Racism is something we’re all aware; we hear about it constantly in society, in football and in our everyday lives, but what about in film?

It’s likely that you would have heard stories about directors, writers and producers typecasting characters and it’s not uncommon to see particular actors play the same racial stereotype all of the time. What is a rarity, however, is an audience’s reaction when they don’t agree with the race of a character cast in a certain role.

The Hunger Games has done extremely well since its release last March, making over $350M worldwide and clinging on to the top of the box office for four whole weeks. But not everybody had good things to say about it.

Adapted from a series of novels written by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games is the first in a trilogy of films that follows heroin Katniss Everdeen, played on-screen by Jennifer Lawrence, as a resident of a dystopian society named Panem where, each year, twenty-four tributes are forced to compete in a fight-to-the-death televised game.

After the film’s release, a huge controversy arose when a number of tweeters began to express their opinions about the casting of a black actress for the role of little, innocent Rue from District 11, who was portrayed on-screen by half-African-American half-Danish thirteen-year-old Amandla Stenberg.

Tweets included comments like “I was pumped about The Hunger Games. Until I learnt that a black girl was playing Rue”, and “Since when has Rue been a n*****?”. Whilst many of these users then deleted their tweets and some of them even their accounts entirely, one website, The Tumblr blog Hunger Games Tweets, started to publish print-screened images of these shocking and offensive tweets as they began to go viral.

The surprising thing is that author Suzanne Collins detailed in The Hunger Games novel that Rue “has bright, dark eyes and satiny brown skin.” Collins may not have specifically said that Rue was black, but she was undeniably describing a character that was most certainly not white.

The problem here is that these so-called fans of The Hunger Games clearly didn’t spend enough time reading the book properly, as most of the tweeted comments came from viewers who had apparently read the book beforehand.

Nonetheless, ‘fans’ were upset that they had pictured a white, blonde girl in Rue’s role, and that because she was played by a black actress on-screen, her death wasn’t as sad. I, for one, didn’t know this kind of prejudice still occurred. I’m not being ignorant – of course I know that racism is still a big issue – but does the casting of a black actress instead of a white, blonde one really desensitize the death of a character?

Despite Collins stating that Rue was dark-skinned, should it really have mattered whether or not she hadn’t written it ink? Casting director David Rubin comments that, “It’s impossible to be slavish to the way characters are described in a novel because those characters exist in the readers’ mind in a purely subjective way.”

However, the portrayal of Rue on-screen was true to the source material. But surely we should be more concerned with the quality of their performances rather than their appearance?

David Sztypuljak, Co-founder and Editor of HeyUGuys, comments that, “Race shouldn’t matter. It’s about whoever is best to fulfil the role.” But these tweets expose a persistent prejudice in pop culture, which leads us to another example involving Community actor Donald Glover, who expressed his desires to be cast as the lead in the latest Amazing Spider-Man film back in 2010.

Donald tweeted: “Some people are mistaken. I don’t want to just be given the role. I want to be able to audition. I truly love Spider-Man”, and soon enough #donald4spiderman was one of the Top 10 trends on Twitter.

It’s the fact that Donald wasn’t even allowed the opportunity to audition for the role which is the shocking part. Spider-Man may be white in Marvel’s comic books, but does his skin colour really define his character?

Andy Shaw, News Editor at Lost In The Multiplex, says that, “There is absolutely no reason an actor of one race could not play a character already established as another race, providing the context makes sense.”

“If the ethnicity or cultural background of the character is a defining part of that character, such as Shaft or Zorro, changing their ethnicity would change the character. That is when it becomes an issue,” he adds.

There is another, more disheartening reason though, and that is as Jon Lyus, Co-founder and Content Director at HeyUGuys, puts it: “There’s an unspoken subtext that White actors will better sell a movie in America.”

Harry M. Benshoff, an associate professor of radio, TV and film at the University of North Texas who co-wrote America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies, agrees. “Put Donald Glover as Spider-Man, [and the movie] will only make $80 million rather than $100 million,” he says. “If it’s Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, it’s a Spider-Man movie. With Donald Glover, it’s a black superhero movie.”

