BA Film and Television Studies

Key details

BA FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES

Start Year

2021

Attendance

Full Time

Award

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

UCAS course code

W610

Entry Requirements

ABB

One of the longest-established and most prestigious degrees of its kind in the country, our BA in Film and Television Studies will provide you with an opportunity to explore these two hugely influential mass media art forms in depth.Your degree will be focused on those cult hits and global franchises that define the market today.

In your first year you’ll cover all the essentials in the subject. In your second and third years you’ll choose from a wide array of modules, enabling you to specialise in the areas that interest you the most. These range from the earliest experiments in moving pictures to modern multimedia franchises.

You’ll also choose from creative practice options in areas such as making short films and working in TV studio production, deepening your knowledge of how film and television texts are produced.

You’ll develop many transferable skills on this degree course, including high-level research and communication skills, team working, leadership, and self-management, all of which open up a wide variety of careers.

Our Film, Television and Media Studies department is recognised as a leading centre for the study of British, Hollywood and Asian cinemas, popular film and television genres, and feminist approaches to media. We’re home to the extensive East Anglian Film Archive - a unique resource which you can make use of during your time here. We also have close links with the British Film Institute in London.

About

Film and television are multi-billion pound, interrelated global industries that play a crucial role in shaping how we see the world around us. UEA has pioneered and remains a leading institution in the study of these media forms. In this degree you’ll explore the social, cultural, political, industrial, historical and aesthetic dimensions of film and television. Topics might include the global phenomenon of Doctor Who, the world-famous Marvel Comics adaptations, Japanese film, or American cinema and screenwriting. Alongside your theoretical studies, you’ll have the opportunity to discover how to produce your own film and TV content and explore writing for different media.

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Course Reference Number: 1463449

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.

Assessment for Year 1

You’ll be assessed in individual and group assessment modes from essays and exams to presentations and discussions. Your progress in some theoretical modules will be assessed through creative practice. For example, you might be required to produce a script of your own to explore questions of film history. All of these assessments help strengthen your critical thinking and give you skills that are attractive to future employers.

Structure

In your first year you’ll be introduced to the major debates in film and television studies. At the same time, you’ll develop the key skills needed to analyse both these media using contemporary and historical examples.

Teaching and Learning

Our world-leading academics employ a range of teaching styles. Alongside the more traditional lectures and seminars, you’ll learn through film and television screenings. You’ll also have access to UEA’s Television Studio and Media Suite. Both contain a wide variety of cutting edge media technologies (editing suites, cameras and sound equipment, sound studio and digitisation suite). You’ll have the opportunity to be fully trained to use all of these. You’ll acquire practical skills while deepening your understanding of how the film and television content you’re studying is produced.

You’ll acquire vital skills needed for independent learning throughout your course and have access to dedicated sessions designed to help you make the most of UEA’s state of the art library facilities. Through these sessions and your academic modules, you’ll gain the vital research skills of uncovering resources and critically assessing sources. As you progress through your degree you’ll develop as a self-motivated researcher and independent creative thinker.

In addition to timetabled lecture and seminar slots, each member of staff at UEA holds dedicated office hours where students can come and seek additional advice and guidance on a one-to-one basis. You’ll also be assigned an adviser who can support you through your studies by providing academic and career guidance.

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Assessment for Year 2

Structure

You’ll refine your academic knowledge and sharpen your analytical tools in modules covering topics such as film theory and theorising television. You’ll be able to experiment with film and video production, delve into the Hollywood studio system and investigate animation from Mickey Mouse to contemporary anime.

You’ll also have the opportunity to complete an internship. Previous students have undertaken placements with local radio stations, television production companies and the East Anglian Film Archive, among others.

Teaching and Learning

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Assessment for Year 3

Structure

At this stage you’ll specialise, choosing modules according to your personal interests from gender to genre. You’ll also develop your research skills in our dissertation module which includes a period of supervised independent study. You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a media practice project, producing creative work (film, TV, audio, print, advertising, digital) in response to an academic problem.

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Assessment for Year 1

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.

FILM HISTORY

Code AMAM4001A

Credits 20

THEORISING MEDIA AND CULTURE

Code AMAM4033B

Credits 20

This module introduces you to a range of influential thinkers whose work has shaped Media Studies. It will provide you with the foundational knowledge you need to progress with confidence onto more specialist modules in your second and third year. You will compare and contrast how different scholars have tried to explain the role of the media in creating communities, in reproducing social inequalities, but also in driving social change. You will discuss whether we need to study media audiences, media content or media industries in order to understand media power. The module will help you develop your own voice as a researcher and writer. You will learn how to effectively compare and contrast complex theoretical arguments and how to place your own argument within the context of academic debate. You will have opportunity to apply your knowledge of media theories to a small piece of media research and to express your research ideas not only through writing, but also through a creative media project.

