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Stephen Desmond
MA, FHEA

Senior Lecturer

Department of Film and Media

Stephen Desmond

Biography

Stephen has been a senior lecturer in film and television production at Solent University since 2009, teaching across the BA Film Production, BA Film, and MA Film Production degrees. He has also taught photography production in other degree programmes at Solent. Stephen teaches documentary film production, fiction film production, and experimental film production, screenwriting, history and theory of film, media studies, and critical approaches to mass media. Stephen's 'Intro to Film Editing' classes at Solent received the highest student feedback (SUE survey) results of any unit on the BA Film Production course. Stephen was the recipient of Solent's Teaching Excellence Award in 2018. He has 38 practice-based research outputs (films, articles, radio broadcasts, installations, artefacts, conference presentations) which meet the criteria of the Research Excellence Framework of the UK. See recent publications, below, for full details and an extract from the PURE system of public research records.

Stephen is a commissioned filmmaker, university lecturer, and film journalist. He has over 20 years' lecturing experience in the field of film production and film studies and has been at the top of the senior lecturer scale in the UK for 18 years. He loves teaching diverse, international, and non-traditional, as well as traditional students. He believes passionately in expanding participation in higher education. He loves teaching in a team of committed colleagues.

Stephen has extensive experience in the post-production industry as an editor and trainer of editors across the broadcast sector. He has an early-career specialism in media management and film commissioning for the independent sector. In higher education, Stephen has extensive experience in curriculum development and course management at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Some notable facts:

  • Stephen won a scholarship to complete his MA at the University of Michigan (ranked in the world’s top 20 universities). He graduated with a 3.9-grade point average on a 4 point scale - one of the highest GPAs ever recorded in the School of Literature, Science and Arts at the University.
  • Stephen is currently completing his PhD (a comparative praxis-study of Pedro Almodovar and Todd Haynes) at Dublin City University, considered to be one of the most innovative universities in the EU.
  • Stephen's undergraduate degree is from DCU. In a university that accepts only the top 5% of school leavers, Stephen graduated third in his class of 72 students.
  • Stephen developed and ran the highly successful MA in Video Production and Film Studies at UWL for over six years (see Awards, below, for the full text of Roger Mills' letter nominating Stephen to the Higher Education Academy)
  • Stephen is known for mentoring and developing student final year production projects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels which have success in the broadcast industry: At Solent, Stephen supervised Sophie Klingberg Kruhoffer's ground-breaking final MA film about grief and bereavement that went on to be broadcast on Danish National Television.
  • Previously, Stephen supervised Yvonne Tang in producing her final MA Film Temple of the Tigers, a feature-length documentary that was sold to Discovery Channel, who provided additional production funding. The film ultimately became the broadcast hit of the year for Discovery around the world.
  • Stephen taught for seven years in the postgraduate division at the Parsons School of Design in New York ranked number one in the US as a university of the creative arts.
  • At the age of just 30, Stephen was offered the position of executive director and President of the Board of Trustees of Film/Video Arts, the largest non-profit centre for independent filmmaking in the US.
  • Stephen is the founder of the Centre for Conflict Resolution Journalism.
  • Stephen's post-production industry client list includes: The Centre for Conflict Resolution Journalism, Penn Chemicals BV, Dublin Institute of Technology, AVID Technology UK, Jim Bambrick & Associates, Headband & Liniment, Fuji International Productions, Moviola Digital, Post Resources, WTNH-TV8 New Haven, WBNE New Haven, Ticino Films, Lancer Productions, Soho Audio, Bloomberg Television, Little Dog Productions, Joetown Inc., Backstreet Edit, Lionheart Films New York, RAI, Phoenix Communications, Oracom Inc., Alchemy Digital, Cammach Associates, VH1/MTV New York, The Jewish Museum New York, Asset Picture New York, NVI, National Recording Studios New York, Swiss Television.

Stephen maintains a full LinkedIn profile which contains over 50 employment references and endorsements.

Stephen is also a member of The National Union of Journalists - membership no. GO927934.

Further information

Stephen is a commissioned documentary filmmaker, university lecturer, and film journalist. He has extensive experience in the post-production industry as an editor and trainer of editors across the broadcast sector.

Stephen has an early-career specialism in media management and film commissioning for the independent sector. In higher education, he has extensive experience in curriculum development and course management at an undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Stephen's post-production industry client list includes: The Centre for Conflict Resolution Journalism, Penn Chemicals BV, Dublin Institute of Technology, AVID Technology UK, Jim Bambrick & Associates, Headband & Liniment, Fuji International Productions, Moviola Digital, Post Resources, WTNH-TV8 New Haven, WBNE New Haven, Ticino Films, Lancer Productions, Soho Audio, Bloomberg Television, Little Dog Productions, Joetown Inc., Backstreet Edit, Lionheart Films New York, RAI, Phoenix Communications, Oracom Inc., Alchemy Digital, Cammach Associates, VH1/MTV New York, The Jewish Museum New York, Asset Picture New York, NVI, National Recording Studios New York, Swiss Television.

Current work

Film art installation, forthcoming 2019-2020. Testing the Boundaries of Viewership in the Films of Todd Haynes and Pedro Almodovar. “Stephen Desmond is currently creating a film art installation using emerging film technologies and software interfaces in conjunction with his written PhD research thesis at Dublin City University. As part of the installation's wider exploration of comparative viewership (aesthetic/technical topographies of empathy and desire) in both filmmakers, Desmond examines the influence of religious art and Catholic iconography in the cinematic mise-en-scene of Pedro Almodovar, and the figure of the marionette in the cinema of Todd Haynes”.

Documentary film, forthcoming 2019-2020. Voices from the Nakba Revisited. Desmond is UK editor on this new film about legacy Palestinian refugees from 1948.

Film art installation, forthcoming 2019-2020. Palestinian Lives-Palestinian Voices - Artefact 1. Desmond is UK editor.

Film art installation, forthcoming 2019-2020. Palestinian Lives-Palestinian Voices - Artefact 2. Desmond is UK editor.

Film art installation, forthcoming 2019-2020. Palestinian Lives-Palestinian Voices - Artefact 3. Desmond is UK editor.

Film art installation, forthcoming 2019-2020. Palestinian Lives-Palestinian Voices - Artefact 4. Desmond is UK editor.

George Carey - Honorary Visiting Professor 2019

Stephen places great emphasis on building and maintaining links and strong relationships with the film and media industries using his extensive portfolio of professional contacts. In 2019, Stephen brought the award-winning documentary filmmaker and found of the BBC's Newsnight programme, George Carey to Solent as an Honorary Visiting Professor. George has been enormously supportive of our students and made himself very available to them. Read more

Stephen also interviewed George Carey in front of a live audience on campus at Solent University.

Taught courses

BA (Hons) Film and Television

Unleash your creativity with a TV and film career. Learn from industry experts in professional-grade facilities, and join our internationally successful graduates at the BBC, Sky, Disney and beyond.

BA (Hons) Film Production

Build the right skills, and develop your talent, and your portfolio to break into the film industry. Our high-end kit, and industry connections provide the ingredients for a successful career.

MA Film Production

Got a passion for filmmaking? Want to improve your professional showreel and boost your employability? Solent’s MA Film Production programme is ideally suited to students who...

MA Post Production in Film and Television

Build your creative post-production skills to make your mark in the film and television industry. Solent’s MA Post Production in Film and Television will see you working with...