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Creative Media

Our department is built on enhusiastic and knowledgeable staff, who are experienced and highly-regarded feature film and television producers, directors, designers, graphics and arts professionals.

Available courses

The Creative Media Department


Creative Media - Film and TV

Our courses are for aspiring filmmakers, producers, editors and cinematographers. If you want to work in the film or TV industries, this is the place for you. We have excellent facilities including a TV studio, screening room, Mac suites and industry-standard editing suites, with broadcast-standard software like Adobe Premiere, After Effects, NUKE and Maya.

NextGen - Animation, VFX and Games Design

If you love animation, VFX and games design and enjoy using your imagination, this could be the course for you. This qualification is designed by industry to ensure that you get the skills you need to get a job. We have extensive links with leading companies including Blue Zoo, ILM, Framestore, DNEG, Sony and Creative Assembly.


What You Can Expect

Creative Media - Film and TV

  • Your projects could include: music videos, short films, documentaries, TV news, film club, podcasts, film studies, showreels, VFX and sound design.
  • Hone your abilities while building a showreel or portfolio to really sell your work.
  • Constantly-developing programme of trips, speakers and workshops. We’ve been to places including New York, Berlin and Barcelona, and visited film sets and TV studios as well as trade shows like Eurogamer, Comic-Con and the Harry Potter studios.
  • You will plan and produce a film on location around the UK.

NextGen - Animation, VFX and Games Design

  • A course for designers, artists and animators looking to develop skills in the competitive field of computer games, visual effects and animation.
  • Students develop an assessment portfolio of design including concept art, 3D Modelling, 2D and 3D animation, level design and texture design and game development, which is essential for progression into Higher Education or the games industry.
  • Assignments designed to mirror industry tasks, including pitching ideas, creating and testing game levels, building 3D models, animation and sound design, and working alone and as part of a team.
  • Annual trips to a range of subject specific events such as Eurogamer at Birmingham NEC, and visits, talks and workshops from industry figures.
  • Work experience with Reef Entertainment, game testing.
Our Staff

Creative Media - Film and TV

  • Enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff, who are experienced television producers, editors, film makers and journalists.
  • Staff design assignments to mirror industry tasks - you will be sent out in teams recreating jobs and roles and using kit you will find in the media industry.


NextGen - Animation, VFX and Games Design

  • Industry-experienced and knowledgeable staff on-hand to teach development using industry-standard software such as Maya, Unity, Unreal, Photoshop,NUKE, Substance Painter and ZBrush.

Our Facilities

Creative Media - Film and TV

  • Excellent equipment, including lights and HD cameras, and industry-standard editing suites, with broadcast-standard software like Adobe Premiere, After Effects.
  • Latest innovations in lighting, tracking and sound hardware, and more than 100 Adobe-equipped networked Macs.


NextGen - Animation, VFX and Games Design

  • The highest-specification networked PCs and Macs in the college.
  • State-of-the-art resources, including a games hub, screening room and art space.
Progression

Creative Media - Film and TV

Our students have gone on to:

  • ILM Producer - Aladdin
  • Sound Recordist - The Crown
  • Production Runner - The X Factor
  • Music Videographer
  • Framestore
  • HND Moving Image - Nescot
  • TV Production - Bournemouth University
  • Cinematography - Bournemouth University
  • Journalism - UAL
  • Events Management - University of Gloucestershire
  • Digital Film Production - Ravensbourne

Possible careers...

  • Advertising and marketing
  • Animation
  • Broadcast
  • Cinematographer
  • Compositor
  • Events
  • Events management
  • Designer
  • Film editor
  • Film or TV producer
  • Journalism/publishing
  • Lighting engineer
  • Media producer
  • Product designer
  • Production runner
  • Radio
  • Sound engineer
  • Sound recordist
  • Videographer
  • Visual effects



NextGen - Animation, VFX and Games Design

Our students have gone on to apprenticeships with companies including:

  • ILM
  • DNEG
  • Digital Film Production - Ravensbourne

or to universities including:

  • Sheffield Hallam University
  • Teesside University
  • De Montford University

and have worked on films such as:

  • Aladdin
  • Pacific Rim
  • Star Wars - The Last Jedi
  • Avengers - End Game
  • Avengers - Infinity War

Possible careers...

  • 3D artist
  • Animation programmer
  • Animation supervisor
  • Animator
  • Character/creature animator
  • Digital arts
  • Game artist
  • Games designer
  • Games developer
  • Games programmer
  • Games tester
  • Motion capture technician
  • Motion graphics artist
  • Production assistant
  • Technical artist
  • UI/UX artist
  • VFX technical assistant
  • Visual effects

At Nescot we encourage our students to think ahead, so that they can choose the right courses to fit them and their future. We also use an innovative online platform called Start, which is a free and comprehensive digital platform, offering students a single starting point to help simplify careers guidance. Students can build a personal profile aimed at guiding them throughout their career. Find out more here.

Labour market trends

This chart shows some details about employment trends in the sector, and companies Nescot works with.

Skills you will gain

Practical skills and knowledge of industry practice are at the heart of our courses. You will learn from tutors with substantial experience in the sectors and develop skills including:

  • Technical Knowledge
  • Working to a brief
  • Project management
  • Quality Control
  • Multitasking, collaboration and teamwork
  • Networking and self-promotion
  • Freelancing
  • Problem solving and flexibility
  • Communication
  • Technical abilities in a range of contemporary industry software packages
  • Programming
  • Art-based skills
  • Developing your own specialisms


Photograph of a Nescot student

“At the start of the course we learnt how to use the camera and then we started learning more about post-production. There’s a lot of emphasis on working in teams, and you’re expected to become more independent as you go through the course. My favourite project so far was making our music videos, because it was fun and I could also see how much I was improving. Next year I’m going to university, and after that I want to specialise in editing.”
Christos

Photograph of a Nescot student

The course is academically difficult at times, but the teaching is amazing. They’re really supportive and motivating. They’re also experts in what they teach, so they’re telling us from their own experience not just from a textbook like in school. We talk a lot about all the different career paths in our industry, and how to get there – Nescot has even set me up with a mentor, which has made a huge difference to me.
Nia

Photograph of a Nescot student

We spent our first few weeks learning lots of new skills, like how to operate cameras and how to do sound and lighting, and then we started our film projects. The tutors have high expectations of us, but I know I can always ask for help if I need it.

Hear from our students
Photograph of a Nescot student

The teachers know so much about the industry, and they’re really good at explaining complicated things. I did work experience at Reef Entertainment, testing a computer game, and I got to work with professional developers using skills we’d learnt at college. That really inspired me to keep doing the best I can.

Hear from our students