Micaiah Dring, Twist and Shout

Two years ago Micaiah Dring was a student at Confetti and was sat in the audience listening to guest speakers in industry week. She is now the Assistant Producer/ Assistant Director at Twist & Shout productions and this week returned to Confetti as a guest speaker.

She started out acting in indie films in and around Nottingham alongside studying at Confetti. After completing her BND and foundation degree at Confetti she decided to gain some work experience and took up the roles of a runner to camera assistants, assistant in an art department, third assistant director and working in wardrobe departments.

Micaiah was keen to pass on her knowledge and says her three major tips for gaining work experience are;

1) Don’t ever walk off set out of pocket.
- Never use your own money to buy things for the production, always ask for the money before going out.
2) Decide what you want to achieve through work experience
- Decide whether you want to make a start at getting into the business or just gain an overview of how a set runs.
3) Assist a particular person or department.
- If you want to assist a certain department then don’t ask the producer, instead ask the department that you want to work with.
While working as an assistant director on a set, she was given the opportunity to take control of a scene which resulted in her being given the opportunity to be the assistant producer.

Micaiah now works at Twist and Shout, a company that specialises in business to business marketing, and has worked with such companies as Warner Brothers, Michelin and Sony. Working with global companies means she has to budget in Pounds, Dollars and Euros. This also means that she sometimes has to work outside the normal hours if she has to work with foreign clients such as Warner Brothers.

Companies contact Twist and Shout with an idea. The production team at Twist and Shout then workshop the ideas and return with a proposal of three options for the company to consider before deciding on the final brief. The company can decide on the content and the message of the video, however, Twist and Shout form the creativity for the video.
When asked about her future she said she is happy where she for the moment but may consider project management, advertising or she may even decide to start a family.

As her talk came to an end, and as an ex-Confetti student, she left us with some good advice. Deadlines are vitally important and if you can get used to working at odd hours and outside your comfort zone it can be really helpful, especially in the film industry.

Jim Parkyn- Aardman Animations

To finish off Confetti’s hugely successful Industry week I was given to opportunity to hear from a more “hands on” professional which was in fact Jim Parkyn; model maker, toy designer and all round nice guy of Aardman Animations.

As we all sat down and where given the usual formalities things where underway and we were introduced to Jim Parkyn himself. It was at this point I noticed the big table full of ceramic modelling clay or better known as Plasticine, needless to say I was already filed with excitement. I like to think of myself as a creative person and I was hoping for a hand on approach but I would have to wait and see what Jim had planned for us.
To begin with Jim explained a little bit about who he is and where he’s from before treating the audience to a short video made by staff members which was an attempt at using the same stop motion techniques that have made Jim so famous. With that said the production values where say not quite as impressive as that of Wallace and Gromit however the audience certainly enjoyed to see it. With that said Jim then discussed his early creations such as the 80s classic The Trap Door, not knowing this I was filled with glee as it was a personal favourite of mine and took up a lot of my childhood! It was from this that Jim moved to work with Creature Comforts which is an interesting twist on public interviews, in that they are chopped and edited and given a Plasticine set and made to look like an interview with wild animals. This sounds a little odd but for those who haven’t seen it before I suggest you do soon as you can because it is wonderfully hilarious.

After showing the audience a clip from Creature Comforts Jim then went on to tell us all about his journey to becoming a model maker for Aardman, he started by explaining how he began by studying Product Design and then after taking part in some after-hours courses found himself taking part in a course in Wales which specialised in CG and 2D animation.
Jim spent two years with this study and then finally graduated in 98, it was here that he when worked on an unsuccessful sci-fi animation which he expressed a certain lack of confidence in. It was from this that Jim went on to talk about his progression through the industry touching on this work with the BBC on Robbie the Reindeer and how he moved from this to end up at Aardman, with his first job being on the family favourite Chicken Run. After this he moved onto work with the ever charming Rex the Runt where he focused on character design and then contributed to the Tortoise vs. Hare.

With that said Jim returned to talking about Creature Comforts, he expanded on it further and went into a lot more detail this time. He began by talking about how animators cut corners in the way that if part of an object isn’t seen in the animation then it isn’t made, for example how in a clip where the back of a sofa is not seen then the design team would not make it. This fascinated me as this is identical to the way that 3D modellers in the game industry work too, if something is never seen then it isn’t made. From this Jim showed us a video which detailed the process in which a clip from Creature Comforts is designed, staring with a detailed concept sketch to filming real actors mouthing the script to working with the animation. He explained how the interviews are all real life occurrences which are then manipulated and “cut up” so the team can work with it and create the short animation, he chuckled when detailing how the more vain the responses are the worse creature they tend to be in an ironic way.

“Creature Comforts are a head on stick animation” Jim explained, this meaning that the animation is primarily focused on the head and facial expressions. He then showed us a video once again but this time a documentary which followed the entire process from the recorded interview to the finished animation. I was blown away by the amount of commitment and creativity that the whole team has when making an animation like Creature Comforts with the documentary showing how the company has an almost magical touch to it.

From this Jim talked more about the industry itself detailing how getting a foot in the door with animation is generally a combination of experience and luck and expressing how it is very much a “right place at the right time” industry. With that said Jim assured the audience by explaining how the skills used are relative to a lot of other industries too such as the game and film industry and how easy it is to move between the two.
Jim then opened the floor to some Q and A to which he was asked about creation times for a full animations as well as the implementation of Computer Graphics and how that will effect stop motion animations such as his. In response to these Jim detailed the complexity of each animation and how it’s completely dependent on lots of key factors, in terms of Computer Graphics Jim discussed how the process certainly is easier to do the same job however a lot of the magic and soul is lost in the process. With that said Jim then told the audience how before the lecture finished we were going to collectively make our own models out of the Plasticine located on the stage. Once everyone taking part have received their Plasticine we began modelling Gromit from the famous Wallace and Gromit animations of the 90s, with a little help and advice from Jim we all managed to create something that was perhaps not perfect but a whole lot more magical than anything that could have been achieved with computer graphics.

By Samuel Johnston, FDSC student in Games Technology.

Play games, stop playing games, Mike Bithell, Bossa Studios.

Mike Bithell was a new name to me; this is certainly not to say that he is a new or small name in the industry but more that he has slipped away from my radar! With that said I was eager to see what he had to tell us today. Stepping into the lecture room we were introduced to Mike Bithell of Bossa Studios.

Mike began with a PowerPoint presentation to which he titled “15 things that no-one told me about game design”. He explained how he was going to run through points that would collectively make us all understand the needs and expectations of the games industry.

1. Design is not about Ideas.
2. Solve Problems.
3. Steal other peoples solutions, but only if they have the same problem.
4. Never stop making stuff.
5. Seek out the projects that challenge you, not the ones that demonstrate you’re genius.
6. Play Games.
7. Stop playing Games.
8. You have no idea whether your design works. That’s everyone else on the planets job.
9. It’s not a meritocracy learn a little PR.
10. Never forget how impressed nine year-old you would be with your job.
11. You will be paid, very, very badly.
12. Learn to code, no-one wants to make your game.
13. 90% of your heroes and inspirations in the games industry would reply to a tweet for an email.
14. Speak slower, listen more.
15. Design on Paper.

