come inside,read me !!!

cessy

hellou all,
im new and i was just wondrin if ye could help me i put multimedia as my first choice an jus wanted to know bit more about it??like:
wat th e hours are like per week and wat the lectures are like?is the course predominantly(my biggest word this week!!)male or female? just generally about the course?

your help v.much welcome
thanx loads cessy xx

Suaimhneach

Hi Cessy,

Here and here are what you want dear.

Regarding whether the course is predominantly male or female, I don't know. But there are plenty of men who like to take avantage, I mean, take care of young innocent first years.

Join Redbrick.

*My work here is done*

Pauleeeeeeee

There's about 50 in the class. 50% male 50% female.

It's possibly the easiest course in DCU.

In first year you can be asleep for all of it and pass it.

Honestly, there's about 2 or maybe 3 decent lecturers there.

I SHOULD be in second year now going into third year but I left last November because the course just wasn't for me (wasn't practical enough for me...too much theory and cultural analysis crap going on.) I'm going on to do an animation course hopefully.

If you have any other questions or want me to go into more detail just ask.
Hope that helped in some way.

-Pauleeeeeeee

6ix

the hours for lectures are only 12/14 per week, and as Pauleeeee says you can sleep through first yr.

However, 2nd and third yr involve a lot of project work which realy puts you under pressure, and because you often have deadlines every few weeks, you do have to continuously do work.

A lot of people underestimate the work put in because there are few exams, but while its not Medicine, there is a workload, particularly from Xmas in 2nd yr onwards. Plus, most people I know doing business degrees etc are the ones who can afford to do F**k all up until the last week ( a few small assignments), and then cram for their exams.

Lecturers can be **** alright, you have to spend your own time learning the various programs. Also, INTRA (paid workplacement) is ****. Not enough jobs set up by DCU and can be hard to find course-related work on your own.

Having said all that, if you're willing to put the effort in, its a grand course, and continuous assessment is much nicer than exams. I love doing most of the projects, but some parts of the course are irrelevant in real working life (as ive found out this year!!!).

The course is varied, so if you want to get experience in design, video/audio production, dvd/cd authoring etc then its a good way to start.

shout if you need more info!

mias

Hey, does anyone know if Multimedia in DCU is any good? Is it broad or completely focused on one thing? If anyone is doin the course, kud they tell me anything bout it? is it a dead end course, kus on the past graduates section of the dcu website, not many past grads seem to have job in multimedia at all! ie will you get a job out of it, and not just desining websites? Any way into film production/direction, or radio production?

Pauleeeeeeee

Hey mias. As I said in my post above, I did the first year of Multimedia in DCU and done a week or two of second year before leaving because I felt the course just wasn't for me.

As you've probably seen on the DCU website there's modules such as Imaging, Video and Audio along alot of more 'theoretical' modules. In second year you decide to focuse in either Imaging, Video or Audio along with the rest of the more theoretical modules.

The main reason I wanted to do the course in the first place was because I had an interest in alot of Multimedia type things such as music production, graphic design, 3d production, web design etc. so yes, it is pretty broad. The problem that I've found however was that the course is tryin' to fit so much stuff in that you only really end up skimming the top of alot of subjects. This coupled with the fact that most of your time is taken up by writing essays is not a good thing in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, your going to get essays and the unenjoyable stuff/stuff you think is irrelevant in every course but I felt it was just went overboard in multimedia.

I do know people in the course who seem to be happy with is but I also know a fair few people who also agree with me about the points I've made above but they've decided to just stick it out anyway.

From what I can see, if you are going to be entering any creative field of work such as audio production, graphic design, animation, blah blah blah it's not about what qualification you have it's about how talented you are. Granted if you apply for a job and your portfolio is as impressive as another persons but they have a degree they'll probably get the job.

I have a feeling that my reply here is getting pretty muddled (what a manly word that is) so I'll shut up. If you wanna know anything else just ask.

-Pauleeeeeeee

mias

Sound Paullleeeeeeee, nice reply, helps a lot. If i have absolutely no interest in website design or animation etc. is the course a good basis in Multimedia technique? And is it crap on the jobs front after? Any ideas for gettin into radio/tv/film production or stuff like that? Would multimedia be right for me if thats the goal, or would i end up doin stuff like designing websites? You help is realy appreciated, being tryin for ages to get a first person view of the course!

Pauleeeeeeee

mias wrote:

If i have absolutely no interest in website design or animation etc. is the course a good basis in Multimedia technique?

What exactly do you mean by Multimedai technique? Multimedia covers alot of areas... As for animation, there's no animation involved in Multimedia that's just something I'm going to persue, sorry if I confused thing by mentioning it. There is modules on webdesign in the course though.

mias wrote:

And is it crap on the jobs front after? Any ideas for gettin into radio/tv/film production or stuff like that?

Personally I think that in any creative field (e.g. sound production/film production or in my case animation) getting a job relies more on how talented you are and how good your portfolio is. Then again if you want to do some teaching on the side after your degree or would like to work in the likes of america someday that degree will help.

When I got into second year I decided to specialise in audio. Personally I've never really been interested in the radio side of audio but more towards music production. Unfotunatly our lecturer didn't seem to want to touch music production with a ten foot poll. What he does do is alot more radio orientated which is what you'd want I guess. A friend of mine has said that nearly every lecture he's had in audio in second year has been like a free class though, which obviously isn't a good thing.

mias wrote:

Would multimedia be right for me if thats the goal, or would i end up doin stuff like designing websites? You help is realy appreciated, being tryin for ages to get a first person view of the course!

There's a good bit of web design in Multimedia and like I said, there is ALOT of essay writing.

From what I've read on the net companies don't really want a jack of all trades...they want someone who is really good at one thing. Of course it helps to know how other things work aswell so you can comunicate better with a team you might be working with in the future but overall it's best just to be **** hot at one thing.

Have you had a look at any of the film production courses or radio/audio type courses at ballyfermot or dun laoighre?

-Pauleeeeeeee

cessy

ok pauleeeee so multimedia isnt that great for music production/sound engineering cuz that is what i am really into (damn lecturer!) is it completely ignored? thanx for your help!

Pauleeeeeeee

There's a difference between being on the radio and producing music. The audio segment of multimedia is pretty much completely geared towards radio stuff...nothing to do with music production really, (even though I've been told the lecturer is a pretty decent musician).

If your really just geared towards music production/sound engineering I'd recommend doing a course that focuses in that area because Multimedia does delve into a few different things which you might not be interested in (imaging, video, cultural analysis of multimedia, web design and in 3rd year there's flash, 3d modelling and other stuff). For that reason I feel that you end up being OK at a few different things instead of brilliant at one thing, which for you would be Audio production/sound engineering.

metrognome

Plannin on doin multimedia meself, havnt got a clue what its gona be like, any jobs goin after?