University News Last updated 06 February 2013
A former Birmingham City University student and successful music video director is among the outstanding former students to be honoured at Birmingham City University’s forthcoming graduation ceremonies.
Jon Riche graduated with a BA (Hons) in Visual Communication in 2000 and is being honoured as one of the University’s Alumni of the Year later this month, for the excellence in sport or the arts category.
It was during the first year of the course that Jon decided he wanted to become a director and so he spent the next two years experimenting and making as many videos as possible.
After graduating, he moved to London and began working as a runner for a production company which gave him an opening into the industry. After moving up to more senior roles with different media firms, Jon got the chance to put his film making skills into action, directing music videos for various artists including Kasabian, Just Jack, Moby and The Feeling, as well as commercials for well-known brands including Nissan, Ikea and Nike.
In 2010 Jon teamed up with his friend Spencer to work on a range of comedy-related films which culminated with the duo writing and directing a BAFTA nominated television show called ‘Big Babies’ for children’s TV channel CBBC.
Jon now has plenty of other projects in the pipeline, with talk of remaking an adult version of Big Babies for US TV, a new series for BBC3 and a film project for a computer games company.
Jon said: “I was pleasantly surprised when I heard I was going to be one of the University’s Alumni of the Year. I guess it goes to show if you keep on plugging away at something you believe in then hopefully sooner or later it will pay off. It’s a great honour and I’m really looking forward to the day.”
Jon will be receiving his Alumni of the Year Award at the University’s Graduation ceremony taking place on Tuesday 12 February at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham.