This is the transcript for the video Media Arts and Production
Uh, so I think that I might get started there. Um, as I said,
welcome everybody to UTS today. Okay.
Why study media arts and production at UTS? Um, first of all,
um, MAP is about a 30 year program at UTS.
It’s got a really good kind of tradition and part of the thing which helms our
program are two things really around, um, our relationship to industry.
And that includes basically our staff who are practitioners within the industry
and also our students that go on to have industry success.
And when we think about that, it’s really the way that, uh,
that at UTS media arts puts into place, the, um,
practice orientated learning at UTS. Um,
you could build your skills within niche areas,
such as editing, cinematography, sound and new media.
And also you can use, uh, UTS’ excellent facilities. Um,
and that includes post-production facilities and our Bon Marche studio,
which is a 10 by 10 production space.
What subjects will I study? Uh, this is an exciting thing because in, um,
this is a revamp of our program. So UTS has just had, uh, a new curriculum, uh,
which revises basically what we’ve done really well in the past,
and also what we want to do in the future.
So this program, uh, you know, really builds upon our 30 year program at UTS.
And, um, in terms of some of those subjects, screen story,
we can think about the screens everywhere. We can look, think about Netflix.
We can think about the screen scape, stories told on mobile phones.
So really what we’ve tried to emphasize with this new program is really thinking
about who’s telling these stories,
why we’re telling these stories and also thinking about that of UTS with the
globe, with the, with a global and social impact.
And that really puts our prospective students ahead of the rest.
When you move into the second year, we can see basically they,
build upon what we’ve done. Well already, documentary, non-fictional media,
experimental media. So it’s not all Netflix and commercial television.
There’s a really long history in media arts of UTS. And in the end,
in the way that we tell stories,
which are more experimental stories about places, stories about, uh,
stories about people, uh, stories about thinking about the, you know,
the texture of stories, the colors of stories, the sounds of stories,
and all this is encapsulated in this sort of wider history, um, of,
of media arts. When you can look there,
you can see basically in that those last couple subjects are developed around,
and I know Kena can speak to this, as a kind of simulation of what happens in
the industry and what I’m talking about there is for example,
project development. So when you’re in the screen industry,
you develop a project for production. And at UTS MAP, we simulate that.
So creative project development leads into media arts project and media arts
projects, where you get to create your short film. Um, it used to be,
or it still is kind of called a calling card in a sense,
and it shows a future employer what you can do, where you create,
where your creativity lies and how that can help you, um, really secure your,
your space and what is competitive and a challenging, but ultimately, uh,
really, uh, rewarding creative industry in media arts.
And I think when I was talking about convergence
earlier, the immediate convergence, there’s a real sense that at the moment,
I think it’s a really exciting time to be around screen media and creative
media. We could think about, um, you know, thinking about, uh, television,
we’re thinking about, uh, digital film and so on,
but this is really one of those bumps in the, in,
in kind of like the creative industries where we can see there’s so many
different stories, so many different voices. And I think, you know,
if I was a student coming in now, it’s a really interesting and creative time.
Okay, I’m trying to move to that next slide. And here it is.
Okay. In terms of the program, um,
you’re also a part of the school of communication.
So you still do your core subjects. Um, but with us, as I said,
you do those eight media arts production subjects. Now students, um,
media arts students.
It’s important thing to remember here that you’ve got to choose media arts as
your first major other, uh, other, uh, disciplines within the communications.
Can’t choose media arts as their second.
So make sure you’ve kind of got that down. In terms of, um,
the other great thing about, about being a part of communication and media arts,
you can choose a second major.
And I’ll talk about some of the different disciplines that we’ve got there,
but a second major increases your chance for kind of employment within that
diversity. And it can really strengthen and bolster your chances.
You start your second major automatically.
So you start doing it in your first year,
and then it’s dependent on how you’re going in those subjects.
It’s related to grade point average, um,
and that will allow you to keep going. Otherwise you can take,
you can basically teach, uh, get a stream of electives, okay.
Type of student assessments, no exams. That’s always, uh,
after the stress of HSC, um, is a popular thing that our students like to hear.
Um, we don’t have, um, we even within the school of communication,
there are very few exams. But in media arts, and as I said, it relates to our,
uh, our, uh,
UTS model of learning and our practice orientated approach to learning. Um,
we do small exercises often with production, right from the get-go. Um,
and that’s the kind of assessments you do. Is there group work? Yes,
there is group work, but how does great screen work happen? How did that,
how do the Netflix shows we love, the films we love happen?
