KEY POINTS:
THE QUALIFICATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts Photography, film and video major
Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Auckland
Contact: www.whitecliffe.ac.nz
Phone: (09) 309-5970
Cost: $6860 a year
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) offered by Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design is a four-year course but students are able to leave with qualifications each year.
Students wanting to take a break after completing two successful years, for instance, could leave with a Diploma in Arts and Design.
In the first year, students choose electives which give them a preview of the major they may take from the second year. Majors are photography, film and video (PFV), fashion design, fine arts and graphic design.
Whitecliffe, whose lecturers and tutors are all practising artists and designers, has three campuses in central Auckland and students taking the PFV major are based mainly at the main Grafton campus where they have a studio.
The full-time course involves 20 hours of structured study each week matched by the same amount of time in individual study.
Specialist photographic areas studied include digital photography, advanced studio lighting, black and white photography, colour negative and transparency processing, and printing colour negative.
Film and video specialist areas include advanced camera operation, sound recording, lighting, scripting, story-boarding, editing, and special effects.
Students also get tuition in intermedia and installation art practices. All students explore arts and design history and related theory, business papers and industry advice on subjects such as exhibition guidelines, small business practice, gallery dealerships and individual artistic presentation.
Once studying their major, students exhibit at least twice a year at the Randolph St Gallery and Studio, which is open to the public.
Third year students complete an internship, working either with industry professionals or planning a public exhibition. Students have worked for commercial photographers, magazines, and film and television production companies.
Assessment is a 50:50 combination of course grade, which assesses the student's work over the year, and a folio grade on their best work of the year. To be eligible for the BFA students must achieve a minimum of NCEA level 2, be at least 17 years old and submit a portfolio of work. The college offers a course to help those not experienced in arts and design to create a portfolio.
The course costs $6860 annually and up to 110 students are accepted. About 15 take the PFV major.
Intakes are in February each year for the BFA, and July for the Certificate of Arts and Design (Foundation) which helps students prepare a portfolio.
Graduates can go on to study for a Master of Fine Arts, and two courses only offered by Whitecliffe, the Master of Arts in Arts Administration, and a Master of Arts in Arts Therapy.
BFA graduates have found work in fashion photography, photo-editing, digital production for press, photojournalism, cinematography, direction and production for film and television. Salaries start at around $38,000.
THE GRADUATE
Quinn Hamill
24
Graduated 2004
Photographer
I went to Senior College before I went to Whitecliffe and did photography in the sixth and seventh form. I looked at a few courses and I liked the tutor-student ratio at Whitecliffe. When I first started at Whitecliffe they didn't necessarily have the greatest and flashest equipment, but they had a really good faculty. There was between 9 and 12 people in my photography class and we had three different teachers. A 1:3 ratio is pretty good. I did really enjoy the course. It worked for me quite well because it is compulsory to do a business paper, which I think is very important because of the whole concept of the artist is as a one man business. I think a lot of artists don't realise they have to market themselves. I'm employed fulltime but I like to think that if I was freelance I'd have picked up a lot of skills from the course. It was also heavily art orientated and we did quite a lot of art theory, which, although I don't use it shooting magazine [photographs] I think it's really important as well.
THE EMPLOYER
Joseph Burdett
Production manager
Parkside Media, Auckland
The Whitecliffe degree is a lot about creativity and with the magazines we do there has to be a lot of creativity.
A lot of the shoots involve cars, models and products so you've got to be able to put them all together and make them look good in the magazine and also be able to liaise with the designers and art directors.
Getting experienced staff is always good but in the absence of someone with experience the Whitecliffe degree has been very helpful.
