Digital Media

Course Title and Exam Board

OCR Cambridge Technicals: Digital Media – Video Games and Interactive Products

Entry Requirements

Open to any who have met the minimum requirements to enter the 6^th form. This course is not a programming heavy course but some experience in this area will be an advantage,

Why Choose Digital Media – Video Games and Interactive Products?

This course offers a chance to learn some high-end creative skills and is aimed at candidates looking to further a career in interactive media. The skills learned on the course will suit a range of career paths such as video games developer / tester, asset producer, web-designer, mobile app designer.

Interactive media is everywhere in our daily lives. The video games industry is worth more globally than the film, television and music industries all put together and there is no signs of its’ growth slowing! Life without accessing the web either through a browser or smart devices is unthinkable for most and those with the skills to design and create them are in high demand.

This course offers a excellent, creative, learning journey that focusses on the outcome of beautiful products, engaging games and meeting the needs of industry.

Course Content

Units:

Media Skills – a core unit taken with other members of the Digital Media cohort. Learners are taught the basic concepts of working with media such as audience, representation, narrative and marketing.

Creating a Media Product – learners will be tasked with producing an audio-visual media product. This could be a game teaser trainer, in-game cut scene, an advertisement or any other audio-visual product.

Create an Interactive Product – learners will delve into the field of web development to create a website from the ground up learning about modern web development design techniques including responsive design, flat design and dynamic page creation.

Game Development – learners will plan, design and make a video game using the latest in game building technologies. The game can be for desktop, mobile and even virtual reality!

Sound – students will learn practical sound production skills and will generate sound effects for game environments.

Graphic Design – skills with Photoshop will be taught or built upon from previous years. This will be in the context of creating assets for game production.

Media pitch – media is business like any other and the skills taught on this unit will allow students to formulate arguments to sell their product to industry professionals.

The course will be a mixture of classroom, computer room and media lab. During the practical units, learners are encouraged to be self-sufficient and build independently (with teacher support) alongside formal teacher led sessions. Students can use research skills to find additional components and pathways to add to the media products and the knowledge and understanding of the environments will grow exponentially.

The units are assessed practically through coursework submissions with the exception of the core media unites which are examined.

Many previous students have found work experience placements at software houses during the summer of Year 12. Once skills are learned, students are free to develop independently and there are opportunities for freelance employment.

There are countless tutorial series available online. All a student needs to do is find some time, plug in some headphones and follow along and skills can grow at a fantastic rate.