CGGE Talk: with Mix School City

The revitalization of the industry requires the continuous injection of excellent talents. Good people come from good schools. Today, we visited MIX School City from Shanghai，who told us their teaching policy of combination of industry and learning to cultivate the practical emerging forces.

CGGE: Can you briefly explain what MIX School City stands for?

MIX School city represents the integration of Chinese and Western technologies and concepts, taking into account the needs of the times and traditional values, putting theory and practice into practice, and maintaining the concept of talents for the future.

M stands for Master, training, I for Interest, and X for excellence, meaning that Interest + training = excellence.

CGGE: What is your training philosophy?

Our concept is the last stop before the employment of professional talents.  That is to say, deeply rooted in the industry, meeting for the real needs of the enterprise with customized training courses, reduce the cost and loss of enterprise employment, improve the professional competitiveness of employed talents. At the same time, the valuable industry experience and professional knowledge will be passed on to the younger generation in need.

CGGE: How long does one semester last? Are there any special requirements for the new students?

We have a variety of learning modes, including professional-oriented junior college (3 years) in cooperation with colleges and universities, and pre-master courses (1 year) in cooperation with foreign colleges and universities, which are linked to academic education.

Our social courses focuse on the job market, general last for 2 ~ 6 months. Very flexible. With several modules, we can quickly meet the demand of the market, and  reduce the time cost of learning. For example, the industry now is shortage of animators.  We can score the animators with primary, mid-level and senior animator with different teaching material so that some graduate students can become a junior animators through two months of learning and quickly get used to the real production pipeline.

Because we’re getting at on-the-job training in the field of digital art, most of these jobs is to use computer aided design. In theory, as long as you can use the computer, you can come to learn,. If you had some training in art or learned the basic knowledge of computer can help students learn faster and grow fast to a professional.

CGGE: What do you think is most lacking for current graduates majoring in film and television? How do you ascend? Does the industry have higher requirements for future employees?

For current graduates majoring in film and television or media, they often receive formal disciplinary theory edification at school.  Most of them have also done some creative projects. But they are often not enough to understand the real industry situation. They are greed hands for a real commercial project operation and implementation. No important commercial projects will be generally given to inexperienced newcomer. Our suggestion is that as a new hand, you are skillful and grasp one or two techniques. Starting from a small case and, as one of the industry that can mostly reflect the words of the old adage “practice makes perfect”, solid precipitation is the best way to their professional career.

By the way, what we provided currently in MIX city includes column packaging, film and television post-production, film and television animation, CG model, video packaging (including editing, composition, and color blending), film and television special effects, UE4 game engine, etc., After 2 months of study, the students can be recommended to the companies.

CGGE: As for the current development of the training industry, what are the characteristics of the training industry in China? What are the shortcomings?

At present domestic training industry in general is a word: Disorderly.  There are lots of training institutions which are miscellaneous. It costs a lot for recruitment which leads to compress the quality of teaching, especially in professional training. We hope to make a breakthrough and provide the precise link employment. Don’t forget to education beginner’s mind, solidly complete for individuals, for the enterprise, provides the true value of training services for the society.

CGGE: What advice or message do you have for the newcomer who is about to enter the film and television production industry?

First of all, as mentioned above, newcomers to the industry must have one or two skills so that they have the opportunity to enter the project and serve as the actual position. Otherwise, they cannot get in touch with the real business projects, or players in the industry, nor enter the enterprise. The would be further and further away from their career ideal. Then to stay hungry. It’s a cliche but always true. The first line of experience, the rules of business, these things will help you stand out in society better than the theories you learn in school. The last thing is to work hard. This is a typical miracle industry and an era of miracles. Look forward to your miracles!

Finally, if you are interested in learning career skills in film and television, please pay attention to our official account “MIX City”!