Meet the Movie Makers
We're thrilled to finally be introducing you to our brilliant new team-members, who have joined Oxygen as part of a SIGN-funded placement to engage Yorkshire-based talent typically excluded from the industry.
Over the course of the last three weeks, the new team-members have worked tirelessly and passionately in creating the next upcoming instalment of A Series of Light: Season Two, which continues on the story of Arron from 'Whitelight', a catfisher who uses his skills to manipulate and extort.
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Joining us is Production Manager, Lily Corke Butters, who will be in charge of the logistical nature of the shoot, planning permits, hatching health and safety, and arranging actors. Lily has just finished her 2nd year of Filmmaking at The Northern Film School. She has worked on a variety of film projects, both in and outside of university, which span from short dramas to music videos to an experimental short - which was shown in Harrogate Film Festival. Her work often explores themes of gender, sexuality and identity, with one of her current favourite directors being Céline Sciamma. She directed a short documentary called Bianca Shagger, an intimate portrait of a young woman as she navigates her sexuality, romance and outlook on life, which was also selected to be shown in Harrogate Film Festival. Whilst in university, Lily specialises in directing and editing, she is looking forward to applying her organisational skills to the role of Unit Production Manager with Oxygen!
Alongside Lily is Alex Bamford, as a Production Coordinator. A familiar face at Oxygen, Alex has volunteered with us on set in the past, working in various departments across the first season of A Series of Light. He is filmmaker and Television Production graduate of Bournemouth University, and has been making films since the age of 10 years old. An avid creator, Alex has a host of experience from a Junior Researcher on The One Show (BBC), and Production Runner for Dickinson's Real Deal (ITV). Utilising his skills and passion for sports such as Formula 1, Alex also worked as an Assistant Director and Assistant Producer on the film Determined to Drift, which was nominated for an award at the International Motor Film Awards.
Jackson Castillo Evans is a Screenwriter and Production Coordinator at Oxygen Films with a passion to uplift the voices of those unheard whilst exploring fresh perspectives and worlds. As a queer mixed-race man, representation is integral to his work as he strives to open taboo conversations around identity and sexuality. Jackson cultivated the visual art of storytelling in Greater Manchester with a background in Drama & Theatre which he transferred into filmmaking whilst studying at The Northern Film School. Through volunteering with queer organisations such as The Proud Trust and Bradford Shade, he formed a passion to explore the underrepresented voice through storytelling roles to reflect the world we live in. His work has been involved in festivals such as Leeds’ INDIs Film Festival and Manchester’s Filmed Up. Today he participates in events and stories which aim to benefit the underprivileged and those from minority backgrounds.
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Not only are our amazing three new team members going to be working on upcoming episodes for A Series of Light: Season Two and more projects currently under wraps, but they will also be hosting their own independent projects right here on the site.
Lily is going to run a MUBI Movie Club fortnightly, where she will highlight a title which aligns with Oxygen's values of underrepresented stories and host a 'watch-a-long' where she will encourage our wider audience to feed back about the film if they choose to watch it, as well as those within the Club to send their thoughts. Lily will host this on our new authored blogsite (www.oxygenfilms.co.uk/news), and will include her review and thoughts about the film there too.
Jackson is hosting a fortnightly discussion here on the site tackling themes within our films, and making an effort to break the ice on some of the difficult conversations it poses. He will also explore some of the challenges and topics being raised in the World as well, with his first authored piece exploring the fallout from the recently released film In The Heights which has caused controversy over its representation (or lack thereof) of the Afro-Latino community, as well as general colourism issues within cinema.
Alex is going to host a monthly blog on the site which explores the cinema of videogames, and specifically exploring the themes, technical craft, advancements throughout the years, creators and visionaries behind the content, as well as producing a look at how sexuality, identity, gender and topics underrepresented are put forward within the gaming outlet. Alongside this, Alex is thrilled to announce his other monthly blog, A Gasp of Oxygen which explores the inner workings of what we're doing, and pose updates and teasers to document the creation of our new titles!
We hope you welcome Lily, Jackson and Alex into the Oxygen Family, and look forward to hearing more from them right here in the near future!
All our love, as always,
Oxygen x