They come through a collab through a collaboration of minds and people working
together in creative groups. And again, we simulate,
we simulate the industry experience within our program and that makes our
graduates set ready, ready to collaborate,
and ready to share great ideas and realize them and make them happen.
Okay. I talked a little bit about our on campus features earlier. Um,
and that was basically a little bit around post-production. We’ve got, uh,
we’ve got video edit suites, we’ve got a brand new color correction suite, um,
which really is exciting, one of those exciting developments,
in digital technology.
Now what you shoot in camera doesn’t necessarily translate to the final,
the final image that you see,
it’s manipulated it’s colored and it’s optimized for an audience.
The Bon Marche studio is like the spiritual home. If you like of,
of media arts and production, it’s a black box 10 by 10 meters,
we’ve got studio lighting and so on. And that’s the place that you get your,
your tutors and lecturers teaching within.
But it’s also the space where you do those group exercises in class as well.
When I think, you know,
but even I think at the pinnacle and what UTS really has above our competitors
is the film equipment. We have state-of-the-art cameras, which the industry use.
We have, uh, Black Magic cinema cameras, um, Arri Alexa cameras.
And we have more lighting that you can imagine we’ve had enough lights to
basically can fill a truck for productions.
And when you see the quality of our student film productions, um,
in that media rights, uh, project subject, which I mentioned earlier, um,
you can really, um, the amount of gear that, that our students use again,
simulates that kind of, uh, industry, um, industry, um,
practices as well. And, uh, you know, the work we produce in that final year,
uh, is really top-notch. There was, um, ABC did a series on IView,
which was called, um, grad film school. And UTS had,
I think the most entries in there that was back in 20, um,
I think 2017 or something. There was also as part of VIVID,
of course VIVID was canceled,
unfortunately like many events through COVID, but in VIVID we have, uh, a, um,
we had a showcase plan with UTS, with our animation students as well.
And that looked at the best of, uh, media arts production and animation,
which was going to get, you know, a live and wide audience.
But we do hope and think that will be back in some form,
but it really is a celebration of, I guess, that, that diversity of talent,
that wealth of talent, which UTS media arts and production has produced.
Okay. When I talked about doing a second major, and again, it’s, um,
you need to pick media arts as your first major,
and you commence your second major with the view to continuing it.
If you like it, if the grade point averages are there. So if you look at, um,
what that might be, uh, at the moment,
and you can think about some of these go very well with media production,
we’ve got digital and social media,
which is a relatively new discipline within school of communication.
We’ve got journalism, which is a pretty established discipline,
strategic communication, writing and publishing, social political sciences.
And again, media business, which is a new offering.
So you can bolster your media arts and production studies with one of the
second majors. And again, that can give you competitiveness, um,
in the job market. And it can also, um, also can really, um,
can consolidate your, you know,
your creative media skills and make you think differently again, about stories,
um, about characters and about, uh, about some of the, uh, the issues either in,
um, in fiction or non-fiction, um, kind of storytelling
at UTS. You can do a combined degree.
And some of these examples here we have on screen,
but the bachelor of international studies, the bachelor of laws,
the bachelor of creative intelligence and innovation, um,
and there’s also a diploma in languages or innovation. Uh,
traditionally our MAP students do often, a proportion of our students take,
students do take, um, that combined degree, um, with law, uh,
and, uh, the BCII.
Which is a very UTS centric kind of offering in the way that it looks at
creativity, uh, innovation and design thinking and so on.
Okay. In terms of, um, some of the,
some of the careers you might think about doing media arts and production, um,
filmmaker, director, editor, producer, cinematographer, sound designer,
or recordist, screenwriter, a radio producer, multimedia designer,
documentary maker, arts and cultural administrator and programming,
commissioning editor, or a freelance media artist or producer.
That’s just the range of careers. And I said,
it’s a really exciting time to be in creative media at the moment with digital
content and with the expansion of the screenscape,
particularly into streaming media and so on. We had to look, um,
recently at where some of our alumni end up,
and it was really interesting to see the quite a few of, uh, alumni, uh,
end up in that really high positions in arts administration at Screen Australia
and so on. And so it’s really, uh, interesting that yes, it’s,
we have creative graduates.
