Course Details
The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.
Year one
Launch
Launch Week will help you develop your understanding of creativity and different sources of inspiration via different approaches, concepts, and mediums. We want you to see potential in the every day and to draw from personal experience. During this week, you’ll also get an overview of the various resources available and how they can be used as complimentary tools for your study.
Encounters: Screen Fundamentals
You’ll learn the essential skills of documentary film production and go outside of your familiar surroundings to encounter new people and places. You’ll explore different approaches to factual filmmaking while investigating the ethical and practical issues of the representation of people. Working in a small group, you will undertake research leading to the production of a short film that presents a portrait of an individual or a group.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The unit provides an opportunity for you to explore what is meant by equality, diversity, and inclusion and the implications of these concepts for creative practice. It will equip students to understand how our social identities (such as gender, race/ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, and religion) contribute to the inclusion and/or exclusion of individuals in creative spaces.
Making Live Television
Many of the most famous moments in television history are famous precisely because they were broadcast live - from the first US Presidential debates and the Moon landings to the OJ Simpson car chase and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. You’ll be introduced to the workings of a television studio and to the key roles of director, vision mixer, sound mixer, presenter, floor manager and camera operator. We’ll shed light on some of the tricks – or magic – of programme making. You’ll hear from people who have, or do, regularly broadcast live. And you’ll get a chance to undertake some of these roles and to see a programme being made in a professional television studio. Alongside this, you’ll independently research a specific role within the television studio environment.
Opportunity week – 24-hour film challenge
You’ll explore spontaneous filmmaking techniques and approaches in this Opportunity Week, culminating in the production of a short film in 24 hours.
Introduction to Television: Programmes, Audiences and Genres
You’ll learn about several different television genres, how they came about, why they are popular and how they might develop in future. You’ll also get the chance to make a series of short films in a range of different styles and for varied audiences, including content designed for the web rather than linear television channels. You’ll also be introduced to the commissioning process to encourage you to think about the qualities an idea needs to have in order to get the green light. Throughout the unit, we’d like you to start thinking about what kind of television you would most like to make and what kind of programmes you’d like to specialise in as you progress through the degree.
Industry Presence
You’ll reflect on your learning from the first year of the course, and begin to prepare for the world beyond University and in readiness for the second year of your degree. You will begin to build the foundation for your CV and online presence and to develop your confidence in presenting yourself and your work to the industry. You’ll work with our careers’ department as you gain the skills you need to raise your professional profile.
Narrative Audio Storytelling
- You’ll learn the fundamentals of sound design and the technical skills required to produce a professional-sounding audio production. You’ll hone your editorial antennae to find stories and characters that will keep an audience hooked and have enough mileage to play out over multiple episodes. And you’ll also further develop your understanding of narrative and script development - with no visuals to fall back on your story will need to stand on its own.
- During the unit you’ll develop an original audio idea – fiction or non-fiction – for a podcast series. You’ll be assessed on your first episode which you’ll produce in small teams of two or three students.
ATOM Activities
ATOM activities are tiny pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across the university. Collectively they form a small fraction of your curriculum that is determined through your own personal choice and interest.
PLE Digital Output
In this unit you’ll collate a digital record, reflecting on your learning journey through the first year of your degree. You’ll identify key points and developments within all units undertaken. We are interested in seeing a detailed account of your academic, technical and creative progress and development.
Year two
Launch
A series of interdisciplinary seminars and workshops on how to evaluate your own work and recognise your points of strength. This week will investigate how creative risk-taking, invention and experimentation helps to develop your work.
Writing Multi-Camera Narrative
You’ll build a five-minute script for a multi-camera production, from initial idea through production, using a blend of screenwriting theory, practical activities addressed in class, and self-directed study. The module explores the processes and practices of writing for TV, focusing on genre, structure, character, and story development.
The Conscious Practitioner
This unit aims to promote progressive values and attitudes to diversity and inclusion in creative practice. You’ll have the opportunity to explore global perspectives and influences on creative practice, drawing upon interactions with varied identities, cultures, politics, and histories. The unit will explore how beliefs, values and attitudes drive behaviour and practices. Students will reflect on the development of their own creative influences, perspectives, practices, and sense of belonging as developing creative professionals in global and contemporary spaces.
Opportunity Week – Game Jam
This week consists of a series of interdisciplinary seminars, screenings, and workshops on creative game building subjects through the lens of a ‘Games Jam’ event. You’ll see the possibilities and potential of what you could create in a short space of time, with the influence of their individual practises and subjects. You’ll explore further innovation, technique, and technology in production, distribution and exhibition of a fully functioning and playable video game.
Documentary
You’ll undertake a documentary journey that reveals unexpected realities about the world we live in. Integral to this is the exploration of cultural, critical, theoretical and historical contexts in which selected filmmakers from a variety of international contexts have responded to real-life events. Working in groups you will research and produce an original documentary project. You’ll develop your documentary understanding through a variety of camera, editing, idea and research lectures. Before your production is greenlit, you’ll pitch your idea in front of a panel and produce a sizzle reel which shows proof of concept of your film idea.
Live Brief
From a set industry brief from either a commercial client or a charitable organisation, you’ll work alone or in small production teams to understand and identify the needs of the brief, plan all aspects of the project and its unique needs, and fully address the requirements of the client.
ATOM Activities
This unit is an extension of your Year 1 ATOM Activities.
PLE Digital Outcome
You’ll build your industry community and professional networking footprint, creating a digital folder evidencing that you are actively engaging in sustainable professional development. You’ll showcase current and newly established professional networks and identify common interests.
Year three
Launch
Through interdisciplinary seminars, screenings and workshops, Launch Week focuses on ground-breaking, creative work that has had surprised, shocked, and changed the way we view the world. This will help you see the possibilities and potential of what you could create and achieve in your final year.
Extended Research Project
Emphasising the personal development of critical writing, you’ll research and complete an independently generated and illustrated Extended Research Project.
Final Major Project: Pre-Production
You’ll take on pre-production tasks relevant to your crew roles for the Final Major Project unit. You will also successfully contextualise these roles and the projects for life after graduation, building on technical, collaborative and professional skills you have learned so far.
Opportunity Week
This week comprises of a series of interdisciplinary lectures, seminars and workshops centred around life after graduation. This week will help students develop their understanding of the creative industries, working professional environment and what they can expect after graduation.
Final Major Project: Realisation
You’ll further develop your chosen role(s) and complete the projects started in the Final Major Project: Pre-Production unit through production and into post-production and final screening. You are expected to work with a high degree of professionalism in a crew role and be challenged to further your technical and creative skills throughout.
