Thought Den were invited down again to Bournemouth University last week to run a professional studies day to second year Interactive Multimedia, Script Writing and Film Production students. So we packed our buckets, spades and a condensed version of our Thought Den Industry Day workshop and headed to the seaside. With Ben being away in San Fran, Helen (that’s me) developed the session with Dan, adding my unique insight into multi platform production into the Industry Day package.

The Industry Day was part of the students Professional Studies module, the aim of which was an introduction to the processes involved with producing content for the current market. With this vast subject in mind, we chose to include reflections on current market trends, ethics, legal issues, pitching, production roles, career routes and brainstorming methods. Opening with a ‘Pop Quiz’ to assertain the student’s understanding of terms used in current media production (and to make sure everyone was awake), we were able to focus on areas in which they were less knowledgable later on in the day. The day ended with the students developing ideas to pitch for the Bournemouth University student television channel, ‘BUStation‘ using the techniques that we had shared with them.

In addition to our professional commitments, there was also the important task of getting fish and chips to eat down by the sea, however, with autum starting to show signs of arriving, a walk along the beach…on the way to a nice pub (http://www.sixtymillionpostcards.com/) which served fish and chips (with mushy peas, thank you) was chosen instead.

Contact us if you are looking for help with external lecturers for a Professional studies modules or similar. Places with a good reputation for fish, chips and mushy peas will be given priority…

Multimedia huh? Almost as vague as ‘pervasive media’ given it can describe anything from animated gifs to stereoscopic projections. Definitions aside, Thought Den were honoured to be invited to help the region’s A-level and GCSE media teachers swot up on how businesses are exploiting the power of digital.

Bristol already has a thriving media scene and educational institutions in the area are constantly innovating in the way they nurture upcoming talent – something we’re happy to support. A new Multimedia Diploma is being launched in the region and we aimed to get the creative juices flowing, mixing exercises, group brainstorms, front-line experience and observations of the market at large.

The good people at Learning Partnership South West and Vital, part of the Open University, commissioned a 3 hour workshop, part of which involved an in-depth look at some of our own multimedia solutions in three key areas – Government, Consumer and SMEs. Thought Den have worked closely with eDemocracy and online consultation specialists Delib for almost 5 years now and projects such as Fire Kills and Delib’s very own Your Freedom site for our new coalition Government were useful case studies.

Voucher Cloud was given as an example in the Consumer category, and Thought Den’s jewel in the crown Parashoot (risk assessment tool for the TV industry, like Base Camp but with animations) exemplified the highs and lows of developing unique intellectual property for small businesses.

Following a busy Friday and Sunday in preparation, the session kicked off at the Pervasive Media Studiowrapping for lunch at 1:00. It was a great session and we’re putting a video edit together as we focus on landing more work in this area. Please get in touch if you’d like us to run a similar workshop for you. Brows these videos for examples of what we’ve already done.

Bournemouth Industry Day (50 students, 8 hours, bridging the gap between industry and education)

BBC design recruits training (Creative thinking in Pervasive Media)

This is us looking gormless

How many people have spent the last two weekends educating 13 to 19yr olds? We can solidly promise you that it involves throwing a lot of tennis balls, big pens, huge post-its and it’s collated together with a workshop rule, “no throwing the laptops”. Yup, that’s right. We’ve been on the BBC Blast tour.

BBC Blast, which tours the UK in a HUGE bus, has a fantastic mission; give young people an opportunity to experience and learn a few skills and in a fantastic environment.

We pitched a workshop, inspired by the Thought Den Industry Day, called Flash Games – Social Network Wigetry! An intro session aimed at getting creative minds thinking, explaining and ultimately using Flash to produce their own piece of work. Their own version of…

So the last few weekends we’ve been playing ice-breakers, brainstorming, inspiring creative photography, taking abuse and finally herding twitchy mouse fingers through the Flash interface.

It was an immense amount of fun, but ultimately, a lot of kids left feeling like they could confidently use flash to handle some of the more basic interface tools. Hurrah! The plan worked.

Big thanks to the amazing Holly Edwards from RIO who was running the shin-dig, Cathy the content lady, who taught me how to juggle in her lunch-break and to all the kids who weren’t a pain in the….

Some of you might already have heard about our dalliances with the world of education, but here in all it’s glory is the launch video for our Industry Day product. It was all filmed on location at Bournemouth University Media School with the 2nd year students on Interactive Media Production. We had a fantastic time with everyone down there and can’t wait to roll it out around Britain in the next academic year. Find out more about the Industry Day, and check out Dan’s sexy centre-parting in the video below…

The project was first commissioned through the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, based at Bournemouth Media School. There is more information here about the day on the CEMP site. A big thankyou to Holly Budge of Hip Joint Films for her hard work on the video. There’ll be a 3 minute taster on the way too, as this one might be a little long for the casual user…