We also have graduates that end up in the cultural industries and playing very
pivotal roles in, for example, determining the types of, uh, of stories, um,
that Australian audiences can, um, can see, uh, and so on.
Okay. In terms of our alumni, uh, here’s a few examples of,
of our alumni. And I said, UTS MAP students are highly regarded in the industry, um,
to be job ready and, and, and work ready. Um,
Handmaid’s Tale, Kate Dennis the director, um, is, uh,
obviously a hugely popular series globally on Netflix. And this crosses, uh,
across basically short films, uh, uh, feature films and TV series.
One about one of our more recent grads, uh, Maya Newell, um,
her film Gayby Baby received widespread theatrical and television
distribution. Um, Kim Mordaunt, with The Rocket recently, um,
Ryan Griffin, Mandy Chang. And again,
Mandy Chang used to be head of arts at the ABC.
You can see the interaction there between the industry,
the screen storytelling and content industries and the creative, creative onset,
um, industries and so on. Um, well, Bonnie Elliot there. And again,
um, one thing that we pride ourselves on, uh, has been in the past is,
um, is really creating a strong pathway and an equitable pathway for, uh,
for women and female cinematographers, um, in a domain,
which has traditionally been a little bit more skewed towards men.
And we’ve got a really good history of again, um, of that kind of, um,
social, social impact, um, with what we do at UTS as well.
Okay. Uh, we have two students, uh, at the moment I would get, um, uh,
Kena and Nate to just turn on your cameras. I think you both said,
they said hello already. Um, we’d had a bit of a downtime then. Um,
so welcome back again.
So Kena is in a final third year student and Nate?
I’m the same actually,
I’ve got my final capstone next semester over the summer. So almost there.
Brilliant. Okay. So Kena, I thought, I’d start with you first.
I was going to ask you, is that why you,
why you chose media arts and production? Um, going back a couple of
years now. Yeah, just a few years. Um,
I mainly was excited to do media arts and production at UTS because as opposed
to going for a film school specific course,
I was thinking that the comms degree here would have a broader range of
knowledge and interaction with different students from different areas of the
uni that might set me up better in terms of not being so focused on
particularly one thing, especially not to begin with.
I also picked UTS for the global exchange opportunity.
That was like my one really exciting thing as well. Okay.
Um, do you wanna speak a little bit more about that?
So we’ll do a global exchange. Well.
It was canceled. We didn’t actually get to go, but
it’s all been really good and the opportunity to do two majors in the comms
course, as opposed to, if you go to a film school, it’s mainly like,
this is your one degree. Yeah.
I think it does offer a broader spectrum of knowledge.
Yeah. Basically. And I think, you know,
the probably there’s going to be a few questions in the chat around COVID and so
on. Um, but you know, media arts and production, you know,
in the initial COVID period we did keep teaching, you know,
we kept talking, we kept teaching with the same protocols,
which the industry is in COVID safe protocols. So as a discipline,
we were one of those few disciplines that, that need to provide that,
that practice. Um, and we managed to do that as well. Um, Nate, so, um,
can I just, um, get you to, um, have a little, have a think about what was,
maybe give us a sense of, um, your, your first year in and starting,
it probably would have been exploring media arts and how you kind of what you,
what you really liked about that, or, or what’s your observations about that?
Yeah.
I’ll just say quickly as well,
based off what Kena was just saying that I actually came,
I went to film school prior to coming to UTS as well. Um,
and I found that broadly speaking,
it was a lot of that same sort of film school environment,
but within a comms degree.
So you get to crossover with students doing other majors and other disciplines,
which is really helpful.
And I think a lot more conducive to creating good content and, you know,
learning how to become a better media practitioner in the real world,
rather than just being in sort of a very, um, straightforward, uh, way. Um,
but yeah, as, as I mentioned,
so I started with exploring media arts and then going into composing the real,
I think a lot of what we covered, uh, that year, um,
was great in the sense that, um, you really learn, you know, very,
very, very classic, very simple storytelling filming theories, um,
and then how to apply those first in a, in a fictional setting.
And then second then in a documentary setting and everything that, you know,
you might not notice this when you’re first doing the subjects, but as,
as I’ve went through second year, and now my third year,
you are following the same, same structures every time,
same production, uh, protocols, just learning a little bit more. So it’s, um,
that first year is really great in the sense that it underpins sort of the rest
of your course there. So, yeah. It’s.