That’s not to say, though, that it can’t happen, and that it will never happen in the future. As Andy continues, “Spider-Man can perfectly accommodate actors of any race, as Peter Parker is just a lower middle-class kid from Queens and that description can apply to literally anyone.”

Captain America, too, could also accommodate a black actor, as he was just a volunteer soldier who becomes a superhuman – white men were not the only people volunteering to fight, and as Andy explains: “A comic book origin story called Truth: Red, White & Black already sets up the idea that the early Super Soldier experiments were performed on black soldiers, which tackles the racial prejudice themes that ran through the era, and therefore makes the idea of a black Captain America work without any raised eyebrows.”

Still linking in with the casting of superhero, an even more recent example is when African-American actor Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall in 2011’s Marvel film Thor. The criticism here was that a black actor couldn’t play a Norse God, but as Elba himself comments: “Can a black man play a Nordic character? Hang about, Thor’s mythical, right? Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers. That’s OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?”

So why does the colour of an actor really matter? “If the colour of the character’s skin is not a vital part of their personality the only thing people should care about is the quality of the performance,” says Andy. “Having Idris Elba play Heimdall in Thor takes nothing away from that character, but it does guarantee that the performance has the right amount of gravitas.”

In the end, a large part of these criticisms relate to fictional characters that come from comic books and novels that, with their already large fan bases, have an audience who go into a film already with their mind-set on what these characters should look like.

As Andy concludes, “Anything that deviates from the very specific image they have in their head is going to be met with resistance. Sure, there will be a bigoted element to some of these people but I don’t believe every example of this comes down to simple racism.”

And despite how cruel and insensitive The Hunger Game tweeters’ comments were, this is something we all need to keep in mind when thinking about them. This can’t be said for all of the comments said about Stenberg’s role as Rue, but let’s hope it’s the case for most of them.

Ciaran withdrew from The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society at the beginning of March due to a change in personal circumstances, but also from a desire to get back into making and creating theatre again.

“It’s a place I care about a great deal, and one I’d like to continue to play a part in seeing it blossom as a cultural hub for Cornwall and the South West,” he said.

The Poly is a cultural and scientific charity that exists to promote innovation in the arts and sciences that venues theatre shows, films, lectures, exhibitions, conferences, workshops and more.

Founded by two daughters of the Falmouth based Fox family in 1833, The Poly is now being run by Lesley Robinson who became the Interim General Manager after Ciaran’s departure.

Ciaran began working at The Poly as a trustee on a voluntary basis in May 2010 after he graduated from Trinity College Dublin. When The Poly closed in January 2010, he was the one who set up the Save Our Poly campaign.

Image courtesy of Art Hub

Ensuring that the building could run properly each day, he felt his time was better spent investing his efforts in The Poly while there was time to save it. “It would have been an enormous loss to the town, and it’s great to have safeguarded its future over the past two years,” he said.

Ciaran was then offered a paid job in September 2010 because of the work he was doing, and in January 2011 applied for the General Manager position which he managed to secure. “It was never really something I expected to do, arts admin,” he said. “It was very much something I fell into.”

Ciaran is now working with Miracle Theatre, playing the role of Jack in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, whilst he still involved as a volunteer at The Poly working on their programming and volunteering on the box office.

“I just can’t kick the habit,” he said. “It was quite stressful at times, though a truly wonderful experience and I regret nothing from my time there.”

Ciaran is now also developing a new piece of comic with Arts for Health Cornwall about stress and anxiety, using his own experiences as a way into exploring something much bigger.

He will be engaging with stress and anxiety sufferers through workshops across July with the intention to tour it to universities from January 2013. He is also writing new work and booking a Christmas tour for his show Christmas. Time. with colleague Dan Richards.

The production for The Importance of Being Earnest begins touring on Thursday 14th June and will run until September touring around all of Cornwall. For more ticket information you can visit: http://www.miracletheatre.co.uk

Set to have its world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, Charlie Derry interviews Luis Prieto, director of the upcoming crime thriller, Pusher, about remaking a Nicolas Winding Refn cult classic, as well as working with British actor Richard Coyle and world-class model Agyness Deyn.

Set to be released later this year, Pusher is the first in a trilogy of films that explores the criminal underworld of Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally written and directed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, best known for last year’s highly acclaimed crime thriller, Drive, and released in 1996 with the same name, Pusher is known for being the film that launched Refn’s career.

