11th SAE Alumni Convention draws record crowds

Around 2500 creative media students, industry experts, guest speakers and sponsors descended on Berlin for 11^th SAE Alumni Convention.
The unique two-day international event held at SAE Institute Berlin, transformed the campus into an “Aladdin’s Cave” of the latest creative media technology, seminars and networking opportunities.

Berlin 22^nd – 23^rd Oct 2015 – Story: Steve Hartley; Fotos: Lars Goldbach

SAE Alumni Award winners were stars with a bright future who shone on the night as they received their awards for the Best film, music, game, cross media and web production during the convention.

Pouring of the traditional 1000 litres of free beer signalled the start of the ‘legendary’ Convention party bash with sets from Celebrity House and Soul DJ Julian Smith, returning by popular demand to rock the Astra Kulturhaus electric atmosphere alongside the band, Mega Mega till the early hours.
The latest version of the Convention App has fast become a vital part of the convention experience proved a huge hit with convention and seminar goers alike giving those who couldn’t make it a slice of the action.

Students had a sneak preview and the chance to try the latest in audio equipment and innovation; courtesy of Sound Service Berlin unveiling the much awaited Seaboard Rise from Rolli.

Space age technology captured the imagination of visitors to the 3Dconnexion stand. Their latest 3D mouse designed to move in a 3D environment, perfect for multimedia students studying animation or game art was originally developed for the space shuttle Columbia. Vision2See demonstrated the very latest in industry standard Mini ddSDI sports event and live production cameras used in F1 Grand Prix cars, TV series Big Brother and the MBA basketball league action. JVC revealed their latest offering, the GY-LS300, a handheld 4K 35 professional camcorder, ideal for creative media and very versatile for students about to start their career as filmmakers.

Speaking exclusively to SAE Magazine, Joy Deb, Platinum winning producer and songwriter who triumphed in the Eurovision Song Contest final with his upbeat pop track Heroes written for Swedish singer Mans Zelmerlow revealed that he’s working on a new song for Sweden’s 2016 entry as the host country.
Joy, a lecturer in audio at SAE Stockholm was among the line-up of 80 guest seminar speakers whose wealth of talent and knowledge, unique mix of content they shared with seminar audiences shaped opinion and debate.

Seminars & Panels:
Experts from organisations like The Foundry, PIT Legal, Da Vinci Media, shared insights and practical advice on all aspects of creative media during the convention’s 80 plus seminars and networking sessions.

Bee Low, Beatbox Champion and Founder of Beatbox Battle Network, Simon Usiskin, Co-Founder and COO iQU and Kristina Rothe, Game Development Evangelist were among the many speakers sharing their knowledge.
The two-day seminar sessions took a detailed look at social media, music production, sound design, career opportunities, intellectual property, game design and production along with expert advice on film production. Students also heard about the latest tools for helping them deal with user generated content quickly and accurately.

Exhibition
Crowds packed the convention exhibition hall thirsty for the chance to see the latest technical innovations and a chance to try out the latest equipment.
Over 80 exhibitors including, Adobe, Focusrite, JVC, Red, Cubix, CAD Network, Sea Chefs, Sennheiser, Wacom, Yamaha, and Western Digital. Visitors were able try out equipment and gain expert advice on the latest trends that drive the film, game, audio, web and cross-media creative industries.
This year’s convention was sponsored by Avid, b&k Braun, beyerdynamic, concept-A, erpam, LAX Europe, Musikmesse, ProLight & Sound, RME, Synthax Vertrieb, Shure, SPL, Steinberg and WD Western Digital.

Alumni Awards 2015: The winners!

Best Games Production:
Christian Haider, SAE Vienna came away winner of the Best Game Production for “Starchild”
Described by judge Carlos Musoles as a game “Full of wonder; it entices you to play by offering a beautiful interactive experience. The entire game is artistically beautiful – at times it feels like an animated painting that hypnotises you with it’s astonishing colours and effects. As a game, it challenges the player in a gentle but increasing difficulty curve to solve puzzles; leaving you wanting more. Much more.