WORLD CINEMAS

Code AMAM4035B

Credits 20

The concept of World Cinema pervades our everyday experiences of film. It is a category of films that can be seen increasingly from cinema listings to the high street. Inherent within the label are debates of resistance, industry, art, technology and aesthetics that have held sway since the dawn of cinema worldwide. In this module you will break down some of these discourses and address the significant cultural, economic and political influences that world cinema has had, and indeed still has, within cinema. There are innumerable cinemas that may be contained within the notion of “world cinema,” but few are more long-lived, or as well-developed, as those we will investigate during this module. Taking the conceptual frameworks of “Middle Eastern,” “European” and “Asian” cinemas as starting points, you will break down the meanings that these regional, national and international definitions of cinema share. You will focus, for example, on the cinemas of Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Japan and America. This tightly focused definition of “world cinemas” is intended to introduce some of the most significant of contemporary world cinemas, while also focusing on those which have had the most influential global histories.

TELEVISION HISTORY

Code AMAM4001B

Credits 20

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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 (6 modules) across year 2. 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 must first seek approval from the Study Abroad Office and Internationalisation Director.

Assessment for Year 2

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

(60-80 credits)

COMEDY

Code AMAM5001B

Credits 20

This module explores key developments in TV comedy from the genre’s inception to the present. We consider the status of the genre in television culture and broader debates associated with TV Studies. We also map the ways in which the genre responds to and reflects social and historical contexts and explore examples of the genre from a variety of nations and cultures. The module will explore ways in we can study humour and comedy, and how this has been theorised historically. Key topics related to television comedy will be explored as case studies.

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.

RESEARCHING MEDIA

Code AMAM5025B

Credits 20

The module provides you with the key concepts and methods necessary to devise and execute an independent research project, whether using traditional academic methods or practice based research. As a result, you will cover the key processes involved in devising and focusing a research project, reflexively undertaking the research yourself and writing up your results. In the process, you will be shown how to position your work in relation to an intellectual context; devise the research questions that are practical and realistic; and develop research methods through which to address these questions.

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.

GENDER AND THE MEDIA

Code AMAM5031A

Credits 20

You’ll examine the role of media in constructing – and challenging – contemporary gender relations and understandings of a range of femininities and masculinities, providing a conceptual overview of feminist research methods You’ll explore both theoretical and methodological issues and cover theoretical approaches from feminist media studies, cultural studies, gender studies and queer theory. You’ll explore a range of media and visual cultures including television, magazines, sports media, music, digital media culture, etc.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

TELEVISION STUDIO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5119B

Credits 20

This module introduces you 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 analysing and evaluating the production process and the finished product. PLEASE NOTE - This module needs a minimum of 12 students enrolled to run; if that enrolment is not met, the module may be withdrawn.

TELEVISION STUDIO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5122A

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. PLEASE NOTE - This module needs a minimum of 12 students enrolled to run; if that enrolment is not met, the module may be withdrawn.

FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5123A

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’ and another 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 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.

FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5125B

Credits 20

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.

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 text, audio-visual, 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 digitisation. 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 turning analogue materials into digital media, drawing on sessions based in UEA’s archives, 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; digital asset management and metadata creation; image processing; digitisation of audio-visual media. Each of these sessions will serve to illuminate particular theoretical issues, including media archiving, reproduction and restoration, and the problems associated with ephemerality and preservation in the digital age.

Optional B Modules

(0-20 credits)

AMERICAN ART AND AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY 1900-1950

Code AMAA5103A

Credits 20

You will examine the relations between art and photography in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. The central debate in American modernism has concerned the role of the medium, and considering photography in relation to the other visual arts permits a reassessment of this debate. Artists and photographers examined include Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marcel Duchamp, Diego Rivera and Walker Evans.

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FICTION

Code AMAL5079B

Credits 20

Writers who want to address the contemporary scene confront a dilemma: as soon as you try to capture it on the page, you’ve already fallen behind the present moment. You’ll explore how contemporary American writers nonetheless respond to this challenge. You’ll consider the issues they identify as pressing in American culture, as well as the literary strategies used to explore those issues. As you progress in the module, you’ll acquire understanding of a number of important concepts associated with contemporary American fiction, such as postmodernism, metafiction, identity, globalisation, and memory. When you’ve completed the module, you’ll be familiar with a number of literary and cultural debates relating to contemporary American culture, and have detailed knowledge of some of the most exciting writers working today. You’ll be able to explain why it is difficult to define, and write about, the ‘contemporary.’ And in the course of your assessed work and seminar discussions, you will develop your communication, writing, and research skills.