This latest English language remake is Spanish-born director Luis Prieto’s first English-language film. The first in the trilogy, the film follows a London drug pusher named Frank (played here by Richard Coyle) for a full week as his life turns into chaos when a deal goes wrong. The more desperate Frank’s behaviour gets the more isolated he becomes, until there is nothing left standing between him and the nine millimetre bullet his debtors intend to put through his skull.

Prieto first saw Pusher at a film festival when it was originally released over sixteen years ago, but when the producers first approached Prieto with the idea of re-making the film, he didn’t agree straight way. “At first I refused because I didn’t want to remake such a great film,” he comments. “I only had a vague memory of the film, but I remember that the performances were incredible and that the film had a documentary style to it.”

With Refn serving as Executive Producer, this convinced Prieto to remake the film. “Having him as an executive producer was both a blessing and a gift. From the very start Nicolas was extremely respectful with my decisions as director and he never stepped in the way of my work,” says Prieto. “He was so cool with me – I recall him telling me, ‘Remember this is your film, not mine.’ It was very special.”

From the very beginning, however, neither Prieto nor the film’s producers wanted just to remake the film. “The producers wanted a new interpretation of Refn’s film,” says Prieto. “When I first read the script I thought that it was wonderful. I proposed what I would do with it and everyone was very excited about my reinterpretation.”

Prieto’s vision was to make the original film happen in a modern-day London. He says: “The material felt very close to me and I gave it my vision. I thought that if I tried to do what Refn did then I could only fail because his Pusher is great.”

He continues: “The only thing that I share from the original is the script, which Mathew Read has done a great job of rewriting, so you could say that I just took advantage of the interest of the producers to make the remake to actually shoot my own film.”

One way that Prieto managed to capture a whole new film rather than remaking Refn’s Pusher was to not let the actors or the crew see the original beforehand, with the only exception being actor Zlatko Buric who reprises his role of Milo.

“I told everyone that we were actually making a different film,” Prieto says. “When I asked Zlatko to forget about his previous characterization he told me not to worry about it, as, back in 1995 while they were shooting it, the drugs in the film were real and so was the consumption, so he practically didn’t remember anything.”

Not only is Pusher Prieto’s first hard-hitting feature, moving away from the comedy genre that he usually works with, this is also the director’s first English-language film. Prieto, however, comments that he felt quite at home shooting it, as he comments: “I’m sure the fact I went to film school in the US helped me to feel that way.”

As well as starring Richard Coyle in film’s the lead role, Pusher also stars British actors Bronson Webb (Game of Thrones), Agyness Deyn (Clash of the Titans), Mem Ferda (The Devil’s Double), Paul Kaye (Match Point), and Daisy Lewis.

“British actors are great!” says Prieto. “And I was lucky to get to direct Richard Coyle, who for me is one of the most talented actors in the UK. He’s so special and powerful and Agyness Deyn, as well, was a real actress, even if this was her first experience.”

Known best for her modelling career, this is Deyn’s first major role in a film after briefly appearing in 2010’s Clash Of The Titans. “I chose Agyness without knowing who she really was,” says Prieto. “It wasn’t until later that the casting director told me that she was a top model, but the truth is that she is a top person and a top actress.”

Deyn plays the role of Coyle’s girlfriend Flo, and from the trailer alone it’s easy to see that the two have great chemistry together. “When Agyness and Richard were together on-screen everyone was mesmerized with their performance,” says Prieto. “They were really incredible and moving. I love them, and I’m sure that they are both going to be very busy once the film comes out.”

Talking about his influences whilst making Pusher, Prieto comments that, “The style is very similar in some ways to some of my previous work.” Best known for his Spanish-language film Bamboleho, which won over 45 international awards, and the Italian teen-romance Ho voglia di te, Prieto relates to both of these films as an influence whilst making Pusher.

“For the camera movement I am closer to my short film Bamboleho,” he says, “and for the look you could say that is closer to some of my Italian films.”

When asked if Prieto plans to work on more British films in the future, he replied: “I hope so! I loved the whole experience and I hope there will be more opportunities to come, so fingers crossed and let’s see what the future brings.”

