BA Film and Television Production

Key details

BA FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Start Year

2021

Attendance

Full Time

Award

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

UCAS course code

W6P3

Entry Requirements

ABB

With an emphasis on production, this course develops your creative work through the exploration of critical studies in film and television history and theory. You will produce your own film and television content and will gain experience of writing for different media. At the same time, you will study the broader contexts of film and television. The work might include directing for the screen, single-camera video and multi-camera television, and screenwriting. Later in your studies, you will have the opportunity to specialise in such topics as adaptation, devised film-making, directing and working with actors, and you may wish to pursue an independent media practice project. You will also have the option to take Film and Television Studies modules.

About

On this course you will have the opportunity to explore the interplay between the history and theory of film and television with the practice of production. UEA has a long-established record of excellence in combining the creative arts with critical thinking and this course extends that expertise to the mediums of film and television.

Creative careers in the film and television industry depend on the ability to devise, develop, and execute a coherent vision. This course will therefore develop your ability to tell a story using a range of technologies. Our teaching will focus on the writing, directing, and editing decisions that happen behind the scenes, and it will provide crucial grounding in film and television history and theory. At the same time, we will develop the skills needed for success in the film and television industry. We will provide the training, equipment and technical support you need while also cultivating the team-work necessary to any large-scale creative venture.

You will develop your creative vision in workshops, hone your practical production skills in our state of the art facilities, and engage with the current academic debates in the discipline while learning key critical and theoretical approaches to the subject in your seminars.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the courses listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the regular review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. Changes may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will inform students.

Compulsory Modules

ANALYSING FILM

Code AMAM4009A

Credits 20

The analysis of film form underpins film studies as a discipline, informing aesthetic, theoretical and historical modes of inquiry. You will be introduced to the analysis of film form and film style. It encompasses approaches to the fundamental formal elements of mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing and sound. You will also build on these elements of film form to address systems of and approaches to film style including narrative and narration, genre, realism, continuity and classicism, modernism and experimentation. You will also learn how questions of film style are integral to the analysis of representation, for example in relation to modernity, gender and race.

ANALYSING TELEVISION

Code AMAM4010A

Credits 20

You will explore the many ways television has been examined, explored, understood, and used. You will focus particularly on the specifics of the medium; that is, how television is different from (and, in some ways, similar to) other media such as film, radio, and the internet. Each week will focus on a particular idea which is seen as central to the examination of television. The medium will be explored as an industry, as a range of texts, and as a social activity.

TELEVISION STUDIO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP4001A

Credits 20

This module introduces students to television studio production, using the resources of the campus television studio. You will learn basic skills of both live and recorded studio production (including directing, vision and sound mixing, camera-work, lighting, floor management and editing), using practice-based training. You will produce a short television programme, researching the appropriate genre characteristics, style and narrative to create the final work. The live broadcast will be accompanied by written reports that critically analyse and evaluate the production process and the finished product.

WRITING FOR MEDIA

Code AMAM4037B

Credits 20

This module will introduce students to writing across a variety of media forms. The work will aim to provide the critical-creative perspective and basic writing skills necessary to produce the media projects that form the practical portion of this course. Indicative areas may include: writing for documentary and factual; dramatic scriptwriting; podcasting, and magazine-format shows. Students will learn the dramaturgy and important tropes in writing for dramatic and fact-based media, exploring the defining conventions in each form. Students will learn to analyse scripts, reflect on the key values that define a form, and apply those lessons in their own scripts. Students will learn to read and analyse professional scripts and to use professional script formats and formatting in their own work. Students will write a series of formative exercises that explore various media forms. Summative assessments will include a portfolio of short exercises, and an original work.

CREATIVE CRITICAL METHODS: CREATIVE PROJECT AND RESEARCH

Code AMAM4036B

Credits 20

The module provides you with the basic concepts and methods necessary to devise and execute a critical-creative project. Students employ both research and creative production methods to examine the interrelationship between theory and creative practice. Coursework will explore methods of using research to inform production, which, in turn, will deepen our understanding of theory. To close the critical-creative ‘loop’, we will develop the habit of critical reflection. Over time, this will hasten your development in both critical and creative areas. Students will look at various methodologies in the area, including research-led-practice and practice-as-research, before producing their own creative work. In the process, you will be shown how to position your creative work in a clear intellectual context; devise the research questions that are practical and realistic; and develop research methods necessary to address these questions. Students work in teams to produce research material that will inform one of a range of creative projects (e.g. short video or audio projects) in liaison with the module leader, followed by critical reflections.

FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP4001B

Credits 20

Film is frequently described as a ‘director’s medium’, while simultaneously defined as a ‘collaborative effort’. How is that possible? How do the director, cinematographer, designer and editor work together to create the suspense, romance, or comedy that we expect from our favourite films? What does the film director actually do? What are the choices that see one director lauded as an ‘auteur’ while another is derided as a ‘hack’? Why does a cinematographer choose the specific lighting, framing and camera style for a scene? How does the director work with a script and coax performances out of the actors? What prompts the editor to use one camera angle, rather than another? This module attempts to answer these questions, as it introduces you to the practical application of film and television grammar and explores the fundamental questions of cinematic and televisual storytelling. A series of filmmaking exercises give you the chance to experiment with elements of camera and blocking, the use of sound, and multiple editing options. Other exercises look at script as a dramatic text and introduce basic techniques of working with actors. The final project asks you to work with professional script material to produce a video scene study. The module encourages students to understand the choices and decision-making processes involved in filmmaking, and the pros and cons involved in any creative decision.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.