These points are very self-explanatory, although I would go as far to say they are more constructive guidelines than anything else. I do believe by following these guidelines you will indeed achieve more in the way of getting yourself into the games industry. Mike has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to making games and this is his advice to us. I can personally say that I have certainly adopted points from these guidelines to the way in which I work and I am already seeing better results.

It was from this that Mike introduced us to a game that he is working on independently called Thomas is Alone; this game is a linear based side scrolling platformer that involves the players creativity and puzzle solving skills to advance through the game and complete the objective. After explaining how the game works Mike expressed his interest in making games like this one in his spare time as well as working on big projects with Bossa Studios. I was inspired by this and I am certainly going to give it a try myself as being Mike playing his own game with such passion and accomplishment I too would enjoy playing a game that I knew was a product of my own hard work.

It was from this that Mike opened up to a Q and A where he was asked a variety of questions spanning from his inspirations and his views on fermium titles; he expressed his love for creativity as a child which was the foundation of his desire to create video games, as well as a love for old school shooter Half-life. When asked about Freemium Mike expressed a keen interest in it and would maybe implement it into one of his games in the future however he was turned off on the idea of additional items being bought to enhance your skills with online multiplayer. This is an issue that I share Mike’s negativity for; it is a way of companies to make extra money from an unfair advantage. I personally love to hear pro and con arguments regarding issues such as this one; it’s this kind of attention and passion for the games industry that has kept my aspirations and attention to Confetti’s industry week at such high standards.

By Samuel Johnston, FDSC in Games Technology.

'They say never meet you heroes...' Karl Hilton, MD at Crytek UK

When Thursday came around I was as excited as a child waiting for Christmas, this was due to the fact today was the day I got to hear from Karl Hilton of Crytek UK thanks to Confetti’s fantastic Industry week. The reason for this being that Crytek is a local games development company here in Nottingham, this alone fills students like me with promise and excitement due to the fact that there is effectively a walk into the industry position here on our doorstep.

We all sat down once again in the lecture room and Karl was introduced to the audience, after briefly saying a few words about who he is and what he does Karl went straight into his pitch with a video of a game he worked on recently which was Crysis 2 multiplayer. I took a lot of things from this trailer such as the production standards of Crytek but most importantly I noticed that videos soundtrack was a recent single from the Prodigy. With this famous track from a notoriously successful band playing in time with the onscreen action I thought to myself These guys know what they are doing

So Karl then began to explain his journey towards being where he is today, firstly graduating with a BA in Architecture he then branched off into a MA in Computer Visualisation and Animation due to the fact that because of the recession at the time it was much cheaper to do so. This was also due to an interest in video games too though of course! So after his time as a student it wasn’t long before he got a job working for Rare ltd. Karl then discussed how it was at Rare that he began working on Goldeneye and Perfect Dark which are two very successful titles for the Nintendo 64, his team consisted of 12 staff and a production time of two years.

After Rare Karl moved to Free Radical where he worked on AAA games for Microsoft and other big names in the industry, it was here that Karl worked on the famously quirky Timesplitters series on the PlayStation 2 console.

Karl explained how after nine years at Free Radical the company was then bought by a Norwegian company known as Crytek to form Crytek UK, expressing that the reason they chose Free Radical was based on the widely successful multiplayer and console titles they worked on.

It was here when Karl really began to divulge in where he comes from and what he does, he went on to explain how the first game he worked on was Crysis 2 and how all of the work on this game was done in-house. This surprised me as a lot of companies use outsourcing; this however shows how efficient and well equipped Crytek are. With this he explained how they are primarily a video game developer who are the key contributors to the Crysis universe, as well as being responsible for the Cryengine software which not only allows for students such as myself access to industry grade development software but also how it is used for external simulation and training.

From this Karl talked about the games industry and showed just how its grown with the aid of some graphs and figures, this was very interesting and is a brilliant resource for use in case studies and essays. Karl showed us how the industry is moving to tailor more to the online market, how digital distribution and cloud gaming is the future and something that Crytek is very interested in. After showing the audience how the digital and mobile markets will soon be on par with the retail marketplace Karl then showed another video demonstrating the power and uses of the Cryengine, being a huge fan of the Cryengine I simply sat back and enjoyed the show.

Karl finished his talk with an open Q and A to which he was asked repeatedly about internships and possible opportunities for students at Crytek UK, it was from this that he explained how Crytek are always interested in the option for interns however the way that publishers hold a strict was in which the production process takes place it is not an easy thing to achieve. This was all music to my ears, hearing about how well Crytek treats young talent and just how friendly the company is I can safely say that I am a lot more relaxed when it comes to reaching out for professional advice. They say never meet your heroes, well today I met one of mine and it feels great.

By Samuel Johnston, FDSC student in Games Technology.

Keep making stuff!, Karl Hilton, Crytek.

Industry week has been a very colourful week all over the board with many high profile names coming in to give sessions on themselves! Now it was time to welcome Karl Hilton to the S11 stage.

Karl began the session with a game trailer of Crysis 2 Multiplayer; the gameplay clips have already sold the game to me as I have not played even Crysis 2! Later on in the session Karl displayed more clips of the CRY Engine which is best for multiplayer and is developed right here in Nottingham, was this why he showed us the Crysis 2 Multiplayer trailer? The CRY engine is used in more industries than the gaming industry; other forces such as the police and aerospace also use the CRY engine to develop their software further.

Many years ago, Karl studied a BA in Architecture he stated that he Mucked about with computers This was of course before moving on to an MD in Computer Visualisation and Animation which was funded by the government.

Illustrious is a hard word to give to a career but Karl well and truly deserves it; He has worked on many AAA game titles such as the TimeSplitters series and SecondSight. This was of course while he was working with Free Radical Design; this company was also very Infamous for the video game title Haze! These titles, other than Haze, have sold millions of units around the world branching out on the PS2, GameCube and Xbox. These games were that good; the games sold in batches to such places as Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea and Australia!

On the situation of game sales Karl also stated that the game industry is changing. This is exiting news for the consumer but not so much for the game retailers such as GAME and Game Station which are already on their back legs due to digital downloads and other services such as Steam and Cloud Gaming .In South Korea there isn’t a single games store! This is due to the internet averaging at around 100mb in speed in South Korea, which is the average speed for a home connection! Crazy! The average for the UK is only around 17mb! WOW!

Before Karl opened up the room for questions he spoke about the current situation of Crytek, such as a project that is in progress right now, He told us that Crytek are developing Homefront 2 for THQ, but unfortunately due to disclaimers in contracts sadly, that is all he could tell us at this time! He also spoke briefly about Crytek buying out FreeRedicalDesign and Crytek becoming Crytek GmbH! Crytek are working on 2 secret projects which again, we can’t hear about. University doesn’t matter to Crytek, because Karl believes that if you have a skill, you should work towards it. Just build a portfolio! Keep making stuff!

Words were wise from Karl, and will surely help us all when we come to our breakthrough into the industry; we respect his schedule and truly thank Karl for making an appearance in industry week.

Thanks for reading another post for confetti.uk.com

By Nick Mason, a level 3 in Interactive gaming.

Mark Sargison, Freelance sound designer.

Day three of industry week and we had a talk from ex-Confetti lecturer and sound design artist Mark Sargison. He began telling us about how he got to where he is today and also about being a freelance artist.
Mark went to a grammar school and always expected to continue through education and go to university. He achieved A-levels in geography, economics and music before going onto to study digital music at the University of Brighton where in his final year he produced a short film and a soundtrack.

