Max Roach
Now studying at the University of York in TV & Film Production, Max started out by making YouTube videos with family and friends. He previously attended Havering sixth form he has made multiple films and hopes to take his career further into the industry.
Max Roach | |
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| Years Active | 2020 – Present |
| Positions Held | |
| Hometown | Essex |
| Current Location | York |
| Degrees | BSc Film and Television Production |
First Year
Since joining the University of York in 2020, Max has been keenly involved with York Student Television and an incredible asset to everything we do. Joining us whilst still in the midst of the pandemic, Max was still keen to get involved in any way he could, helping out with projects we already had going on, like Covid Update, and crafting new ones, such as Lockdown Diaries. Lockdown Diaries became one of our most successful shows during the second lockdown, with 4 episodes being produced and a project which YSTV members were consistently keen to become involved with.
In YSTV’s coverage of Roses Unlocked, in April/May 2021, Max stepped up as VT Lead. The Roses Varsity in a normal year is Europe’s largest inter-university sports competition, spread across 3-days. Roses unlocked was a special hybrid in-person/online version of the event, which saw Lancaster and York competing simultaneously at their separate home universities, with YSTV (and LA1, Lancaster’s student TV station) mixing the two together so student’s could still watch the events in real-time online or on campus.
Due to the nature of the event entirely relying on material being broadcast, more than ever VTs to join up our coverage became essential. Max worked tirelessly across the weekend, coordinating a team of editors, to produce highlight reels of all the events we were covering, as well as working with other sports teams ahead of the weekend and creating some more fun and entertaining content on the Roses weekend itself. Max was one of the few first years to step up and take on a leading role at Roses Unlocked and our coverage was all the better for it. His passion and drive for the role created some fantastic content, that we still look back to even now. YSTV’s coverage of Roses Unlocked went on to win Best Event at the university’s Love York Awards and Max was a key part in that success.
Off of the back of being VT Lead, Max was successfully elected as YSTV’s Head of Presentation. An all-in-one role for post-production, quality control and helping to improve the aesthetic look of YSTV’s content. Max has thrived in the role, expanding the team of editors he gathered for Roses Unlocked and officially dubbing them the ‘Edit Ferrets’. Building on the existing foundations, he has also created a new look for YSTV’s branding, which is versatile and easily recognisable.
Second Year
In second Year, Max has also gone above and beyond to help improve the quality of our overall productions by creating a set of templates for production paperwork that can be used by any YSTV members. This development is something that has been a long time coming in YSTV and has been much discussed, however it was Max who stepped up to do the work.
Alongside his work on YSTV’s committee, Max has also continued to produce content that is always entertaining to watch. At the tail end of 2021, Max created the new entertainment show, How Not to Do It, a game show where Max and his co-presenter Tom are set a task to complete within a certain timeframe, which they don’t know how to do. Examples include, constructing a car from a lego set, with no instructions, or to writing a song with a random assorted selection of instruments, with a distinct lack of musical talent from either host.
Combining his interests of television and ultimate frisbee, Max produced YSTV’s coverage of the largest indoor Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Europe, Yindoors. Two days of non-stop frisbee coverage, all of which was coordinated and planned by Max. The streams combined received over 4000 views, and is regularly cited by Max himself as ‘the biggest frisbee livestream ever,’ a claim we probably think to be true.
Continuing his foray into sports coverage, Max also produced the studio show for College Varsity, the sports tournament between York and Durham. The show saw 4 hours of sports coverage, including reports from ongoing matches around campus, live score updates, lots of interviews with members of sports teams and college committees, as well as fun games. A huge success, College Varsity acted as a dry-run for Roses 2022, in which Max will be Studio Lead for YSTV.
Take 22
Alongside his involvement in YSTV, Max also runs his own film production house, Take 22. Max started Take 22 because he wanted a way to brand the projects he created that wasn’t just slapping his name on them, because these projects he creates with his friends are about all of their creativity, not just his own and so it didn’t feel right for him to be the sole name taking the credit. It’s important to him that all of their hard work is recognised and more than anything else, they’re having fun doing it.
With Take 22, Max has made over 15 films and they’ve been shown at screenings at festivals across the world, in South Korea, Japan, five different states of America and across the UK, as well as winning awards from and NaSTA.
One such award winning project was a collaboration between Take 22 films and YSTV, the Finding Long Boi Documentary. At the University of York, there is an infamously tall duck known as ‘Long Boi’. Max saw the opportunity to make a film about him and so put together the documentary, which won the award for Best Documentary and Factual Production at the National Student Television Awards (NaSTAs).