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Home / Creative Arts & Media / Digital Media / Lights, Camera, Computer - Action! How Digital Technology is Transforming Film, TV, and Gaming / Welcome to Week 1: what are the Screen Industries?

Welcome to Week 1: what are the Screen Industries?

This week we’ll discuss what the screen industries are, and how they have changed over time.
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Hello and welcome to this course about digital technologies and the screen industries, developed by the University of York and the Screen Industries Growth Network, also known as SIGN. I’m Anna Bramwell-Dicks, Lecturer in Web Development and Interactive Media in the Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media at the University of York. During this course, I’ll be joined by academic colleagues and research students, to investigate together the wonderful, varied and ever-changing creative screen industries. We hope by the end of the course you might feel inspired to begin a journey to work within this amazing industry. My first question to you - is ‘what do we mean when we refer to the screen industries?’
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Don’t worry if you’re not sure, that’s part of what you’re here to find out! For us, the term ‘screen industries’ loosely encompasses different forms of screen-based entertainment that all tend to revolve around storytelling. This includes tv, film, games, extended reality (otherwise known as XR) - by which I mean things like virtual and augmented reality - and we’ll also discover other types of digital media entertainment experiences along the way. I expect that all of you are familiar with film, tv and games but the term XR in particular might be new to you, but that’s okay as we’ll explore what these things are through the course with lots of examples.
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During this course we’ll look at where the screen industries are right now and how they have evolved over the years. We’ll also imagine the future and think about where technological advances might take this sector in the next 5, 10 and 50 years by asking ‘How will people be enjoying stories in the next century?’ and ‘What will the screen industries look like in 10 years’ time?’ We’ll also hear from one of SIGN’s industry trainers, so you’ll get the opportunity to consider the varied job roles and career opportunities within this sector and how you might be able to start a career in the screen industries working to your own strengths and areas of interest.
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You’ll get a sneak preview of some of the cutting-edge technologies that researchers are currently developing here at the University And of course, we’ll include a number of practical activities for you to try out as we go along. So, let’s get started. In this first week of the course, we’re going to look at what the screen industries are and how advances in technology have changed the way that we engage with screen-based entertainment. And, the flip side of this - how those creating content are adapting their work to encompass and take advantage of these technological changes.
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We’ll also consider the important issues of diversity and representation in the sector as we must acknowledge some of these challenges, as we think about the different roles involved in making tv, film, games or digital media. Ultimately, we want to encourage you to think about your own skillset, what you might be interested in and where your place could be within the exciting world of screen-based storytelling.

Welcome to the first week of ‘Lights, Camera, Computer – Action! How Digital Technology is Transforming Film, TV, and Gaming’.

This week we’ll discuss what the screen industries are, and how they have changed over time.

We’ll discover how digital technology has developed, so that we can now seemingly watch whatever we want, wherever we are at the touch of a button.

We’ll be considering diversity and representation on screen, (and off screen) and finding out about the different roles involved in making tv, film, games or digital media.

And if you are interested in starting, or moving to, a career in the industry we’ll look at how you can develop the skills needed.

But first of all, in the very next step we’ll start by thinking about what you watch.

Want to keep learning?

This content is taken from University of York online course
Lights, Camera, Computer - Action! How Digital Technology is Transforming Film, TV, and Gaming
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