He has always had a passion for music and has experimented with lots musical sounds including making music from an air conditioning unit and other pieces of equipment. As well as producing music he has also had experience of live music and at the age of 11 started a band with some friends. For the next 11 years they would tour England doing gigs and recording demos.

Mark has had many jobs over the years from working in a record shop to being a chef for an ‘all you can eat’ restaurant (which he doesn’t recommend doing). However after taking a teaching job at Confetti Studios he met fellow teacher and freelance editor Richard Graham who asked him to produce some music for a film he had made. This lead to him working on other projects as well as being asked to work on the Arctic Monkeys concert film.

Two years ago he relocated to Manchester and became a freelance sound designer. There he decided to attend a networking event on motion graphics which resulted in him gaining freelance work with local businesses.
Mark gave an insight on what it’s like to work as a freelance artist. This is someone who is self-employed and not committed to a long term employer.
There are many things you need to set yourself up as a freelance artist but the most important things are having a website so that you can advertise your work and a show reel to showcase what you have done and what you can bring to your customer. Buying good equipment and legitimate software are important however; his personal tip is that you create a workspace separate from your living space. So have a room to use as an office to create a private workspace.

There are a lot of positives of being a freelance artist such as being your own boss, choosing your own hours and working with whom and where you want. However, being a freelancer isn’t the only option to help get into the business. There are many ways including getting an apprenticeship with production companies such as the BBC and ITV or going straight into a production company as a runner and start working your way up.

In summary Mark has given us an insight into freelance work and is proof that, if you work hard and take chances you’ll discover the opportunities.

By Matthew Darbyshire, level 3 student in Film and Television.

Neil Roberts, video game artist.

A man of my own favoured art, hoisted up high with it from 14 years of experience, 12 of those being in video game art but mainly character art. 2 years ago he went freelance, focusing more on illustration. I personally had a good connection with Neil and could understand his mindset and passion very well as I’m sure many others in the room did too especially those of the artistic nature.

I think for the majority he successfully conveyed that ‘good advice to us students that I’ve seen so many people fail to do in a presentation before. Whether this is purely an artistic mentality or not, I’m not entirely sure but I feel the general message Neil tried to put across to us students was that in order to succeed you must enjoy whatever it is you choose to do, and through that you will have the ability to truly progress. The other ways he advised us all to succeed is to keep good time management, still being a rather ambiguous form of advice, I think he understood that his success has become second nature and to convey that to another is little more than challenging at the best of times.

As Neil Roberts was describing to us all his child hood passion, and how he drew since he could hold a pencil, I was enthralled with his every word. It was amazing to see how much I could relate myself personally to everything he described within himself, seeing myself as a younger version of himself. It was also interesting to see his views on entering the industry. To some a possibly controversial thing to say You don’t need education or grades to get into the industry, if your good your portfolio speaks for itself, which as a general view I couldn’t possibly agree with more, I hoped that this kind of message spoke out just as strongly to everyone else who attended the same lecture.

With so many years of skill and experience under his belt Neil’s work had obviously progressed constantly throughout his career, we got to see work as early as his childhood colourings to his modern day contract work, in which we could all see the obvious interest of spaceships, lasers, soldiers and other forms of sci-fi within all his work. His childhood inspirations he told us of were Judge Dredd, Flash Gordon, Blake’s Seven, Knightmare and many other of a similar era, I could see how these influences resonated throughout all his work. Working a little at Codemasters a while back in his career, on projects such as Mirco Machines, Colin Mcrae Rally and Downhill Mountain Biking although he didn’t specify what parts he designed. These are all classic titles with a consistently successful company who have been around for years now. No doubt Neil was very proud to have worked on projects as far back as that. Some of his other works were for numerous book and comic covers, with numerous amounts of these being for the British science-fiction comic weekly, 2000AD.

Below is a link to Neil’s portoflio:

http://www.skinnyelbows.com/

After having a quick look you can see how his work often uses very strong and bright colours, combining them in a high contrast, high definition and effective manner to create consistent masterpieces. As Neil told us he had skills in both 3D and 2D, if you look through his work you can maybe see how his use of 3DS MAX in particular has really made his work pop off the page, which in my opinion gives him that cut above the rest. I was very grateful to gain the opportunity to meet a veteran of the industry i hope to enter in the near future and I wish Neil the very best for the future.

Thank you for reading!

By Jack Lightfoot, a level 3 student in Interactive Gaming.

Andy Rogers, BBC.

Andy Rogers talk today was very insightful! I’m totally jealous of what he does however long the hours are and stressful it may be. He’s been working with Radio 1 for 25 years, in control of the live music side of things. Live Lounge, acoustic sessions and live streaming are often his forte, along side engineering at festivals for the station. Andy records mainly at Maida Vale and has recorded some of the greatest artists around.

Andy dabbles in DJing from time to time and also runs the odd workshop or two for BBC Introducing which is a great way of picking up on new the majority of which are unsigned, talent from across Great Britain. Artists submit tracks online and get picked regionally to be played on the radio or on the BBC Introducing stage at various national festivals. It’s a great way for new talent to be discovered. Past participants include The Ting Tings and Florence and the Machine. Recently he has recorded the likes of The Black Keys, Chase & Status and Jessie J just to add to the hundreds of credits he must have.

Recording festivals sounds like a stressful environment to work at as an audio engineer as he went on to explain. They take a split from the main mixer that goes to their truck (their truck has all the equipment and other gear needed to mix a live performance to the best possible standard) which they then have to mix as quickly as possible as the turn around to get it on air is so quick. He uses Ableton Live in those situations, and went through an example of what he would do. With the raw audio he took from a band at a festival a few weeks ago he loaded it up on Ableton and let some of us get involved in mixing it. I learnt a lot about the basic techniques you could use to instantly make a live track sound, well at least a bit better! He very much reiterated that the noise from the audience or from microphones that were picking up signal they shouldn’t (for example a vocal mic picking up cymbals and a snare) should not always be tried to cut out (gate), as it will lose the ambience of the performance.

It seemed a lot of the audience were impressed and stimulated by his talk and I imagine may consider this line of work in the future. I left in awe of his work ethic, as I feel you must be a pretty determined, patient, focused and enthusiastic guy to be such a guru in the BBC for so long.

By Claudia Waller, a level 3 student in Music Technology.

Mark Cann, Glastonbury festival

Mark Cann introduced himself as an employee of Glastonbury festival. We were told he was the deputy to Michael Eavis, founder of Glastonbury however this title came about from strange situations. Really Mark was just a very good friend of Michael and took up the role as the production manager for the Pyramid stage and other stages later on in Glastonbury’s life. The first festival Michael put on was in fact on September 19th 1970 under the name Pop Folk and Blues which was free (and free milk!) and about 1000 people attended. It was 1971 which saw the first Glastonbury festival which was funded buy Arabella Churchill grand daughter of Winston Churchill and Andrew Kerr which was put on to raise funds for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament a.k.a the CND. Bowie and Traffic headlined the event that lead Glastonbury to become the ongoing annual event it is today. The festival in 1981 was headlined by New Order and raised a massive £20,000 at the time for the CND, the biggest contribution they had ever had. Glastonbury grew and grew and by 1985 65,000 people attended. By 2000 the festival came into trouble with the local authorities due to many festival goers gate crashing the event by climbing through the fences or building tunnels underneath. This almost doubled the expected capacity attending and crime was at its highest. Michael and his team were told the festival could not happen again.