Awesome. Yeah. Okay. And I think that’s great. Thanks, Nate.
And I think that sort of speaks to the fact that your,
your skills are really scaffolded. So when you start, um, you know,
you’re immediately working with the equipment, um,
whether that’s in production or post production and the scale of the, um, uh,
scale of the assessments and the learning gets, um, gets a little bit larger,
it gets a little complicated.
And as you move towards capstone where you get to develop, um,
get your own project, um, which ends up in, for example,
your 10 minute documentary or, um, or a drama film. Um, Kena,
so what, the other thing I was,
I was interested to let prospective students know,
is that in the media arts program, you can also,
you get to kind of guide your career with the decisions you make, um,
through your program and the kind of the, the interest which you shape. So what,
what path that you want in terms of, um,
thinking around drama or documentary or, uh, industry, uh,
screen, what are you, what sort of pathway do you.
Want? Yeah, so I’m on the path to be a hot shot director.
That’s where I want to go. So in your third year,
and maybe it’s different now for the new subjects,
but the media arts specialist modules is where you take all the knowledge that
you’ve built across all the range of the disciplines and the roles of about film
and content making. And you pick what you really like could be screenwriting,
could be directing, could be camera work. Um, so I picked the directing one,
so I’ve more streamlined my final year into that aspect and going
into the final project with my own script of my own idea to bring something to
life. So I’m on the road to be in the story department, working with actors,
that kind of thing.
Yeah. Terrific. And yeah, listen, we do still, um,
if you flash back to that slide we had earlier,
we thought that subject specialist modules, um,
and that’s still a core part of our program.
And that’s part of us that scaffolding of skills, where in the first, um,
in the first way, as you make your way through the degree you learn,
basically what, what, you’re good at, what you like, what you respond to.
And in that subject, for example, when I was talking about, um,
our cameras and our cinematographers and our track record in that, um,
you get to do, you know, 10 weeks of cinematography,
you really get a good picture of how to light a film set,
or you get to work with the professional camera rig and a professional camera
crew structure as well. So that’s the kind of skills which we,
which we kind of developed and again, making our son graduates industry ready.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Kena and, and thank you, Nate.
Um, now we have reached the, the, the part of our questions, and as I said,
we’re happy to, to keep this going session a little bit longer. Um,
due to some technical stuff at the start.
So the first question is,
are you expect to have some experience with film prior or portfolio of some
kind and would not having experience put you at a
disadvantage. So.
I’m happy to answer that one. Um, so yeah, that’s a good question. And,
and it’s, it’s one we often get.
You don’t need to have experience coming in.
We teach you from a foundation and, um, we do that across, uh,
image and sound, uh, and, um, it is, uh, the learning curve,
uh, can be steep, but you’re supported by both
academic staff and you’re also supported by our media lab. So, um,
in media arts, we have two kind of levels of instruction if you like.
And we have a really, um, a really skilled and talented media lab and, um,
they particularly can offer assistance around the equipment and around some of
those facilities. So we work in tandem in that kind of arrangement, but no,
you don’t need to have a cognitive knowledge.
So we have a couple of questions from Mabel, which is around screenwriting. So,
um, she’s asking if there are any resources for screenwriting and you’d like to
learn about story structure and writing.
Is this something that is covered within the course itself? Yep, yep,
yep.
Um, yes, absolutely. Um, in the list of the subjects,
I think it’s now called drama production, but for us, it was called fictions.
The first assessment we did in that subject was creating a script.
So we did learn about how to structure a story,
how to build characters and how to write a script, not just in the formatting,
but in the storytelling way. And then in the modules,
you can pick the screenwriting module,
which the streamlined course, uh,
a subject that teaches you more specifically the ins and outs of screenwriting
and all of those resources, for example, like readings in the library, well,
academic sources, they’re all available to everybody,
no matter what module you’re doing. So there are academic resources available,
no matter what streamline you pick. Yep.
And I’ll just probably add, I just sort of both that answer there that, um,
we have very deliberately put, um, put more screenwriting n the rejuvenation.
So now that first core screen story,
that’s in your first semester at UTS.
Now you’ll get to write a screenplay by the end of it.
And then we seek to consolidate that later.
So that’s why I said this emphasis on story is really big for us.
