Two friends and Salford University graduates went head-to-head on Wednesday 4 December when their film projects were short-listed for the Royal Television Society North West student awards.

On the night it was The Park by the BA Television and Radio graduate Nick Gillespie which finished ahead of Billy Wright made by his friend Ed Lilly, but both went away happy in the end as the two friends had helped each other out in the production of their films.

Nick’s film, which was successful in the Undergraduate Drama category, is a horror story based on a legend about a ghostly lady who is said to haunt Marbury Park in his home town of Northwich.

Since graduating, Nick has gone on to become a freelance camera operator and has worked on a number of projects including a new film of his own based around the Story of Little Red Riding Hood and work for Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow. Ed, meanwhile, has started his own production company producing music videos.

As a result of his success in the North West region, Nick will be taking The Park to compete in the national RTS Student Awards which are held next May in London.

One of Nick’s tutors at Salford, Channel M producer Paul Barron, was responsible for getting the entries into the competition. He said: “Both Nick and Ed were great assets to us on the Channel M project at Salford, so I had no reservations in putting their own films forward for RTS consideration. I had a gut feeling they would make a good impression. It was just a shame that they were both nominated in the same category, being such good friends, but they can both take pride in their achievements. I’m delighted for both of them, and feel sure they will find even greater success in the future”.

Nick, whose win contributes to over a decade of Salford success at the Royal Television Society awards, was honoured to just be nominated. He said: “Everyone involved with the film worked really hard and I suppose it’s a bit of a cliché, but I really wasn’t expecting to win. The whole night was a bit of a blur and having a chance to go to the national awards in London next year is very exciting.”

Rumour has it that Picasso-faced musical-supremo Andrew Lloyd Webber is to appear in 3 Hollyoaks episodes, due to be broadcast in January.

I can just imagine the scene when Lloyd Webber woke up one morning thinking ‘what is it I still have left to achieve? Ah yes! I may have produced a crap piece of TV (How to Solve a Problem Like Maria), but I haven’t yet starred in a crap piece of TV. Agent, get Phil Redmond on the line!

After Amores Perros and 21 Grams director Alejandro González Iñárritu established himself as the undeniable king of the multi-strand narrative. In Babel, the scope is larger but he again employs his favourite structural technique to explore his theme. However, it is with the mention of the word ‘theme’ that Babel hits a problem – for its lack of thematic clarity is in fact its major flaw.

Telling the story of 3 family units, Babel opens in Morocco, where a goat herder buys a rifle for his sons with tragic consequences. The boys attempts to test the range of the gun lead to the killing of American tourist Susan (Cate Blanchett) which sparks an international ‘situation’. Meanwhile back home, Susan’s children are taken to a wedding in Mexico by their loving illegal immigrant nanny, which all goes fine until they attempt a late night border crossing on the journey home…

And the final piece of the puzzle is provided by Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), the deaf-mute daughter of a Japanese businessman, whose role in the unfolding Morocco storyline only becomes apparent in the last act of the film. This particular story is the most fragmented of them all, and although moving and insightful in its own right, often struggles to match the pace and impending sense of crisis inherent in the other narrative strands.

As Susan’s husband Richard (Brad Pitt) nurses his dying wife, and the Moroccan herder attempts to protect his guilty sons, a clear point is made about the ‘chaos effect’ that a single wayward bullet can cause. But aside from this there is a lack of cohesion to the film as a whole which makes it pale in comparison to another film of this type, Crash.

The cinematography is stunning and the acting is generally excellent (although someone should have told Brad Pitt that ‘arthouse acting’ doesn’t just mean whispering every line), one is left at the end with a feeling that perhaps this film is all style and no real substance.

Whilst many critics are hailing Atonement as a shoo-in for next year’s Oscars, I feel this talk to be a little hasty. Whilst an undoubtedly fine showcase of cinematography and overall production values, what this film is missing is actually the one thing it should have in bucket-loads: soul.

The first and final acts are generally very good. The story is established at an Evelyn Waugh-esque country estate, told alternately through the eyes of 13 year-old Briony (Saoirse Ronan) and dashing gardener Robbie (James McAvoy). The relationship which develops between Robbie and Cecilia (Keira Knightley) is observed with a mixture of fascination and horror by Briony, whose obsession soon has huge ramifications.

We are then moved at blinding speed to the BEF retreat in 1940. Robbie is now a soldier, and far away from his beloved. This sequence culminates in the film’s most famous scene, a masterful long-shot set on the beaches of Dunkirk. However, even this is not enough to prevent the niggling feeling that beneath this wonderful showcase of logistics we have somehow missed something. Robbie’s fall from grace never seems very far, and as the grown-up Briony (now working as a nurse in London) goes on her personal quest for atonement, it’s impossible to feel a true empathy. It’s not until Vanessa Redgrave appears and lends some much-needed gravitas that finally the film’s heart begins to beat. But by that stage it is a little too late.