Two years later the festival was back and better than ever before, after months of presenting plans, rejections and reinvention 2002 saw the new fortress fencing preventing gatecrashers amongst a whole new management plan, and with Melvin Benn from Festival Republic (the company running the likes of Reading and Leeds Festivals) joining the team, the local council agreed it was worth “the hassle”.

Mark Cann’s main point throughout the talk was that Glastonbury is unlike other festivals and there are a few key points which sum it up. He mentioned that Michael Eavis grew up a Methodist, believing in advancing the cause of those less fortunate, gradual change and improvement, embrace equality and raise consciousness. Another belief of Michaels is too respect the land as well as wanting people to share their experiences. Glastonbury’s intention was to celebrate all that is good in the human spirit to bring people away from the drudgery of day to day life and raise awareness of good causes, all whilst listening to the world’s top artists and having an incredible time.

Environmental and ecological issues are at the top of the list in running the festival. A whopping 48% of rubbish is recycled from the festival, a lot higher than any other major festival. Charitable causes are another major part of Glastonbury, these days Oxfam, Greenpeace and Wateraid who are the charity veterans of the festival, split over £1,000,000 each year. Local charities receive £500,000, and the event has also funded many local projects in Pilton including; building new school classrooms, a new low-cost housing scheme and local community centres amongst many others.

I think it’s a great thing, many of the major festivals simply put them on so at the end of it they can live a plush lifestyle, which I suppose is fair enough. However I think the whole festival atmosphere is built on communication and care for each person around you, which is what makes Glastonbury so spectacular. You go to Leeds and Reading festival and you’re bombarded with advertisements and endorsements; Red Bull Tents, Carling stages, Tuborg tents at Download festival, Virgin everything at V and so on. Glastonbury wants to minimize branding and pull as much resources as it can from the local area and support local people.

There was some controversial debate towards the end of Mark’s talk, during the Q&A sesh, where a lady asked something along the lines of Why put an act like Beyonce headlining the main stage at Glastonbury? When I think of Glastonbury I think alternative, easy listening, hippies… She then went on to argue about her love for rock and that it should be like Download blah blah blah which Mark amusingly replied with Well if you don’t like it, don’t come. Which he then went on to apologise for saying. I thought he really shouldn’t be apologising! I thought this was quite an odd point coming from the lady’s mouth, which has never even spoke at Glastonbury. Having been to the festival a few times myself, it was funny to see this kind of view. However, I’ve come to think that maybe people will think this by having artists like Beyonce headlining, I mean she is probably one of the most mainstream popstars out there. It doesn’t help that this is the only the footage the BBC show, missing the real heart of Glastonbury. Mark then reiterated the fact that the festival has always been about a wide range of music, and my meaning of alternative music may have a totally different meaning to yours. I agree when someone mentioned Even if you didn’t like music you would still have an amazing time as it’s more of a different planet. The vast size of it is mind-blowing, and for it then to be filled with all things weird and wonderful, with some of the tops artists around the world performing, I can’t see how it compares to any thing else. It has everything many other festivals lack.

Mark Cann finished the talk with a rather morbid thought. Glastonbury is on the way out – Michael Eavis. Apparently within the next three or four years, we could be seeing our last Glastonbury Festival, due to the commercialisation of the festival scene and Michael believes it may turn into something he doesn’t want. This really upset me. I’m hoping after the year out his mind would have changed. I have a real love for this festival, and it was a great opportunity to meet one of the founding souls of something so unique. I’ll be fast on the ticketline come October when 2013’s tickets go on sale, and will be keeping my fingers crossed in hope for Glastonbury’s long, long life.

By Claudia Waller, a level 3 student in Music Technology.

Inside the gamers studio- Tom Goodchild, Codemasters

Welcome back to another blog entry this time for Tom Goodchild of Codemasters. This lecture was brought to us in interview style much like inside the actors studio. Chris Jackson interviewed Tom constantly throughout this period and provided very valuable information for us first years and even better information for the few FDSc students that also enjoyed the interview.

In the beginning Tom admitted to working for his Dad! And how awkward it was to receive a pay check from his father, this was until his mother provided him with an article that showed that it was possible to study a course in games, and this marked the beginning of his career in gaming.
After this a question from Chris leads Tom to reply that because times have changed it is better to go to University due to the professionalism of the gaming industry. But he spent a lot of money on beer; better not do that in the future! To follow on from this quote from Tom, he said we would lose without a good professional attitude.

He started out as a junior designer on very low pay, which is a constant trend in advice handed to us from previous speakers, if we started lower and worked our way through the ranks of a company we could earn a lot more money. And that it is also best to branch out your services to the USA, as the British game industry is crumbling according to Tom.

Tom mainly worked on racing games. This is by far my favourite genre of video game and I was surprised to hear that he worked on MotoGP and that Codemasters are working on another unannounced game under the F1 licence. Epic news! Could this be a browser based free to play game? Now I can’t wait for that game! All the F1 Games (F1 2010 and F1 2011) have been excellent since the exclusive ‘grapple like’ break from the PlayStation 3. I think this is due to reputation in the industry hence why I believe the Call of Duty franchise was and is so big.

Before Tom admitted that he liked the Xbox 360 over the PlayStation 3 he made it very clear that having good product knowledge is also the key to being successful in the industry! I also agree with this only because I love games and this gives me a bigger reason to play games!
Haze was also a small topic in the interview again; this lead to Tom feigning a hand like gun to his head I agreed the game was that bad! Tom also made it sound like Ubisoft were over controlling.

He spoke about how much more complicated it was to make a game on the Xbox 360 more than the Playstation 3. This is because the game has to deal with invites from other games. One bigger bug that was hardly documented was that if a rock band controller was added to the console during a game of MotoGP the game would crash. This could be because the game was rushed out! This is bad.

Tom had a very good sense of humour throughout the interview and at the end of the interview between him and Chris Jackson he opened the room up to question and answers which were all answered with great confidence from Tom. He gave us more information that was well needed for the future start to our careers.

The quality bar is now very high in the industry and following previous games it is believable. The processing power of consoles now is also very high therefore pushing limitations higher! Which is cool. We are coming up to the next generation of consoles and I can’t wait for this if not only to see what happens with the racing genre! And I hope to see Toms name in future game credit lists!

Tom is a very talented individual and his time coming in to industry means a lot.

Thank you for again reading another entry to www.confetti.uk.com and there will be more blogs upcoming from me!

By Nick Mason, Level 3 student in Interactive games.

Tom Goodchild, Monumental games

With day two of Confetti’s Industry week underway I was excited to attend my next guest lecture with Tom Goodchild who was introduced to myself and the audience with one of Confetti’s Game Design Lecturers Chris. This was because this lecture was going to take on a more question and answer based system. This is good! I thought to myself as it makes things easier for the audience to understand as we are given the reasons and logic behind certain points in this man’s history and career that will be relevant to our future. With that said the ball began rolling so to say after both Tom and Chris sat down after being introduced and humbled with applause. To start with Tom was asked about his early years as a quick summary of who he is and where he came from, this began with Tom explaining that he always had a love for video games in his early years putting in time on his Commodore 64. From this he moved on to talk about his first job working for his father doing washing up, he stressed his lack of affection for this job which was shared by the audience. But then he explained how his mother had informed him about a course at Dundee University which was a four year video game design course, from this he quickly spoke about moved onto a job working for Viz as a junior designer.

