Film and Television Production BA Honours

This module provides an introduction to documentary in which you will develop a range of skills required to make, contextualise and evaluate documentary films. Key movements, theories, styles and approaches to storytelling in documentary filmmaking are introduced along with the ethical implications of the form. Throughout the module, your creative, practical and technical work is in dialogue with your developing knowledge of documentary filmmaking more broadly. This culminates in the collaborative production of a documentary film.

This introductory module aims to provide you with practical skills and foundational theories of filmmaking leading to the production of a series of micro dramas. Micro dramas - short impactful bitesize narratives are booming as a distinct genre specialising in high concept evocative and immediate stories that build across a series. Originating in China, they are now ubiquitous across social media platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram where they are fast becoming a global phenomenon. Working in small groups, you will be introduced to the core skills of lighting, shooting video, recording sound on location plus postproduction, health and safety and basic production management. Small group workshops in each area of skills will equip you to produce several micro dramas of no more than 2 minutes duration. The module will culminate in a screening of all the work produced. Practical workshops will be supported by lectures introducing foundational concepts such as genre, audiences, and textual analysis with reference to composition, style and editing of this newly developing genre.

This module introduces students to screen criticism across film, television, and digital media. It explores how screen content is analysed, evaluated, and discussed in different contexts and for different audiences – from written reviews, critiques and recaps to podcasts, YouTube video essays, and TikTok takes. It considers the centrality of screen criticism to screen industries and cultures, from journalistic reviews to fan critiques to affiliated media (such as official TV series podcasts).

Through case studies, conceptual prompts and creative and reflective exercises, students will develop an independent critical voice. Students will explore styles and conventions of screen criticism across a range of platforms and develop understandings of how to engage and persuade readers and audiences – learning to express ideas and opinions in informed and engaging ways. The module will encompass a range of critical perspectives and debates informing screen criticism, reflecting contemporary transmedia and transnational screen cultures and spanning themes such as: television and film aesthetics and style; trends; innovations; production contexts; celebrity and performance; representation and storytelling; and ethics. The module will thus also deepen students' understandings of film and television contexts and debates.

This module introduces some of the foundational concepts, debates, and critical tools of television studies, with a particular focus on investigating the workings of television texts and genres. The module draws on an international range of television case-studies, spanning historical and contemporary-digital examples. In considering television genres as ‘cultural categories’, the module also encourages a critical sensitivity to related concerns of representation, equality, diversity and inclusion. The module launches student thinking in such areas as: the language and grammar of television, televisual rhetoric, television aesthetics and style, debates of televisual ‘quality’, the mythic functions of genre, and the textual components of ‘cult’ television. More generally, the module introduces you to the importance of scholarship, beginning to develop skills in research-informed analysis and critical reflection on own practice.

This module introduces the students to the fundamentals of shooting in the TV studio. Students will be introduced to the core skills of studio directing, vision mixing, lighting, studio camera operations, recording sound, live graphics, health and safety and basic production management. At the end of the module, working as a team, students will learn how to produce a 1+1 interview and the fundamentals of shooting music productions in the studio.

This module puts ‘performance’ front and centre as you experience the creative challenges producing drama in the TV Studio. Through practical workshops, you will acquire the technical skills and explore the creative opportunities that enable drama production in the Studio space. From performances rooted in ‘realism’ to more experimental pieces including monologues, you are encouraged to experiment with form and content in both the writing and directing of the finished work. Working in large groups the practical workshops will extend your skills to encompass scripting, blocking actors for camera, and team working. Practical skills will be underpinned by theoretical concepts from the TV Narratives: Traditions and Innovations module.

A live television studio is a hive of energy, tension and excitement. This module creates that buzz through the production of ‘as live’ television studio content. Working in large production groups, you will devise and produce TV Studio based Live Magazine shows with a music performance element. Through practical workshops in studio, you'll learn the procedures and protocols necessary for shooting a Live TV studio show. You'll also learn the technical operations necessary to produce a live broadcast plus how to schedule, source talent, write scripts, produce a running order, bar count, design and build a simple set and work collectively towards the production of a live show hitting a designated ‘on-air’ time. This module aims to follow a philosophy of training for studio operations which combines the learning of technical and production skills and with the artistry of creative content creation.

