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CR 112 multimedia questions!
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11-01-2012 4:01pm#1
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Well it depends on the semester. In first year I reckon I had about 25 hours of college per week. Some days we'd be in at 9, some days we'd be in at 2. Depends. Every semester so far except for 1 I've had Fridays off. But don't count on that!
In 3rd year now and I'm off Tuesdays and Fridays.
You'll need to put in a lot of your own time for doing projects. At the end of the semesters most of us are in college till 10 at night...and some of us there since 8am! I'd the multimedia/graphic design students stay in college the latest. It's because we don't have much study and it's almost all projects. And lots of people work better in college where the right software/knowledge from other students is!
So, yeah. Quite time consuming. You can't just do a whole project the night before. Many of the modules consist of fortnightly presentations to make sure you're keeping on top of things.
How hard would I consider the course? Ah I don't know. It depends on your abilities really and what you're into. Most people in my class find programming really difficult. It's all web based stuff so it's not actually too bad, but most multimedia people are creative and don't really have mathematical brains for coding...and generally don't have any interest in it! A large number of people fail it and end up repeating during the summer. I wouldn't be the worst at coding but still hate it and find it quite difficult..
We have a business type module most semesters which can be a bit of pain. The don't really have any relation to anything else we do. Waste of time. But it's just learning off stuff really. Most people in the course hate the business modules because there is no creativity and imho it's all a loada shite...but has to be done!
Everything else is animation/film/design/game design etc..
We do a few sound modules in the School Of Music which are cool. The only proper sound engineering module is in 4th year though, so haven't done that yet!
Every semester there is an elective. It's usual either design related or film related. I always choose the design one. Well, did film once. But wasn't my thing.
Every semester there is "Media Project". Sometimes it's individual and sometimes it a group project. We are given a different brief every semester to utilise the skills we learn from other modules
The one thing I'll say about this course is there is a lot of self-directed work/learning. Like if you can't do certain things for certain projects you can't always just ask a lecturer...you often have to find out a solution yourself. That makes no sense when I read it out! As it's multimedia a lot of the stuff you'll learn to do will be from tutorials online. Which are great. Not dissing the lecturers though! Some of them are very helpful.
All that being said, the course is constantly changing so lots of things could be different by next year!
Is there any area of multimedia in particular you're into?0 -
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I've just finished up first year multimedia. Going into second year there are a couple of key things that I've been told get carried over. The big one being HTML/CSS/Javascript. We did only get the basics of it this year but from looking at the modules and what I've been told that'll carry on the whole way through the course. Like Lia said, most of us aren't that great at it, but a basic understanding of how they work would be handy.
The other things are pretty simple, basic photoshop and after effects. If your going down the route of design modules, we've only covered the very basics like grids, colour, fonts. And for the film side be able to control basic settings on a camera and we did a good bit on creating and developing stories, handy but not essential.
As for the portfolio, two of my good friends in my year are mature students whos portfolio consisted of a few completed projects. One had a short film and a music video he did, the other had done some freelance graphic design and animations. What the Media Comms department is about (or what they'd like to think they're about) is nurturing peoples creativity and talent, so if you show a good interest/ proficiency in one area you're more likely to get in than someone who has a few bits and pieces all over the shop.The one thing I'll say about this course is there is a lot of self-directed work/learning. Like if you can't do certain things for certain projects you can't always just ask a lecturer...you often have to find out a solution yourself. That makes no sense when I read it out! As it's multimedia a lot of the stuff you'll learn to do will be from tutorials online. Which are great. Not dissing the lecturers though! Some of them are very helpful.
Lia nailed it here. To really stay on top of your game you've got to be motivated yourself and learning on your own, again if you show there is an area of multimedia you are really interested and motivated to learn about yourself this will show the interviewers that you've 'got what it takes' to be a multimedia student. It is kinda hard to explain, but if it's what you're really into and want to do, make sure you get that across and you should do well
Best of luck!0
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