This brought us to Toms’ first point and piece of advice for the audience, You need a degree if you want to succeed, stressing this point very passionately. This, albeit somewhat obvious advice, is still good to hear from an industry professional as with the figures of university drop outs at an all-time high it is certainly relevant. At this point Chris asked Tom about getting his foot in the door in the games industry to which he replied with advising a career in programming and design as it is a perfect foot in the door for this type of profession due to its accessibility. This was very refreshing to hear because by knowing information like this when students like me finish with our degree we will know of a potential opportunity in this field might very well be our ticket into this industry.

He went on to tell us that the industry is very much a reputation based machine in the sense that it’s not what you know but who you know. If you are working with notorious contacts and even staff who will recognise your skills then all the better. From this he went on to talk about titles he had worked with such as Narc, I had never heard of this title before but Tom and Chris did a brilliant job of explaining what this game was all about and how successful it was. Narc was essentially a clone of the widely famous Grand Theft Auto series; Tom showed his lack of enthusiasm for the fact that the game was simply a clone and nothing more. From this Chris asked Tom about how the industry has changed from then till now to which Tom replied straight away with you have got to know what you are doing a lot more what he meant by this was that that amount of staff needed to design a game was much fewer back then as now you are required to have a much more specialised job role, hence more jobs and bigger teams.

Chris proceeded to ask Tom what advice he could give the audience about getting in the industry doing a job like his. To this he replied by saying an example of a well-structured piece of code, which is something that employers will be interested in. Good data management and a well thought-out piece of code are the key to this success, knowing that one day I could very well be in the situation where I am applying for a job like this one I was very thankful to hear this bit of advice. Tom proceeded to talk about how once you get in the door it will not be an easy ride, getting into an industry such as this one is filled with long hours and thankless work. After working full time for a large portion of my teenage years I was not surprised by this however for audience members who don’t have the kind of work place experience I do this information is like gold dust.

Tom began to expand on this and talked about how as mentioned before having a degree is key as it shows your employers you can work off your own back and how committed you are to this industry. He also added about how the British game industry had seen better days so because of this, working abroad could be a much greater experience offering a lot more in terms of work.

It was here that Chris then asked Tom more about Narc and why it wasn’t seen as being unsuccessful during the production process. To this he replied that the director had no idea of what the final product would be, which is not the case with modern games. The game had a lack of progression in its gameplay he went on say, comparing Narcs gameplay to that of famous titles such as Half-Life picking up on how as you progress through the game you are given greater tools to tackle a greater challenge but in Narc the whole game was accessible from the start.

With that said Chris then asked Tom about his work with Moto GP and it’s licencing. Tom explained how when working with a licenced sport there is not a lot of freedom when designing the game itself, there are a lot of restrictions and core mechanics that are set in stone due to that fact that the sport is a well-known real life event. Tom had a lot to say on the topic of Moto GP as it was a title and franchise he was very fond of, I knew this based on how excited he became when talking about the titles life as well as him actually mentioning it at one point too. Whilst still on the topic of Moto GP, Chris asked if the designers such as Tom where subject to riding real motorcycles to help them understand the concept better when implementing it in game, to which Tom replied by saying no initially. However he has found himself purchasing a bike for himself to give him a better understanding, although in my opinion I feel that maybe Tom was also influenced into this purchase because of an interest in being a biker! The leather jacket was a bit of a giveaway.

When asked about his work with AIs in Moto GP Tom explained how he would create a spline on the track to which the A.I’s would follow and that the process involved lots of trial and error based variables when making this realistic for the player. To follow on to say that after the beta stage of testing the game was taking to another team and finished.

It was after this Tom was asked about his work at a local company to Nottingham called Climax and his eventual move to Free Radical where he worked alongside Rob Yescombe on the game ‘Haze’. If you would like to hear more about this, Rob Yescombe was a guest speaker earlier in the week and I have written a blog detailing his lecture. As expected when the topic of Haze came up it was not long before Tom was discussing its downfall, Tom started to explain how the first problem he saw with Haze was the fact that it was using a brand new engine on a brand new console. Chris responded by asking Tom how he coded the A.I with Haze, Tom replied but saying how he didn’t actually work directly on the code for A.I’s but he knew how they used a super smart A.I that drastically slowed down the games frame rate, yikes! Tom expressed how the super smart A.I was never a good idea as making the enemies in video games too smart just brings down the whole gaming experience and also introduces a crushing difficulty.

Something which I really admired about Tom was that he expressed how even though he was working on a title that was not up to scratch like Haze or something he just wasn’t interested in, he was happy to work on it despite this due to his love of this industry, this is the attitude I share with Tom and I hope stays with me throughout my journey into the games industry. At the end of this Chris asked Tom about how strict Sony was being the investor during the process of making Haze, to which he responded by saying that they keep the game on track with a checklist of certain assets and targets the game has to maintain during the production process and it cannot deviate from this checklist or it will not be published.

Tom expanded on this and talked about a bug that was present in Moto GP where the game would crash when a Guitar Hero controller was plugged into the console during gameplay which would be very unlikely to happen but despite this it was an issue that needed solving. Unfortunately Tom went on to explain how his time at Monumental was ended much like a lot of other companies he has worked for, this is not uncommon with the video games industry due to the process in which games are made.

Finally Chris asked Tom about what advice he could give to the audience and as well as some of his favourite games, Tom was very impressed and fascinated by Dark Souls and stressed how it is his favourite game. He expressed a lot of interest in the way the game works with online multiplayer with no communication via headset. Tom’s advice was to keep on working on what interests you and to demonstrate good skills with what you know, always keep up professionalism and confidence. Chris finally opened the room to some Q and A to which was regarding what titles Tom is looking forward to and his favourite titles. I have learnt so much from Tom Goodchild and I am beginning to feel a lot better about my assignments and my future with video games after hearing such relevant, detailed and passionate advice.

By Samuel Johnston, FDSC student in Games Technology.

Tim Chandler- Architect

If there is anybody who knows what is key and important to designing perfectly engineered rooms for music performance and studio spaces it has to be Tim Chandler. Not only is Tim an architect with several years of art school under his belt, he is also a musician who has performed on several albums providing him with several strings to his bow. Tim works in London for DLG Architects; he has developed projects such as the willing house hotel, schools, churches, interior design and has even done some work for the Palace of Westminster.

Tim kicked off the lecture by talking about himself and the work he has done within the music industry which he swiftly tied into architecture and how his own experiences have helped him when it comes to working on spaces, buildings and rooms that are used for music performance and recording. This lead on to a bit of history about architecture which was linked into different building materials with pictures and examples of thickness and sound levels, Tim did an excellent job of linking everything he spoke about back to music and room acoustics.

Tim then spoke about the difficulty of designing a recording space and spoke about many problems that architects face with such projects, he also gave examples of how he has gotten around some of these issues with creative and well planned ideas. Tim gave a fantastic insight into the process from start to finish of any building project and provided brilliant examples of amazing studios and gospel churches he has worked on with explanations for all of his decisions.