Students will take 120 credits across the year, 60 credits in Semester 1 and 60 credits in Semester 2. Students wishing to enrol on the 60-credit Film and Television Studies Semester Abroad module AMAM5037B in the Spring term must first seek approval from the Study Abroad Office and the Internationalisation Director.

Compulsory Modules

THE BUSINESS OF FILM AND TV DRAMA IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Code AMAM5026A

Credits 20

The module provides an intensive introduction to the business of film and television; including the development, financing, production, distribution and exploitation of films and television drama programmes. It is based around a detailed understanding of the film and television value chain, showing how different businesses and creative people work together to create and exploit programmes. It will also cover the process by which scripts or TV programme ideas are written and developed. Emphasis will be placed on UK, European and American Independent film models; and the difference between the independent model and the US studio model. It will examine the effect of Netflix and the rise of digital streaming. It includes a wide range of recent case studies and real-life examples, with companies from Pixar to Working Title. Issues raised will include the impact of new technologies; changing business models; the conflict between commerce and art; entrepreneurship and managing creative people; and the complex and difficult relationships between writers, directors, producers, executives, financiers, and distributors. It is a practical forward-looking course about current and future business practise, which will be a valuable foundation for anyone interested in working in the media, film or television sectors. It will also be valuable to anyone studying film and television programmes and culture, so that they can fully understand the financial and business context in which programmes are created. By the end of the module you will know how films and TV programmes get dreamt up, how they get developed, and how they get financed and distributed. You will learn how the industry actually works.

Optional A Modules

(20 credits)

FILM THEORY

Code AMAM5030A

Credits 20

This module explores aspects of film theory as it has developed over the last hundred years or so. It encompasses topics including responses to cinema by filmmaker theorists such as Sergei Eisenstein and influential formulations of and debates about realism and film aesthetics associated with writers and critics such as André Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, Rudolf Arnheim and Bela Bálázs. You’ll study the impact of structuralism, theories of genre, narrative and models of film language; feminist film theory and its emphasis on psychoanalysis; theories of race and representation; cognitive theory; emerging eco-critical approaches; post-structuralist and post-modern film theory. You’ll be taught by lecture, screening and seminar. You’ll work with primary texts - both films and theoretical writings - and have the opportunity to explore in their written work the ways in which film theories can be applied to film texts.

THEORISING TELEVISION

Code AMAM5047A

Credits 20

This module explores some of the key ways in which television has been theorised, conceptualised and debated. You are offered insight into how the discipline of Television Studies has developed, as well as how television itself has developed - in terms of social roles, political functions and aesthetic form. The medium will be explored as a textual entity, a social activity (i.e. the focus on audiences and viewing), and a political agent (ideology and power). Part of our intention is to focus on how the specificities of television have been understood.

Optional B Modules

(20-60 credits)

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT AND STORY EDITING

Code AMAM5003B

Credits 20

This course will explore how professionals ‘read’. Much of the film and television industry spends their day reading, editing and developing scripts and this module will look at that process. The module will be a practical exploration of industry practice, dramaturgy, and the arcane art of writing ‘coverage’ and story notes. We will look at the screenplay development ‘business’ in writings by Peter Bloore and Ian Thompson. We will look at dramaturgy with readings from Aristotle to John Yorke and Steve Waters. And we will look at examples of studio coverage, explore the Black List, and look at the stand-out contemporary scripts. And we will write coverage. Lots of coverage. Students will learn to rapidly read, evaluate, and write up scripts. This is an education in itself, providing a useful skill for anyone interested in writing, directing, or producing and development. And it makes an outstanding entry-level skill for anyone hoping to move into film and television. Students can emerge from the module with coverage samples to add to their CV

GUIDED STUDY

Code AMAM5040A

Credits 20

This module allows students to work on a specialist area in Film, TV or Media Studies under the guidance of a member of staff with relevant expertise. The module enables students to develop and extended their knowledge and understanding of the contexts, approaches, practices, theories and debates connected with a specific topic or field of study. The module also develops students to develop their critical and analytical skills. The module can allow staff and students to explore a particular area of interest in depth and can therefore permit opportunities for the interrelationship between teaching and research. In addition, the module has a key role in public-facing, outreach and widening participation work: it allows staff-led groups of students to gain accreditation for specific projects such as, for example, being involved in cultural activities such as festivals, academic projects such as symposia, schools outreach activities, practice projects such as radio station broadcasts, heritage or charity-sector initiatives and other commissioned projects. Assessment of the module reflects group and individual learning activity. It is a module that can effectively support interdisciplinary work. Despite the diversity of potential content, the module adheres to a uniform structure: 1. Contexts: The social, political, cultural and/or theoretical backdrop to the subject under investigation. 2. Approaches: Introduction and analysis of a range of methodologies and theoretical and/or creative applications to demonstrate the potential approaches that can be used in the subject. 3. Practice or Theory Project: The student's practical or theoretical work within the topic.

