Image courtesy JMC Academy
JMC Academy’s new initiative sees its students collaborating across departments working on actual commercial projects to gain real world industry experience.
Students can study at campuses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and the school offers qualifications in audio engineering, film and TV production, entertainment business management, contemporary music performance, songwriting, animation, digital design and game development.
Of utmost importance in the creative industry is the relationship between client, management and creative team. While such skills may be hard to teach as they come with experience, integrating students from different disciplines to deliver briefs for real-world projects gives JMC students an advantage over other candidates when job-seeking.
The campaign ‘Make it with JMC’ was a series of radio commercials promoting the school, written, performed and produced by JMC’s own students. This work had previously been outsourced to professional designers, copywriters and music producers. As Karen Markakis, Head of Marketing and Branding stated: ‘We are confident in the quality of work our students produce and so trust in their ability to undertake work that would normally be outsourced to working industry’.
Utilising the talent of students (and paying them industry award wages), the commercials, running through 2016, involved students from audio engineering, entertainment business management, music and songwriting departments who worked together to develop a concept, script, music and jingle. They were then recorded, mastered and produced for radio.
As expected, the students involved reaped the benefits of this opportunity. Jye Hannan, an audio engineering and sound production student said: ‘Working with students from other courses is important because it is creatively stimulating and allows everyone to approach the same task from different perspectives.’
The second campaign asked JMC students to pitch designs for a line of t-shirts to be sold through JMC’s online store. Students from game development, animation and digital design worked together to incorporate three design elements – an astronaut, the moon and a spaceship. They also had to fit to the JMC branding.
Four designs by Jordi White, Adam Ak, James O’Brian and Julian Ball, were chosen and their t-shirts will be available to purchase. The students will receive 50% from the sale of each t-shirt.
For more information about JMC Academy courses www.jmcacademy.edu.au