The acting is good. The direction is good. The script is good. But the chemistry is somehow not quite right.

This star studded Awards Ceremony hosted by Michael Starke (aka Jerry Morton of Coronation Street) is the climax of the Clapperboard Youth Project. Now in its third successful year, the project has engaged with over 600 young people.

The project is in partnership and funded by, Greater Manchester Fire Service and Salford City Council and supported by organisations such as Granada/ITV, BBC, Tightrope Pictures, Lowry Arts and Entertainment, Urban Splash, University of Salford, Lowry Hotel, Eventsinc and Greenlight Communications.

With the creative support of KBS Productions and industry professional writers, a group of students from six schools in Salford, St Ambrose Barlow High School, Buile Hill High School, New Park High School, Moorside High School and Harrop Fold School and Arts College, developed and produced 5 minute films based on issues that affect them and their communities such as, “safety and anti social behaviour”. The young film makers are aged 11-17.

The films were judged by top talent from the industry of film and television, Chair of BAFTA, Hilary Bevan Jones, Award Winning Writer and Co-Founder of Tightrope Pictures, Paul Abbott and Award Winning Actor, Christopher Eccleston.

The Awards are held in recognition of the achievements of the young film-makers. Awards will be presented by high profile celebrities such as Christine Tremarco, Tom Payne, Chelsee Healey, Lauren Drummond (Waterloo Road), Lee Ottway (Hollyoaks/Celebrity Love Island), Ceiron Griffiths, Tina Malone, Alice Barry (Shameless), John Henshaw, Ciaran Griffiths, Amer Nazier, Parvez Quadir and members of the cast from Coronation Street, Jonathan Dixon and Emma Edmondson, Hollyoaks, Nicola Shindler and Paul Abbott.

The school winning the “Best Overall Film” will enjoy a day at the world famous Pinewood Studios.

The audience includes The Lord Mayor of Salford, Hazel Blears MP, celebrities, industry professionals, agents, sponsors, families and friends of the students.

A group of Christian Aid activists arrive in the capital this weekend at the end of a 1,000 mile Cut the Carbon march from Northern Ireland to London that has brought the issue of climate change to the doorsteps of local people and to businesses and MPs across the country.

A core team of 18 marchers from the UK and the developing world left Bangor in Northern Ireland on 14 July. The march arrives in central London this Monday and will be welcomed to the capital by senior Bishops and then the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who will join the march along the Thames outside City Hall.

A delegation from the marchers will go to Downing Street with shoelaces collected from along the route from members of the public who had swapped them for Christian Aid Cut the Carbon shoelaces to demonstrate their support for the issue.

On Tuesday, hundreds of supporters are to join the marchers for their final mile from Tooley Street near Tower Bridge past the London Stock Exchange to St Paul’s Cathedral, where there will be a rally at 1.00pm and then a service at 2.00pm. Supporters and members of the public are welcome to come along.

Tim Jones, 26, a walker and World Development Movement activist from Herne Hill, London, said: “We’ve reached out to thousands of people to inspire them to campaign to tackle climate change and have delivered a powerful message to the government that it must act justly by reducing our emissions.”

The oldest UK walker is 68 year-old Hereford grandmother, Merryn Hellier, while other marchers include a businessman and South African Bishop, who has walked in his cassock.

Along the route, marchers have lobbied MPs to strengthen the government climate change bill; they have also met with businesses across the country, urging companies such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Tesco, to cut their carbon emissions.

The marchers are calling on the UK government to commit to a UK cut of at least 80 per cent in carbon emission by the year 2050 in the climate change bill. They want business to publish their emissions annually and reduce their emissions by five per cent year on year.

Celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio (pictured), Lemar, Terra Naomi and Greta Scacchi have publicised their support for the march, sung at rallies in key British cities including Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Cardiff, or walked with the marchers, urging government and businesses to Cut the Carbon.

Marchers have lobbied at the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth and gone to church with the Prime Minister. Two international marchers – Mohammed Adow, 28, from Kenya and Rosalia Soley, 22, from El Salvador, met Gordon Brown.

Rosalia said she chose to go on the march because of the effects of extreme climate on the poor in her country. ‘The climate in El Salvador has gone completely mad. Some years there isn’t enough rain and people lose their harvest because of drought, other years there’s too much and the crops are washed away. It never used to be like this.’

Cassia Bechara from Brazil said of the march: ‘We have started a process in British society of broadening the debate about climate change and its causes and consequences. But this is just a beginning. We believe this process will turn into a mass movement, where people will take collective actions to tackle climate change.’