He gave humorous examples of building work gone wrong and emphasised the importance of constantly keeping track of a projects process. Tim also discussed where what he believes to be the big ideas for the future of music and architecture from antinoise, voice activation and 3D sound his passion for the industry bellowed throughout the lecture hall.

Overall Tim had a relaxed, comical and to the point approach to the lecture which was perceived well by everyone as most of confetti’s music students are currently working on acoustic space projects themselves. Tim is an interesting and intriguing character with fantastic stories to tell and with plenty of projects with DLG architects and with his upcoming performance in Austria he is most certainly an inspiration to anybody with aspirations within his field of work.

By Abbey Plumb, Level 3 Music Technology student.

Graham Langley- Loud and cleared, music copyright

Graham Langley (Loud and cleared) is the copyright-go-to man with over 15 years experience working with TV and film, helping them license all the music they use in their work. The main point of his talk was basically to help us, as musicians, to not get screwed-over due to copyright infringements or the like. To make sure everyone gets paid a fair amount (in most cases). Copyright has existed for over 100 years and it began to make sure musicians get paid for the music they make. Nowadays, with the sheer amount of different mediums our music is used, played or performed, copyright has become a complex and full-time force to be reckoned with.

Interestingly, currently the composers of the music own the publishing rights for 70 years after the last composers death, however the recording rights (or master rights) are owned for 50 years. They’re changing it to 70 years soon apparently, due to people like Cliff Richard whose talent never ends. Graham went into detail about how musicians like us should always get registered to the royalties governing-bodies PRS and MCPS. PRS stands for Performing Rights Society, MCPS standing for Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, and both of which will be the means you get paid by if your music starts being played on radio, TV, at festivals, clubs, pubs, hairdressers and so on.

There are also other licensing bodies which deal with music for promotional videos and other bits and bobs, but directing his talk on a group full of musicians and producers, there was only a brief overview on this.

As this was the first session on at Industry week, I was surprised to be changing the way I think about music so early on. Of course a lot of musicians want to make music they like, but we all need to earn a living in the end. One thing he mentioned that made me think twice was how much you could earn by having your music played on a program or advert. BBC1 pay out £14.78 per minute of music played, so if you had a contract with them that said you played 2 minutes worth of your music a day for a year, bearing in mind this is a 20 second composition that took you minimal time to perfect, you would earn nearly 10 grand! However, you wouldn’t get these kind of royalties if you were making music for smaller TV channels, as he made an example in terms of horse racing on TV. PRS do not have the time to figure all of the data out and distribute the money evenly for channels like that, which aren’t paying much money to them. Therefore they have sample days once a month where PRS pay royalties to whoevers music was played that day. Seems wrong if you think your track is played every other day on that channel and they didn’t catch it, however the money you would be paid would be quite small in comparison to other work.

Amongst his other in depth knowledge of copyright and licensing, everyone I spoke to after the talk was happy to learn in a bit more depth about this sort of thing. I suppose many musicians forget how important all of the licenses and rights within their music is,and it is top-notch foundational knowledge for any aspiring artist which was taken full advantage of.

Claudia Waller, Level 3 in Music Technology

Rob Yescombe- Game director

As the afternoon approached, after a quick lunch it was time to head back over to Confetti for the second Industry Week lecture. This was from a man named Rob Yescombe a man who was introduced with having a wealth of industry knowledge and experience. Needless to say I was eager to hear what he had to tell us, I sat back ready for what I hoped would be a compelling lecture filled with stories and explanations of his achievements.

This was not the case, well not exactly what I thought to begin with that is. As the lecture began Rob opened by asking the room who had met him in a previous guest visit he made to Confetti, this was because he wanted to explain how the physical activity that he had planned for us today was on the same lines as one he had arranged previous. With that aside using a nicely put together flash based presentation on the projector Rob began to speak about onion gravy, not strictly on onion gravy as a product, but more the process involved in getting the ingredients and the cooking process involved in making the final result. Not exactly what I had been expecting for an industry lecture about video games but I am an open minded person and listened closely to see where this was going. Rob then began to explain how the process of making onion gravy can be applied as a foundation of a successful video game concept and even the way in which it is pitched to potential investors and customers.

This is starting to make a lot more sense I thought. At this point Rob began to talk about the importance of reduction when pitching a game to professionals and the public alike and explained how we would watch a short interview as an example of this. This was in fact a video of himself pitching the game ‘Haze’ to a camera crew and presenter at a games convention, surprised I watched and absorbed the point he was making. In this interview a younger Rob Yescombe listed every last feature that this game entailed and subsequently drowned the pitch in mindless facts resulting in a muddled mess. The message was clear, Rob was showing us how not to pitch a game and from this I learnt a very important lesson which Rob then stressed was a very important part of the point he was making. “If your pitch is over 3 minutes then you are dead!” This came as a big surprise to me as I thought that it would be considerably longer before hitting the point of no return as they say! This information is fantastic for a student like me with a Presentation based assignment coming up later in the year; it was at this point that Rob really caught my full attention.

So with that said Rob moved on to talk about “Pitch Ingredients”. This is a list of assets which are essential in the creation of a game concept. This was; internal/external flaws, desire, bad guy, plan, battle, self-revelation and a walk off into the sunset. If you would like to take a closer look at this list and hear Rob expand on the points in detail you can watch a live stream of the lecture on the Confetti website. With that said and explained Rob then opened the floor to us, the audience, to get involved and asked us to brainstorm answers to the criteria listed. After hearing a few responses from the audience he then brought up a hypothetical foundation for a story, this was “Poisoned, he has 2 hours to solve his own murder before he dies” a simple but effective start to a potential game concept. From this he went on to explain how a typical example of a story arc for a game concept is that every hero is broken, and at the end of his journey he fixes himself.

With the answers given to the pitch ingredients alongside the hypothetical game concept we then elaborated further into this concept. Rob began to explain more about the different types of hero using examples like Harry Potter and Marty McFly to show how they all share traits featured in what we had discussed. As well as emphasising how certain points are essential to the structure of the story such as the huge role that desire plays. He went on to explain how a great way of pitching your ideas to the public is to use references to already successful franchises and how your game concept compares. I found this very interesting and took a lot from it.
Following this Rob then split up the audience into groups determined by rows, this was because he had arranged a practical exercise for his lecture as mentioned before. With the information he had given us Rob set us all up with the task of creating an initial game concept that we would pitch to the rest of the audience as well as being timed to stress the aforementioned pitch timescale.

After a 10 minute interval of each group brainstorming and then writing down their ideas we began to pitch one by one our game concepts. These varied majorly with some people pitching futuristic ideas to some even being very loosely based on the criteria and yet still on topic. I am not a huge fan of overly social interaction when it comes to workshops like this however Rob did a fantastic job of making each representative for each group feel welcome and appreciated for their contribution. I was very impressed by this as I know that speaking in front of a big audience as well as the cameras set up in the event is very nerve-racking and yet Rob did a brilliant job of ensuring everyone was enjoying themselves. This was so successful in fact that even the Tutors sitting in on the lecture were taking part; it was certainly an exciting and entertaining experience, with one group going twice to pitch a second concept.

