ETIC | Curso Media Production

Presentation

For Cinema and Television, Sound Design, Photography, Journalism, and Graphic Design HND Students

In this Top Up Year provided by the School of Media Arts and Technology of Solent University Southampton, you will have the chance to develop your existing knowledge and expand your creative and technical skills.

A Top Up Year prepares the student to obtain an academic level (BA-Hons) and successfully overcome professional challenges by promoting a fruitful relationship with the community, businesses and institutions.
ETIC encourages talent, expertise and open-mindedness. The student develops creative thinking, so as to tighten opportunities and create possibilities for the actual and future practice contexts.

Why A TOP UP YEAR

The course aims to explore, as primary objective, a reflection around the diffusion of information, and the transmission of a message. It is imperative that students discover and explore their creative and technical abilities from an innovative, creative, and new perspective, in order to open conceptual doors and suggest original ideas for the market.
The programme continues the contextualization of the work developed in previous training and experiences. Regarding the universe of Media Production, the programme operates in the contemporary social and cultural context, not forgetting the roots of the practice. Through a retrospective look at the historical, social and technological approaches and experiences, the course seeks to promote the projection and revelation of new manifestations, reflections and practices centred on a multidisciplinary openness.
The course will also reflect the types and places of work that the student will encounter in the Media Production world, in different geo-economic territories, in their professional lives. This point clarifies the need for students to produce evidence from their studies, exploring concepts and ideas, in order to improve their theoretical and practical portfolio. Students will contribute to the history of the course through their lines of research, to which they have to base their decisions and conclusions on a clear scientific basis.
The course’s educational anchor guarantees the student development, amplifies his cognitive abilities, and makes learning processes flexible and articulated with the goal of streamlining student cohesion in both individual and collective projects. Students know that there are different ways of telling the same story, and they also know that their story is unique, but they have to write it with dedication. Innovation has, in this perspective, a unique sense, that of moving forward.
The teachers, tutors and specialists associated with the course are experienced professionals within their work areas. Other guests may be invited to collaborate and bring knowledge and experiences. The course curriculum, as well as its structure, will be nurtured by the wide variety of extracurricular events available throughout the school year. As the year progresses, status analysis will be made, and students must prepare for the intermediate presentations, in addition to the final presentation.
Above all, we think about the competitive characteristics needed for the future. In addition to the sharing of knowledge, our main goal is to create aesthetic and technical value and to make things happen. We will do our best to have engaged students who will “live” in the course, who will take advantage of this academic experience in Media Production in order to pursue a successful career.

coordinators

Pedro Senna Nunes — ETIC Course Leader

Russell White — Solent University Southampton Link Tutor

Curriculum

What will you study

Major Project: Developing and Producing Creative Content

The Major Project is the unit in which students’ skills come together in the design, execution and presentation of a creative, complex and individually demanding piece of work and is an arena in which they will be encouraged to engage in critical debate. It is intended to be both personally and intellectually challenging. The students on this unit will undertake to originate, research, develop and present a creative idea that might form the basis for an original and innovative media production project with commercial potential. Their creative idea will eventually take the form of a ‘pitching package’ or portfolio of documents designed to take their creative idea to a marketplace that will be researched and specified by the students. The form, shape and content of the portfolio is dependent on the particular forms of creative ideas, proposed platforms and routes to market the students select, and will thus be negotiated with and approved by the supervisor. In addition, students undertaking this unit will be required to write an extended critical reflection that evaluates the process of originating and developing their creative ideas.
This is an interdisciplinary Unit where all the Media Production class will be together to develop their individual projects. The classes are fed by both general knowledge of the vast Media Production field, understanding its wide range of studies and practices, as well as by specialized knowledge, supported by the Unit Leaders and other invited tutors from the different speciality areas and considering the needs of individual projects.

ETIC Unit Leader for Cinema and Television:
Pedro Senna Nunes
Solent University Southampton Unit Leader:
Roy Hanney

Working in The Creative Media

This unit is devoted to the support of student work experience and to reflecting on that experience. The unit will also address the building an online presence via professional and para-professional platforms (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo). By the end of the unit students will have consolidate an online presence which operates as a showcase for their developing professional status, incorporates their own production work and demonstrates a burgeoning social media presence.
This a common and interdisciplinary Unit where all the students of the Top Up Year in Media Production will be together to develop professional practices in the Creative Media areas.

ETIC Unit Leader:
Tiago Senna
Solent University Southampton Unit Leader:
Russell White

Producing for the Social Media

In this unit, students will learn to produce single camera video drama production in support of a targeted social media campaign. In addition to developing familiarity with more sophisticated production tools in terms of the single camera pre-production, production, post production and delivery phases of the production cycle, students will also address issues of platform and audience in relation to the targeted communication of ideas and messages in service of a charity, non-governmental organisation or business campaign. Students will build on their existing technical and intellectual skills and knowledge to develop an effective social media strategy for their single camera production that maximises audience engagement and interaction across a range of social media platforms. Accompanying seminars will help the students to derive strategies that can be applied to their own projects. Throughout the process tutors will monitor the various stages of production from initial verbal pitch to completed projects.
This an interdisciplinary Unit where all the students of the Top Up Year in Media Production will be together to develop audio-visual productions in specific contexts.

ETIC Unit Leader:
Margarida Cardoso
Solent University Southampton Unit Leader:
Martin Hughes

Factual Production

This unit will develop techniques of single camera production. Students will develop and produce a short non-fiction/documentary project and produce an analytical and reflective essay. They will develop familiarity with sophisticated production tools in terms of cameras, sound, lighting and editing equipment. Accompanying screenings will help the students to derive strategies that can be applied to their own productions. Throughout the process tutors will monitor the various stages of production from initial verbal pitch to completed projects.

This a specific Unit for the students of the Top Up Year in Media Production/Cinema and Television.

ETIC Unit Leader: Margarida Leitão
Solent University Southampton Unit Leader: Martin Hugues

Audio Production

The unit considers the use of audio across a range of possible encounters including radio, art installations, podcasts, walking tours, interactive guides, as well as other sonic works. Alongside theory seminars exploring the ways in which sound ‘works’ and creates meaning, the unit will also provide students with the skills to successfully produce an audio project. This will include technical sessions with regards to both pre and post production, enabling students to develop their skills in recording and creating soundscapes. Students will be expected to use the material discussed in the theoretical sessions to inform their own production work, and this will be assessed in the written critical reflection.

ETIC Unit Leader: Raquel Castro
Solent University Southampton Unit Leader: Paul Stevens