Zeke Striking the Right Chord with Media Students

Media lecturer Zeke Ares is sharing his wealth of experience within the animation and film industries to inspire the next generation of creatives.

As part of National Careers Week, Zeke has shared his story, including his passion for animation, the exciting AI developments for learners and staff plus championing the T Level courses that have started during the current academic year.

From Technician to Teacher

Zeke’s journey at Stoke on Trent College started two years ago, when he began working as a Technician before moving into a teaching role.

“I started off with a handful of hours teaching but found I really enjoyed and pushed to do more,” Zeke explained.

With support of the Media team at the college, Zeke gained his Level 3 and 4 in Teaching and is now a Media Lecturer with a specialism in animation.

“It was never planned, but I really enjoy it” he joked.

Stop, Motion, Action!

Zeke is always keen to share his love for stop motion animation with his students saying,

“I worked in the animation industry for around nine years, having ran my own stop motion company and worked on high profile films such as Fantastic Mr Fox and Frankenweenie plus producing animations for companies such as Carse and Waterman” he explained.

As a father of two, Zeke found his passion for teaching through them, even helping his son create a stop motion animation film at the age of two!

“It’s still one of my favourite things to watch,” he said.

“My first class had a number of students with learning difficulties, and because of my parental background I gelled quickly with them. Seeing the moment when the students embrace learning and things fall into place during classes is magical.”

Class Wars

No two lessons are the same for Zeke, including Thursday mornings which are dedicated to ‘Class Wars’, where the students are divided up into two groups and give them a subject to research and then debate afterwards.

Zeke started teaching Gaming and has introduced other lecturers and students to software they’d never used before, including Blender which has helped them to craft full 3D projects from scratch.

“I’ve had one Level 1 student who was able to create a 3D arcade machine using blender,” he explained.

With students now being taught Blender, their media knowledge is always increasing with other lecturers being upskilled so 3D modelling can be embedded in different courses across the Digital & Creative department.

AI is everywhere

The landscape of media is changing all the time, and Zeke has pointed towards advancements in AI as a way to increase efficiencies in a variety of areas, including just everyday tasks.

“I love AI and use it quite a lot. I’m a big music enthusiast and have my own band and I’ve used it to enhance my vocals. I’ve also done workshops in AI for staff at the college during CPD sessions plus training with drones. Everyone uses AI every single day and maybe doesn’t realise they are; it just makes things a lot easier,” he said.

Network, Network, Network

Zeke highlighted the importance of networking and showcasing your work to his students, as the animation and film markets are so competitive.

“Knowledge is key, not just knowing what you’re doing but also who you know. I always tell my students to create a LinkedIn account now, start building your network and share as much of your work as possible and meet and talk to people as much as possible. The animation industry especially, is quite tight lipped and they don’t really advertise jobs,” he explained.

“Everyone is trying to get noticed and liked, so if you don’t start from the ground up you will find it hard to get noticed.”

T Levels are a game changer

Zeke also pointed out the importance of T-Level courses, which allow students the opportunity of an industry work placements, whilst gaining their qualifications.

“T Levels have dedicated industry placements, providing real work experience to help you get on the ladder, so I always encourage students to look at those qualifications.”

“Study hard, get on T Levels and you will get the job you want,” he concluded.

Stoke on Trent College offers a host of digital and creative courses plus new for the 2024/25 academic, T Level in Media Broadcast Production which is taught in our industry-standard broadcast media suite housed in the Digital & Creative Hub on the Cauldon campus.

Find out more about digital and creative courses at Stoke on Trent College.