Yep. Can I also add that, um,
one of the advantages of this bachelor communication is that you can
do a double major. So your second major,
if you really want to go into writing,
you could select writing and publishing as your second major because they do go
a lot deeper into adaptations and all that. And there’s a major writing project.
So you may end up writing a screenplay, um, for,
for that as your major writing project.
And that would combine well with your MAP as well.
I had a friend who does that is doing that right now.
And she’s in third year MAP and doing the writing major.
So she wrote a major script for one of our subjects, for the writing course,
and then brought it to map, to create for the final project.
So really good crossover there. Thanks Kena.
The next question was around exams.
So do we have any exams in this particular course itself?
No exam.
So that would be very welcome after HSC. Um,
so there was a question from Mabel, if you do law,
does that replace your second major? I’ll answer that particular question. Yes.
If you do combine degrees, double degrees,
most of the time you can only do one major within the, um, the course itself,
because there just isn’t enough time and space for you to do a double major
within that. So, um, so you.
Can do a double major if you choose the bachelor of creative intelligence and
innovation, because that’s run on a separate schedule. Cause I did.
So yeah. Just explain the BCII model.
You do that in summer and winter sessions,
and then you do an extra additional fourth year solely in that particular
degree. And that’s why you can do the double major, but not in law. Yeah. Um,
so Emily’s got a question around,
does this degree allow us to create visual designs?
So what was that question, James,
does this degree allow us to create visual designs?
Okay. Yeah. Listen, I’d say that. I’d probably say no to that. And I think that,
um,
really you’d be looking in terms of the UTS offering that would more likely to
be, um, uh, visual communication, um, in our department of, uh,
design architecture and building, uh, we, the closest that we would get to,
I guess, a sense of a sense of design, for example, is production design.
So in that media specialist modules we offer, uh, we have, we offer, um,
a pretty extensive one on production design and that’s um,
if we think about a creative screen work, um,
that’s all of the elements that combine to form, um,
to form the meaning through the sets and the costumes and so on.
So that would be the equivalent of the design. Um, but graphic design,
it would be another offering.
Okay. So next question was around. Is it easy to do exchange of this degree?
Unfortunately, Kena didn’t get to go on exchange. Um,
so the typical advice we give people with regards to exchange is that, um,
you have to do similar subjects within the degree itself at another
university.
Hence we always encourage you to keep as many electives as possible because
if it’s within the major itself and their core subjects,
that you have to find another subject in the other university,
the matches probably 80% of what you’re going to study here.
You’re going to find it much more difficult to do so as opposed to electives
where there isn’t as strict a requirement for you to find
a particular subject that fits exactly that.
So there are three electives within the bachelor communication within a new
structure itself. So if you want to do exchange, then I would recommend,
we recommend you keep your electives to when you can do your exchange. Um,
people tend to apply for exchange in the second year itself.
It takes about nine months to, um, from when you start in the applications,
when you might find out whether or not you will go.
So a lot of students tend to go in the first semester of the third year,
or keep it to the very final semester of their three-year degree itself to go on
exchange. So the next question is about collaboration.
And we talked about collaboration a lot within this particular degree because
you cannot, you cannot produce film, direct everything by yourself. So, um, Kena,
would you like to talk about collaborating with people?
Yeah,
I would say this is nothing but a collaborative degree because there’s no exams.
And apart from one subject, we,
where you focus on your own kind of exploration of media arts,
generally all you’re doing in their subjects and collaborating with teammates,
building work as a group, it’s more fun in my opinion, for the later years,
when you get to work in crew roles and build a project.
But even from the very beginning,
there’s a lot of collaboration within your class with other students in other
courses,
like collaborating with the writing kids to get scripts or collaborating with the
music and sound design people. If you want to do some,
get some composing for your film or something. So it is very collaborative.
Yeah. Yeah. I’d also.
Add to that, that, um, those collaborations,
which you have sometimes when you’re an undergraduate student,
you may not think that much of them, but they actually have an impact later on.
And if you, again, if we track our alumni,
we can see that somebody that’s crewed on a short film together in their third
year might be working together or 10 or 15 years later. So those collaborations,
um, don’t just pay off in the present. They also pay off in the future as well.
And we see that again and again. Okay.
Um, thank you. Um,
the next one is how many classes are there in a week or two weeks if you do a
second major, uh, maybe Kena can actually answer that,
but I’ll just start off by saying, um,
regardless of whether or not you do one major or you do two majors,
you finish the same number of subjects.