GUIDED STUDY

Code AMAM5041B

Credits 20

DOCUMENTARY

Code AMAM5045A

Credits 20

This module will introduce you to key issues in documentary history, theory and practice. You will engage with definitional and generic debates; historical forms and founders; different modes of documentary; ethical issues; and social and political uses. We will draw upon a range of national and media contexts and give you the opportunity to engage with a range of theories, archival materials, documentary styles and ethical debates within your written and practical work. At the end of module you will produce a documentary shaped by the traditions and theories you have studied, employing a range of archive film and television footage sourced from the East Anglian Film Archive.

WRITING THE AMERICAN SCRIPT

Code AMAM5051A

Credits 20

For much of the twentieth century, the screenplay was synonymous with Hollywood, the Studio System, and “The Movies”: films as brash and bold as booming American power, written by screenwriting giants, such as Preston Sturges, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, Anita Loos and Paddy Chayfsky. But much of what we love about more recent American film-making has been the work of writers outside the mainstream: John Cassavetes, Joan Micklin Silver, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, Quentin Tarantino, and the like. Throughout, American screenwriting has produced work as dynamic and expansive as the nation itself. In this module you will move through the high points of American scriptwriting, using scripts, texts, and creative pastiche to develop an understanding of the form. Your work may be assessed through a mix of creative and critical work, writing exercises and a complete short script. In broadly the first half of the semester you will use pastiche and other techniques to develop basic screenwriting skills. The remainder of the term will be devoted to developing and workshopping an original script. You will be introduced to the basic dramaturgy of cinematic storytelling, screenwriting form and format, and skills in pitching and story development. This module will therefore help you develop your creative capacity, your communication skills, and will help broaden your commercial awareness.

WRITING THE AMERICAN SCRIPT

Code AMAM5052B

Credits 20

Writing the American Screenplay: Hollywood and Beyond For much of the twentieth century, the screenplay was synonymous with Hollywood, the Studio System, and “The Movies”; films as brash and bold as booming American power, written by screenwriting giants, such as Preston Sturges, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, Anita Loos and Paddy Chayfsky. But much of what we love about more recent American film-making has been the work of writers outside the mainstream: John Cassavetes, Joan Micklin Silver, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, Quentin Tarantino, and the like. Throughout, American screenwriting has produced work as dynamic and expansive as the nation itself. In this module you will move through the high points of American scriptwriting, using scripts, texts, and creative pastiche to develop an understanding of the form. Your work may be assessed through a mix of creative and critical work, writing exercises and a complete short script. In broadly the first half of the semester you will use pastiche and other techniques to develop basic screenwriting skills. The remainder of the term will be devoted to developing and workshopping an original script. You will be introduced to the basic dramaturgy of cinematic storytelling, screenwriting form and format, and skills in pitching and story development. This module will therefore help you develop your creative capacity, your communication skills, and will help broaden your commercial awareness. Students who achieve a mark of 68%+ either in this module or Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling are eligible to enrol on Creative Writing: Scriptwriting in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at Level 6.

WORKING WITH ACTORS: DIRECTING THE DRAMATIC SCENE

Code AMAP5001A

Credits 20

Why do certain directors always get good performances from their actors? What makes one performance seem real or truthful, while another seems fake? How do directors work with actors? What do we say to them? How does an actor think? This module will explore the basics of dramatic performance, looking the dramaturgy, language and techniques that form the fundamentals of any dramatic scene. We will investigate the interplay of structure and character development. We will look at scene structure and learn to use the development of dramatic action to inform the character movement, camera position and lens choices. The module is aimed at students who would like to develop their skills in directing drama for film and television.

TELEVISION: SCRIPTED & UNSCRIPTED PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5001B

Credits 20

Students will create work in a variety of television formats. Readings will explore the key conventions and tropes from each form, followed by creative exercises that will apply theory in production. The first half of term will explore a range of contemporary television forms, with students producing a number of short video and/or scripting exercises. In the second half of term students will write or direct their own short television pieces, while working as crew on projects produced by the other members of their production groups.

FILM GENRE WORKSHOP

Code AMAP5002B

Credits 20

What does genre mean to a filmmaker? What are the writing and directing challenges presented by different genres? How does a filmmaker express their own creative style amid the pattern of codes, styles, tones, and conventions that define a genre? This module will offer writers and directors the opportunity to explore genre from critical and creative perspectives, creating a series of video and/or screenplay exercises, as well as critical reflections. Seminars will be creative workshops, with students developing and presenting video or writing exercises based on specific genres. This will be a genuine WORKshop, with a fast turnaround offering the down-and- dirty repetitions necessary to develop new directing and writing skills. The low-risk/high-experience approach will allow students to quickly deepen their creative understanding of genre. It is recommended that students attend Film Genres AMAM5033A which will offer a solid understanding of the key historical, theoretical, and critical issues.

CREATIVE WRITING: SCRIPTWRITING (AUT)

Code LDCC5002A

Credits 20

Scriptwriting develops your ability to create and understand dramatic texts, through exercises in writing drama and the analysis of a range of plays and/or film scripts. In this module you’ll explore differing forms and styles and your work will receive feedback from both the tutor and your peers. Your first assignment will be a portfolio of shorter pieces, and then you’ll write a play, radio drama or screenplay of up to 20 minutes length. The course is hands-on, inspiring and practical, and you’ll be writing every week. You’ll be invited to specialise in writing for stage/radio or film/television after you are allocated a place. Scriptwriting and Performance students take this module and the Spring module Creative Writing: Scriptwriting (Spr) as compulsory modules. Students on other programmes may take either the Autumn module or the Spring module, but not both and must have achieved a mark of 68%+ (or equivalent for Visiting students) in a previous Creative Writing module. All other students should enrol on Creative Writing: Introduction (Aut) or Creative Writing: Introduction (Spring).

