Matt Hilton’s career as a Television Director is going from strength to strength, with major storylines on Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Casualty and Hollyoaks.
Matt came to the University of Central Lancashire to study BA (Hons) Film and Media Studies after studying media at college and receiving a recommendation from his tutor about the University. He said: “I came for an open day and met everyone and just liked the place. The courses appealed to me as they were based on film history and film theory, which I liked.”
After graduating, Matt spent several years as a runner for ITV where he worked on shows such as Coronation Street. This gave him the grounding and background he needed to build his on-the-job experience and went on to be part of the Assistant Director team. He was then offered the chance to direct an episode of Coronation Street, being one of the youngest directors ever to work on such programmes.
Matt has worked on some hard-hitting storylines of which he’s extremely proud of. When asked about the most memorable TV he’s worked on, Matt said: “Most recently I was part of a story on Casualty about male suicide which is a story close to my heart. It was great to be a part of, we followed the character Rash through his mental health decline, and it was a great piece of television and piece of work to be attached to.”
Matt also spoke about the Emmerdale car crash scene on the edge of a cliff, which he said, “was just a physical and dramatic piece of television to make and was a great challenge.”
Matt then got the opportunity to work on Coronation Street, a show he had admired for a long time, he said: “Working on Coronation Street is a privilege. Just having grown up with it, it being part of my childhood and having worked there for such a long period. Being part of their Christmas episode and having my name on that was a huge box ticked.”
When asked if he has any advice for someone wanting to pursue a career in the TV industry, Matt said: ”The biggest thing I can say is to create something. If you want to be an actor, if you want to create a performance or you want to create a film, do it. There's no difference in being on a stage in a small theatre to being on a Hollywood stage, It's just different practicalities. So, if you know you want to act, go and act and if you want to direct, go and direct something. If you want to produce, just go and do it.
“It's the ideal to be working in Hollywood, making millions of dollars and directing big feature films, but it doesn't change the fundamentals of the acting or the directing or the producing, so go and do it. Keep doing it and keep persevering.”
"University taught me a lot. The things I learned were theory and history and this gave me a great understanding of what I was trying to create and what I wanted to create when I started directing. The ethos of my work as a director and my vision for my work comes from what I learnt at University, and I still use the basis of that knowledge in every workplace I go to."
— Matt Hilton, BA (Hons) Film and Media Studies
Talking about his time studying in Preston, Matt said: "I have a special fondness for Preston and for the University because it was unexpected. When I was at college I never expected to go to University, I came on a scholarship because my fees were paid. I just really enjoyed meeting people and came out with a wealth of knowledge.”
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