UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 08 OCTOBER 2020
Some of our Course Directors from the Institute of Creative Arts give us an insight on how Visual Communication students work with industry during their studies.
BA Digital Marketing
BA Digital Marketing first year students and BBC Creative's Innovation and Technology team worked throughout the 2020 summer lock-down to make and market news packages for BBC News and short films for a Film Festivals brief around themes relating to the Covid Pandemic.
While working with students on the BBC News project, Senior Creative Emma Brooke at BBC Creative said "...it's inspiring to see these fresh voices and rising talent: the honesty, passion and skill that they have is so evident in their work".
This BBC collaboration is the latest in a long line of production projects where BA Digital Marketing students have worked closely with BBC Creatives to gain professional insights, guidance, and mentorship. BBC Creative Director for Innovation and Technology Ashley Temple said "Emma and I were really impressed, we are currently looking into how we foster talent... the students' work... is to a very high standard".
Module Leader Mike Villiers-Stuart said "our BBC relationship is very precious, it adds unique value and impeccable credentials to the learning experience... the students tangibly grow with the production training they receive... this prepares them for their second and final year where there is lots more exposure to industry professionals, ad agencies and digital asset production studios".
BSc Video Game Development, BA Video Game Design and Production and BA Video Game Digital Art
First year BSc Video Game Development students worked together with BA Video Game Digital Art and BA Video Game Design and Production students, to create a number of games, based on work created by Masters students from MA/MSc Video Game Development and MSc Video Game Enterprise, Production & Design.
The students made 8 first-person exploration and shooter-based games, set in the universe of ‘StarStone’, which was designed by BCU teaching staff from the Video Games Courses. These games were created in an 8-week period and then presented to the Video Games Industry in the Games Film and Animation Expo on 15/09/20. The event saw industry guests, from AAA Video Games studios, such as Rare, Codemasters and Rockstar North.
Industry guests lauded the work presented, especially considering that the work was created by first year students working remotely over the summer semester. Despite all the challenges that COVID presented the staff and students, all the industry guests praised the hard work and effort done.
Course Leaders Shaun Magher, Zafar Qamar and Zuby Ahmed said “we are proud and delighted that the students rose to the challenge over the summer. They’ve been able to produce fantastic work despite all the obstacles we negotiate daily with COVID. They showed that making video games has no barriers and the fun never ends!”
To find out more about the opportunities available on our courses visit our course pages.