University TV series wins award at international digital entertainment festival

A University of Portsmouth TV series has won an award at Melbourne WebFest, Australia's international digital entertainment festival.

‘Offstage’ is a musical reality television mini-series about the lives of aspiring artists as they prepare for their final grand show. It won the award in the Best Student Series category and will be showcased on the Festival’s website and/or in person for the duration of the festival.

It has been produced by staff and students from the BA (Hons) Television Production course in the University’s Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI). Each episode from the series is published on the CCI TV Production YouTube channel.

Offstage explores the creative process that goes into producing a piece of theatre from developing an idea to the onstage performance. The main focus is a group of aspiring musical theatre students and we get to follow their journey as their dreams come true. The mini-series is an intimate, in-depth look at the musical piece of theatre, revealing the emotional road from the creative concept to the onstage show.

BA (Hons) TV production graduate and offstage producer Darek Kosinski said: “It’s great news that Offstage has got its first international recognition in such a prestigious festival, from being nominated in the official final selection to winning the Best Student Series category. I am thrilled with the efforts that the entire crew has put into creating this piece. I am looking forward to networking with other creators, whose productions made it to the official selection. It is a true benchmark of successful teamwork and chasing the impossible.

“I’d like to thank our executive producers Evan Pugh and Rubia Dar and especially David Kinnaird for his help and advice in producing this madness of a mini-series. We wouldn't have done this without the support we've received from you.”