CREATIVE WRITING: SCRIPTWRITING (SPR)

Code LDCC5008B

Credits 20

Optional C Modules

(20-60 credits)

VISUALISING RACE IN THE USA

Code AMAH5057B

Credits 20

This module aims to introduce students to strategies and techniques for analysing photographs and, more specifically, uses the visual record to study and illuminate the history of the USA. Viewed here as sites of historical evidence, photographic portraits, family albums, anthropological illustrations, lynching postcards, advertisements, food packaging, fashion photos are just some of the pictures that will be read and evaluated. Students will explore how visual texts can contribute to an understanding of nationhood, class, race, sexuality and identity in the USA, with an emphasis on the nineteenth century. Opening sessions will focus on ways of reading visual texts. [No previous experience of working with images is necessary]. Most of the semester will be devoted to analysing how photographic images both reflect and contribute to constructions of American identities and culture.

CHILDREN'S TELEVISION

Code AMAM5002B

Credits 20

Children’s television is dynamic, diverse and often controversial. In this module, we examine how television has constructed childhood and how children have, in their turn, shaped television. One of the particular challenges with children’s television is that it is usually made by adults for children. As society has shifted over time, therefore, children’s television programming becomes caught up in debates about who and what children are; about how (much) they should watch; and, about what they should (not) be allowed to see. Because childhood is a highly debated cultural and social category, there is a large and growing body of scholarship on the topic of children’s television. We use these theoretical and methodological maps to investigate the past and present of children’s television, including things like: cultural studies, media ethnography, genre studies, gender studies and production studies. We look at a range of topics that may include: Saturday Morning Television, children’s variety shows, animation, children’s broadcasting, children’s satellite channels, censorship, consumerism, pressure groups and gender.

ANIMATION

Code AMAM5024A

Credits 20

Animation has long been one of the most popular and least scrutinised areas of popular media culture. This module seeks to introduce you to animation as a mode of production through examinations of different aesthetics and types of animation from stop motion through to cel and CGI-based examples. It then goes on to discuss some of the debates around animation in relation to case study texts, from animation's audiences to its economics. A range of approaches and methods will therefore be adopted within the module, including methods like political economics, cultural industries, star studies and animation studies itself. The module is taught by seminar and screening and is not a practice module.

FILM THEORY

Code AMAM5030A

Credits 20

FILM GENRES

Code AMAM5033A

Credits 20

Film Genres introduces students to the range of theories and methods used to account for the prevalence of genres within filmmaking. We investigate historical changes in how film genres have been approached in order to consider how genres have been made use of by industry, critics and film audiences. Genre theories are explored through a range of case studies drawn from one or more of a range of popular American film genres including the Western, science-fiction, melodrama, romantic comedy, the road movie, the buddy movie, film noir, the gangster film, the war film and action/adventure film. In exploring concepts and case studies relating to film genres the module aims to demonstrate the richness of film genre and its continuing relevance as a mode of analysis.

AUDIENCES AND RECEPTION STUDIES

Code AMAM5035A

Credits 20

In this module you will be introduced to the key theoretical frameworks and approaches within the tradition of reception studies. It will offer you a critical exploration of the main debates and studies that have shaped the field, exploring both historical and contemporary contexts of media reception. In particular, you will consider the transcultural circulation of media, and the issues that arise when film, television and other media transfer between cultures with significantly different values and modes of reception. You will also be encouraged to critically evaluate existing reception studies, being equipped with the tools necessary to undertake your own small-scale reception study.

THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM

Code AMAM5042B

Credits 20

Is there really 'no business like show business'? This module will develop your understanding of how silent-era, classical and post-classical Hollywood has developed as an industry, balancing the twin demands of creativity and commerce. Our aim is to encourage you to analyse how Hollywood works as an industry, the kind of films it produces, and the ways in which they are consumed by domestic and global audiences. You will engage with a variety of Hollywood films and be introduced to a range of theories and approaches for analysing how they are produced and consumed.

THEORISING TELEVISION

Code AMAM5047A

Credits 20

LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA

Code AMAM5053B

Credits 20

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the history and structure of the cinema industries, practices and people of Latin America. Combining film and cultural studies modes of inquiry this module will examine different approaches to film style and theme in this region, as well as looking at the social and cultural role of cinema and its importance as an area of economic and political activity. Covering a range of relevant theories and concepts, the module will provide students with a critical understanding of the key issues at stake in how films are made, circulated and received by audiences, both within relevant national borders and beyond. An indicative weekly outline is as follows: • History and socio-cultural context of Latin America (including legacies of colonialism and religion; what/where is ‘Latin America’ ) • National cinema theories and perspectives • Genres in Latin American cinema • ‘New’ Latin American cinema and ‘Third Cinema’ theory of the 1950s and ‘60s • Indigenous filmmaking and representations of indigeneity • Gender in Latin American cinema • Representations of economic deprivation in Latin American cinema • Censorship and government regulation • Role of co-productions, film festivals and awards (including issues to consider around the reception of sub-titled films) • Focus: Perú (Barrow) • Focus: México and/or Colombia (Aveyard) The proposed weekly structure for the module is as follows: • 2 hour film screening • 1 hour lecture • 1 hour seminar

