Cormac picks up media award

The awards are for audio-visual media from the Northern Ireland Skillset Media Academy. The Academy is one of only 23 licensed centres of excellence in the UK for Creative Media.

Just completed his first year at the Northern Regional College, Cormac came third in the Interactive content category.

Speaking to the Times, Cormac explained: “I made a piece about the Dubshed carshow in Belfast earlier in the year and my teacher thought it was good enough and suggested I entered it into the competition.

“To be honest I didn’t think much more about it until I was contacted to say I had to attended the awards presentation at the Belfast Met (Metropolitan college).

“The awards cover all colleges and Universities and I was really pleased to get third place because I wasn’t expecting to win anything.”

Cormac’s two year course at NRC Derry covers a wide range of topics from the ins and outs of powerful software packages, working his way up to 3D Studio Max, via, amongst others, Flash, Dreamweaver, Premier, After Effects, Fireworks and Sound Forge. The aim is to enable students to be fully equipped to build interactive websites, generate animation, and compose graphics for electronic formats. However, it is the world of TV and film the talented teenager is aiming for.

“I have this year to finish my course,” added Cormac. “I then hope to go to university in Belfast to continue to study intercative media.

“My aim once I graduate is to work in motion graphix and special effects.

“I know I have a lot of hard work ahead but it will be worth it.

“Getting third place in this competition has been a real boost and is quite a big deal for me. If I can do that in my first year things can only get better and it has certainly encouraged me to continue working hard on the course.

“I entered the competition this time on the advice of my teacher without really knowing what to expect so I will definitely enter next year and hopefully I can go on to win it”.