Film Making BA(Hons)

This module takes a collaborative approach to help you hone your abilities as filmmakers and storytellers. Building on skills already emerging in both the Film Making and Screenwriting degrees, students work together on the development, preproduction, production and postproduction of a fiction film. This aims to professionalise your creative and collaborative approaches to your work, refining your narrative discipline as screen storytellers and providing a dynamic, preparation-rich environment in which you can improve your grasp of possible moving image specialisms for further exploration later in the degree.

Analysing Content introduces you to the analysis of fiction and non-fiction visual media, from Hollywood films and television series to news and advertising. You will learn how to conduct more complex analysis of the meaning conveyed through media texts as well as their connection to cultural ideology.

The content we share and find is shaped through the specific organisational structures of the film and media industries. This module provides you with an introduction to the key theories, concepts and methods needed to understand those structures, their impact on the professionals and organisations working within them, and the ways in which they shape media landscapes. The module places particular emphasis on political economic approaches and production studies, but attention will also be given to theories of creativity, branding, and industrial conceptions of their audiences.

Being a producer in film and TV is an important job, putting you right at the centre of any production. You’ll learn about production management tasks ranging from casting to location scouting, while getting a handle on the logistics of production both in the studio and outside. You’ll also focus on health and safety, knowledge that is more essential than ever.

We want you to have the creative vision to use film to help us see the world differently. In this module, you will work as a crew to develop in-depth knowledge and skills so you can start to turn that vision into reality. You’ll learn about development production, screenwriting and casting, while honing your abilities in workshops and supervised time in our film studio.

This module develops your existing technical production skills in key areas of film and television production: lighting, cinematography, sound recording, script supervision directing and editing. All strands reflect professional roles and seek to advance your existing technical skills to help you achieve creative and aesthetic objectives and high production values. It also allows you to build a specialism in a technical or production role. In doing so the module builds key skills in collaborative cultural production in the context of film and television.

This module takes you inside cinema, as you examine contemporary film as a global media industry. It’s not just the movies themselves, but how they are produced, distributed, promoted and received. There’s a particular emphasis on how processes of globalisation and circulation allow films to become meaningful, far outside the contexts in which they were originally made.

This module provides a practical orientation in some of the main genres of film and television, and a training in how to write for them. You will analyse and discuss the narrative structures, character types, and other conventions of a range of genres, and try your hand at writing them yourself. These genres could range from documentary to sitcom, from horror to romantic comedy, or from action movie to period costume drama. Finally, you will become proficient at writing in a particular genre, which you will select from those you have studied. You will produce a script according to a genre-specific brief, and then reflect on the process of writing to the constraints of the familiar generic conventions of the film/television industry.

Scoring the Silver Screen will equip you with the skills for in-depth analysis of film and television soundtracks. You will explore the evolving relationships between technology, economics, and aesthetics in film history from a range of perspectives, with case studies ranging from 'silent' films and classic Hollywood musicals to art-house cinema, contemporary blockbusters, and television serials.

This module focuses on the study of fandoms and participatory media with an emphasis on areas including film, television, music, sport, politics and consumer culture. It introduces you to key concepts such as textual poaching, collective intelligence and spreadable media, as well as setting out key debates which have framed participatory media including the role of cultural industries, the commercial exploitation of participants and hierarchies of participation. The module allows you to consider the history of participatory media as well as its textuality and economic basis. The module furthermore examines motivations and practices behind forms of participation including enthusiasm and fandom, introducing you to tools and concepts through which you will analyse your own fan motivations and experiences.

You will draw on examples of contemporary practice in responding to theoretical approaches and debates. You will encounter a range of contemporary examples of performance practice across media through a series of lectures which will be supported, where possible, by theatre visits, video materials, and other media resources. The workshops will introduce you to the critical and aesthetic contexts in which such work exists, and assessment will focus on your ability to locate and devise specific examples of practice within the relevant critical frameworks.

Brands and branding are all around us, and you’ll get inside the promotional techniques used to sell us things. You’ll use knowledge of media industries, consumer research and communications theory to examine how products and services are promoted. You’ll also create materials for a new brand of your own, developing skills useful for careers in advertising and marketing.

This is a wonderful opportunity to work as part of a crew and make a film. We’ll support you through the production and post-production process, as you turn your idea into movie magic. As well as plenty of supervised studio time, you’ll have access to a production budget provided by us, to help you make a film you can be proud of.

This module gives you the knowledge and practical skills to develop an advanced understanding of the emerging and diverse use of short film in a variety of forms. You will examine how video can be used across digital and broadcast platforms in innovative and complex ways. You will work in small groups to develop video narratives using a range of styles and platforms, with a clear understanding of audience and production.

You’ll have heard the term ‘cult movie’, but this module puts the concept itself in the spotlight. Exploring the key genres of fantasy and horror, you’ll consider how cult status is created, sustained and marketed. You’ll explore whether it’s possible to define cult films through certain attributes, and the ways in which fantasy and horror movies have been theorised.

Gaming is one of the most dominant forms of entertainment, more valuable than the movie and music industries put together. In this module, you’ll examine key debates in video gaming analysis, putting games into their historical, social and economic contexts. You’ll create a video essay to help demonstrate what you’ve learned.