Advice for Animation Interview!?

Xenzo

Just wondering if anyone has any good advice for a portfolio interview??


I've to go out to IADT next week to an animation interview, and I havn't really got a clue what to expect! :eek:
And also i've no idea if it will be a group interview or just me on my own. .

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My art n stuff can be found here http://xenzo.deviantart.com/

ztoical

If it's an interview for their animation course then it's one on one. The key thing is to be able to talk about your own work in your portfolio and about the course at IADT. You should be able to say not just why you want to study animation but why IADT...so be ready to show you've looked into the course [either attended the open day or got in touch with current or past students to ask about the breakdown of the course] and where you see yourself heading after doing the course. You don't need to be 100% clear at this stage where you want to be 10-20 years down the line but have some idea of what your going to do with a qualification from IADT.

zeroonetwothree

I have an interview next week too, I'm so scared to mess it up!
How long is it usually? And how many people are interviewing you?
Do they assign seperate marks/points for your portfolio and interview?

Xenzo

ztoical wrote: »

If it's an interview for their animation course then it's one on one. The key thing is to be able to talk about your own work in your portfolio and about the course at IADT. You should be able to say not just why you want to study animation but why IADT...so be ready to show you've looked into the course [either attended the open day or got in touch with current or past students to ask about the breakdown of the course] and where you see yourself heading after doing the course. You don't need to be 100% clear at this stage where you want to be 10-20 years down the line but have some idea of what your going to do with a qualification from IADT.

Thanks for the advice, very helpful!

Xenzo

zeroonetwothree wrote: »

I have an interview next week too, I'm so scared to mess it up!
How long is it usually? And how many people are interviewing you?
Do they assign seperate marks/points for your portfolio and interview?

I'd love to know the answers to those questions too!

whatsham

out of interest, are you applying through the CAO to first year or direct entry to 2nd 3rd 4th year??

Xenzo

whatsham wrote: »

out of interest, are you applying through the CAO to first year or direct entry to 2nd 3rd 4th year??

I'm applying through the CAO to first year.

ztoical

zeroonetwothree wrote: »

How long is it usually?

Usually around 10 to 15 mins

zeroonetwothree wrote: »

And how many people are interviewing you?

2, I've never seen more then 2 but it can't be less as one person doing interviews leaves the college open to accusations of bias. Normally one will take the lead and do most of the taking but both will ask questions.

zeroonetwothree wrote: »

Do they assign seperate marks/points for your portfolio and interview?

I can't speak for IADT but having done interviews for the animation courses at BCFE I would assume it's very similar - they have a total number of points that is divided into different sections with portfolio being the biggest section - drawing from life and sketch books carrying the most weight. Then interview which is divided up into knowledge of the subject, knowledge/interest of the course and college, future goals and general attitude. You don't need to be able to tell them you've planned your whole career out for the next 30 years but it should be more then "animation sounds like something cool to do" or "I'm the best artist in my school so people said I should go to art school" If you didn't make the college open day have a good reason esp if you don't live to far away.

The majority of the time the interviewers will know if someone is right or not for the course and give them a total score after they've left and then go back and break it up for each of the sections. Mainly it's people with poor portfolios but did have a few with great portfolios but really bad attitudes - one guy had an amazing portfolio but only wanted to do computer animation even though we mentioned several times the course was a mixture of both. All he had to do was say he was interested in some hand drawn stuff and he was in and we hinted a number of times ["the course is 50/50", "there's no option to focus on one area for the first two years would you have any issues with this?" etc etc] and he just kept repeating he'd no interest in doing anything by hand so it was clear he hadn't researched the course and wasn't listening to what was being said to him. For those they are unsure about they will mark each section, total it and see if it meets the cut off.

Go through your work and be able to talk about any piece in there. Interviewers will rip through the work very quickly and might ask questions about a piece just as quickly so don't get caught trying to remember and spending ages going "uhmmmm" - what is the medium?, how long did it take?, how long ago did you do it? are the basics, if they want to ask more they will be able to provide that basic information. If you've life drawings/sketchbooks [and you should] make sure to add some dates and times in if they're not there already [even if you make them up, they don't know] just to give an idea of progress.

It's not as scary as people think the two big things are being able to talk about your work and why that course - whatever you do don't say cus it's easier to get to on the bus then another college.

Xenzo

I had 2 people interviewing me, the head of animation and another woman I think she does fine art or something. I was nervous about going in at first but they were both really nice, friendly and down to earth. I think it went quite well, they said the only thing that will stop me is how I do in my leaving cert, so hopefully be starting out in IADT next september!