Rob Layton filming on the Isle of Skye.
A film by mobile journalism teacher Rob Layton has been accepted to screen at a side event to the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Mr Layton’s short film, which documents the work of an underwater photographer on the Isle of Skye, north-west Scotland, preceded a panel discussion titled Women and the Sea as part of a Film Sessions + Producers Forum.
The UN Ocean Conference is staged every five years and in April Mr Layton asked Bond University to make an official Voluntary Commitment in support of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water with his film as the deliverable.
Mr Layton collaborated with Bond Director of Planning Patricia Alner, who is responsible for the university’s responses to SDGs, with help and advice from Dr Mark Dinnen, head of Bond’s International Relations department.
Mr Layton made the film, Beneath the Lonesome Skye in Scotland in May on the back of a trip to London where he was a speaker at the annual MojoFest conference, the world’s premier gathering of mobile journalists.
He presented across the two-day event on mobile workflows as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning in mobile cameras, meeting with documentary maker Louis Theroux.
While in London, Mr Layton was asked to test prototype lenses by a prominent mobile filmmaking gear vendor, who used his work in subsequent marketing material.
This led to beta testing new features for an Apple-endorsed developer, Filmic Pro, with whom Mr Layton regularly collaborates.
Beneath the Lonesome Skye will publicly screen in Federation Square as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival on July 25.