Film, Media, Theatre & Performance Foundation Year

This interdisciplinary module will enable you to synthesise learning from across the programme locating practices of film, media, theatre and performance, and fine art within wider artistic, cultural, and geopolitical contexts and current debates. On this module, you will develop and utilise a broad range of key skills for university. These will include demonstrations of cogent academic prose, accurate academic citation, research skills, independent learning, oral presentation, and teamwork. The module fosters employability through enabling you to develop foundational knowledge in transferable skills such as time management, IT skills, critical thinking, and evaluation.

This module will develop your core knowledge and understanding of the connections between culture and contemporary society. You will explore those ideas at the intimate personal and local level by reflecting on, for examples, your own cultural engagements and how said engagements are facilitated (e.g. through various media platforms). Equally, you will connect said engagements to broader debates, spanning out to the international context. The module will introduce you to major concepts and approaches in cultural studies, supplemented with examples from the contemporary mediasphere. You will explore, for example, how media representations are influenced by external factors such as regulation, ownership, and audience behaviours, but also how media has transformed our social relations, altered our understandings of world events, and impacted on what matters to us (our cultural and societal values). You will also examine how culture and the study of which has developed over time and how technology has altered how social subjects communicate with each other. You will also develop your skills in critical thinking by analysing examples taken from the contemporary world, and by discussing ideas with your tutors and your peers.

The module introduces you to a range of core practical film production and creative skills, as well as developing transferable personal skills to support your future study and employability. You will also build your knowledge and understanding of the processes, trends and issues in the contemporary media landscape.

You will be introduced to practical and creative skills including pitching, writing, production research, production logistics, scheduling, storyboarding and directing, in addition to the creative and technical fundamentals of camera, sound and editing operations. You will learn essential softer skills such as time management, interpersonal skills, risk assessment, presentation and negotiation skills – all of which help to prepare you for your choice of degree path. You will also acquire critical and reflective skills, as you respond to your own work and that of others, reflect on your own personal development, and set yourself goals for improvement.
Your knowledge will grow to include an understanding of different styles and approaches to storytelling and film content, across a range of film activities, sitting your work alongside that of other filmmakers and increasing your awareness of the range of formal approaches across a wide range of media production. You’ll also progress with a solid grounding in principles of risk assessment, to ensure safe filming practice.

The module develops your understanding of the significance of genre within the production, reception and analysis of screen media. It explores what we understand by the term genre through an analysis of the codes and conventions of major screen types and how said codes and conventions are conveyed through promotional discourse and received by media audiences. It considers how genres change over time according to evolving aesthetic, social, technological and industrial contexts. You will learn about key developments in genre scholarship, and how critical and theoretical approaches can be applied to specific examples. In so doing, you will gain an appreciation of the importance of textual, contextual and critical analysis to an appreciation of screen media production and culture.

Performed representations are everywhere. Whether you are interested in making plays and performances for the stage, creating film or TV dramas or documentaries, or more broadly in understanding the importance of mediated representations, ‘performance’ is a critical aspect of the contemporary world. This module will introduce you to a range of performance practices, both as a maker of performance and from critical perspectives. Exploring (indicatively) ‘theatre sports’, improvisation, play, contemporary performance techniques, staging of scenes from plays, the module will help you to understand why performed representations matter in the world, and how you might go about making them. Designed to be an active, fun, dynamic and engaging learning experience, through the module you will not only develop an enhanced understanding of performance practice but will also acquire enhanced communication, team work, and problem-solving skills that will be relevant to all aspects of your studies.