With all that said and done Rob then gave his own pitch using all the examples of previously mentioned criteria as well to show in contrast how all of the concepts discussed where linked. To end the lecture Rob then opened a Q and A to which he was asked repeatedly about his evolvement in the video game Haze and how he got to where he is today to which he replied enthusiastically and positively. I can safely say that with everything that Rob Yescombe explained and taught us about the elements and core assets of a game concept and how it is pitched to the public that I am hugely grateful. With assignments coming up that stem from these concepts and presentation techniques I now have a much better understanding and a more confident outlook on the whole process. I can honestly say that from now on I will not be the least bit sceptical if a lecture begins with a recipe despite how relevant I believe it to be.

By Samuel Johnston, FDSC student in Games Technology

Neil Roberts- Video game artist

Confetti’s’ Industry Week kicked off today with a lecture from a well-known Artist and Illustrator called Neil Roberts, he is a 3D artist who creates his own type of hypo realistic art using the tools provided with software such as 3DS Max and Photoshop as his bread and butter. Whilst being widely known for his cover art for the 2000 AD and Judge Dredd graphic novels he has in fact contributed artistically to a wide range of notorious franchises such as the X-men, Warhammer and also the ever popular Dr Who.

I previously had the opportunity to have Neil Roberts as a guest lecturer at Confetti during my first few months of the FdSc Games Tech course. Based on my experience and due to the fact that I am an aspiring videogame artist myself needless to say I was excited to see him again and hear about what he had to tell us this time around.

As we were all seated in the designated room so began the first Industry Week lecture for the games students. Neil started off by introducing himself to everyone and gave a brief yet thorough explanation of who he is and what he does. Introductions aside he then progressed to talk more in-depth about his chosen profession, as a freelance illustrator specialising in 3D art he explained how he is often plagued by the question “Is your work done by hand or on a computer?” a question I myself had wondered at first, his response to this was that his work is “Done by hand on a Computer”.

Neil then went on to discuss his most notorious bits of artwork and how they stem from his influences now and when he was younger. He went on to explain how he has always been a fan of sci-fi, in particular titles such as DR Who, War of the Worlds and Flash Gordon where amongst the list. As well as these he stressed his infatuation with British comics and as a lover of comic books too I have always been able to see the connection and influence this has had on lot of his artwork. Something which interested me was when he mentioned how in his youth he would draw spaceships on separate bits of paper then cut them up and place the images on a larger background so he could move them round the page till he thought they were in the appropriate position. This technique is a notorious feature which is widely used today in the Photoshop software in which Neil himself uses.
Influences aside Neil then went on to talk about his profession in greater detail, analysing his journey from first setting foot in this industry till now. To start with he explained how his Grades and A-level results where never really up to scratch in a sense that they were somewhat lacking however he boasted a lot of skills and creativity in Art. After graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in design and illustration he was brought to a cross roads so to say. With the skills and talent he possessed he could take one of two different routes, video special effects or video games. He spoke very fondly when he went on to say that video games was his choice based on the fact it was notoriously better pay and with the height of interest in the industry thanks to titles such as Tomb Raider it was a positive route to take.

Using the projector set up in the room Neil then brought up an example of his CV and then began talking about his experiences with numerous companies in the Industry, if you would like to see the full list or any extra material you can refer to the live stream of the lecture on the Confetti website. He continued by stressing how he was often made redundant as the way in which video games are produced and distributed when the design process is over so is the job itself. This was very interesting as this kind of behaviour so to speak isn’t very typical of a working industry environment but more expected of a freelance type style of work, it certainly made me think differently about my future plans. An interesting point that Neil raised next was how he managed to get his foot in the door with his first job in the games industry, this was for Codemasters, an independent company that was responsible for the famous Micro Machines game featured on the Nintendo 64.

He went on to say how he initially applied for a huge total of 25 jobs up and down the country and to his surprise only receiving 2 replies from this. One being an e-mail declining the success of his application and the other from codemasters with the result he was looking for, something that interested me was when he mentioned certain techniques to help set you out from the crowd when looking to get into the industry. He said a very successful method is to undercut the competition, “If the person making the decision of taking on a new member of the team has a choice out of a few artists who can all do the same thing, the one they will choose will be the person who will do it for the least amount of money”. The moral of this he went on to say is that persistence and skill is the key to success when applying for jobs in an industry like this one.

At this point Neil opened up the room to any questions, a lot of which regarding the time keeping involved and skills needed in making some of his beautiful artwork. He explained with a typical example that one of the larger full pieces would take roughly around 2 weeks and how the key to success when perusing an artistic job is to be drawing 24/7 and to ensure you have a wide range of examples of what you can draw. This led to a point he made about how an artist is supposed to be able to make anything look good regardless of what the image is of, the way he explained this was by saying “If you can draw an egg that looks good then you can make a soldier shooting someone’s face off look good!”. The theory for this is that an egg is a very simple and basic shape which when put in front of an artist can be made to look exciting.

Finally Neil began to then talk about what he does now; he went on to say how he is officially full-time freelance. This means he works off his own terms in the sense that he can work fully from home, he chuckled when mentioning that he has no need to commute to work due to the fact he just has to walk downstairs to his workspace. When asked about where he will go from here he replied by explaining how a good artist is never happy with the work they produce and with every project he will be compelled to try something different. With this being the second time I was able to hear from Neil Roberts I went in with high expectations, I can safely say that I was impressed, excited and humbled by what he had to tell us today and I look forward to the day I am lucky enough to see him again.

By Samuel Johnston FDSC Games Technology

Nick McCaffery- Crabtree films

Industry week kicked off today with a talk from Crabtree Films founder Nick McCaffery. He discussed what Crabtree Films do, how he came to creating his own business and the problems that can arise when trying to get films into cinemas and onto store shelves.

McCaffery started out working as a waiter in a hotel before moving on to promoting weddings for hotels. However, he started to sell records on the side to gain some extra money. He would buy cheap records and then advertise them in local magazines to gain a profit.

Through a contact, he met a man in Derby who wanted to start a record company that would stream live videos of bands and music onto the internet. He thought that, given his experience at selling records, this would be an opportunity to be involved in something he had a passion for. He then spent five years in London dealing with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Jeff Beck and Queen who all wanted to begin to stream their new music to attract wider audiences. This led him onto the development of pay per view concerts.

In 2005, using his experience in the music promotion industry and knowledge of film, he decided to create a website that would give independent short films makers a platform to promote their work. After an unsuccessful attempt at organising a film festival at the Broadway cinema in Nottingham he attended the Cannes film festival and negotiated contacts of short film makers to release their work on dvd’s. This was a new venture separate from his website and so he launched it as Crabtree Films.
Crabtree now go all over the globe to many film festivals in search for independent films that they will help distribute to cinemas and retail. They look at each film and find a target audience before contacting cinemas, supermarkets and high street shops to screen and sell the DVDs. Their most recent film to distribute was Holy Rollers, about two orthodox Jewish friends who become ecstasy dealers with ties to an Israel Drug Cartel. It starred Justin Bartha from The Hangover and Jessie Eisenburg, who was about to be nominated for an Oscar for the film The Social Network. He revealed that there are always problems that can arise when attempting to put out a film and timing is everything.
One clear message from Nick’s experience is that you should never be afraid to try something new and any experience is an opportunity.

By Matthew Darbyshire, Level 3 student in Film and Television

Success is a list of failures- Neil Roberts, freelance artist

Industry week has arrived after many weeks of anticipation and what a great way to start it off! Neil Roberts, Video Games Artist.