It doesn’t mean that you do more subjects. If you do two majors,
you still have to complete the same number of subjects to graduate from the
degree. It just means that. So if you choose to do any one major,
then the other,
the other subjects that you do are probably a collection of all the electives.
So you could be doing something from journalism, from writing,
from media business, from the other disciplines.
But if you do two majors, then you concentrate in two particular areas itself,
which helps you enter into a job, um, in that particular industry itself.
And that’s why Alex said earlier, it’s great if you, uh,
we definitely encourage you to do two majors because it’s,
it would definitely open up job opportunities in that particular area itself,
uh, with regards to class times, uh, Kena, would you like to talk about that?
Um, so from pre COVID,
we had like each subject and you do three or four a semester would have one
tutorial, which is the class and one lecture,
and then maybe would have a workshop if you’re learning how to use a camera or
some other kind of gear or a seminar.
So generally per subject you’d look at one actual
30 person class per week. Um,
but the UTS timetable are quite kind.
And if you guys get to have lectures in person again,
which I sincerely hope you do, their great online, but better in person. Um,
yeah,
you can easily do like the lecture in the morning and then short break and have
the tutorial.
So it is designed to be able to get as much efficiency on one
day or a few days as possible. Yeah.
Yeah. And listen, I mean, I would be optimistic around 2022. I mean,
all the signs of vaccination and the federal government’s rollout, you know,
we expect to be back on campus and we expect to be teaching in a full capacity
in autumn 2022. Yes.
Um, so we’ve got a couple of questions on internships.
What are the opportunities for internships in this particular degree itself?
Yeah. Um, do you want me to answer that one or, yeah,
so I guess there’s, yeah, I guess there’s two levels of, uh,
of an internship and one is a bit more informal. So, um,
if there are subjects within the school of communication where you can complete
a formal internship for credit points, uh,
and that’s a more formal relationship with an employer.
The other thing that that media arts have is a, um, we generally use as a,
as a communication is the, um, is the MAP Facebook page.
So it’s a closed network, uh, and that’s really where, where opportunities,
um, uh, uh, basically advertised. And there is,
there is some of those opportunities, for example, there is some, uh,
there is a relationship with, uh, employers to make sure that, you know,
that they’re remunerated, that they’re safe working spaces and so on.
So there are opportunities if you like within that more informal network, um,
which you can do whilst you’re in your course, not necessarily, for example,
contributing to credit points as well. There are some other,
there are actually also some some high level internships,
which media arts have from time to time with film companies and with the
industry as well. Um,
and whilst they may be a little bit more limited in number,
they’re certainly something which because of our reputation we attract. Um, and,
um, and we make open through, um,
expressions of interest and so on to our students.
Sorry.
Just wanted to jump on there and say that my tutor for one subject was actually
directing a feature film, Zombie Apocalypse movie.
So just by doing that class and like few of us in the class got really chummy
and really enjoyed, um, his teaching. He said, come,
come and get on my set in summer. So we were there building sets,
giving water and umbrellas to the cast
so not even like really informal just for the connections you make with the
tutors who are all industry practitioners, uh, was really cool.
Alex, do you, um,
MAP also has a Facebook group where students are invited to where lots
of opportunities are also posted there.
Would you like to talk a little bit about that?
I just mentioned that James. Yeah.
That’s what I was sort of talking about where those informal opportunities, um,
but being a closed group, you know, it’s a, um, it’s a good space. So what,
how that actually works is that we, um, uh,
we would get opportunities from the industry organizations. We would veto them,
have a look at them, see that they’re authentic and then we would, um,
we would disseminate to it, to our students. Um, and that’s, uh,
that’s been a really good system for us.
Okay. So next one was around jobs.
So what are some of the common jobs available after finishing this particular
degree itself?
Okay. Yeah.
Sorry. I’ll just combine it with,
how does this course prepare you for entering the industry?
Yeah, I guess, yeah. So in terms of jobs,
we did have a look at that list in the, in the slide show, um, there,
and I guess you could, you know, media arts is,
is creative media. Um, but we can divide that into basically developing.
And I think he had talked about, I’ll just use screen story. There’s an example.
It’s probably one of our, uh, our most prominent parts of our reputation.
That’s not to delimit their sound and multimedia and other options as well,
but we think about screen stories as one example,
where we have the people producing the content.
