Career advice from our Latest Graduate Panel at Bucks

our graduate panel at Bucks

Yesterday, Thursday September 25th, we welcomed our latest graduate panel. These are Bucks graduates who have made it in the creative industries who come back to tell us about the latest trends in creative media, and to help our students gain an early understanding of what it takes to launch their own careers.

Our guests this time were cinematographer Barry Gross, Matt Harris, Tammy Riley-Smith, who has just directed the feature film Delicious, BBC Producer Simon Fox, John Osbourne of Brassneck TV,  and TV director Lorna Gibbs.  A number of the panelists will be coming back to Bucks to teach our students the latest skills in new media.

Graduate Panel Friday 21 March 2014 - jobs, careers, and how to make it in a digital world

From left, Jude Winstanley, Jaffar Ali, Beaumont Lowenthal, Stephen Partridge, Scott Humphries, Andy Thomas and Thom Day

Yesterday, friday 21 March 2014, was our latest Graduate Panel, a regular event where we invite Bucks Graduates to come back to their university and talk about how they forged their careers in digital media. They all studied here at Bucks and each one of them understands better than anyone how to turn the skills they acquired at university into a successful career in the entertainment industry.

Meet Your Tutor - Dr Fil Ieropolous

Fil Ieropoulos: exploring the relationship between poetry and film

Dr Fil Ieropoulos is responsible for the delivery and grading of the  academic content of our Online MA in Animation at Bucks.

As part of our series of posts introducing our students to their tutors, we asked Fil to talk about his academic work in film and poetry, and how he combines the theory behind his creative work, and its practice.

Maya Taster Day

Our Maya Taster Day is fast approaching.  The idea is that those of you that have never tried Maya or indeed any 3D can get some hands on experience.  We'll have some exciting sessions ready for you, run by Alex and Dave.

Multi-Million Pound Vizrt System To Be Installed at Bucks

Vizrt - bringing virtual studios to Bucks

Our dynamic Head of Department, Stephen Partridge, has secured a deal with Vizrt, creators of virtual sets, giving animation students access to a multi - million pound virtual studio system.  We believe our animation students are the first in the UK to gain access to this system as part of their studies!  Vizrt allows us to build virtual 3D sets, key out 'talent' from a green screen background whilst simultaneously tracking a camera, all in real-time!  This allows live broadcasts in a virtual environment and the only limitation is the imagination of the set designers!

Viral Tap wants your videos - £1,000 prize!

Stephen Partridge, who runs the Media Production Department at Bucks, has brought in an exciting competition for all our talented students at Bucks, from a former colleague who is working on a new show for ITV2 titled Viral Tap.

Viral Tap is an panel show presented by Caroline Flack, which will showcase entertaining clips sent in by contributors. Viral Tap will be putting a weekly call out for clips and also wants weekly contributions to be filmed by members of the public - that means you and me.

Motion Capture comes to Bucks

Animators don't like Motion Capture. We fear it because it threatens us, threatens to replace what we do so carefully and painstakingly and slowly with fast, inexpensive, automated technology. I first heard about it way back in 1987 on the set of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" when it was rumoured that a technology existed whereby a computer could capture an actor's motion and express it instantly as a piece of 3D animation. Well, that'll never catch on, I thought (or hoped, more likely). Phil Nibbelink, one of the most talented animators on The Rabbit, called Motion Capture "the battle cry of the untalented". How we laughed.

Andy Serkis at Comic Con 2011, photographed by Gerald Geronimo

Bucks Animation Students Invited To Free Harry Potter Studio Tour on May 13th

Harry Potter Leavesden Entrance. Photo by Karen Roe

We're excited to announce that Bucks animation & VFX students will be taking the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden on May 13th! Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden is a 80-hectare studio complex in Hertfordshire and a major film and media complex, used for filming the Harry Potter series of films. Obviously, this trip is purely about helping our students to learn about animation and visual effects, and has nothing to do with wanting to have fun at a movie theme park. We'll be working really hard, I promise.

Keep in Touch - a Message to all Our Graduates

Gateway Building

Three years sounds like a long time, but your degree in Animation and VFX will fly past. One of the best things about studying at Bucks is the amazing resources for media production that we have in the Gateway Building - our modern media hub, completed just a few years ago.  The great benefit of easy access to all this university equipment - and also the access to fellow students who are also interested in creative media - may not be fully obvious to you until you graduate, and it's not there anymore.