Filmmaking - BA (Hons)

This module will examine the role film festivals play in garnering critical acclaim, enabling audience access and acting as a trade hub for film, playing a part in the financing, distribution and marketing of independent titles. The aim is to unpack the culture of film festivals from the lavish, major international affairs through to grassroots events. You will examine the drivers, objectives and investment that underpins them and their strategic importance for relationship building, launching and generating PR for film.

This module follows on from the first year module and helps move you further towards your professionalism. Whereas introduced you to fundamental operations, this module introduces you to ways in which you can utilise filmmaking equipment to consider and enhance the aesthetics of production. Through the study of Light, Colour, Area, Depth, Time, Movement and Sound, you will be expected to consider these as a way to further enhance your production skills.

The module is an opportunity to learn and critically reflect on the skills of collaboration by enabling you to create an interdisciplinary project with students from complementary disciplines, or with academic staff. Collaboration is a vital employability skill within the Creative Industries and this module allows you to develop these skills, making use of University facilities and with the support of academic staff. Within this module framework, several kinds of collaborative opportunities are available. For example, with the approval of your supervisor, you can determine a project based on your own interests; your supervisor may set you a predetermined project to enable you to work with other students in a way that is appropriate to your subject area; or there may be opportunities for you to collaborate with staff on research projects. In all cases, you must apply your subject skills to an interdisciplinary project which will be agreed in advance with your supervisor.

This module will provide students with an overview of the cultural relevancy of 1970s cinema. Initially exploring the context of the decade and the fragmented nature of film narratives at the time the module will discuss the emergence and demise of ‘American New Wave/New Hollywood’ but also explore further the style, substance and aesthetics of the varying sub-genres of the time as well as the cultural and creative impact they had on both cinematic presentation and other aspects of the media industry.

This module follows on from the year one Foundations of Filmmaking, but introduces you to the key elements of cinematography in greater detail. Whereas Foundations of Filmmaking introduced you to fundamental, wider aspect of production and associated operations, this builds upon these, yet purely focusses on the duties within the field of cinematography.

This module will teach you the essential skills of, and principles behind, the writing of short films. Although these principles apply primarily to screenwriting for film and television, this module will instead be concerned with the writing of short films. You will study a number of freely available short guides to screenplay layout and formatting and be trained in the practical application of screenplay formatting software. You will write three short scripts, given as fortnightly writing exercises, and receive detailed formative feedback on one of the scripts, which you can use to improve and develop your work for your final portfolio. You will focus on visual storytelling, layout conventions, and the issue of writing to scale (budget). You will also be encouraged to analyse, but also critique, dramatic construction in terms of character function, motivation and genre.

This Module focuses on the post production element of filmmaking. Specifically areas concerning editing techniques, colour correction and grading to aid narrative. Students will learn both the technical skills of audio and video editing as well as the grammar and structure that belong to the art in order to become better storytellers.

The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. It is important that we can support you appropriately, so you will be guided towards choosing a research topic which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise. The outcome may take the form of a written dissertation or a practice-based portfolio.

This module examines the intricacies of film and entertainment finance at product level, unpacking how films are made and how they raise their finance. The aim is to help you understand sources of finance, how finance and recoupment plans are put together and what it takes to attract investors to a project; the typical challenges faced by a producer.

You will explore key players in the film financing and sales process (sales agents, distributors, and exhibitors) looking at money flow, the kinds of deals being made and how the film business operates.

Sessions will comprise a combination of seminars to introduce module content, and discussion-based activities to support you in exploring the current and emerging marketplace/financing landscape. This will provide opportunities to discuss theory as it applies to current practice, and the challenge of putting together a film development package to attract investment.

The module is an opportunity to learn and critically reflect on the skills of collaboration and/or your own professional practice. The module enables you to create either an interdisciplinary project with students from complementary disciplines or your own self-defined project.

The module introduces you to the key debates related to the study of global cinema traditions, which have emerged over the last twenty years as a distinct aspect of critical interest within film and media theory.

The module begins by examining key concepts associated with the study of global film, before situating these film patterns in their cultural, historical and transcultural contexts. The module goes on to offer a series of case-studies of nationally defined cinema movements that also situates these patterns through the key output of directors and performers These national cinema movements will be complimented by a further range of case-studies drawn from Europe, Central America, Africa and the Arabic regions. Other topics that the module explores include representations of gender and sexuality within global cinema traditions, as well as considering the importance of transnational debates and popular film traditions to debates in this area.