EX-PEEBLES High School pupil Carol Brown is on her way to tinsel-town this summer.

The 24-year-old, from Broughton, has been given the experience of a lifetime to study film production at a top university in LA.

The Peter Stark Producing Program is a highly competitive two-year course taught through the School of Cinematic Art at the University of Southern California.

The course is extremely competitive and only takes on 24 students from around the world for each two year stint.

Carol, who currently works in the casting department for ITV in Manchester, had two interviews for the programme, with one conducted by a prestigious panel of judges that included Hollywood great, Larry Truman, who produced box office hits like The Graduate, The Thing, and American History X.

Carol told the Peeblesshire News: “That interview is still a bit of a blur because I was so full of adrenalin, and I’m not ashamed to say that I was extremely nervous; I was also still at work as I had to stay behind to do the interview in one of the meeting rooms in the evening due to the time difference.

“I was overwhelmed when I received the call that I’d been accepted. 

“It was two weeks after the final interview and I looked at the name Los Angeles under the number and took a moment to twig, and I remember taking a second before answering the call. 

“I never expected to get a place on my first application; for me it was the experience of applying with the view to apply again due to the competitive nature of the course.”

After graduating from a degree in Digital Film and Television at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2013, Carol was a runner and production assistant with a variety of companies, and later worked as Production Assistant on the nations’s much loved soap Coronation Street.

She has always been very passionate about her field, and was awarded The Perth Festival of the Arts Award and Dorothy Innes Prize for studentship on leaving university.

Since, the aspiring young movie-mogul has been looking into post-graduate courses that would help her develop as a creative producer and came across the Peter Stark Programme.

The two year course does come with a hefty price tag however, and Carol feels extremely fortunate to have been awarded the Bafta LA / Pigott Scholarship to help her cover the $75,000 fee.

“I was very honoured to receive the scholarship as it goes a long way to making my dream possible,” she said. 

“However I still have a lot of finance to cover before I can even begin applying for the visa and I am currently in the process of creating a crowdfunding campaign.”

Carol’s Hollywood adventure begins in August this year and she will hopefully graduate in 2018. 

“I’m excited and extremely motivated by being offered a place,” she told us. 

“There is so much that I want to achieve while I’m out in LA, and I’m eager to make the most of it. It does also come with some reservations as I will be moving my whole life across there for two years and that’s no easy feat, but I know that it will be worth it, not to mention life changing.

“I’m lucky that I have a family that support my decision and have always encouraged me to pursue my career.

“I want to gain as much experience through doing internships while in LA, with the hope of moving further into the world of film. 

“I hope that by making contacts in Los Angeles I’ll be able to combine my knowledge from both industries and use that to my advantage so that when I return to Scotland, I’ll be able to put it to good use.”