What you'll study
The course consists of 120 credits per year. Most modules are 20 credits, meaning you’ll study six modules each year. Some longer modules, such as a dissertation, are worth more (e.g. 40 credits). In these cases, you’ll study fewer modules - but the number of credits will always add up to 120.
First year modules
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Compulsory
Principles of Visual Design
Discover the principles of visual design using software and traditional tools. You'll learn about layout, typography and colour palettes as well as engaging with design research.
The Craft of Filmmaking
Get insight into the practical and collaborative elements of filmmaking, on a module which introduces you to direction, cinematography, production management, editing and audio.
Writing Criticism
Sharpen your film analysis skills. You'll closely examine a range of different types of cinema and complete a series of written exercises that will help you become a better film critic.
Production Studies
Expand your understanding of how the media industries operate, with case studies ranging from small, independent production companies to Hollywood giants.
Screen, Nation, Identity
Explore the relationship between a nation's sense of history and identity, and the stories that it tells about itself on screen.
Game and Entertainment Studies
Discover game and entertainment studies and the social, political and historical contexts of video games. You'll write an essay to support the development of your own game designs.
Second year modules
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Compulsory
Representing Reality, Disclosing Truth, and Capturing the Everyday
One of the key roles of our media is to represent the world, its happenings, and its diversity to us as accessibly and truthfully as possible. Why do media texts and media companies so often fail in their duty to represent reality? Through conceptual reflection and case study exploration, you'll explore these questions.
Television and Factual Production
Learn the skills of factual screen production. Working in small groups, you will create short items of broadcast quality to form part of a magazine-style programme.
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Optional
Screening Genders
Critically examine the representation of gender on screen through the lens of feminist film theory.
Moving Image Techniques
Explore the creative possibilities of moving image media. Leave storytelling behind, and develop a concept for a short moving image piece, which will then become your own independent production.
Creative Business: Pitch and Design
Develop your understanding of the tools and techniques used to generate a business idea in the pre-production stage, and create a pitch deck for a product of your own design.
Work-Based Learning (Digital Media)
Develop your CV by undertaking a work placement as part of your course.
American Alternative Cinema
Explore and apply theoretical approaches to aesthetic forms and themes, modes of production, and audience and media reception of categories such as ‘underground cinema’ and ‘indiewood’. Develop your critical and theoretical faculties so that you can actively engage and participate in debates that encompass both mainstream and alternative American filmmaking practices.
3D Asset Design
Gain a grounding in the fundamentals of 3D Design. Learn the basics of modelling, textures, 3D painting and rendering, and design your own 3D animation and portfolio.
Visual Design
You'll develop graphic solutions for a range of platforms. In addition, you'll continue to explore design research with a view to developing more advanced solutions.
Final year modules
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Optional
Dissertation
You will make an original contribution to research by designing, carrying out and writing up your own project on a topic you choose, supported by your dissertation supervisor.
Screen Production Project 1: Planning and Pre-Production
Turn your film idea into a workable and professional project before you step into production. Learn about what it takes to create a film before pitching your idea, ready for the next steps.
Screen Production Project 2: Filming and Post-Production
Create your film. Take the reins and follow the project through from pre-production to shooting, editing, screening and review.
Is Television History?
Reflect on the ways in which television can both do history and be history, with case studies ranging from period dramas to historical documentaries.
Disney Studies
An in-depth exploration of the history and impact of Disney's global entertainment empire.
Telling the Truth: American Documentary Culture from the Muckrakers to Fake News
Explore how photographers and filmmakers have documented American society from the early 20th century to the present day, on a module with a focus on visual culture.
East Asian Cinema
Examine the dynamic and diverse film output of countries including China, South Korea and Japan, and reflect on film as a 'transnational' phenomenon.
Global Nightmares: Contemporary Horror Cinema From Around the World
Approach the horror film from the larger context of world cinema in order to assess if America’s ‘collective nightmare’ is indeed part of a larger trend that feeds into the concept of ‘global nightmares’. In particular, the module will focus on how world horror cinema represents issues of the family, gender, and the ‘Other’ alongside more contemporary concerns such as pandemic disease, environmental collapse, immigration, and terrorism.
3D Character Animation
Apply principles of animation to bring life to your 3D characters. Learn and apply different workflows and explore advanced features of 3D animation.
All modules are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.