Group Work: Essay on FCM~ ^^

The Uniqueness of Faculty of Creative Multimedia

The meaning of creative thinking is about generating new ideas and finding solutions to solve daily problems. Thus, by thinking creatively, you have to think out of the box to get good ideas. Our minds have no limitation because in Creative Multimedia we can think freely. Furthermore, we can come up with a lot of creative ideas to invent useful things such as the telephone, television, bicycle and other useful creative stuff.

In general, that is what happening here in Faculty of Creative Multimedia of Multimedia University. The lecturers train the students to produce a very high quality work so that they have enough exposure before they venture into the outside world. It does not matter if you do not know how to draw beautifully, as long as you are thinking creatively, you are on the right track and Faculty of Creative Multimedia or better known as FCM is the right place to be.  

FCM first immerged in 1997 in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya. FCM basically offers courses that are related to arts and design where students are taught how to communicate with the mass with their creative artwork. After almost a decade of its existence, FCM of MMU Cyberjaya manages to gain a lot of recognition because of its students who are constantly given awards for their brilliance in designing their work of art. Up to date, FCM has now received more than a hundred over awards for their students’ work. Because of that, FCM also now has a lot of collaborations with many well known industries and foreign universities namely, Al-Jazeera, Nokia and Queensland University of Technology. So, what is it about Faculty of Creative Multimedia that is so interesting? There are many things actually.

Since FCM is all about developing its students into the arts and design working field, in the undergraduate level, FCM offers a few interesting courses which are media arts, animation and visual effects, advertising design, interface design and virtual reality. The Media Arts programme actually teaches the students on to explore new grounds and create new ways of communicating arts with the mass with technologies that are available during the time. Animation and Visual Effects is a programme that teaches its students about film-making that uses 3D animations. Advertising Design is actually for students who are interested in advertising as it teaches them how to create advertisements that can attract potential customers. Interface design is a programme that teaches the students on how to create interface; a tool that is used to allow interactions between humans and technologies that exists around them. Lastly, there is Virtual Reality programme that teaches its students on creating 3D models that are user friendly. Other than the undergraduate level programmes, FCM also offered post-graduates programmes such as PhD in Creative Multimedia, Masters of e-Learning Technologies, Master of Science in Creative Multimedia and Masters of Knowledge Management with Multimedia. There are a handful of them to choose from! With the right qualifications, one can join in one of these programmes without any problems.

When you are from FCM, and you are looking for a job after graduating, there are a lot of things that you can go for out there in the working world. When you are from the foundation level in FCM, where you are still making up your mind on what you want to do when you finally venture out into the working world, you can aim certain types of positions that you would like to hold when you work later on. For example, an FCM student can become Film Director, Animator or Art Director. After aiming those positions, one then can only decide on what subject they can take. Film Director and animator can work together as the film director will make the last decisions when it comes to the filming and the animator can design the animation character thus the students will choose Animation and Visual Effects as their course to take. There are more jobs available for FCM graduates especially now that Malaysia is now looking into the world of creativity. Not only that, while still learning in university, an FCM student can still work part time as a designer or even a photographer. The students do not need to hold back and only wait until they have graduated, they can just start working alone or as a group to gain more experience before really stepping into the world of working.

FCM is a very special faculty because it is uniquely different from the rest. In the FCM building itself, FCM has a lot of facilities that are made special for its students to use to nurture their talents. In the FCM building, it has 3D labs, Post Production Labs, Design Studios, Graphic Labs, Interactive Labs, Set and Background Studios, Virtual Reality Theatre, e-Gallery and lastly, the FCM Cafe. All of these facilities help the FCM students into better understanding on what they are learning in theory. Other than that, for those who are living on campus, the hostel is actually located next door to the FCM building, thus it is convenient for FCM students who are living in the hostel to attend their classes which are usually in the FCM building. They do not need to walk so far to go to their classes compared to other faculty students. Plus, FCM students can also borrow DSLR cameras or other equipments from the FCM student one stop centre if they need a camera for a couple of days.

We were all born creative but we were taught to think critically and logically at a young age thus we lose our touch with our creative side as we grow older but for some, we strongly hold onto your creative mind and use it to our advantage. When it comes to comparing the FCM students to the other students from the other faculties; Faculty of Management (FOM), Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) and Faculty of Engineering (FOE) which are also available in MMU Cyberjaya, one thing that is obvious between all of them is that, FCM students are taught to think creatively instead of thinking critically like how the other students are doing. Though thinking critically is important, but it is not that important compared to thinking creatively. FCM students are taught to think creatively because these students have to keep on generating new ideas, new solutions, new inventions, new innovations and such. FCM student cannot stick to the same idea as anyone else, so they must always have an open, fresh mind, to come up with brilliant new ideas even though it might be illogical. But thinking illogical things helps a person to generate new ideas so when you are in FCM, you have no limit with this kind of thinking. To the other students, having these kind of thinking and coming up with random illogical ideas or solutions might seem weird but that’s the beauty of FCM. The students can be weird, but we tend to come up with the best crazy ideas to make things interesting. From the subject Creative Studies, the students will learn the different kind of way to generate new interesting ideas by using mind maps and also using juxtaposition and from there, crazy new ideas will come.

A FCM students has to walk the walk and talk the talk to show others who they really are and not really blend in with the crowd of other people from the other faculties because FCM students are unique in their own kind of way. In MMU Cyberjaya, there are four different faculties available on campus and in four of those faculties, the students are separated into FOM, FIT, FOE and FCM which tends to have different aura around them. FCM students are not like FOM students as they are better organised and well dressed. Whereas FIT and FOE students, they tend to look like their energy have been sucked out almost dry. FCM students are neither of that. Though FCM students tend to look simple and laid-back as if they do not have that much of assignment to pass up, but that is clearly wrong. FCM students are the crazy kind of people who has a very pleasant look that does not stand out that much but they can come up with the craziest ideas even at the last hour. Other than that, to know who is an FCM students is really easy as FCM students tend to walk around with a DSLR camera bag and a huge folio bag which carries their artwork; FCM students are in the end are photographers as well as an artist.

Another difference between FCM and the other faculties FCM syllabus are more practical based. FCM students have more practical based work more than theoretical work. In FCM, the students will learn the functions of computer softwares such as Adobe, illustrator, photoshop and flash but then they also will learn practically on how to really use them. By learning on how to use them by hand, with the guide of their lecturers, it is easier to understand the functions of the software as the students get to feel themselves on how to do their work using those softwares. Other than softwares, the students will learn how to use the DSLR camera, video camera and other mechanisms that are available in FCM.

In conclusion, Faculty of Creative Multimedia is a very unique in its own way. FCM may not be the parent’s choice for their children because it simply is not for being engineers or doctors, or to certain business minded people, it might seem like a hobby more than a career path, but it is a growing industry and FCM is the place to start the journey into nurturing the young talents into becoming great artistes. With the courses that it offers, the facilities that are provided and the outcomes that are achieved, FCM is the place to be.