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The media students of our Centre for  Media Studies, Port of Spain Campus displayed their final year projects at the National Library in Port of Spain in June. These students were in the final stage of the Higher National Diploma in Creative Media Production which is offered in collaboration with the London based Pearson Group.

The fourteen projects in the exhibition presented an eclectic and innovative mix of ideas and media and explored a range of topical issues.

Lyndon Andrews and Zachary Bassanta produced albums for music lovers. Lyndon Andrews’ project was entitled ‘Panaroll Dubai’ which features remixes of songs he produced locally with his 5Z1 music studio with artists such as Jamelody, Isasha and Emrand Henry of St. Lucia, with Electronic Dance Music. He hopes to introduce this fusion of soca, reggae and EDM to listeners in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The inspiration behind Andrews’ album was his previous visits to Dubai in his capacity as a music producer.

Bassanta on the other hand, sought to capture the unmistakable Caribbean vibe in song and rhythm as it weaves Caribbean beats from islands including Jamaican Reggae and Dancehall, Puerto Rican Raggaeton, St. Lucian Zook, Trinidadian Soca.

There were two radio plays, ‘Ramdeo’s Roti’ and ‘On The Taxi Stand’ which hope to revitalize the forgotten art of drive-time theatre. Stefan Alexander’s ‘Ramdeo’s Roti’ is the pilot episode of a radio sitcom which features the lives of an Indo-Trinidadian family who owns a roti shop and the “kutchur” which ensues, while Tavornna Nelson’s ‘On The Taxi Stand’ is a radio play which aims to deliver news content to listeners in a theatrical way. Nelson, originally from Jamaica, hopes that her play will be picked up by a local radio station.

If you ever wished to have a local greeting card for a special occasion, a line of locally produced Greeting Cards by Chinelle Alsuran and Sarah Ali would have given you reason to pause. These students produced 20 cards which spanned festivals such as Christmas, Divali, Eid-ul-Fitr and used a witty combination of dialect and familiar imagery.

Social issues were reflected in ‘The Holistic Campaign’ and ‘Through My Eyes’ projects which utlised public service announcements.  Each of these included multi-media displays featuring videos, posters and radio advertisements. Soraya Moolchan and Israel Ramjohn’s ‘Holistic Campaign’ is a movement to instill actionable productive values across Trinidad and Tobago through positive media messages in three PSAs entitled “Healthy,” “Happy” and “Honest,”  while Mark Dingwell’s ‘Through My Eyes’ tackled the issue of elder abuse from the perspective of the abused.

Local movie audiences will be anxious for Candace Dewsbury’s screenplay ‘Right Up’ to make it on the screen, perhaps for the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival later this year. Dewsbury also directed a scene from the screenplay which revolves around a young-maxi taxi driver who unknowingly picks up three bandits posing as passengers on his last trip for the night before being forced to take part in something that was much bigger than a simple robbery.

Akelia Williams’ ‘Children of the Trinity’ is a children’s story book which weaves the national watchwords of Discipline, Production and Tolerence into stories about its young characters, while Lawrence Grimshaw’s infomercials on Tobago entrepreneurs added an interesting perspective on Tour operators on the sister isle.

Art aficionados were drawn to ‘The Other Side,’ ‘Everyday Beauty’ and ‘J. Anthony Photography’.

Carolyn Clarke’s project ‘The Other Side’ comprises a 2017 Calendar which features the artwork of local self-taught artist and advertising guru Percy Parker Williams. What distinguished this project from the others was its design. An original painting was featured for each month of the year and the calendar was printed on light-weight perforated canvas so that each painting can be detached and framed.

Photography and horticultural buffs would have been intrigued by Richard Ryan’s ‘Everyday Beauty’ which was a photographic essay which explores the flowers and wild plants commonly found across the island. Macro photography techniques (extreme close-up) were used to exaggerate the lines, patterns, shapes, colours and textures of his subjects. Ryan says that his inspiration were his memories of his grandmother’s garden.

John Seuradge’s ‘J. Anthony Photography’ is a website which showcases a range of photographic services offered by the student, already an entrepreneur, which includes a small but growing database of local stock photography which represents facets of Trinidad and Tobago and West Indian culture.

The theme of entrepreneurship was evident across the exhibition. Abbigail Ajim, lecturer for the programme, underscored the need for students to fully utilize the range of technical skills they have acquired and to instill a spirit of entrepreneurship to produce a media product that is of publishable quality. She indicated that the programme aims to produce students who are creative and innovative and equally comfortable working in the many organisations which comprise the creative sector, or as entrepreneurs.

To view the exhibition, click