SCREENING HEROES

Code AMAM5054B

Credits 20

From James Bond to Tom Hardy; from Peaky Blinders to Game of Thrones contemporary media culture presents a fascinating range of screen heroes. This module asks: what can the screen representation of heroes tell us about society and culture? How do we define the concept of the hero historically and today? This module will explore popular representations of heroism in a variety of contexts. The module will encourage you to take a comparative approach to the study of heroism using a range of case studies that could include action adventure, horror, thriller, fantasy or superheroes in film and television. We will investigate the changing nature of portrayals of heroism on screen and consider how the figure of the hero might function as a sounding-board for a range of concerns about ideology, culture and politics.

FILMS THAT MADE US AMERICAN: THE 1980S THROUGH THE MOVIES

Code AMAS5019B

Credits 20

The module will examine America in the 1980s. It will look at youth culture, post-Vietnam revisionism and the ‘remasculinization of America’, yuppie culture, and the impact of AIDS. Core factors of study in this module are the effects of both New Right morality upon the American socio-cultural landscape, and Ronald Reagan as postmodern president administrating to a ‘celluloid America’ of his own fantastic imagining. Overall, the module will offer the chance to analyse the tensions and contradictions of the decade as they were played out in both the content and structure of contemporary American film.

THEY CAME FROM OUTER-THE-CLOSET: GENDER, SEXUALITY AND PANIC IN AMERICAN FILM

Code AMAS5020B

Credits 20

With a main focus on the 20th century, we will explore key moments of change or crisis in the century and consider the ways the panic caused by such changes is distinctly gendered and/or sexualised. We will concurrently examine gender and sexual resistance to dominant ideas of American identity and the subsequent creation and/or promotion of liberationist discourses and alternative communities. Film will provide the focus for this cultural study, and the module will range widely over a number of different genres including the western, sci-fi, detective and LGBT themed works.

LGBT AND BEYOND: SEXUAL CULTURES, QUEER IDENTITIES, AND THE POLITICS OF DESIRE

Code HUM-5007A

Credits 20

How do notions of gender and sexuality shape culture, and how are in turn our understanding and experiences of gender and sexuality shaped by cultural production? How important are other times, places and identifications – associated with class, race, ethnicity – to these understandings and experiences? And to what extent can a film, an image, a testimony, or a place capture such complexity? Addressing these questions from an interdisciplinary approach, the aim of the module is to explore the ways in which gender and sexuality are constituted through a broad array of experiences, practices, and cultural products. The module focuses on issues raised in classical and contemporary research in history, politics, media, cultural studies and visual cultures such as: representation and cultural production; subjectivity; identity; identification; bodies and embodiment; performance and performativity; among others. Overall, by exploring theory in conjunction with queer cultural production that explores questions of power, identity, and desire across different racial, national, and cultural landscapes, the module aims to problematise how gender and sexuality are not stable identities or classifications but are instead processes involving normalisations, hierarchies and relations of domination that can be challenged, troubled and/or queered.

VIDEOGAMES: THEORY, PRACTICE, AND RECEPTION

Code HUM-5008B

Credits 20

This module offers students the opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural, political, and economic contexts of the videogames industry, and the techniques and principles used in game design. The module will give an overview of the key academic debates from video game history from production to reception, considering the current state of the industry, issues of representation in games, and study of games culture within a broader context. The module will provide students with the opportunity to play and critique a variety of games hardware and software. In addition, the module provides an understanding of hardware platforms and software tools used in the creation of videogames, making use of UEA's Media Suite to offer a practice-based component to aid in the understanding of the principles behind games development. Students will be able to learn entry level games design practices. No previous experience of coding or games development is required to undertake the module, just an interest in the subject.

DIGITAL MEDIA: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Code HUM-5011B

Credits 20

This module introduces you to the practical and theoretical study of digital media. By exploring the historical and contemporary aspects of various media, including audio-visual and social media you will consider how the digital turn has affected media production and consumption. You will also gain awareness of the technologies which underpin digital media, the interfaces for delivering media online, and the cultural and social aspects of digital society. By the end of the module, you will be able to evaluate digital media in their contemporary and historical contexts, and understand the principles which influence the digital remediation of media forms. You will gain hands-on experience of digital media, drawing on sessions based in UEA’s Media Suite, and use these creations to explore cutting edge digital approaches to media texts. These practical sessions will introduce students to: digitisation of text and images; creation of 3D models and image processing; creation of audio-visual media. Each of these sessions will serve to illuminate particular theoretical issues, including social media, reproduction and restoration, and the problems associated with ephemerality and preservation in the digital age.

Optional D Modules

(0-20 credits)

ARTS AND HUMANITIES PLACEMENT MODULE

Code HUM-5004B

Credits 20

This module will provide you with the opportunity work within a creative/cultural/charity/ heritage/media or other appropriate organisation in order to apply the skills you are developing through your degree to the working world and to develop your knowledge of employment sectors within which you may wish to work in the future. The module emphasises industry experience, sector awareness and personal development through a structured reflective learning experience. Having sourced and secured your own placement (with support from Careers Central), you work within your host organisation undertaking tasks that will help you to gain a better understanding of professional practices within your chosen sector. Taught sessions enable you to acquire knowledge of both the industries in which you are placed as well as focusing on personal and professional development germane to the sector. Your assessment tasks will provide you with an opportunity to critically reflect on the creative and cultural sector in which you have worked as well as providing opportunities to undertake presentations, gather evidence, and articulate your newly acquired skills and experiences.

