In a first for Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), the Bachelor of Screen Arts programme recently hosted their first visit from CODE (New Zealand Centre for Digital Excellence), where students were guided by the voices of experience from industry speakers for the introduction to their course.
It’s become a tradition of the programme to offer Bachelor of Screen Arts students motivating and practical advice from the sector to help launch their studies. Joint Programme Manager / Tutor, Rachel Mann, explained the energetic start includes a filmmaking boot camp for first-year students who will make a film in their first two weeks. Second- and third-year students also get together on collaborative projects, “where they’re learning the whole process - expressions of interest, proposal documents and making their product viable”. The timing of having the speakers served multiple purposes, Ms Mann said. “It was a good visit all round. It’s the first time [CODE] had seen our facilities and what our students have available to them here.” SIT’s Centre for Creative Industries is described as the most up-to-date creative educational hub in New Zealand with top-notch equipment, such as their LED virtual production wall for film making and visual effects, one of only two installed in educational institutes across Australasia.
The highly anticipated event on February 18 drew more than 90 students and staff who gathered to hear the speakers, with a livestream also provided for SIT distance students. From CODE, Lauren Saker, Event, Community and Education Manager, and Vee Pendergrast, Industry Development Manager from CODE, whose role includes allocating funding for gaming nationwide, liaising with developers, and building the young entrepreneurs of the gaming industry, presented to the students. “Vee was very realistic and grounding. She had a real conversation about designing for an audience; [the game] must be able to make money; they appreciated that honesty,” Ms Mann stated.
SIT alumnus, Game Developer, and part-time tutor, Joe Simmonds was another drawcard for the students, as he had ‘walked the walk’ - from SIT student, to carving his own place in the industry. The Bachelor of Audio Engineering graduate who owns FourFox Interactive, secured CODE funding to develop a video game, enabling him to employ two other SIT graduates to work on the game build. He presented to students the whole process of developing a game from start to finish. “With the help of CODE Joe was able to pitch to the big developers,” Ms Mann said, and having trained through SIT “He was very e ncouraging and inspiring for the students, with ‘here’s my journey’”. Currently Mr Simmonds’ game is close to release, which will see it on Nintendo Switch soon.
Joint Programme Manager / Tutor, James Wilkinson, said the event had the students “buzzing”; the two-pronged approach was a useful blend of reality and inspiration, hitting all the right notes for the students as they focused on the year ahead. Second-year Gaming student, Gary Poilvert, attended and gained inspiration from both speakers. “The idea of failing forward (the acceptance of failures as stepping stones to future success) from Joe really stuck with me, and from Vee, lots of good insight into how to handle project scope and create a game that is viable.”
Emphasising the importance of industry people informing the students so their expectations would be in line with the real-world experience, Ms Mann added “If anything, [the speakers] reinforced the message we consistently give to students to succeed in the gaming sector – “do your research, do your research, do your research …having these conversations – it gives the student insight into how to proceed; they are key people to be motivating them… “
CODE had started mentoring a team of local SIT graduates who are working on developing their own project; now that there were a couple of teams of developers based in Invercargill, Ms Mann hoped to see CODE return more regularly. “…we love having industry people here to impart their knowledge to our students,” she said.