Collaborator Profile Mountain Way - Sutton STEAMS Ahead
Collaborator Profile: Mountain Way
Mountain Way is a film and video production company made up of filmmakers George Magner and Will Webb. They worked with us on our STEAM Careers videos, to teach young people all about the diversity of careers in STEAM – and even feature in one video themselves!
Tell us a little bit about yourselves.
George Magner (GM): We are a film and video production company with a long history of creating "creative learning" content that brings together inspiring, talented leaders and young people.
Will Webb (WW): I work as a filmmaker full time, including my own creative work and working to a brief for charities, arts organisations and other clients.
Will Webb (WW): I work as a filmmaker full time, including my own creative work and working to a brief for charities, arts organisations and other clients.
How were you involved in Sutton STEAMs Ahead?
GM: We worked on a careers learning & engagement programme designed to introduce school-age learners in Sutton schools to the breadth of careers possibilities using STEAM skills. As filmmakers, we saw our role as being synthesisers of knowledge as well as creative interpreters of a learning brief. We worked with the council and a range of professionals local to the Sutton area who used science, technology, engineering and maths in their roles- often, with surprising doses of art and creativity thrown in. We called our idea "Welcome to the STEAM Hub", and our proposal centred around an imaginary artificial intelligence we called the Intelligent Remote Learning tool, or IRL: the idea being that students could see what STEAM careers really looked like, IRL. We're hoping the students caught the pun…
WW: I worked to create a series of video interviews & sector summaries for the STEAM Hub project. I filmed and edited videos, as well as animating and rendering the robot host, IRL.
WW: I worked to create a series of video interviews & sector summaries for the STEAM Hub project. I filmed and edited videos, as well as animating and rendering the robot host, IRL.
Mountain Way colleagues, George and Will, have worked on several productions bring a range of ideas and visuals to the forefront.
Were there any highlights and/or take-aways from being part of Sutton STEAMs Ahead?
GM: It was a real delight to be given freedom to bring a measure of creativity and artistic flair to our project: using a touch of sci-fi gave the project flavour and unity that can sometimes feel a bit lacking when you're handed a corporate brief. We were able to develop our skills blending live action and visual effects (VFX), which represents real growth for our business, and we made some fascinating new connections with Sutton STEAM professionals, and with Sutton itself.
WW: My favourite part of my job is meeting interesting people and hearing about their lives – this is no exception! We had a great time working with a range of contributors from across STEAM careers, and thanks to some schedule-juggling to fit in everyone's working time, we were able to give everyone a slot to chat to IRL inside the STEAM Hub pod.
WW: My favourite part of my job is meeting interesting people and hearing about their lives – this is no exception! We had a great time working with a range of contributors from across STEAM careers, and thanks to some schedule-juggling to fit in everyone's working time, we were able to give everyone a slot to chat to IRL inside the STEAM Hub pod.
What does STEAM mean to you?
GM: As a filmmaker, I straddle a strange divide between being an artist, a creative practitioner and a technologist. STEAM speaks to my skillset, in particular the way that a creative small business owner has to engage with new ideas, technologies, theoretical and practical challenges, and responsibilities. We use principles from physics to understand how to manipulate light and sound; we use technology and maths to implement our programmes, run a solvent business, and even just working out how long, far, and costly each new project is going to be. Of course, we try to bring art into everything we do. But perhaps most importantly, we have to be able to appreciate how these skills work in our subjects' lives, and having a grounding in STEAM gives us that versatility.
WW: I work in the arts, but my work requires lots of STEM influences– physics and maths for lenses and cameras, programming and engineering for computers, and so on. So STEAM to me means a full understanding of the vital interconnections between different fields of study and work.
WW: I work in the arts, but my work requires lots of STEM influences– physics and maths for lenses and cameras, programming and engineering for computers, and so on. So STEAM to me means a full understanding of the vital interconnections between different fields of study and work.
What’s up next for you?
GM: We are always seeking new work and would love to discuss it with you! But away from all that, our company Mountain Way is continuing to build a slate of creative short films. Personally, I am focusing on an exciting new strand of work in prisons, to find ways of blending academic research and first-hand stories to help change our understanding of life in prison.
WW: After our positive experience with IRL (or rather, creating and animating it), we are exploring new uses of computer-generated imagery in our work, as well as in my own fiction films!
WW: After our positive experience with IRL (or rather, creating and animating it), we are exploring new uses of computer-generated imagery in our work, as well as in my own fiction films!
Have you worked with us as part of the Sutton STEAMs Ahead programme? Contact us to potentially feature in a Collaborator Profile. Send an email to suttonsteamsahead@sutton.gov.uk.