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Important Information

Students will take 120 credits (4 modules) across year 3. 60 credits in semester 1 and 60 credits in semester 2.

Compulsory Modules

CREATIVE CRITICAL DISSERTATION

Code AMAM6001B

Credits 30

Students will produce an independent critical-creative project that draws on the skills and methodologies learned in the Film and Television Production course. The project will include both creative and critical elements, comprising a research essay that clearly informs the creative work. The creative piece may reflect or respond to the critical research (as research-led-practice), or it may generate its own research (practice-as-research.) The module requires independent research and production, valuable skills necessary for postgraduate research and professional practice in film and television. Project format, research topics, and creative works will be negotiated with a supervisor, who will provide guidance and feedback in a limited number of tutorials. Students producing video (and other recorded forms) may use volunteer crew and actors, but they are expected to fill the key creative roles as writer, director, and editor, and be present for all production.

Optional A Modules

(30-60 credits)

DEVISED FILM-MAKING

Code AMAM6003A

Credits 30

This module explores the tradition of devised filmmaking, with students researching the form, creating video exercises, and creating a final devised group video project. Students will look at the devised work of Mike Leigh, the improvised work of Terrence Mallick, and other practitioners of the form. In addition, students will make use of the devised theatre techniques of Ann Bogart, and the ‘Viewpoints’ system of Mary Overlie. The module will follow a workshop format, with students creating and filming a series of video exercises, which will form a portfolio. Final projects will be a devised video project, developed and filmed collaboratively. All students will participate in devising, filming and performing. No prior acting or directing- actors background is required, though it may be helpful.

ADAPTATION AND SCRIPTWRITING

Code AMAM6115A

Credits 30

Today more films are made from adaptations than wholly original screenplays. All scriptwriters preparing for work in the business today should therefore be aware of the process and nature of script adaptation. You will explore the practice of scriptwriting, dramaturgy and story structure; and explore key theories of adaptation, from the earliest ideas of ‘fidelity’ to the source, to later approaches emphasising intertextuality, and the movement of narratives across media. You will examine a series of different examples of narrative adaptation across literary and media contexts.

ADAPTATION AND SCRIPTWRITING

Code AMAM6116B

Credits 30

Today more films are made from adaptations than wholly original screenplays. All scriptwriters preparing for work in the business today should therefore be aware of the process and nature of script adaptation. You will explore the practice of scriptwriting, dramaturgy and story structure; and explore key theories of adaptation, from the earliest ideas of ‘fidelity’ to the source, to later approaches emphasising intertextuality, and the movement of narratives across media. You can examine a series of different examples of narrative adaptation across literary and media contexts.

CREATIVE WRITING: SCRIPT-WRITING

Code LDCC6105B

Credits 30

This module will enable you to explore the theory and practice of writing for stage, screen and radio through the work of produced writers, secondary reading and your own writing. You’ll study 4 key texts for stage, film, TV and radio. This module is exclusive to English Literature with Creative Writing students (and for other students who have achieved a mark of 68%+ in a previous Creative Writing module or Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling or Writing the American Script).

Optional B Modules

(30 credits)

BRITISH FILM SINCE THE 1960s

Code AMAM6012B

Credits 30

How has British cinema developed through the 21st century? What has it learned from the successes and failures of its own past? By focusing on British film and British film culture from the 1960s to the present day, this module will give you new and different perspectives on the modern British film industry, and the films it produces. You'll get a grounding in the important movements, directors, genre, cycles and stars within the last 6 decades of British film. You'll learn how to examine and analyse those people, films, and movements within a cultural and industrial context, considering the social, technological, artistic and ideological motivations underpinning the creation of 'British' film. Central to this will be your exploration of how 21st century British cinema understands and exploits its own history, from Ealing Studios and Hammer Horror to claims of the 'boom and bust' economic cycle of British production.

CONTEMPORARY SCREEN DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION

Code AMAM6025A

Credits 30

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the structure and workings of the independent and local screen sector in the UK. The module will look at different approaches to distribution and public exhibition of screen content and audience development, including commercial exhibition, community cinema and film festivals. Covering a range of relevant theories and concepts, the module will provide students with a critical understanding of the key issues at stake in how screen content is circulated and accessed by audiences. Key themes will include the influence of industry regulation (by government and industry), impacts of public funding, professional work practices, content diversity and social inclusion. The module will incorporate significant contributions from industry professionals that I have been working with as part of the Rural Cinema Impact Project. A number of these partners have confirmed their willingness to be part of the teaching programme in 2019/20 including Sarah-Jane Meredith, Audience Fund Manager British Film Institute; Robert Livingston, Director Regional Screen Scotland; Christoph Warrack, CEO and Founder, Open Cinema (a national network of film clubs for excluded or marginalised people); Michael Pierce, CEO and Founder Scalarama (national film festival for independent and cult cinema); and Duncan Carson, Marketing and Communication Manager Independent Cinema Office (national body for promoting independent cinema in the UK). It is proposed to involve the students in this module in the organisation and hosting of a short film festival in Norfolk. Access to venues and audiences will be provided through Creative Arts East (CAE), a long term partner in the Rural Cinema Impact Project. CAE has over 50 screening venues across Norfolk, many which are relatively close to Norwich and the UEA campus.