This module is designed to prepare you for life after graduation and for working and building sustainable careers in the television industry. It helps you develop career skills such as effective self-presentation, and interview techniques, with a view to helping you apply for a work placement. As part of the module you'll source, secure and complete one (or more, depending on the length) work placements in a media production environment and compile a report to reflect on your experience. A supporting suite of promotional materials will include a website and CV presenting your personal and practical skills. You'll also learn how to identify potential employers and the optimum way to promote yourself.

This module explores the centrality of story and storytelling in television production. Through a series of historical and contemporary case-studies and building upon the academic foundations of your first year, this module examines the mechanics of television narrative. The module develops essential understanding and critical skills relating to the successful construction of character and encouraging engagement and investment from audiences, alongside the complex inner workings of plot (and how this is further complicated by long-form, episodic television). In the present televisual context of growing internationalisation, convergence and spreadable media, this module also promotes your understanding of the ways in which characters and stories ever-increasingly move across texts, technologies, and cultures. Moreover, developing critical work from your first year concerning television representation, the module encourages further reflection on the importance of television storytelling in relation to issues of representation and visibility, equality, diversity and inclusion. The module will advance your thinking in such areas as: narrative traditions and current innovations in TV storytelling, narrative modes (realism, surrealism, and hybridity), TV characterisation, TV plot structure, beginnings and endings, visual storytelling and production values, and TV dialogue and subtext. More generally, the module will develop your understanding of the importance of scholarship, furthering skills in research-informed analysis and critical reflection on your own practice.

Students will explore end-to-end the production of promotional video content for broadcast and online platforms. Students will produce content advertising brands, creating campaigns for Third Sector organisations, public information films or corporate content for industries. Creative ideas are brainstormed and produced for an identified client to a negotiated length. This module encourages students to explore live briefs with potential clients and integrate social media into a promotional campaign.

This is a practical module in which you'll immerse yourself in the art and craft of Cinematography. Week by week you'll look at camera and lighting skills, combining creative expression with technical expertise. You'll work collaboratively to shoot exercises and investigate a range of industry-standard equipment and techniques. The completion of a ‘camera and lighting scrapbook’ will enable a variety of skills and will allow you to research specific areas of interest within lighting and camera departments – shaping their own visual narrative.

This module takes an intersectional approach to race, ethnicity, gender and class in film and TV. The module will pay attention to the interconnected nature of these identities. You'll look at how you shape lived experiences of people and how moving images participate in this process. You'll explore how film reproduces or subverts existing norms and privileges, and discuss topics such as gender, sexuality, diversity, agency, tokenism, LGBTQI representation, critical race theory and whiteness. These terms will be discussed in relation to each other rather than mutually exclusive debates. You'll also think about the film form during our classes. Examples you'll be looking at will include a variety of approaches to the question of identities but also different genres, including discussion on essay film. Discussions on essay film help you formulate your responses in a video essay format. Our emphasis will be on close textual analysis of films in relation to theoretical debates while paying close attention to social and historical contexts where relevant.

Screen 2: Short Form Film and Video is designed to meet the substantial demand for short form media content which is consumed across multiple personal devices (including desk-top computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones) and distributed across multiple platforms (including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok). The module seeks to arm you with the skillset and confidence to work as an ‘all-rounder creative’ - an individual who generates shortform content without the multi-person crew and high-end equipment used on other BA Film production modules. The ability to work as an independent producer of short form media content increases your employability upon graduation by enabling you to individually create professional-level content using emerging technologies and mainstream equipment.

This module offers an in-depth exploration of the intersection between psychology and the moving image. Tracing key ideas from Freud and Lacan, to contemporary thinkers Metz, Mulvey, Kristeva and Caruth, this module investigates how psychoanalytic concepts such as the unconscious, human developmental phases, language, trauma, affect and memory inform our understanding of screen-based narratives.

Students will critically examine the ways psychoanalysis can inform the interpretation of film and television material, as well as how screen narratives reflect and challenge contemporary cultural conditions in which discussion about well-being and mental health are at the forefront of popular discourse. Emphasis is placed on applying psychoanalytic models to close readings of key films and television texts, inviting students to develop advanced interpretive skills relevant to arts and humanities critical theory, while learning how to decode screen-specific storytelling techniques such as mise-en-scene, editing, sound design and moving image.

By situating psychoanalysis as both a tool of interpretation and a reflection of the lived-experience, students will gain a nuanced understanding of its contribution to media studies, and to broader conversations about the contemporary human condition.