Now in its post-production stage, Pusher is set to be released on 31st August.

Watching TV used to be a time when you could get together with the family and watch your favourite show. Now, in the days of ultra-technology, we no longer just simply sit and watch; we have to play.

Just as Charlie Brooker explored in his recent TV series, Black Mirror, we spend a large part of our days looking at a digital screen. Whether it be your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, there a number of ways in which we communicate with others and consumers communicate with us.

But it’s not just about looking at a single screen anymore; now whilst we are watching television, we are also likely to find ourselves enjoying a ‘second screen experience’ or a gamified experience. It may just be that you update your Facebook status or send a tweet about we you are watching, but some applications are going even further still, as they attempt to interact with you on a more personal level and involve you in a game.

Zeebox is one of the most recently successful applications to do this. Defining itself as “Your TV sidekick”, Zeebox has created an online community where you can socialise with others watching the same program as you, whilst it also helps you to get the most of what you are watching.

Did you like the dress that one of the Made In Chelsea stars were wearing in this week’s episode? Zeebox will to tell you where to buy it. Are you currently really into one of Channel 4’s latest comedy series? Zeebox can link you straight to it on iTunes. The whole experience becomes an interactive game of ‘I spy/I want.’

From an advertising view it’s a phenomenon, allowing broadcasters to have more consumer time with their audience. There are many other examples of gamification in the television industry too, including Shazam which shows you behind-the-scenes footage from the show, GetGlue where you can ‘check-in’ to shows and earn badges and IntoNow which displays related social-network updates and live discussions, which is great for when you’re watching the football as it shows you the game statistics.

Through such second screen experiences, it’s fair to say that we are becoming increasingly involved with what we watch.

(Image courtesy of here).

It’s a cold and rainy night. A man with a badly burnt face sits alone in his parked car. Outside a woman is returning home, the man sits and watches her. As she reaches her house, the man goes to approach her. He knocks on the door. What happens next?

This is what we are made to question in the latest video campaign from Changing Faces, the UK’s leading disfigurement charity. Charlie Derry talks to one of the charity’s members, Alison Rich, about how they aim to change our perceptions of people with facial disfigurements, with a focus on how they are portrayed in the media.

The ‘Leo’ video is currently being shown in 750 Odeon cinemas nationwide. The presumption is that most of us will predict that the man is a villainous figure, as many of the on-screen baddies that we see in film often have some form of facial disfigurement. But did you ever question the connection? Well Changing Faces have.

The man in the video is 59-year-old Leo Gormley, who is actually just meeting the woman for a dinner date. Leo was left with third-degree burns to his hands, face, and legs after he was caught in a fire when he was only 14; he is not the bad guy in the film, and it is this public reaction that Changing Faces want to tackle.

“It’s about raising awareness amongst movie goers to highlight just how strongly and unconsciously audiences link scars and unusual faces with evil intent,” says Alison. “We wanted to make a film which would get people to wake up to what they were accepting on screen without question.”

Leo Gormley

Established in 1992 by James Partridge, Changing Faces is a British charity that offers professional and emotional support to people of all ages with appearance-altering disfigurements, which aims to enable people with disfigurements to successfully handle the daily social challenges and questions they are forced to face.

From a recent YouGov survey that was commissioned by the charity and carried out in March 2012, the results from 1741 responses found that people with bad teeth, scars, burns and other conditions affecting the face are the most common indicators of an evil or villainous character in a film.

The charity’s main objectives are to change both public attitudes towards people with disfigurements and to help individuals’ lead full and satisfying lives, as well as to develop campaigns to raise people’s awareness of the impact of the media on the way we think about and behave around disfigurement.

Their most recently launched campaign, Face Equality, aims to change the way that society thinks about, behaves around, teaches, recruits and includes people with disfigurements, and wants to ensure that they are treated without prejudice or discrimination.

With current programmes such as The Undateables letting us into the lives of those who face daily struggles because of their appearance, a recent example of the charity’s work is their concerns and efforts with Channel 4 over the series’ title.

