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Vito Rocco

Senior Lecturer in Television Production

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Internationally award-winning film and TV writer and director of feature films (for Film4), short films (BAFTA winning and Oscar short listed) TV comedy drama (for CBBC and C5) and multi-camera TV drama director for BBC and ITV (EastEnders, Emmerdale).

Biography

Vito Rocco is a multi-award-winning writer and director whose work includes the Film4 feature film FAINTHEART, starring Jessica Hynes, Eddie Marsan and Ewen Bremner and the BAFTA winning, Oscar short-listed film GOODBYE, CRUEL WORLD.

Vito’s directing work for Television includes EASTENDERS (BBC 1), EMMERDALE (ITV) SO AWKWARD (CBBC) and the BAFTA, British Comedy Award and Rose D’Or nominated series SUBURBAN SHOOTOUT (C5) starring Tom Hiddleston, Ruth Wilson and Anna Chancellor.

Vito is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and believes passionately in having industry practicing staff teaching students to bridge the gap between education and industry.

Awards

Won BAFTA/Kodak Award (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Won Ellen Certificate, Aspen Film Festival (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Won Bermuda Shorts Award (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Won Best Short, Palm Springs Film Festival (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Won Silver Dragan, Cracow Film Festival (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Won, Grand Prize, PiFan Film Festival, Korea (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Short Listed for Oscar Nomination, Short Film Category (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Nominated BAFTA TV Award (Suburban Shootout)

Nominated British Comedy Award (Suburban Shootout)

Nominated Golden Rose, Rose D’Or Light Entertainment Festival (Suburban Shootout)

Nominated Golden Nymph, Monte Carlo TV Festival (Suburban Shootout)

Nominated Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Nominated Best Short Film, Tribeca Film Festival (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Nominated Michael Powell Award, Edinburgh Film Festival (Faintheart)

Nominated Best Short, London Short Film Festival (Goodbye, Cruel World)

Nominated MTV Best Video, Ericksson Music Awards (Laurent Garnier)

Membership of professional bodies

Directors (UK)

ALCS

Teaching & Research

Teaching

Specialising in TV fiction, TV studio multi-camera direction and Scriptwriting. By maintaining a continuing practice within the film and TV industry and adopting user-generated techniques for content generation, I am able to transfer modes of learning directly into student centred learning techniques, ensuring students benefit from industry relevancy. This collaborative environment ensures strong support for students’ academic development, progression and achievement.

Research

Creative practice as research centring on the relationship of fictitious narrative to audience generated and related content. My current research is a filmic documentation of a journey around the coastline of Britain by mobility scooter and seeks to address the creative relationship between audience and filmmaker, fictitious and real life characters by reflecting on the successes and failures of working within this mode. By framing the film within a wider narrative context, i.e. that of a fictional journey made by an actual person, as opposed to a fictional character, the film seeks to challenge classic narrative structures within the tradition of the road movie (Kings of The Road, The Straight Story, Little Miss Sunshine) and experiences within film viewing habits by creating a space for the appraisal and presentation of how an audience engages with complex and contradictory actual situations.

Publications

More publications from Vito Rocco can be found in the Research Repository.