MANAGING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Code AMAM6040A

Credits 30

What is the effect of leadership on creativity and innovation in media business today? Managing creativity and innovation is increasingly important for all companies in the current fast-changing business landscape. Digital disruption and new business models have made a huge impact on many businesses, including the media industry. The aims of this module are to introduce you to a critical and practical understanding of the nature of managing creative people in a business context; and the leadership and business strategies of organisations to encourage different types of innovation, with a focus on media companies.

GENDER AND GENRE IN AMERICAN CINEMA SINCE 2000

Code AMAM6062B

Credits 30

This module offers an overview of critical and theoretical approaches to gender and genre in film and television, focusing particularly on North American media, over the last decade. The module is taught by seminar, tutorial and screening and the topics explored may include: the articulation and development of postfeminism in film and television; popular and independent film; feminism and authorship; media responses to the political and cultural contexts of postfeminism; responses to the recession; race and the limits of feminist representation; motherhood and fatherhood; representations of queerness.

CREATIVE WORK IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRIES

Code AMAM6086B

Credits 30

What is it like working in the media industries? What are the key opportunities and challenges which face aspiring and established media professionals? In engaging with such questions, this module offers you the opportunity to gain an understanding of the industries in which you may well wish to work. Throughout the module you will engage with academic research and other writing, both historical and contemporary in nature, to provide you with an understanding of the potential to find pleasure, fulfilment (and a steady income), as well as pressure, frustration and precariousness in media work. As well as developing skills in communicating ideas, principles and theories, you will conduct your own research into the nature and conditions of media work. To help you understand media work, we reflect on changes in the nature of work itself in modern societies, considering historical and recent developments in working cultures and questions of work-life balance. Following this, you will gain insights into work in the media and creative industries through an engagement with academic research, policy developments and the accounts of media workers themselves (across sectors such as film, television, music, magazines, advertising and digital media). We also look at questions about the extent to which it is feasible to do ‘good work’ and produce challenging, innovative, ground breaking, thoughtful or just genuinely entertaining media products in a seemingly ever competitive and commercial media landscape. Having developed a grasp of some of the key dynamics at play in creative labouring, you’ll put this knowledge into practice by carrying out and reflecting upon your own research into the challenges and opportunities bound up with media work. The module will not only provide you with a range of valuable insights into the realities of media work but will also help you develop skills in conducting research, organising and communicating your ideas and weighing your own arguments against those of others.

JAPANESE FILM: NATIONAL CINEMA AND BEYOND

Code AMAM6087A

Credits 30

This module aims to introduce you to approaches to cinema as it relates to national, transnational and global discourses. Japanese cinema forms the focus of the module, largely because it has been at the forefront of non-Anglo/American cinematic discourses since the earliest periods of “world” cinema history. Investigating Japanese cinema case study films will allow you to pose a variety of important questions in relation to the history, techniques and culture of cinema as it is consumed around the world. The module is divided into three sections, roughly historically. In the first section you will examine the golden age of Japanese cinema through the works of filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. You will explore the history of Japan’s national film industry, its canonisation, the beginnings of international Japanese cinema, and some of the aesthetic innovations of Japan’s cinematic “Golden Age”. The second section examines Japanese genre cinema. By focusing on some of Japan’s famous filmmakers and franchises, including Godzilla, you will explore Japanese film through an inter- or transnational lens. You will also consider other important questions; for example, why is it that some film genres travel and others do not? The final part of the module will consider contemporary Japanese cinema through transnational and global frameworks. You will look at the current rise in international popularity of Japanese filmmaking, assessing the importance of cycles of filmmaking, audiences and distribution to the notoriety of Japanese cinema on a global level. These discussions are intended to reframe discussions on current and past Japanese filmmaking, challenging existing theorisations of Japanese cinema by examining it through alternative methodological frameworks. There is no expectation that you should be able to speak Japanese, nor are you expected to be an expert in Japanese cultural studies. While the module does focus on the history and culture of Japan and Japanese filmmaking as specific to this national cinema, it is intended to provide you with the tools to study other national and global cinemas too. By taking in a range of frameworks from the national to the global, the module is intended to provide you with a set of theoretical concepts relevant to every cinema, everywhere and throughout film history.

INVESTIGATING AUDIENCES

Code AMAM6108B

Credits 30

In this module you will investigate a range of changing audience practices and cultures in the twenty-first century. You will be introduced to some of the key research on, and theoretical debates around, audience practices in relation to changes in distribution, technology and evolving forms of engagement. You will also study social practices and fan cultures surrounding new technologies, transmedia storytelling, branding, steamed media, event cinema, theme park attractions and other participatory cultures. Investigating Audiences will enable you to expand your critical and analytical skills, and also to develop your abilities as an audience researcher. You will evaluate and assess published academic writing on audience research methodologies, which will then enable you to exercise critical judgement in the design of your own empirical research project.

SCIENCE FICTION

Code AMAM6121A

Credits 30

Science Fiction films and television series have provided a significant focus for addressing social, cultural and political issues. You will look at the historical development of the genre, with an emphasis on situating examples of films and television programs within their historical and cultural context. The module also concentrates on issues surrounding human identity, as played out in this genre. A range of films and series episodes from both the US and UK will be screened and various clips will also be discussed in seminar.