Aired on Channel 4 throughout April, The Undateables was a three-part documentary series that explored the attempts of people living with challenging conditions to find love. Whilst it was an impartial look at the way people living with disabilities and disfigurements find romance, Changing Faces issued a statement commenting that, “We believe the title has the potential to cause unnecessary offence, to perpetuate stigma and encourage abuse or harassment of people with facial disfigurements and disabilities.”

Changing Faces may now be working with Channel 4 to work on such stigmatised and sensational titles, but there is still a much wider problem in the way in which people with disfigurements are portrayed on the big screen.

Alison Rich

To give an example, “Films like The Lion King, which are aimed at young children, associate villainy with scarring, for example Uncle Scar,” says Alison. Other films include the Batman franchise, most recently with Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy where more often than not the villain has some kind of facial disfigurement, for example the Joker and Two-Face, as well as infamous characters such as Freddy Kruger.

It’s not until you think about it that you see the link, and it’s this type of recognition that the charity want to provoke the public with. “We need to get the general public comfortable with even discussing these issues,” says Alison. “As with all our campaigns, it’s often the first time that anyone has actually stopped to question the truth of what they see on the big screen.”

“We are all so used to seeing a character with a disfigurement on the big screen and unconsciously making the association with villainy,” says Alison. But as James continues, the problem is that, “The way that people react in the cinema can spill over into the way they are treated in everyday life. It can encourage people to make moral judgements based on what they see on the screen.”

In an attempt to help change this public reaction, the first stage of the charity’s Face Equality campaign is the release of the ‘Leo’ video previously mentioned. Funded by the charity itself and directed by Bare Film’s Jim Weedon from an idea by Changing Faces’ ad agency, DDB, the video now has over 60,000 views on YouTube.

Staring Downtown Abbey‘s Michelle Dockery in the female role, Leo has also starred in another of Channel 4’s series, Beauty and The Beast: The Ugly Face of Prejudice, which, first aired in February 2011, investigated the extremes of dissatisfaction and discrimination by bringing together two people defined by the way they look, one with a facial disfigurement and another a self-confessed beauty addict.

Historically and culturally people with disfiguring conditions have always encountered discrimination in public, at school and in the workplace. Changing Faces lobbied for ‘severe disfigurement’ to be included in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 which afforded people some legal protection against discrimination but this remains very hard to prove.

Whilst Leo has undergone over 120 different operations, he still has significant scarring all over his body. “The media’s current obsession with beauty and perfection makes it even more difficult for people with disfigurement to feel good about themselves in a world which says you have to look a certain way to be successful and fit in or that being beautiful equates with being morally ‘good’,” says Alison.

For the next stage of their campaign, Changing Faces will be working directly with the film industry to encourage them to commit to diverse, balanced and fair portrayals of characters with disfigurements in films. “When more people with unusual faces are portrayed in familiar, every day roles, everyone will be able to feel more confident and relaxed around disfigurement,” says Alison.

“One of our areas of work during the Face Equality campaign will be to work with secondary schools so that considering the film industry or acting is encouraged by teachers in ALL pupils who have a talent for this field,” she continues.

The charity is now also in the process of setting up a film industry advisory group to look at how they get this issue on the industry’s agenda in different ways, as well as developing links with drama and film schools to consider and encourage applications from students with disfigurements.

“We know it will take a long time because it is only now that we are starting to question and challenge how characters with disfigurements are almost always portrayed as the villains,” says Alison. “But prejudice and racism on the big screen does need to become a thing of the past because current representations don’t reflect the truth about today’s society.”

If you think that it’s time for change and want to help with Changing Face’s campaign, then you can sign their petition to end harmful portrayals on the big screen here.

With this year’s ceremony coming to an end, Charlie Derry talks to Gregory Galant, the co-creator of The Shorty Awards, about how getting recognised for using social media can advance your career, and why it is important to keep your social media profiles up to date in today’s society.

Set up in 2008 by New York technology start-up company Sawhorse Media, The Shorty Awards honour the best producers of short content on the web, recognising people and industries using the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, FourSquare, and the rest of the social internet.

Hosted by Samantha Bee and Jason Jones from The Daily Show, The Shorty Award’s fourth annual awards ceremony was held on 26th March. Every year millions of people are nominated for a Shorty Award and this highly anticipated ceremony is where the best users creating short content on social media are brought together to be celebrated.

