Bucks Discovers Fresh Music Talent with BBC Introducing

Our head of department Steve Partridge recently attended a showcase for our Audio & Music Production and Film & TV Production undergraduates, organized by UK Music. Bucks has pioneered and led the pilot initiative with BBC Introducing, shining the spotlight on fresh music talent, and discovering new bands, and Bucks has now been invited to help lead similar projects at other Universities and Colleges in the UK.

Miles Skarin Self-Starts His Freelance Career

Animation image by Miles Skarin

Miles Skarin is a first year animation and VFX student at Bucks, but he is already tackling professional freelance work, creating websites and animation for musicians, bands, and record labels. 

Miles already has an impressive client list - including major artists such as Jethro Tull. We asked him to talk about how he broke into the industry, founded a successful freelance career - while still in his first year at university.

Nellie Bell Records Music Video at Bucks

Nellie Bell (left) works with a Film & TV student at Bucks

Australian singer-songwriter Nellie Bell has been working with our students here at Bucks to produce the video for her new single, Ha Ha Ha. Nellie used the state-of-the-art studios at our High Wycombe Campus to record the three-minute long video, which will accompany the single when it is released early in this year. Our Animation & VFX students are even now creating concepts for the 3D environments, which will (needless to say) be completely fabulous.

Student Showcase - Abstract Animation Set to Music by our First Year Animators

Abstract animation set to music - by Sham Salim

Our new Animation and VFX course at Bucks is growing steadily, and our freshmen students are more dynamic and creative than ever, having made a stunning start on their first assessed animation exercise – an abstract animation piece set to music. We are proud to showcase here some of our students' best work. Part of the assessment involved collaborating with the sound design students at Bucks, helping our animators to take advantage of the stunning grange of facilities and talent available here at our High Wycombe campus. Film-making is rarely a solo venture, and working with other students who are specialists in their own field invariably helps our animators raise their game.

Student Showcase - Our Talented First Year Animators

Every animation course begins with a bouncing ball

Our new Animation & VFX course has been up and running for just six weeks now, but our freshmen animators are already doing excellent work. Their first formally assessed brief was to do a short piece of abstract animation set to music. In order to pass, the students had to be able to demonstrate that they had mastered all the basic 3D skills: modeling, texturing, camera, animation, lighting, render and final output.

Below is a small selection of some of the films which came out particularly well.

Bucks student animates music video

Paula Gillin, one of our very talented animators at Bucks New University, has just completed a music video for the up-and-coming indie band Joe Gideon and The Shark. It was a tough project because the deadline was very tight but she did an excellent job pulling all the elements together on time, working with the band, the record label and the art director - to create a cool piece of 2D animation.

Congratulations to Paula on making the deadline. As the band leader Joe Gideon himself said: "Paula did a great job and she hit the deadline too, which is a first in the music biz for sure."

----Alex