Hello, and welcome to the vocational media production course at New College. The qualification that you will achieve is the new BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Practice, with a strong emphasis on film production. This qualification has been designed around holistic, explorative and integrated creative teaching approaches that are conducive to deep learning and skills development. 

During the first year of the course, you will be exploring and developing your creative media production skills, with two terms of skills development, followed by a creative project in which you put your new skills into practice. The skills you will learn include preproduction skills such as screenwriting and storyboarding, production skills such as lighting and camera movements, and postproduction skills such as editing, colour grading and visual effects. In the second year, the focus shifts onto the advanced creative media practice you will need to ensure your personal progression into the creative media industry.  

If you would like to get ahead and prepare yourself to start the course, a great place to start is by regularly reading the website www.nofilmschool.com where you will find tutorials, interviews, short films, and news about new films and filmmaking equipment, as well as articles and podcasts about fundamental filmmaking techniques. Other great websites featuring similar content are www.premiumbeat.com/blog, www.cinema5d.com and stephenfollows.com, as well as a YouTube channels called Cinecom.net and The Filmmakers Project. 

Transition project – Storyboarding 

If you would like to have a go at storyboarding, one simple way to get started is to choose a film that you like and make a storyboard for one scene. Every time the shot size or camera angle changes, draw a new frame of your storyboard. Have a guess at the size of each shot, from extreme wide (EW) which is used for establishing shots showing whole buildings or even cityscapes, all the way to extreme close up (ECU) which is used to show objects that are important to the plot, or individual facial features (i.e. just the character’s eyes rather than their whole face). You can use the New College storyboard template, which lists the shot size options underneath each panel

If you would like to have a go at storyboarding, one simple way to get started is to choose a film that you like and make a storyboard for one scene. Every time the shot size or camera angle changes, draw a new frame of your storyboard. Have a guess at the size of each shot, from extreme wide (EW) which is used for establishing shots showing whole buildings or even cityscapes, all the way to extreme close up (ECU) which is used to show objects that are important to the plot, or individual facial features (i.e. just the character’s eyes rather than their whole face). You can use the New College storyboard template, which lists the shot size options underneath each panel

We look forward to welcoming you onto Level 3 Media Production!