BSc (Hons) Entertainment Technology
- UCAS code: GH46
- Mode of study: Full time or sandwich with work placement
- Duration: 3 years full time, 4 years sandwich with work placement
- Entry requirements 2013: 240-300 points to include a minimum of 240 points from A levels, or equivalent.
- Please see details of the range of other qualifications that will also be considered on the 'Entry Requirements' tab below. Please do contact us for advice on other qualifications that aren't listed here.
Find out more:
Tel: +44 (0)23 9284 2421
Email: create.admissions@port.ac.uk
Department: School of Creative Technologies (CT)
Course overview
This exciting course is one of the few in the country to offer this range of study, allowing you to explore and develop your own talents and abilities. You will have the opportunity to acquire skills in graphics and animation, computing, sound recording, project management, video production and business. This will give you a vocationally and practically-oriented education supported by appropriate theoretical understanding.
Depending on your background and the options you select, you can take either a more general programme of study, allowing for a wide range of careers in the entertainment industries, or a more specialised programme of study in areas such as video, television production, music technology, graphics or multimedia. Our basic philosophy is to produce high-calibre, multi-skilled graduates with significant project management and multimedia production knowledge and vocational experience.
The entertainment industries are major employers and we believe our approach will enable you to find an appropriate career in the future. The deeper insight you have, particularly into the professional and business aspects of the ‘entertainment business’, should greatly increase your chances of success.
Course content
Project management and multimedia production are the core strands. However, you will also learn about computer graphics, animation, music, music technology, video production and the entertainment industries. Depending on the options you choose, you can focus on music technology, radio and television, video production, computing, the web, and media studies.
First year
This is a common core curriculum covering a number of subjects such as web design and appreciation, graphics, animation, scripting and an introduction into video production. You will be using software packages such as Dreamweaver, Flash, Avid, Photoshop, Corel Draw and Logic. All units and methods of study are based on sound project management.
Units
Digital Filming and Technology: you will be introduced to the filmmaking process, use of cameras, editing and publishing digital video artefacts
EPortfolio: you will develop an understanding of your own personal skills and abilities in relation to your preferred career path in the context of professional, legal and ethical issues.
Game Sound: you will study the practical, creative, theoretical and contextual skills required in the production of sound and music for the games industry.
Introduction to Computer Graphics: you will be introduced into the fundamental concepts of 2D, 3D and moving computer graphics. The hardware and software requirements, the storage, representation and the manipulation of digital images.
Scripting and Animation: you will gain an understanding of the process of producing effective animation for the web and other multimedia technologies.
Web Engineering and Design: this unit develops your creativity and web design skills and will provide a understanding for developing content for the web.
Second year
During this year you will extend your work in project management to include video or TV production, professional experience, business and enterprise issues. In computer graphics, you will work with a variety of industry standard multimedia packages. Music involves an introduction to sound recording techniques and soundtrack composition. Options cover a range of subjects including practical introductions to radio, video, the internet, and an opportunity to extend soundtrack through a multimedia project.
Core units
Multimedia Development and Project Management:you will gain an understanding of critical analysis and project management and production techniques used in the multimedia environment.
Project Initiation and Career Management: The focus of this unit is twofold: preparation for a final-year independent study in respect of research methods and project management, and preparation for graduate careers.
Optional units
You will also take a selection of the following units, making up 80 credits:
Designing Interactive Content: you will gain an understanding of content management, visual composition, and how the application of research from this field enhances practical design.
Digital Photography: you will learn how digital cameras work and how to create digital images, appreciate experimental, abstract and traditional photographic techniques and learn how to display, compress and store photographs on a variety of platforms.
Managing and Making a Documentary: this unit is designed to expand on your existing knowledge of TV/film processes, by focusing on producing a documentary programme, from conception through to delivery.
Music: Practice, Performance and Research: is designed to encourage both a practical and a theoretical engagement with music via participating in one of the large music ensembles and taking a series of lesson tutorials.
Professional Experience: this unit gives you the opportunity to gain credit from paid/unpaid work, volunteering, research placements, internships and other work-related learning. You arrange your own programme of learning activities and are supported through workshops and tutorials.
