Keith Hoult was in his fifties when he decided to overhaul his career to join SAE, first on an undergraduate degree, then as a mature student on SAE’s Masters course.
After graduating with a first in Digital Film Making at SAE in the summer of 2015, Keith’s love for film documentaries drew him back to the online MA Professional Practice in Creative Media.
He now co-owns 3rd Strike Entertainment alongside his brother Paul. They have made a feature documentary on the life of one of their friends in their local Green Party, Larry Sanders. They got to know Larry (brother of US politician Bernie Sanders) when they created videos for him during a political contest in their town.
Their latest project (pictured above) is a drama based on the early life of Frederick Douglass, a founding father of the Civil Rights movement in the US, who was born into slavery in the 19th century.
Learn more about Keith’s journey with SAE in our new interview – and if you’re interested in finding out more about our Masters course or Film Production degrees, then get in contact with our team now…
What led you to study at SAE?
I had a career in IT for much of my life but I was made redundant when I was 54, then my marriage ended too. I was taking stock of things and had seen friends crumble under just one of these challenges so I thought I should have a total change.
I thought about what I wanted to do and realised how I had suppressed my creative side for my job in IT.
In my late teens and early twenties, I was an avid photographer and this stopped when I started working properly. So I decided it would be a good time to open this up again, did some more research and began to seek out opportunities in filmmaking.
I wanted to study as I hadn’t got a degree. The most accessible course logistically was SAE in Oxford so I applied, had an interview and they were really nice and supportive about me joining the course
What was the motivation to carry on learning after your undergraduate degree?
I felt a strong desire to explore the world of film documentaries, having enjoyed an assignment that involved making a short doc as part of my undergraduate degree.
I undertook this with another student and we put together a documentary about his grandfather’s horse who was racing his last race after a successful career.
At the same time, me and my brother had set up our company and we started to put together short documentaries alongside corporate videos for businesses.
I wanted this next part of my education to be self-funded and this felt more achievable with SAE’s Masters.
Were there any epiphanies on the course that shaped Your career?
Yes, I found that when creating a documentary, you may feel like you’ve started out in one direction in terms of what it will be about. However, you should have an open mind about where it might lead.
We learned this with our own documentary – you think you might know where you’re going but your documentary might take you somewhere else as you go through the process.
When we were taught about documentaries on the course, a director came in to talk about their film and how they spent five years on it. I thought this was crazy but sure enough we spent five years doing our film with Larry Sanders. It’s mind boggling how much work goes into it.
How did you find your time on the masters course?
The Masters course gave me a lot of confidence. The dissertation and project I did focused on a documentary me and my brother had already started making about a friend and his quest to produce organic olive oil. Undertaking the Masters fed back on the work I had begun.
What scared me and pushed me the most was the academic side. That was the main challenge for me, trying to apply an academic mindset to it all. I’m very proud of the fact I was able to complete it.
Also, it must be said, studying this hard at the age of 56+ was a great example to my mid-teen sons – a spin off benefit I hadn’t really thought about until one of them mentioned it a few months ago.
How can anyone prepare for this level of study?
It pays to be organised. I suffer from a sense of procrastination and if you’re prone to this, you need to get structured and find the time to do this. You need to plan your time well and be fair on yourself too, work out when’s good to take a break when it all feels like it’s getting a bit much.
What is keeping you busy now?
We made this film with Larry Sanders, the older brother of Bernie Sanders. We asked him if we could make a documentary on his life. I don’t think he felt we were serious about it until we did this third interview.
It was through him that I first learned of Frederick Douglass. A flag went up, I went home and researched this man who’d lived this extraordinary life.
We thought if we could get into drama for the first time, we decided on a monologue-style piece based on the life of this Frederick Douglas. Our idea was to get him to narrate his some parts of his life to camera, the script I wrote was based on his words and we’ve been working on it for the past three years.
We are looking forward to promoting it at some film festivals as well as screenings during Black History Month this October in the UK and Feb 25 in the US. It’s a fresh take on an iconic figure in 19th century America.
Visit 3sf.uk to find out more about Keith’s work.
STUDY AT SAE
SAE offers two-year accelerated degree courses in growth creative media industries – Audio Production, Content Creation & Online Marketing, Game Art Animation, and Games Programming – all aimed at helping the next generation of creative professionals get ahead.
