AN ASPIRING filmmaker from Basingstoke has recently been recognised as they won an award for their film.

Robert Smith, from Kempshott, was recently awarded the Adam Beckett Fellowship Award for his final year university project at Solent university, a film called Lay Claim, which was written and directed by Robert.

The 21-year-old wrote and directed the drama in a group as a part of his film production course. Robert was formerly a filmmaking student of Queen Mary’s College before following his passion to university.

Robert said: “A lot of the other films were really good, and I totally didn’t expect to win. It was really surprising, but it was great to be given it. It really felt like I had achieved a long-term goal, as I had wanted to do well, and it was great to win. Filmmaking is a huge passion of mine, and I’m really hoping to keep going after university.

“As my first award, it really is quite a milestone for me. It was a real honour for my group to receive the award, they were really good and we made a great team.

“The university gives out the award to the film made by a dynamic team, and also for overcoming obstacles as well. We had occasions when an actor didn’t turn up, and we had to rewrite a scene fairly quickly.”

Robert made the film with around seven members in the crew, who were all film production students.

The film is 20 minutes long and is about a gangster involved in a mob war with an old friend, and Robert was trying to show the human side of criminals.

He said: “I’m hugely inspired by directors like Martin Scorsese, and the gangster genre is a favourite of mine, and I was inspired by the genre and wanted to create something there. I came up with the concept in 2016, wrote some of the script last summer, and then refined it for the project.”

Robert is looking to move into freelance film making for music videos and other projects after he graduates, which should be this coming July.