Film and TV Production BA (Hons)

Film and TV Production 3 is the concluding module of your chosen specialist pathway in Film & TV Production, where depending on your specific interests you get the opportunity to produce a portfolio of work that is the culmination and demonstration of all that you have learned in the programme modules but specifically follows submission to your chosen pathway.

You propose your own portfolio of work appropriate to your production specialism and project interests. This work is effectively your ‘graduation’ material and you can propose to be project instigators such as, but not limited to, directors, producers or animators. Alternatively, you may create a portfolio as a project facilitator, based on providing the all important craft skills such as camera, sound and editing roles.

You propose and present your project(s) in an industry style ‘pitch’ and spend the bulk of the module carrying out the work supervised by appropriate tutors who will support and advise the work in a dissertation model of delivery.

Whilst it is you that articulates the relevant processes and approaches in a coherent portfolio of film production work, you are also required to reflect and critically engage with the ideas and materials of your portfolio, in order to show analytical thinking and add value to the work.

Screenwriting 3 is the concluding module of your chosen specialist pathway in Film & TV Production, where you get the opportunity to produce a practical project portfolio of work that is the culmination and demonstration of all that you have learned in the programme modules, but specifically follows submission to your chosen pathway.

You will learn how to develop a feature film script from idea to final draft, or a TV pilot and series bible from idea to final draft . Through this module you will learn advanced methodologies for creating compelling characters, strong narrative structures, believable dialogue, whilst maintaining the author’s original voice. You may choose to work independently, or as part of a creative team through writer’s room sessions. You will build on what you have already learned in relation to modern screenwriting theories. You will develop a professional attitude to your work, enabling you to take notes and apply them to the script, hit draft deadlines and self-motivate. You will be able to work to a structured delivery pattern and to initiate and resolve your own research. This final screenwriting module, should be regarded as the capstone of your study in the form, it relies on full participation from each student, who is required to attend all lectures, tutorials and any associated writer’s room sessions.

This module is concerned with popular music culture and its relationship to film, an area much neglected in academic film studies, television studies and popular music studies. As such, it seeks to address this absence by looking at a number of key junctures where popular music culture, the cinema and television inter-relate, exploring debates about gender representation, authorship, genre and music in performance, as well as how the films studied relate to context of their production and reception. The module, therefore, covers topics such as the following in a largely chronological fashion. An indicative syllabus is as follows:
1. Early moments: The significance of the early Elvis Films: King Creole
2. Punk rock on film: The Great Rock n’ Roll Swindle
3. The revisionist musical: Von Trier, Lhurmann et al
4. Popular Music and national identity: The Commitments
5. Popular Music and ‘Race’ representation: 8 Mile
6. Gender play: Velvet Goldmine, In Bed with Madonna
7. The popular music / rock documentary
8. Dance and the male body: Saturday Night Fever
9. The concert film" from Wadleigh's Woodstock to Godard's One plus One.
10. Critical approaches to music video: Corbijn, Cunningham et al.
11. Nostalgia and the popular musical biopic: Control

You will learn to understand how the term ‘cult’ has been applied to film and television programmes in different ways, and how the concept has developed across history. The module will enable you to critically examine the ways that cult has been theorised both in relation to films and television programmes, and some of the key differences between cult television and cult film. You will understand how cult can be applied to both films, the reception of films, as well as how it has increasingly infiltrated marketing discourses. Case studies on the module include midnight movies, authorship and cult, fandom, telefantasy, censorship and controversy, exploitation cinema and global cult cinema.

In ‘Adaptations on Film and TV’ you will examine the practical and theoretical debates around the translation of a variety of texts into films and television programmes. A broad-range of case studies is covered, from adaptations of ‘high art’ such as Shakespeare and literary fiction, to the conversion of popular fiction, comic-books and supposedly ‘unfilmable’ sources. As well as considering issues of authorship and originality, you will consider the complex relationship between film, television and other media forms, from music and video-gaming to theme-park rides. Films and programmes under discussion are likely to include examples such as Adaptation, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Sherlock, Doom, The Walking Dead, Band of Brothers, Star Trek amongst others.

The Professional Practice 3 module introduces you to media marketing, distribution, exhibition and financing the development and production of films. The module includes a basic understanding of financial agreements and their importance in funding films.

The module introduces you to the notion and practices of media marketing through developing a marketing portfolio for an actual project you are associated with or a craft skill that you wish to promote (for example; yourself as a cinematographer, screenwriter, producer etc).
It will show you the various approaches and contexts of distribution with regard to both traditional forms and the potential for new exhibition platforms. The module also introduces you to various forms of film finance available both in the UK and the rest of the world, covering such aspects as related legal issues with the development and production of film.

In a landscape of ubiquitous media platforms and fragmented viewing habits, how can traditional media content be reconfigured to take advantage of the potential for transmedia?
The 360 degree commissioning process is now an accepted part of the media production landscape. Films and TV programmes exist in traditional forms, but they also extend their range and interact with audiences across multiple platforms, screens and formats. Practitioners need to become aware of the transmedia landscape, as well as the strategies and techniques used for adding value and resonance to their content and story ideas across multi-platforms.

‘Storyworlds’ aims to explore the place of transmedia as a marketing opportunity in non-traditional media locations, as a narrative tool to expand the core content’s story universe, and as a way to engage with the concept of ‘the never ending story’ that is characteristic of transmedia production.

You will learn how to develop your own transmedia portfolio for a practical project of your choice, as well as engaging in discussions about the potentials of web and mobile content. You will learn techniques for expanding the narrative universe of your core content across wider platforms.

The modern period in horror cinema is generally seen as beginning in 1968 with the release of Night of the Living Dead. This module explores the wide range of horror films produced since that date, primarily in the US but also considering the development and influence of horror film production in Italy, Japan and the UK. Through this exploration, the module will identify key themes, formats and cycles, and engages with the relation of the horror genre to changes in the film industry and to broader social and historical change. It also explores the aesthetic innovations and challenges offered by a range of forms of horror, and the creative ways in which the genre has experimented with film form and style. In taking the module, you will acquire an understanding of the critical and cultural issues raised by this important area of American and global culture and you will develop your own critical and analytic insights into a range of iconic horror films produced between 1968 and the present.

Experimental Film 2 is a micro movie project that introduces you to the methods and approaches that filmmakers have used in delivering personal and experimental projects.
It chooses to foreground frame-by-frame filmmaking (animation) as a solution to the brief, with the definition being the manipulation of a timeline, the manipulation of an image and work that goes ‘beyond live-action’, as used by experimental animation pioneer Dick Arnall, to describe frame-by-frame approaches that are in opposition to mainstream live action filmmaking.

A key aspect of animated filmmaking is condensing and the economy of presentation and here the ‘micro-movie’ duration of the brief helps to develop individual filmmaking and writing for the screen skills, while acknowledging the potential for oppositional approaches to making work and the context in which short, personal filmmaking takes place.

Here, the potential for experimental approaches to methods and materials and the condensing of narratives is augmented by pre-visualisation through experimental animation storyboarding.

Being an individual endeavour, the module allows you to engage deeply with the complete production process from ideation, through testing and validation to filming and post-production.

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.