Radio Production and Presentation Skills: this unit will introduce you to the basic principles of radio production and presentation, culminating in a live broadcast in a real radio station.
Soundtrack Creation: in this unit you will examine the various aspects of soundtrack composition with particular emphasis on music composition and sound design.
Streaming Media Website Design and Delivery: in this unit you will learn about streaming media and how to produce it for the web.
Student Enterprise (Planning Delivery): a problem-based learning unit that will introduce you to the reality of setting up and running a small business.
Student Initiated Project: an opportunity for you to gain extracurricular work, in particular, to obtain credit for work which you have initiated.
TV Live Production: an opportunity to produce live broadcast television programmes.
Workflow and Post-Production: this unit will be focused around the specific teaching of advance video editing techniques, encoding techniques and selected compositing/special effects.
Year in industry (sandwich year)
The sandwich year on this course gives you a great opportunity to put your developing skills into practice in an industrial or commercial setting - and be paid for it, where possible. We have a placement manager who will help you find a suitable opening, and we give support during your placement year to make sure everything is going to plan.
Final year
The major task of this year is the project, in which you will either write a study report or design and create a multimedia artefact, accompanied by a written dissertation on the history, context and production of the artefact. This unit lasts the full academic year.
There are other units investigating the entertainment industry and preparation for work. Otherwise, the option structure allows for greater specialisation in computer graphics, video production, music/technology or humanities units.
Core units
Final-Year Project: you will pursue an individual project rooted in the theory and/or practices of your degree. The unit will require you to develop, manage and evaluate the negotiated project, demonstrating skills in research and critical review.
Creative Platforms: here you will develop an advanced level of experience and competence in promoting your skills with a direct relevance to your career aspirations.
Optional units
You will also take a selection of the following units, making up 60 credits:
Animation and Virtual Reality: in this unit you will study the basic principles of stereoscopic animation and relates it to virtual reality concepts.
Documentary Film Making: this unit examines key media construction practices, histories and concepts across multiple approaches to documenting images on film and video.
Games Research: this unit focuses upon the range of academic models, approaches and results to the study of games from an analytical, cultural and design perspective.
Interdisciplinary Group Project: here you will work in small groups to produce a multimedia artefact working to a client brief. You will be required to negotiate, develop, manage, analyse, evaluate and present the project.
Sound Application: this unit will enable you to identify and develop existing music and sound skills in the following areas: media application, software recording and audio composition.
Studying Popular Music: in this unit you will examine specific contextual issues related to important points in the historical development of popular music in the twentieth century.
Teaching and assessment
Some units are delivered in large lectures with supporting tutorials, whereas others are delivered as whole group lectures. The more practical projects are delivered in smaller classes. Because the course is linked to the entertainment industries there is an emphasis on group work.
As the course progresses you will be asked to identify appropriate areas of study related to your career aspirations. You will therefore need to be self-motivated, hardworking and excited by work in this field.
The course is very practical and vocationally focused. We use many approaches to assessment including practical projects, working journals, evaluative essays, performances, oral presentations, examinations, case studies and academic essays.
Every student is assigned a personal tutor, who is your first port of call should you experience any personal or academic problems.
Career prospects
The BSc (Hons) Entertainment Technology course offers a broad academic package that will make you attractive to employers in most areas of the entertainment industries.
The kind of careers for which this course will prepare you for range from multimedia production and computer games development to music recording and production, computer animation and graphics, film and video making, TV production, and website creation and design.
Some of the jobs former students have gone on to do are project management in the voluntary sector, graphic designers rebranding company materials, web designers, graphics operators preparing television graphics, sport TV technical assistant, and Microsoft compliance tester (testing XBOX 360 games). Many students have gone on to form their own companies in web design, event management and video production.
Facilities and features
You will have easy access to a wide range of powerful and modern multimedia computers and associated hardware equipped with the latest software (Project Management Tools, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Avid Media Composer, Cool Edit Pro, Adobe After Effects, Protools and Logic), as well as day-to-day contact with knowledgeable, enthusiastic and highly motivated staff.
In addition, academic staff maintain close links with the entertainment industry, both in Portsmouth and further afield. This ensures that our courses reflect the current and future needs of commerce and industry.