It was an absolute thrill to go to the BFI this month with the team from the Institute of Physics to collect an award for our Career films.
Apparently - ‘The judges liked STEM career clips for it’s objective (to encourage studying and careers in science). They also felt that the resource addresses its target age-group well – the content was lively and interesting to 14-16 year olds. The fact that fundamental science principles were linked to work issues was also praised by the jury. This was voted to win unanimously by the jury’
Take a look for yourself:
We think these films work because they are fast paced and fun, teach you a bit about physics and give you plenty of questions to ask a teacher. We also like that over 90,000 people watched the film about Natural Motion on Vimeo. They were great to make and were inspired by an initial idea by Dr. Saher Ahmed, and supported by Taj Bhutta and James McNish of the IOP who were an absolute pleasure to collaborate with and never seemed to tire of my endless questions. Many thanks to the small Picnic team that worked on the films, to James for finding the contributors and Kim for making the pictures move, and of course thanks to the BUFVC for organising the awards evening.
End of Oscar acceptance speech!
In conclusion the BUFVC judges said this about our film – “the jury agreed that the winner stood out for its educational value and ability to meet the needs of its target audience head-on by linking the application of science with important world issues.”
There is a little bit of a shortage of physics teachers in the UK which leads to a lack of physics graduates, and completing the vicious circle a greater lack of physics teachers in schools. To combat this problem the government, the awesome Gatsby foundation and the brain boxes at the IOP have been developing courses which allow clever clog teachers without physics specialisms to be retrained so they can confidently teach physics. These films show the two routes teachers can take – PEP – Physics Enhancement Programme, which allows teachers to learn a little more physics before they go to teacher training college, and SASP – Science Additional Specialism Programme, which takes lovely biologist and mathematicians and gives them physics lessons so they too can enjoy teaching lovely physics! I know its a lot of acronyms but once you’ve got your head around them, by watching our films, you’ll agree this is a great solution to the dirth of physics teachers in our schools! And we need physicists to work on lovely renewable energy solutions, design cool little gizmos that make our Ipads work, and on occasion reveal the mystery of the universe to us. Hope you like the films.
Melanie is a plasma physicist and we filmed her talking about her experiences and love of physics as part of her Powering the Future lecture series at the Royal Institution in June 2010.
Filmed on Canon 7D and Sony PDW-700 XD-Cam.
Filmed with AHMM in London.
This film explores how architects use physics to think about the thermal performance and efficiency of buildings.
Haydn and Louise show us the process of design from initial sketch through to complex 3D modelling and CAD to model making.
Working on the redesign of the University of Amsterdam is a massive undertaking and they talk about some of the thermal issues they’ve had to deal with along the way.
This film has animation created in-house explaining the physics of heat.
Filmed on Canon 7D & 550D with Sigma 30mm, Tokina 11-16mm, Canon 18-135mm.
Oxford, July, 2010.
We were really lucky to meet NaturalMotion the computer games designers responsible for the Euphoria engine that powers such games as GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption as well as their first title BackBreaker. The Euphoria engine does not rely on canned animation techniques but is a series of rules that teaches the animation how to comply with the laws of physics. When you see it in action, which you will if you’ve played Red Dead Redemption, you’ll know this means that the gameplay feels real, the characters can surprise you and move like humans.
Matt, Chris and CEO Torsten Reil talk us through the importance of physics in creating realistic game worlds and enhancing the games playing experience. Torsten Reil started the company following some academic research into the bio-mechanically accurate modelling of animals. When we first approached Torsten to take part in this film, his motivation for saying yes was that he was fed up with young graduates applying to his company for jobs with the wrong qualifications. To work in the gaming world you need a degree in maths or physics.
Matt and Chris show us the power of their physics engine, and to prove how effective it is, they switch off some aspects of the physics world to see what its like if the gravity doesn’t work. We see first hand the hilarious results when you adjust the laws of physics.
This film has animation created in-house explaining the physics of forces and motion.
Filmed on Canon 7D & 550D with Sigma 30mm, Tokina 11-16mm, Canon 18-135mm.
