AFTER working on it for seven years, a teenager has won an award for his short film One Frame Per Second.

The Cherwell School student Cameron Small, 18, has won the Dan Hemingway Memorial Award, receiving £350.

The prize is given every year to one of the school’s sixth formers in memory of former student Dan Hemingway, who died in 1991, aged 19, after being knocked down while cycling along the A40 on Christmas morning.

He had just completed his first term at the University of St Andrews, and had hopes of being a writer.

Mr Small beat 22 other entrants who submitted creative projects, including dance, music, writing and art.

His film, which he started when he was just 11 years old, is a series of short time-lapse shots set to music.

He said: “I was at my grandparents’ house during the holidays and I just started taking photos.

“With time-lapse pictures the camera takes a photo every second. I would run it for about five minutes at a time.

“You can then put it together on a computer and it creates a photo that moves slightly.

“They’re all landscape, scenic shots. I just really thought about what they would all look like together, one after another.

The North Oxford resident added: “It wasn’t all planned out, I didn’t really mean for it to turn into this big project.

“I just took my camera with me on holiday and cycled around to nearby places at the weekend sometimes.”

Mr Small’s work was judged by Sue Hemingway, Mr Hemingway’s mother, star of The Goodies’ Graeme Garden and musician and producer Miles Waters.

Mrs Hemingway said: “We unanimously agreed on the film, it’s absolutely fabulous. It was hugely mature and so well thought out. Everything was wonderful, the composition, the balance, the timing, the music. It was excellent.

“He has a real future in film-making.”

The 64-year-old, who runs the Hemingway/Art gallery in Pound Lane, Cassington, said: “We decided that we wanted to do something that was positive out of what was a tragedy and keep Dan’s name alive with everybody.

“Every year we see so many different things, it’s wonderful. We get dance, film, paintings, sculptures, writing, music, all sorts.

“This is very separate from the teachers, because we want every student to feel like they can apply, whether they’re good or bad.”

The school’s head of sixth form Clark Lawfull said of the 21-year-old prize: “It’s great that it’s kept growing and seems to be going from strength to strength.

“It’s brilliant, because you expect students doing arts subjects like music and drama to apply, and they do, but often the winners come from other subjects who do these projects in their own time.’’