When the awards were first set up, they originally only recognised users on Twitter, created as a means to help users decide on who they should follow. But like with most technology, Twitter was still rapidly growing. As Gregory Galant, co-creator of The Shorty Awards and CEO of Sawhorse Media, comments: “Soon people were creating content for people other than their friends and they were covering bigger topics on Twitter trying to educate others.”

Gregory Galant

“We didn’t have any intention at the time to make it into a big event or a ceremony,” Gregory continues. “But within 24 hours we became the top 10 trend on Twitter, so we dropped everything and found that our Twitter was growing and that we were getting a lot of interest. Then after two months we were putting together a ceremony and were bringing people in from around the world.”

Sawhorse Media are known for a number of social media websites, including Muck Rack, the leading destination for journalists on Twitter, and Listorious, the directory of Twitter people and lists. Because social media is ever-changing, it wasn’t long before The Shorty Awards found themselves evolving too.

“One of the biggest shifts is in recognising that the social web has become very expansive and that it has become available on so many different platforms,” says Gregory. “Every year we have to kind of rethink things and keep it evolving, and one of the big things we have done is to create new categories to recognise new social networks that have sprung up since we started.”

Now The Shorty Awards have also started working with Tumblr with a ‘Tumblr Of The Year’, with FourSquare with a ‘Mayor Of The Year’, and have also created awards to recognise the best in Facebook and YouTube too.

Recognising the best in all of these social networking sites, one reason that Gregory believes you should get involved “is to inspire other people to do things with social media.” He believes that this notion of discovery can be very useful to those who are doing great things with social media, and that: “If you’re creating great content but you want to expand your audience, then The Shorty Awards are a great way to get all the people who follow you to start talking about you.”

Another is to give people a ‘creative licence’. “So many people are using social media but they are not really pushing the boundaries,” he continues. “Part of The Shorty Awards is to show these case studies about how people are using social media and who are doing great things in their field.”

A lot of the people who use social media don’t have a big following so this is what gets them from having just a fan base on the social web to getting better known and to doing better things in their careers after that. he continues. “For people who start using the social web as just a hobby,” says Gregory, “The Shorty Awards are an opportunity to turn what you love into how you make your living.”

Their website not only showcases some of the most notable stories of how winning an award can open new doors, with one of the most renowned of these being the designer of Twitter’s Fail Whale, but Gregory also comments that, “We’ve actually heard many stories of people who have won an award in their past that has advanced their careers. It’s kind of a similar effect to winning an Oscar in the movie business.”

Tracy Morgan with his award

The awards do not only recognise individuals using social media either, as The Shorty Industry Awards recognise agencies, brands, and industry leaders who create social media content professionally too. Gregory adds: “For companies that have won an award, they can show clients and other companies that they are with it on social media and that they really get how it works.”

Sherlockology, an online guide for BBC’s Sherlock fans, won two awards at this year’s ceremony, the first being The Shorty Award itself for the best ‘Fansite’ and the second being a Vox Populi distinction, the award for the most audience nominations. “It’s all very surreal,” the team comment. “One second we are working on the site back in the UK, the next we’re in New York standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people accepting an award.”

Led by a team of people in their free time, the website is run alongside their full-time day jobs. “For us to win this award means a hell of a lot,” they continue. “It means that the hard work and late nights have all been worth it. When we look at what we’ve achieved in such a short space of time, well we can’t really believe it ourselves sometimes.”

But that’s not all; winning a Shorty Award also shows the great effects that using social media can have. “When we started Sherlockology less than a year ago we never expected it to turn out the way it has,” they say. “To win the Award has confirmed that we must be doing something right, that we actually do it well enough to be recognised, proving that social media matters and that it really does have an impact.”

Brian Owens, assistant News Editor at Nature News, an international weekly journal of science which won a Shorty in the ‘Science’ category, agrees. “We take social media quite seriously here so it was great to have our work recognized,” he says. “While it’s nice to be able to put the award in our bio, the main benefit is internal as it’s something to point to when the people higher-up inevitably ask ‘what’s the point of all this tweeting?’.”

And it really is important. With websites such as LinkedIn, 1 in 6 workers successfully use social networking to get hired and 75 of the ‘Fortune 100 Companies’ use LinkedIn as its corporate hiring solution.

