed and rehearsed. This then bleeds into the camera techniques I suggest to my Directors of Photography. I really enjoy when the camera can feel like its own character with its choreographed movements and dynamics.
The process of filmmaking has always fascinated me. When I was 16, I made my first short and it was absolutely dreadful! Despite that, I would say that it was the moment I became truly interested in film; I had this desire and need to find out how I could go from that to being on the level of films that inspire me. That's a journey I'm still very much on to this day.
I knew I wanted to study at LCC once I had visited on the open day. I was impressed by the quality of the graduate shorts that were shown (They by Louisa Rechenbach was a highlight) and the variety of projects that the course offered, from live television to documentaries and dramas. I also think it is valuable as a creative to look at the community that exists not only at the College but in the surroundings too – and being in London gave me the opportunity to find spontaneous work and passion projects all the time.
Two memories come to mind. The first was a set of sessions called ‘Meet the Makers’ where we had a chance to learn from and question industry professionals at the top of their fields. This led to me meeting my mentor and has definitely changed the trajectory of my career. The second is less serious – it's when I managed to bag some Beyoncé tickets while sitting in the cafe after the greenlight meeting for He's the One.
He's the One is a musical short film that follows a gay man falling for someone that he doesn't know is already in an open relationship. For those who don't know, an open relationship is where the people in the relationship love each other but consensually hook up with other people outside of the relationship.
Initially, I knew I wanted my graduate film to be a musical. From almost before even starting the course, I was committed to the plan that this was going to be the short I wanted to launch my professional output. The issue was then finding the story. As a gay man myself, I felt that the dynamics that open relationships create within the dating scene hadn't been explored in much media – particularly from the perspective of someone outside of the couple – and it quickly emerged that this was the story that I wanted to tell.
In development, I was involved in many aspects of the film outside the scope of directing. I had to write the script before we had the music or lyrics; somehow, it had to make sense for my crew and tutors without those elements. Once this was in place, I attended studio sessions with our composer to make sure the music structure matched with the pacing of the story beats I had in the script. With the music in place, I wrote the lyrics and attended dance rehearsals to set the framework for the musical numbers. This all went hand-in-hand with the expectations of directing: floor plans, character breakdowns, casting notes and working with all the department heads. All of this was guided by my tutor Ian Fleming [Year Leader for BA Film and Television at LCC] across a series of meetings, seminars, pitches and one-to-ones.
Thankfully, my stellar producer Alix had a festival strategy guided by the College’s advice and her prior experience working on graduate films in 1st and 2nd year. New Renaissance was added to our list of festivals as it had a category where LGBTQ+ films could shine and also because it gave the film the opportunity to screen amongst the work of professional filmmakers.
Coming into the festival as student filmmakers working on a very tight budget, we were just incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to take part. Myself, the producer and the supporting actress Morgan attended the ceremony as a chance to meet fellow filmmakers and enjoy just being there. It was a bit of a blur when they announced we had won, as all the work that had gone into the film came flooding back. Now that I am working in the industry, having this award to validate the film – even when hiring managers won't have time to watch it – could make all the difference in landing a job.
This experience has shown me the true meaning of the phrase "Rome wasn't built in a day". It's easy to look at the award as a singular point in time encapsulating the entire project. What that doesn't show is the seeding of an idea in 2019, the building of a producer and director collaboration throughout my degree at LCC, committing to a vision, the seemingly endless planning, the last-minute changes, the advice of mentors and the hard work of applying a festival strategy.
Following the award win, I'm currently working on a short and I'm in very early talks of how to make a debut feature possible. Alongside this, I'm working in many different areas of the industry like location marshalling, production management and vision mixing to learn as much as I can.
The industry right now is tough and the key to success is diversifying. In my previous response, I talked about the different areas of the industry I'm working in and that shows that you don't have to put yourself into a box, even if other people might. Learn all the skills the degree has to offer because you don't know when it might make the difference between landing a job or not. Throw yourself into every opportunity given as it might never be offered to you again!
Two collaborations between students studying Virtual Reality and Sounds Arts courses at LCC have received recognition at the Rookies Awards, which honour new talent in the VR field.
The latest iteration of our business incubation programme will support 14 concepts developed by LCC students and graduates.
The National Association for Higher Education in the Moving Image (NAHEMI) have recognised two films from London College of Communication (LCC) students in their Student Film Awards, celebrating the work of Ruozhang Liao, Edvin Cetyrkovski and Alexandra Golus.
London College of Communication alumni Blu Smith and Qiqi Hou have achieved success in the documentary film circuit, receiving nods at at Sheffield Doc Fest and the Royal Television Society Awards.