Media
The Creative Media Department runs courses for budding filmmakers, producers, web designers, animators and graphic artists. If you want to work in the Film or TV Industries or in Design this is the place for you.
We believe in developing the Media Practitioners of the future. We will challenge and develop your teamwork and your creative, industry related and technical knowledge, so that you can either progress into industry or onto higher education.
Further Education
Our Staff
Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff are industry qualified as experienced and highly regarded Producers, Designers, Graphics and Arts professionals and we like to keep up to date by staying involved in our relevant industries. This means that we can bring real and relevant experience to you and your work.
Our Facilities
Assessment is varied and includes portfolios, observations, essays, discussions, presentations, films, pitches and exhibitions.
The department has excellent facilities including cameras, lights, industry standard editing suites, a fully equipped Photographic Studio, Arts Studios, 3D Workshop, props and costume design workshop. We also have good quality teaching rooms with Interactive White Boards and networked Apple Mac computers equipped with the latest industry calibre software.
Working with Other Departments and Organisations
We use expertise from across the department for our projects. Film students work with: Performing Arts students as actors; Art and Design students on the sets and titles; Interactive Media students providing special effects and Music students building soundtracks for film or stage productions.
You will use your skills to enter national film and animation competitions and hold numerous publicly attended exhibitions of your work.
We believe it is important to show you the world we are preparing you for, so we constantly develop our programme of visits as opportunities arise. Previous students have visited artists in residence and graphics studios, watched TV shows being made and been taken on tours around workshops. This year we are planning a Media trip to either Barcelona or New York.
Guest speakers also come into the department to provide industry information and advice and we line up a big name each year.
Your Career
Our film courses will teach you to script, plan, produce and edit your own short films, documentaries and music videos.
On Interactive Media you will learn to use industry software, create websites, design, produce animations and even edit films.
These courses not only give you the cutting edge technical skills you will need but will develop your own creativity and your understanding of your profession.
You will be given an insight into the various Media industries, what positions are available and the skills you will need to get that dream job.
Media Higher Education and Degrees at Nescot
The Media department at Nescot is proud of our reputation within industry for the quality of our students. All our staff are highly skilled teaching professionals but we also have extensive experience in the sector with most still working at the highest levels as: feature film and television directors; specialist wildlife, landscape, medical and technical photographers, and highly sought after musicians, composers and music technicians. Nescot was also the first provider outside the US to run digital photography and image editing courses, including training and consultancy for industry players like Kodak, Olympus, and the MOD, and we remain an authority on the subject.
Our Staff
At Nescot you will be taught by professionals who know how casting, hiring and commissioning decisions are made. We will help you hone your abilities while building a showreel or portfolio to really sell your work. We are passionate about the quality of our previous students because we won’t pass you until we’d be happy to work with you.
Our knowledge of the sector also means that we insist on teaching you using the latest industry standard technology and working practices. We know that confidence with terminology, software and technology will be crucial in the early days of your career and give you the maximum opportunity to grow your talent.
Our Facilities
Here you will find broadcast standard technology and software as used by major corporations like the BBC, including the latest innovations in lighting, tracking and sound hardware, over 30 Final Cut-equipped networked Macs, extensive photographic studios and darkroom and digital imaging software plus fully equipped mixing studios and sound rooms.
Working with Other Departments and Organisations
Our staff use innovative and exciting methods to teach you about our industries. Students visit film sets and TV studios like Three Mills, and active film locations like our recent trip to the filming of top British director Noel Clarke’s Adulthood. We also organise live broadcast experts like Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru Murthy to come in for you to interview and film and record using standard TV news equipment. While Noel Clarke has worked with us to offer masterclasses and insights into the British film industry.
Our photography students visit many major galleries, museums and exhibitions and our status within the industry and as a registered Nikon Academy gives us access to the latest innovations and thinking in the field. Our students are featured annually in the prestigious Nikon Awards, and we do our utmost to help you bring your work to the widest possible audience.
All this is brought to you with Nescot’s trademark student-centred focus, so our average class sizes are held at around 10 – no larger than the standard production crew – to give you maximum access to tutors and the experience of working in a creative team with your fellow students.
Our courses are designed with busy working and family lives in mind and our office door is always open to students. We also have virtual learning environments, where you can access course materials from any internet enabled computer, and you can contact your tutors by direct email outside teaching hours.
Your Career
Previous Media students are currently working at all levels in creative fields including lighting experts working at the BBC on Saturday night shows like Strictly Come Dancing, at Setanta working on outside broadcasts of football matches and throughout the worlds of film and television. Photography students work for companies like Nikon, organisations like the MOD, and NHS trusts and for newspapers and magazines. Ex music Tech students are also using their expertise in top level studios and venues throughout the music industry.
Nescot’s Media department has the facilities, technology, teaching and support and industry contacts to prepare you and your talent for these most competitive and exciting sectors.
- Name:
- Luqman Ahmed
- Course:
- Media Production: Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma
What made you decide to come to Nescot?
I’ve always wanted to do Media. I’ve been volunteering for the last five years at a TV studio and am now helping as an engineer there. I’ve worked on everything from interviews and chat shows to live outside broadcasts at major events, so I know what type of equipment you need to learn the right skills.
I visited a lot of colleges and was very unimpressed. When I came here and saw all the networked Apple Macs and software like Final Cut and Soundtrack Pro there was no question. The tutors and staff were very switched on and I liked what I saw.
How has the college lived up to your expectations?
I’ve not regretted my choice for a moment. The professionalism and knowledge that impressed me in the media department is also true of the wider college.
The sports facilities are great, I play football with the media team and the good relationships I’ve developed here have strengthened my own people skills. I enjoy the atmosphere where everyone gets on well.
And the course?
A friend did the course at another college so I was expecting to be sitting at a computer the whole time like he did. This is totally different. Assignments here are structured to mirror real life TV production work so you go out as a team with equipment and cameras. Each of you will have a set role for the task, like director, producer, editor etc and the tutors demand a very high standard with real life pressures and time scales.
These are professional standard tutors with years of high level experience in TV and film. They’ve been there, done that and returned to give something back. They’re geniuses! Anything you want to know, Final Cut Sound Track, cameras, motion, everything. They know it like the back of their hands.
I’ve also started paid work as a freelance cameraman for someone I got to know while volunteering. It’s corporate training and promotions filming and the skills I’m learning here make all the difference.
How has your time at Nescot changed you as a person?
I’m a lot more professional. It’s your qualification in the end but I always make sure I’m a team player now. The way we’re learning to work is the way you work in the industry. You can work to the highest standard yourself but it will only come together in the teamwork.
That’s been a significant difference. Before college I was only focused on getting my qualification and being the best at everything. Now I realise how vital it is to work well in a team.
What advice would you have for someone thinking of doing your course?
Do it at Nescot. The media production here is excellent and the tutors are second to none. As well as knowing their subject and industry inside out they are around till 6 or 7 pm and you can pull them out of the office anytime.
The atmosphere here is good too. They push you very hard but there’s a lot of friendly banter. It’s more than a student tutor relationship. The work is structured very well. There’s a lot of theory but you’ll be out filming a lot too before rushing back to edit and score. Its everything you need to learn in one package and you’ll enjoy it.
What are your plans for the future?
Before I was thinking of going to Ravensbourne but we have been on a visit to Bournemouth University, which is very highly regarded in the TV industry. I’m going to apply and do my best to get in.
In the longer term I want to work in television making documentaries. I’m attracted to the factual side of storytelling and I want to be working on pieces that get people thinking and talking about society.
