BA (Hons) Film and Television Production

Discover the skills needed to write for film and tv. You'll look at a variety of formats and focus on the components of writing in documentary. You'll delve into scriptwriting, documentary research, proposal writing and story-telling through practical writing exercises and exploration of the work of key practitioners. You'll also look at key aspects of the development of the visual language of film, including classical and post-classical Hollywood cinema, the influence of European movements, documentary, art cinema, and the concept of the auteur. Screen form will be considered in relation to particular contexts, such as the role of technical innovation. The module will enable learners to develop the analytical skills and critical knowledge required to conduct effective discussion of filmic styles in context.

You'll study more advanced techniques using industry standard editing systems and be introduced to external effects software like Adobe After Effects. You'll also look at aesthetical uses of post-production and how to achieve a balanced result that serves the purpose of each specific film. You'll be able to focus on key skills relevant to your degree.

You'll look at multi-camera studio and de-rig production experiences, capturing and re-presenting professionally-based “live” or “as-live” events. You'll tackle several production projects and take on different roles in each. Seminars and workshops cover topics such as scripting for multicamera productions, set design, working with talent and vision mixing.

This module introduces you to the process of producing thirty- and sixty-second filmed commercials in response to a specific brief, aligned with ASA regulations. You will explore the history and evolution of commercial short form in film, television, and online, and critically analyse issues of genre, style, and representation. Through workshops and seminars, you will learn essential skills in research, development, pitching, and managing production workflows to deliver a final product on brief, on budget, and on time.

You'll study the ways digital new media, including digital film, have enabled identities, narratives and spaces to be represented through new forms and platforms, including opportunities offered for film and media creatives by new platforms and by hybrids of different media to create new innovative forms. Indicative topics include concepts of convergence, remediation and immersion, and new storytelling from social media narratives, video essays and transmedia to virtual and branching narratives. Issues relating to digital identities and the simulated or digitally captured body are considered, raising issues that include diversity, deep fakes and the uncanny valley. Virtual and augmented realities are considered, together with their creative uses, with reference to critical theories of virtual reality and of the embodied virtual self.

You'll look at the fundamentals of virtual production (VP), including creative aspects and how it factors into studio productions. You'll write and produce a virtual production from scratch and study areas such as unreal engine, designing backgrounds and virtual environments and setting and configuring up cameras and studio equipment ready for a VP.

You'll look at some of the challenges of film directing and producing. In response to a set brief, you'll produce a short drama sequence. You'll think about how a director and producer prepare before they arrive on set, and the importance of location scouting, blocking, working with actors, rehearsing and how choices impact on the meanings generated.

This is an introduction to digital production techniques that are essential when working in the field of news and current affairs broadcasting. We'll help you gain skills needed to work in multi-media journalism. You'll study how to create footage for tv and edit using specialist software. You'll look at factual programming in different genres, and the ways conventions of news and current affairs have been impacted by mobile and accessible technology. Learners will be taught how to use a ‘smartphone’ as a recording device and will explore content creation for new and emerging platforms and adapting the story for cross platform distribution. Learners will consider how to research subject material, the arguments of objectivity and advocacy and the investigative skills required to make factual productions such as news and current affairs.