Best Web Production:
Dennis Ebbinghaus, representing SAE Berlin brought home the Best Web Production award for “memono”,
Judged by panel member Michael Zoller, who added, “This year’s winner was chosen because we felt that – especially for a one-man production – the balance between the amount of work required to realise the app and the feature set offered for the end user was pretty much perfect. Specifically as the app supports not only Apple iPhones and tablets, but also the Apple Watch platform and theiCloud service.

Best Cross Media Production:
Best Cross Media was a runaway success for Sylvain Malenfer of SAE Paris with his project “Crea 3.0”.
Panel Judge Frederic Dufour described this winning project as, “ Demonstrating a more professional attitude into different ways of cross media. For example: a good idea, a perfect narrative construction, a high level technical production, good graphic design, a very successful sound design and above all showed great imagination.
After a very long and hard deliberation, the jury decided to give the first prize a student project with great graphics, a good final cut, a real effort for the sound design and especially for a real sense of humour. I want to thank all participants for their work and involvement.

Best Film Production Award:
A unanimous panel awarded Best Film Production to Angelos Psomopoulos, SAE Athens for ‘Little Island’.
Film panel judge Helen McGregor, announced the award saying, “This beautiful and haunting documentary was a clear winner. We loved the simplicity of the story, its humanity and the uniqueness of the character portrayed.
Technically the film is masterful but in an unobtrusive way that supports but never overpowers the story. “We felt it was a perfect short documentary that is really beautifully realised and is multi-layered, incredibly touching and affecting.
We felt that in watching this film we were really encountering something very profound and that this is an incredible achievement for a student film”.

Energy Groove Radio Special Award:
Energy Groove Radio Station of the Year and Radio Show of the Year.
Announced by Energy Groove Radio presenter and SAE Oxford student Morgan Church. This award, voted for by listeners to Energy Groove Radio, marked its partnership with SAE Institute by presenting a special award for Radio Show of the Year to presenter Brad Duence for ‘People in Music’ broadcast from Energy Groove Sydney who also won Radio Station of the Year.

Best Music Production Award:
This year’s Best Music Production Award goes to Karl Daniel Liden from SAE Stockholm for Greenleaf: “Howl”
Judge Aryan Marzban announced this award adding that’ “ The winner certainly had the X Factor. The only time the judging panel stopped seeking imperfections and just listened to the music, was when this song was played. Songs are often a compromise between the creative and technical aspects, but this song really had a perfect balance highlighting these two factors. A combination of “ballsy” technical decisions, and not following the “typical” stereotype norm of how things should be done. This resulted in portraying the truly authentic sound of the band.

Scott Jones, CEO SAE Global and Alumni Awards Patron paid tribute to the winners with an inspirational speech highlighting what an exceptional set of entrants had taken part this year with really deserved winners across the board

SAE Alumni Awards 2015 Jury members:
Frederic Dufour (SAE Paris), Carlos Fernandez-Musoles (SAE London), Andreas Hauber (SAE Cologne), Timo Krämer (SAE Alumni Europe), Andrea Maggiolo (SAE Milano), Aryan Marzban (SAE Stockholm), Helen McGregor (SAE Oxford), Sebastian Metzner (SAE Berlin), Ezequiel Polbach (SAE Barcelona), Peter Pulfer (SAE Alumni Europe), Michael Zöller (SAE Leipzig)

Peter ‘Pan’ Pulfer, SAE Alumni Convention Organiser, said “The SAE Convention and Alumni Awards has once again exceeded expectations with award entries that were not only entertaining but demonstrated a high standard of technical proficiency.
Visitors to the exhibition and seminar were able to gain inspiration and share knowledge in a truly professional networking environment that will benefit their chosen careers in the world of creative media”.