Helen Bruce

I have 15 years experience as an educator and 20 years practical experience working in the Television and Media Industries. Prior to working at the University of Leicester I worked as a course leader and lecturer for 15 years, which enabled me to develop my pedagogical approach to participatory teaching and learning. This has enabled me to develop an understanding of practice based teaching and learning across a range of levels and disciplines including, TV, Film, Advertising, Radio, Games, Interactive Media, Graphic Narratives and Animation. This also gave me experience of running a TV studio and several radio studios. In teaching, I always seek to stimulate students thinking with new approaches to learning, engaging resources and interactive sessions. As director for the Festival of Media Stories I aim to bring opportunities and awareness of the Media Industries to our students. We offer workshops, talks and networking opportunities as well as skills development opportunities to our students annually. This also enables us to develop ongoing connections with creative communities and is helping us to foster interdisciplinary dialogues. This also helps me to keep my knowledge relevant and up to date which keeps my teaching modern in a constantly evolving industry. As a practitioner I have worked as an editor, motion graphics designer, camera operator and director, and I regularly continue to direct my own films. Last Year my short film Perfidious won best drama at the Reel Harmony Film and Script Festival and in other years I have won best script, and best editing at a variety of other festivals, as well as having films I have made or worked on screened across the country over the last 5 years. I also regularly attend meetings as part of an Inside the Edit Pro editors group, and I meet with a group of Television and Film Editors in a global editors network on a regular basis, I am also a member of the British Film editors. I am currently researching approaches to personality centric narratives and their influence on environmental activism.