We have people developing as the projects and the screenplays are written.
And so, and then we have production. So we have the crews, the cinematographers,
the directors, the production designers, and so on. Um,
and then we have post-production and post-production has been a huge, um,
a huge, um,
landscape for employment and that sort of accompany that digital revolution.
If you think of what you can do, um, uh, on,
on with relatively few computer resources these days, I mean,
we look at our students who often, um, can, you can edit for example,
laptops and do incredible work. So post-production is, is,
is a really strong pathway. Um, but the other pathways in, uh,
uh, production, screenwriting development,
and then in screen production itself being on sets and so on and equally strong
as well. And I mentioned also when I speak to the slides earlier,
there’s also jobs around the administration as well. So Screen Australia,
working for government, um, working to, um,
enable the cultural voice and the kind of Australian stories that we choose to
tell would have funded in the breech audience.
That’s been another aspect of our program, which is not, you know, celebrity,
um, you know, names in lights, but a really significant part of, um, of,
of who we are. Um, and that’s at the higher echelons, for example,
of screen Australia and those kinds of bodies that we see,
we have UTS graduates that, um, that have taken those positions. Um,
the second part of that question, James was, uh.
How does this course prepare you for the industry?
Yeah, yeah. I think we’ve touched on that quite a bit, but again,
I would say that a job ready, you could look at some of, um,
some of our other, um, uh, uh,
sort of benchmark against some other institutions. And we are that,
that practice based and practice orientated university and with that’s the
context within we sit. So we, uh, our graduates, um,
are, are highly, highly equipped vocationally, um, from, from the moment they,
um, uh, from the moment they kind of graduate as a graduate,
as opposed to taking that extra year or two to skill up, they, um,
our MAP graduates have that, um, when they, when they leave us.
Uh, so there’s a question about prerequisites for high school.
So I’ll just pick that up very quickly since Alex has mentioned that there’s no
requirement for you to actually learn any, um,
have any background in filming or anything like that.
There aren’t any prerequisites for high school,
but there are some subjects that will give you additional adjustment factor.
So you may know adjustment factors better as bonus points.
So a way to find out which subjects will give you additional points
towards your ATAR, to form your selection rank is to Google, um,
UTS adjustment factors. You will find a list of subjects,
for example, um, they would be English, um, history,
visual arts, and, you know, when you, when you score them in design and tech,
and when you score them at a particular, um, band level,
you will get additional points for those subjects.
Those are automatically apply,
and you can only get a maximum of five points towards your,
ATAR score itself. Okay. Next question is,
how competitive would you say this comms degree is Alex?
Uh, huh. Sorry. It’s how competitive was this?
Yes.
That’s right.
How competitive and how does it compare to similar degrees at other
universities?
Yeah, well, I think, I think, I mean, I think you’re looking at, you know,
the strength of the university as a whole.
So you remembering that you are a UTS student and the strength of, again,
the wider framework of being UTS, you’re looking at where you are in the city.
You’re looking at our location,
you’re looking at our connections to industry and you’re looking at our
reputation, but I think in the strength of the communication program, um,
is that, uh, I would say it is that relationship between a major,
and again, we’re talking about the media it’s major,
but also how that relates to other offerings.
So whether you’re doing the formal double major, for example, in, uh,
in digital media, um, or, or journalism, um,
they’re really strong programs as well.
So I think that it is that you’re kind of getting the best of both worlds. Okay.
So I’d say that basically,
your you’ve got a core base and that you’ve got core practices and core skills
for specific industries,
and then you’re drawing on the best of the wider community,
a school of communication program. We’re a big school. I mean,
we’ve got lots and lots of students, so MAP is a big major within it,
but we’ve got those, you know, six disciplines and so on,
and that’s a real critical mass of students. Um, it’s a critical mass, um,
socially, collegially,
and it’s also a critical mass about knowledge and creativity. Um,
and I think drawing on the strengths of those different programs, um,
as you make your way through is, is, is a really important thing.
And then drawing on the university,
whether that’s through the double degree programs and so on.
Yep. So the next question is,
do we have a chance to be in front of the camera interviewing acting, et cetera,
or do we strictly work behind the screens?