Documentaries are non-fiction courses which seek to document some aspect of reality for a variety of reasons – education, information, social action, entertainment and preservation to name a few. What singles individual documentaries out is the passion and singularity of vision that comes from the course maker. Documentaries are often made by passionate people about real-world projects and ideas that you feel strongly about.

This module provides the opportunity for you to find your own voice and develop a project of your own. Using the technical skills learned in TV Craft 1 – On Location you'll further develop skills to create a short documentary style film. You'll perform as ‘self-shooters’, taking sole responsibility to deliver a project from concept through to final production. Initial research will lead to course proposal and script which will then be taken into production; script to screen, end to end. Here you are able to research an idea that answers their own thoughts about the world and where you fit into their own environment. Supported by sessions introducing them to documentary forms from across the globe, you'll be encouraged to research topics that reflect the real.

This is a practice-theory fusion module. Through a combination of academic study and creative experimentation, the module examines screen performance in its many forms. It considers the ways in which screen performance can be defined, interpreted and critiqued. More practically, it develops student skills in working with performers of various kinds and getting the best from them across a range of screen genres and production contexts. The module explores such areas as: the actor’s craft, the particular demands of television performance, the role of the casting director, creating a casting brief, audition techniques, the ethics of casting (and connected concerns of equality, diversity and inclusion), rehearsal methods, and working with non-actors.

The Final Project provides the platform for you to demonstrate your learning over the three years of degree study and culminates in the production of a professional standard documentary/factual television course. From initial idea, through pitch, project selection and crewing up through to pre-production shooting and final delivery/screening, this module allows you to show off your technical skills and creativity. It aims to situate your ability to create dynamic courses within a critical context so enabling you to develop the skills necessary for continued creative development beyond University and in the professional arena.

The Final Project provides the platform for you to demonstrate your learning over the three years of degree study and culminates in the production of a unique film or television programme. You are encouraged to experiment and find your own voice and can film in the studio and/or on location. From initial idea, through pitch, project selection and crewing up through to pre-production shooting and final delivery / screening, this module allows you to showcase your technical and creative abilities. It aims to situate your ability to create dynamic work within a critical context so enabling you to develop the skills necessary for continued creative development beyond University and in the professional arena.

This module aims to foster creativity and innovation by examining key areas of evolution in the television industry: content creation, industry structures and distribution networks and technological development. You'll be encouraged to use their storytelling skills in new ways responding to the increasing convergence of the international creative industries; for example, in hybrid distribution routes and interactive environments, digital content creation. Sessions exploring different technologies and production techniques such as fixed rig, drones, AR and VR, and motion capture will be combined with case study analysis and guest speakers. This will provide you with the chance to develop an understanding of how media industries adapt to changes in technology, society, legislation, and the changing work environment.

This module is an opportunity for you to undertake a substantial piece of self-directed, original research, informed by a critical understanding of current theories and debates in the field, assisted by one-to-one supervision with a member of staff. you are encouraged to draw from a global range of potential research topics, with the flexibility to examine historical and/or more contemporary digital contexts. you are also encouraged within their projects to pay attention to any related issues of representation, equality, diversity and inclusion.In the first semester, the module is taught through a series of lectures, discussion activities and QA sessions. In the second semester, you are offered individual guidance by an allocated supervisor while you conduct research and write-up their individual projects. Three lecture/workshops throughout the term will also support you in developing their dissertations.

This module teaches you the skills and knowledge needed to work in a modern cross-platform video news room, creating stories for traditional broadcast operations and online/mobile/social media. You'll learn how to analyse a range of video-based news and features packages, building your understanding of how television news is created and then circulated across a range of platforms. You'll develop relevant hardware and software skills and will also learn the collaborative and team working skills needed in newsrooms.

This module is designed to provide you with an understanding of the wider context of the Film and Television industry as a creative market. You'll explore the film and television industry as a business, developing an understanding of how it operates and how the dynamic juxtaposition between creativity and commerce exists. Film-making as a business involves understanding of the dictates which shape content creation: strategy, financial, legal, marketing and sales and distribution. Through exploration of different business models for feature films, television and short film production (Hollywood, Independent, Public Service Broadcasting, new forms of financing and distribution etc), examining a productions' journey from idea through to exhibition and identifying the different factors that lead to success when working in content production. This module is also intended to ensure you have a strong understanding of the industry and enables you to formulate creative and entrepreneurial proposals, as well as encouraging a critical view of the industry, fostering self-confidence and helping them make a valuable contribution to the future of the film and television world.