In the beginning he showcased amazing previous work in relation to his various projects that he worked on were displayed around the room emphasising all 14 years of experience that this guy has to offer, all of this work was in great detail and displayed vast professionalism, after 12 years being a video games artist, after 2 redundancies and 1 liquidation he decided to embark on a freelance career. This happens often according to Neil!

Although he started drawing at a young age the great amount of detail shown in recent images, displayed both before and mid-way through the lecture, he displayed a comparison shot which displayed the amount of change his work had taken since the introduction of technology. This meaning that he had developed skills in both 3D Modelling software and Adobe Photoshop. Most companies would want skills in 3DS Max and Photoshop as these software’s are vital to the creation of good games; Neil also believed that Photoshop was the standard for all aspiring artists.
Neil is a man who lives and breathes art, he made it quite clear that drawing Manga wouldn’t get you and kudos and an entrance into the industry; in fact, drawing a bowl containing eggs will get you into the industry, as this is commonly used in interviews. He used the phrase “Manga Management” I agree with him, Manga is repetitive, and only appeals to one audience!

He also goes on to mention that he was madly influenced by anything Sci-Fi. He even tried his hand in programming! Was this another Sci-Fi route? On the Commodore 64 (back in the day) he revealed that he didn’t really do to well following a programming guide to programme a game on this platform and that’s why he opted to just draw.

Nearer the end of his lecture he advised stay Pro-active, stay persistent and to just do it Because the industry is moving all the time, he also advised the group to start low and accept any opportunities. Even if it means being in the USA.

Art is very demanding and am very surprised that he could join us for industry week although his daily commute to work is 30 seconds , From upstairs to his computer located downstairs , I’m sure his journey to confetti was slightly longer than normal !

Success is a list of failures – Neil Roberts

Thanks for reading this blog, there will be more exiting blogs as the week goes on.

Nick Mason- Level 3 student in Interactive Gaming

Richard Hastings-Hall, Freelance dubbing mixer

Between the short but sweet time of 12pm till 1:30pm on the 5th of March my love for sound effects and foley blossomed beyond its former capacity. Richard Hastings-Hall is a Freelance Dubbing Mixer and instructor, with over 25 years experience in the industry working closely with the BBC with credits to his name such as Top Gear, Embarrassing bodies, The afternoon play and Doctors. Richard has had great experience in the industry which came across fluidly with his words and confidence.
Richard put together a Powerpoint Presentation explaining the key aspects of working as a dubbing mixer in television and radio; he spoke about key equipment and how to use them such as compressors, limiters and mixing. He also explained clearly the importance of metering by introducing the new software the BBC are using for metering as a demonstration of the upcoming and new techniques within the dubbing industry.

Later on in the lecture Richard began to talk about how he has creatively used different objects to re create sounds for different images and how to put the theory of Foley design into practice. He also spoke about his pet hate for telephone calls in the dubbing process and linked it into real situations he has had to work with. He spoke about the mixing process of dubbing and explained how he organises himself for projects, and openly spoke about the hours and amount of work it takes to work in the dubbing field.

Richard answered the students questions confidently and clearly giving every student a well bodied response to any ponder they had, he gave a fantastic delivery that was received well by all and gave students a fantastic view into the world of being a freelance dubbing mixer.

By Abbey Plumb, a level 3 Music Technology student.

Sound it out- Jeanie Finlay

Jeanie Finlay’s film-documentary Sound It Out is brilliant. Summing up the varied world of Teesside’s finest vinyl lovers, it’s an awesome feel-good reality about Sound It Out record store, and it’s eclectic customers.

Apart from its content, it’s very comfortably filmed and relaxed. The stars of the show couldn’t be more genuine. The owner of the store Tom who has owned the place for over 17 years inspired me because of his distinct kindness and love for music. The only independent record store in the whole of north-east England is an achievement and a half. It depicted the owners passion and service that you simply don’t get when buying music these days. Now we pay £15 for an album which you personally have to find by some search engine, order through a robot, wait 4 days for delivery, realise you don’t like it, but can’t get a refund because it’s been opened, And people wonder why illegal downloads are killing the industry? However that is besides the point. Every one of his customers mentioned how he was some sort of music jedi, and kept returning because he could give them what they wanted every time. Tom is doing it for the love of music.

My favourite customer of the store was a man whose name escapes me. He was an older man, who liked women, and vinyl, and rock. The one liners and expressions on his face made me wish I knew him. There were a couple of metal heads in their mid teens who adored the store, one of them declaring if it wasn’t for the store he wouldn’t be alive, and the other showing off his crazy hand-embroidered “battle jacket”. A man called Shane who was the biggest Status Quo fan I’ve ever seen, and a reclusive vinyl-junky who made me really happy due to his alphabetical/chronological organising.

Besides all the fun and gags, it did show a more solemn side to Teeside, showing the effects of the recession and love for vinyl depreciation. One fact that Kelly, who worked at the store, said which shocked me was that we have as many independent record shops in the UK as America does. That sounds great for us, but if you think about how many stores we have… It’s insane.

The whole film was based around this record store, but I feel Jeanie’s main point was to illustrate the well-illustrated minds of Teesside, her hometown. Watching this assorted mixture of characters was indeed really comical, but I think these kinds of people are about everywhere and we as a community should embrace that more. This is definitely a must see and I will be spreading the word. In general, especially youthful people, need to be less afraid to speak to others and let go of contacting like-minded people only through social networking sites. Even if they seem a little crazy, chances are they’ve just had a good time in their life right?

By Claudia Waller, Level 3 student in Music Technology

Richard Hastings-Hall, Freelance dubbing mixer

Richard Hastings-Hall began his talk introducing himself as normal; he’s been at the BBC for the last 25 years working in TV and radio as a dubbing mixer. Then he showed a slide on his powerpoint presentation which comically flew off the screen of some plus-five-hundred credits he has, including: Top Gear, Countryfile, How to look Good Naked, Sky at Night, Doctors, To Buy or Not to Buy… The list continues. Based in BBC Birmingham now, Richard seems to enjoy his job a lot.

As a dubbing mixer, Richard explained in simple terms what he does. He basically makes the soundscape for TV and radio. In TV, he explained he gets given a guide recording, which you get from recording on location when they film it. For example, if there were a scene in a park, he would get sent what they filmed, alongside a guide audio recording. He then sits there and modifies the audio, adding background noise, re-recording bits, and placing them correctly to make sure what we hear fits perfectly to what we see on screen. I’ve known for the best part of my life that in big Hollywood blockbusters the sound effects are just that – effects. But I didn’t know they have to re-record all of the dialogue, and even in programs where you wouldn’t think the sound is particularly important, there’s a dubbing mixer just like Richard EQing each presenter’s voice or creating the noise of door shutting from scratch. It’s so seamlessly complex and has really made me think about broadening my potential career aspirations.

It was great to learn about this kind of job in the industry, as the general vibe of people who attended (without being too judgemental and myself included) seemed that they were more interested in their music, whether that be producing, performing, just playing or wanting to be famous. There was a good reaction and it was unfortunate we ran out of time so quickly as there were many more questions to be asked. Realistically quite a high percentage of us music technology students won’t be earning a living solely off our own music in the future, so it’s great to have lecture off a man in a field that few of us would of even considered. Opening our minds to other options will fill our wallets I suppose!

Claudia Waller, Level 3 Music Technology student