Yes, that’s a good example. And again,
they’ve been around long enough to get a few of these questions, um,
that come across. Um, and some, for example,
um, you know, it’s not a, this isn’t the course if you want to be a newsreader,
for example, um, you know, that kind of thing. So it’s not that, uh,
in front of the camera, um, and it’s not, uh,
acting and performance either. In our directing subjects,
you’ll learn, directed, we’ll learn about how to, um,
how to work with actors for screen directing practices. So you will read, learn,
understand about acting performance, um, but it doesn’t, um, that gives you the,
um, the abilities to direct, which is different than the ability to act.
And again, um, I would, if that’s your core passion, you know, there’s NIDA,
um, there’s, um, uh, there’s some
some of our fellow institutions do theater for example, as well, but, um,
that’s not this course. Kena might want to add something a little bit about that.
Yeah. I would just say the same. Maybe you can do a doco about yourself,
which I think most of us did in the doco subject,
but this is mainly a behind the camera industry course.
I also need to head off now I’m joining the MAP webinar.
So if anyone wants to know more about the student experience of the course,
that’s where I’ll be. Thanks. You guys I’ll see you later. Yeah.
Well, we may have a few more, uh,
people leaving to join that very exciting session. Um,
so I’ll just very quickly cover some of these other areas, um,
around people wanting,
you can only take MAP as a first major itself, um,
and whatever you study in the same second major,
you study the same number of subjects. So it doesn’t reduce the,
the number of subjects, um,
is exchange part of the international studies degree, or is it, um,
built into the media arts and production degree itself? The exchange,
every single student at UTS is entitled to do six months of exchange. Um,
there must be some there, I think there is an academic requirement for it.
So you cannot fail more than two subjects, I believe for you to do exchange,
but you’d be able to find out on the exchange website, uh,
any chance of a second major in music and sound design, unfortunately, no,
because it’s a separate degree altogether. Um, however,
within the electives itself, if you like to do a music and sound design subject,
you can definitely request put in the request and they will consider it.
We also, we have been focusing a bit on emit as well, but we do,
we do sound design within our programs. Okay. So we do sound is that is, um,
an equal part of, of kind of what we do.
We probably have talked about it a little bit less. Yep.
Uh, how much theory is there in this degree, Alex? I can’t answer that question.
Yeah. Uh, like I said, we that’s probably does differentiate us from our,
from our, um,
from other institutions we’re more geared towards the practice space. Um,
and you know, I, it’s probably difficult to put a number on, on these things,
but I, our, as I would say, you know, you know, we’re two thirds in media arts,
you know, uh, on our practice and the other third, um, looking at the,
sort of the, um, the theory and context around, around those things.
The last question is would media arts and production be used for
digital marketing. Um, I think I can answer that particular question itself.
So if you, if you’re coming into media arts and production,
and it’s great that you can do a short film, um, and,
but if that’s not a path that you want to go down,
we have had a lot of students,
there is a demand for multimedia production in digital marketing.
So I am, um, I was the marketing manager.
So we did hire a lot of media arts and production students because we need them
to create video content for social media, for the website and all that.
So,
and the great thing about the communication degree is that it offers you another
area and another, another major.
That’s why we emphasize the second major is so important.
And such great opportunity for you to learn something outside just
filmmaking, because we’ve found that, um,
students will combine MAP with digital and social media or MAP with strategic
communication, previously known as pub comm,
are able to think more strategically and,
and think more about marketing and strategies and stuff like that,
and not just purely about filmmaking. So, um, you can definitely,
it is definitely a very, very, um,
valuable skill for anyone who knows how to create videos in
digital marketing. So I think we’ve finished all the questions.
There were a lot of questions here, so, um, you should all join the MAP
workshop session where Nate and Kena will be running that session, and Alex if
you’ve got any other words that you’d like to add.
Before? No, I just say, yeah, thanks everybody for coming today.
And I hope that you’ve been able to learn about, you know,
who we are and what we do. Uh,
I thought it was a really good questions and really, um, interesting questions.
And I hope we were able to answer that there are other opportunities, um,
around the, uh, the Open Day website for further questions you might have.
And also, um, we can,
we can follow up on questions as well that weren’t able to be answered today,
but, um, yeah, thanks for coming along. And I really, um, I can’t see you,
but I hope I really hope to see you in 2022. And, um,
I look forward to joining you if you join MAP, if that’s something, uh,
which you’ve liked what you hear today. And, um, and, and you reached in that,
so thank you very much.