“Social media is essential now,” says Gregory. “In a way your social media profiles are more important than your resumes. You used to apply for a job and all they would have to look at was this piece of paper to figure out who you are. Now you know that when you meet someone you’re going to Google them; you’re going to look at their Facebook and Twitter probably before you even look at their resume because you know it’s going to be more interesting.”

“I think for anyone starting off in their careers now, they should Google themselves to see how they are presented to employers and clients,” he continues, and this only begins to emphasise why being awarded for using social media will soon be something we will all strive towards.

So what will next year’s ceremony bring? Because of the constant changes in social media there are no plans as of yet, but as Gregory concludes: “We’re going to get bigger every year; we’ve already doubled in size and we have no signs of slowing down yet.”

Epic Meal Times with their award

Categories for the 2013 awards will open around January, and nominations are all done through Twitter, where you can either nominate yourself or better yet you can let your followers nominate you to show that they really appreciate what you are doing.

Last year there were over a million and a half tweeted nominations so Sawhorse Media do not choose the winners themselves; this is determined by the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences. “We just try to encourage as many interesting people as we can to enter,” says Gregory, “Then we let the rest of the process is let run wild.”

If you’re thinking about nominating someone, or even if you would just like some advice on how you should approach a campaign, then you can visit The Shorty Award’s official website for more information.

With the release of the final Twilight film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, set to be released later this year, Summit Entertainment has revealed three new character posters of the film’s main characters, Bella, Edward and Jacob.

Set to be released on November 16th and directed by Bill Condon with a script by Melissa Rosenberg, the final chapter in Stephenie Meyer’s supernatural romance, the film picks up with newly turned vampire Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), her now vampire husband Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and their new born baby Renesmee, as the vampire coven, the Volturi, plan to destroy the Cullen family for bringing an immortal children into the world. On the brink of a vampire war, the Cullen’s gather a number vampire clans from around the world. Will it all end in disaster? Or will the new powers of Bella and her daughter be strong enough to defeat the coven?

With the new posters highlighting the three main characters that also includes Taylor Lautner’s Jacob Black, the film will also star Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Billy Burke, Rami Malek, Maggie Grace, Mackenzie Foy, Tracey Heggins, Judi Shekoni, Omar Metwally, Andrea Gabriel, Rami Malek, Angela Sarafyan, Marlane Barnes, Lisa Howard, Patrick Brennan, Noel Fisher, Guri Weinberg, Lee Pace, Toni Trucks, Bill Tangradi, Erik Odom, Valorie Curry, Joe Anderson, Olga Fonda, Janelle Froehlich, Masami Kosaka, Sebastiao Lemos, Amadou Ly, Ty Olsson, Wendell Pierce and Carolina Virguez.

We may have seen and heard a lot about Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe since their Harry Potter days, but now it’s Rupert Grint’s turn for some post-Ron Weasley spotlight.

The actor has a couple of projects lined up – the first in Fredrik Bond’s action-comedy-romance The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and the second in the music biopic CBGB. Want to know more? Good.

Whilst Grint’s role in The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman is currently unknown, he will be staring alongside Shia LaBeouf who plays Charlie, a hapless fellow that falls in love with Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood), who’s lorded over by an unhinged mob boss Nigel (Mads Mikkelsen). Charlie endures one bruising beat down after another to keep Gabi out of harm’s way, but to save the girl of his dreams, must Charlie Countryman die?

With a script penned by Project X scribe Matt Drake, Oscar winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) is also staring as LaBeouf’s deceased (but still communicative) mother whilst Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds) is set to play a Serbian war criminal. The film is currently filming in Romania and is set to be released sometime next year.

As for his second project, CBGB, Grint will be playing lead guitarist of short-lived but seminal ‘70s punk outfit The Dead Boys in the music biopic which chronicles the rise of the famous New York nightclub and its impact on the underground punk/new wave movement.

He will also be starring alongside another Harry Potter star, Alan Rickman, whose lead role of club founder Hilly Kristal was crafted specifically for him by director and writer Randall Miller and co-writer Jody Savin.

With no other information about this film yet, all we know is that it is scheduled for a 2013 release.