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

Code AMAM6133B

Credits 30

This module looks at a range of print, broadcast and online alternative media in the USA and Britain from largely the 1960s counterculture onwards. This includes pirate radio, underground press, guerrilla television, fanzines, subvertising, video activism, Indymedia, community media. It maps the history and development of alternative media, explores connections and tensions with technological innovations, the cultural politics of alternative media, the relationship with and impact on mainstream media forms, and assesses the significance of alternative media for social change. There is an emphasis on historical and cultural material theorised through aspects of media, subculture and social movements.

NATIVE AMERICAN WRITING AND FILM

Code AMAS6027A

Credits 30

Contemporary Native America is often visible only as a cultural stereotype, making the complexities of contemporary tribal experiences invisible within the American national narrative. In this module you will consider contemporary Native American self-representation, exploring recent Native writing and film as sites of cultural and political resistance, and analysing the ways in which a diverse range of Native authors, screenwriters and directors respond to contemporary tribal socio-economic and political conditions within the US. Taking popular ideas of 'the Indian', you’ll consider the ways in which stereotypes and audience expectations are subverted and challenged. You’ll make connections between these distinct groups of writers, to consider topics such as race and racism, indigeneity, identity, culture, gender, genre, land and 'home', community, and political issues such as human rights and environmental racism. You’ll assess how complex Federal-Indian histories are related to diverse contemporary political events such as the indigenous Idle No More movement, and the NDAPL oil pipeline controversies. You will also explore how Native writers engage with the political paradox of remaining colonised within the ‘Land of the Free’. Through seminar based discussion, you will develop a broad understanding of the contemporary issues faced by Native peoples, a familiarity with the ways in which stereotypes and audience expectations are subverted and challenged by Native authors, screenwriters, and directors, and insights into the ways in which Native peoples are shaping the debates around contemporary tribal socio-economic and political conditions. You will be assessed through coursework, reflective reports, and student-led workshops, and gain expertise in communicating your ideas via student-led groupwork and seminar discussion. On successful completion of the module, you will have the knowledge and skills to assess the complexities and diversities of Native American cultural and national identity, and the literary and cinematic strategies of Native writers and filmmakers.

COMICS GET REAL: GRAPHIC NARRATIVES OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TRAUMA, AND WAR

Code AMAS6059B

Credits 30

Why do people draw their life stories in comics form? How can trauma be represented in words and pictures? What does it mean to bear witness to horrific events graphically? Throughout this module, you’ll study the recent phenomenon of reality-based American comics, which stand in sharp contrast to the form’s common association with superheroes and the fantastic. In addition to discovering comics’ powerful potential for representing real-life events in engaging and disturbing ways, you’ll learn to analyse both form and content, and will develop a critical vocabulary for reading, thinking, and writing about comics. You’ll read comics that tell a wide variety of stories anchored in real life, and from many different genres, such as autobiography, memoir, investigative journalism, and war reportage. Throughout, you’ll learn to pay special attention to issues of representation, spectatorship, and the position of the artist in relation to the events depicted. You’ll also study a variety of critical and theoretical material that puts these comics-specific issues in conversation with more general concerns about the ethics of representing the real world in diverse written or visual forms. You’ll learn through seminars and independent study, and will be assessed through coursework including a final essay. At the end of the module, you’ll be able to read reality-based as well as other comics in a transformative way, and will have gained a deep understanding of how this vibrant and upcoming cultural form creates new opportunities for representing the increasingly complex personal and geopolitical realities of the world in the twenty-first century.

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Important Information

Entry Requirements

A Levels

ABB or BBB with an A in the Extended Project

BTEC

DDM. Excludes BTEC Business Administration.

Scottish highers

AAABB

Scottish highers advanced

BCC

Irish leaving certificate

3 subjects at H2 and 3 subjects at H3

Access course

Access to Humanities & Social Sciences pathway. Pass the Access to HE Diploma with Distinction in 30 credits at Level 3 and Merit in 15 credits at Level 3

European Baccalaureate

75%

International Baccalaureate

32 points

GCSE offer

You are required to have Mathematics and English Language at a minimum of Grade C or Grade 4 or above at GCSE.

Additional entry requirements

Alternative Qualifications

UEA recognises that some students take a mixture of International Baccalaureate IB or International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme IBCP study rather than the full diploma, taking Higher levels in addition to A levels and/or BTEC qualifications. At UEA we do consider a combination of qualifications for entry, provided a minimum of three qualifications are taken at a higher Level. In addition some degree programmes require specific subjects at a higher level.

Students for whom english is a foreign language

We welcome applications from students from all academic backgrounds. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):

IELTS: 6.0 overall (with no less than 5.5 in any component)

We also accept a number of other English language tests. Please click here to see our full list.

If you do not yet meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study:

Pre-sessional English at INTO UEA

Academic English at INTO UEA

Interviews

Most applicants will not be called for an interview and a decision will be made via UCAS Track. However, for some applicants an interview will be requested. Where an interview is required the Admissions Service will contact you directly to arrange a time.

Gap year

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year. We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.

Intakes

This course is open to UK, EU and International applicants. The annual intake for this course is in September each year.

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Course Reference Number: 1546069

BA FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION