Maria Pullen – BA Media Production, 2018

Maria graduated in 2018 having completed her degree in Media Production at the University of Lincoln. Maria successfully gained a place on the Cannes Film Festival Programme for young filmmakers before taking a Script traineeship for the British Film Institute working on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.  Maria now works as a Production Assistant at Karrot Animation, the organisation behind children’s tv show Sarah and Duck.

‘From a young age, I was always interested in creating and telling stories so, there was not much doubt that I wanted to pursue a creative career. I wanted a course that would allow me to stretch my creative muscle in a variety of mediums to broaden my knowledge. One thing that really appealed to me was the fact that the Media Production Course taught both the theory and practical side of media which was very important to me. There was freedom throughout the course to really focus on what you wanted from it and that lead to a great start to my career.’

‘It was a dream of mine to work in children’s media and to have achieved that soon after graduating is such an achievement. I feel excited to start work every day with my amazing team. The knowledge I gained from university helped me get here and I am so grateful for that.’

Maria’s top tips for fellow graduates include:

• Be proactive, research schemes, extra courses, traineeships, mentorships – anything!
• Email those studios and talented people you look up to.
• And while you are at University, get all you can out of it. Use the software, really learn it, use the library, use the kit, it’s all there for you!

Read more about Maria’s time working on Star Wars here or read her Lincoln School of Film and Media blog post.