Student View: Extracurricular Activities…

Being at university is about more than lectures and the local pub! ProductionBase blogger, Sharon Boyd, looks at the range of activities and events available for TV and film students.

Extracurricular Activities...

In the UK there are plenty of opportunities to find events and activities related to film. In Scotland there is the Edinburgh Film Festival that took place in June of this year. The Festival promotes the very best of international cinema. Films such as Little Miss Sunshine, Billy Elliot and The Hurt Locker premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, so it’s a fantastic place to catch some high quality filmmaking. Recently Sheffield’s Documentary Festival took place which included documentary film screenings, debates and talks. In Northern Ireland some upcoming events include a talk by Catherine Geary who is the location manager of Dracula Untold, taking place in September. Northern Ireland has also previously had the Game of Thrones exhibition available to visit. The UK is full of places to go to watch films as well as learn about them. Carrying out research will assist you in discovering what your local area has to offer in terms of film based activities and events.

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Student View: Make The Most Of Your University Network

Sharon Boyd looks at how to use your university connections to improve your employability whilst you study:

Make The Most Of Your University Network

The general impression of undergraduates isn’t always a favourable one. Frequently when thinking of student life we conjure up images of intoxicated individuals stealing traffic cones, and spending the majority of the sunlight hours sleeping off hangovers, and those regretful decisions of choosing to have garlic mayo on their kebab the night before. But alongside the parties, many of these students still manage to be academically successful by having a good balance between their social life and studies, which is key for any student wanting to do well but have fun at the same time.

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Student View: Get That Essential Work Experience

Having secured a place on a competitive university course, unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. According to the graduate market in 2013, 47% of leading UK graduate employers would be unlikely to offer a position within their company to an applicant with no work experience.

With competition for jobs in the media industries particularly fierce, there are a number of ways in which undergraduates can become more appealing to employers during the course of a degree.

Here’s five ways undergraduates can make themselves more employable over the duration of their degree:

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Student View: What To Look For In a Media Course

University degrees in the media sector have become a topic of ridicule amongst many in recent years mainly due to the multitude of courses available to undergraduate students. With tuition fees rising and the diversity of courses on offer showing no signs of subsiding, are undergraduates making the right decision when choosing their courses and if so, are universities justifying an expense which averaged £26,000 amongst 2012 graduates?

Choosing the right course is a difficult decision for any undergraduate and whilst there is a wealth of guidance available from organisations looking to help students make the right decision, often key question go unasked during the application process which have far reaching effects on the graduate market.

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Media Qualifications – What’s Their Worth?

Media Qualifications – What’s Their Worth?

Media qualifications have received much cynicism from the industry, but the number of students who flock to pursue them continues to grow. This week TV lecturer Royston Mayoh who nominated his former student and winner of the Runner of the Year Awards, Jade Gilbert, weighs up their real value.

How wonderful to hear that, Jade Gilbert, won the 2010 ProductionBase Runner of the Year award, and my personal congratulations to her for that, but how strange that in the very same week I am asked to write about my experiences as a college lecturer in TV production, what my view is about the value of these ‘media’ qualifications.

It is no secret that a degree in ‘media’ is viewed by both the academic world and the TV world with a certain amount of scepticism. Although it would be quite unfair to make a sweeping generalisation I think that, in the main, most would agree that the academic world regard it as a ‘soft’ subject, whilst the TV world regard it as having very little real value.

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