Sebastian Contreras

New Media BFA

Spring 2024

Graduating Fall 2024

My journey through higher education started with pursuing a double major in Informatics Engineering and Audiovisual Communication at one of the best universities in Colombia, Little did I know, my life was about to drastically change when some circumstances led me to relocate to the United States. With almost no time to research universities in the Tampa area, I enrolled at the University of South Florida, where I quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit for my academic and professional aspirations. However, after more research, I ended up transferring to the University of Tampa, where I discovered a major that aligned perfectly with my interests, passions, and goals. During my time at the university, and with the guidance of excellent professors such as Santiago Echeverry and Gregg Perkins, I have acquired valuable skills that will contribute to my professional goals as a New Media Producer.

My adaptability and rapid learning abilities, have helped me a lot through my journey as a New Media Producer, these traits have allowed me to easily pick up new tools and technologies, leading to proficiency in a wide range of software such as Unreal Engine, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Maya, Dreamweaver and MadMapper, or coding languages such as Python, Javascript, CSS, and HTML5. With these tools and skills, I can turn my ideas and concepts into reality, enhancing my creativity and passion for filmmaking, cinematography, photography, virtual production, graphic design, and video game design. Whether it’s creating virtual worlds, editing or recording a video, designing visuals, animating a character, or projecting videos onto a house, I find joy in working with New Media and applying my own style and vision. That’s why I always aim to do my best.

However, aiming for “perfection” is not always the best thing to do. While I’m proficient in many areas, I acknowledge that my perfectionist tendencies can sometimes impede my progress. When I don’t feel satisfied with my work or believe it falls short of my standards, I may struggle to move forward. Additionally, while I possess strong visual and technical skills, I must say that writing has not always been my forte, having a hard time with classes such as AWR or Writing for Media. However, I have recently discovered that working with scripts in the Intro to Scriptwriting class provides a more creative approach to writing, allowing me to express my ideas in a more imaginative manner. Despite any challenges, I am always working on improving myself.

After graduating, I aim to pursue a career that makes me happy and allows me to use my skills and passions to their fullest potential. While my New Media major offers a lot of opportunities, I am particularly interested in cinematography/filmmaking and video game design. For filmmaking and videography, I aspire to work with film or video production studios such as A24, Sony, or Universal. My love for video games also motivates me to seek a role in game design, potentially with renowned game studios that I like such as Epic Games, Nintendo, Play Station, or FromSoftware. Ultimately, my goal is to find a role where I can be myself and express all my creativity and passion into a project or product that in some way could bring people joy and happiness.