One day video wins big break for East Ham filmmaker

A still from Antonia's video CV, laying on top of her beloved comics.

Melissa York, Reporter Saturday, September 22, 2012
12:00 PM

An aspiring filmmaker from Newham got her big break in the movies after impressing Olympians and film buffs alike with a video she made in a day.

Antonia Heslop, 23, from East Ham.

Antonia Jade Heslop, 23, from East Ham made a video CV to showcase her skills as part of a competition run by film networking and recruitment website My First Job in Film.

While studying for a degree in Graphic Design at Central St Martin’s College, Antonia took a module in moving image and animation and a love of film-making was born.

Ever since, Antonia has been trying to break into the notoriously competitive industry as a creative director and she has even had an internship with Edward Scissorhands director Tim Burton.

After hearing about a competition on the My First Job in Film website to win a year’s mentoring to launch a career, Antonia shot and edited her video CV in just one day, then she launched a social media campaign for 12 days to get her film noticed.

After a retweet from Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes, the comic book fan also won the support of illustrator JH Williams III and Marvel writer Mark Millar.

On September 1, Antonia found out that she had won against 11 other videos with 425 votes - 180 more than her nearest competitor.

The former Langdon School pupil wrote on her blog: “I am very humbled with the amount of support that I have received from friends, family, friends of friends and people within the industry. There is no way that I could have won without them.”

Watch Antonia’s video and read about her journey at www.antoniaheslop.com.