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.

AMERICAN MUSIC

Code AMAS5023A

Credits 20

The first book published in the New World was a hymn book. Music, sacred and profane, has been at the centre of American lives ever since. Distinctive American musical styles still dominate the globe, as they have done for decades. But how did American music develop into the genres that we recognise today? How did uniquely American sounds catch the ear of listeners all over the world? You will gain a thorough understanding of the development of American music. You will focus on a number of distinctive musical traditions - from minstrelsy to blues, jazz, and country; from rock and roll to hip hop - and consider the way that they have shaped popular music today. Throughout the course, you will encounter a rich variety of music and an extraordinary range of characters, from the most famous entertainers in modern culture, to the obscure, the forgotten and the neglected. Whilst exploring the development of American music, you will also examine the ways in which its growth tells a larger story about the history of America and its people. In particular, it will give you a different perspective on the issue of race in American life. Through seminar discussion, written coursework, and group presentations, you will develop your analytical and critical abilities - whether that means your ability to think about the significance of a song and its meaning for a particular historical moment, or the way that the shifting meaning of a genre of music can tell us many things about its wider social and cultural context.

OF MICE AND KRAZY KATS: HISTORY AND ART OF AMERICAN COMICS

Code AMAS5050A

Credits 20

Are comics art? The answer is yes, and this module will show you why through an in-depth examination of American comics from early newspaper strips to contemporary graphic novels. You’ll read a wide range of different comics, including the birth of superheroes, World War II propaganda comics, controversial horror comics, underground comix from the San Francisco counterculture, recent alternative comics, and the current boom in reality-based graphic novels. You’ll learn about the complex history of American comics, including the specific contexts for the form’s development as a mass medium and its frequent marginalisation in the cultural sphere, such as the great comic-book scare of the 1950s. In the process, you’ll learn to pay special attention to form as well as content when reading comics, and will develop a critical vocabulary for evaluating the aesthetics of the form. In addition to a broad selection from the history of American comics, you’ll also examine comics through different thematic perspectives, such as race, gender, and sexuality, and you’ll read critical material that’ll further inform your understanding of the form. You’ll learn through seminars as well as through independent library study of the periods and themes that resonate the most with you, and you’ll be assessed through coursework. At the end of the module, you’ll have gained a deep understanding of the many historical and cultural issues that inform any appreciation of comics, and you’ll have learned to consider the form as a unique and mature form of American art.

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Important Information

Assessment for Year 3

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

(30-90 credits)

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT ON SCREEN

Code AMAM6002A

Credits 30

Module Description (This module is about) This module explores the ways in which cinema and television have engaged with discourses of crime and punishment across the history of the two mediums. It will look at the ways in which screen cultures have circulated and contested historical understandings of crime, criminality and justice, but also ongoing debates regarding cinema and television’s influence on the propagation and perception of criminal behaviour. The module will explore a range of film and television genres that focus on crime, investigation and the penal system, and that have incorporated scientific and technological innovations with regard to surveillance and detection, including: gangster films, police procedurals, delinquency films, true crime, prison dramas, crime appeal programmes, superhero movies, and forensic crime dramas. We also map the ways in which these genres have responded to different historical, national and social contexts, and explore the ways in which a range of converging identities (gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, generational identity) have influenced these contradictory depictions and discourses. This interdisciplinary module will explore the relationship between media history, theory and representation, drawing upon theories from fields including film studies, television studies, cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, criminology, psychology, and science and technology studies.

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.

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 CONTEMPORARY CINEMA

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.

CELEBRITY

Code AMAM6090B

Credits 30

You'll explore the phenomenon of celebrity and fame from its origins to the present day, moving across a range of different media, including film, television, print media and the internet. In the process, You'll examine key approaches to the study of celebrity, paying particular attention to the cultural formation of celebrity and how it is bound up with structures of power (e.g. gender, class, ethnicity). It will feature a range of case studies that will include Classical Hollywood cinema, the coming of television, the supposed 'tabloidization' of print media, the birth of Reality TV, the growth of the celebrity scandal and the relationship between celebrity and the internet.

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.

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.

ANIMALS ON SCREEN

Code AMAM6119B

Credits 30

What happens to the study of television, film, and other forms of media if we take into account the representation of animals? Throughout this module you will discover, critique, engage with, and apply multiple frameworks useful for thinking about the functions animals fulfil within media. In doing so, you will critique the hitherto human-centric nature of the majority of academic thinking, and explore why thinking about animals matters. You'll cover a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches for discussing animals and human-animal relationships. For example, human-animal studies and critical animal studies are relevant interdisciplinary approaches, and you'll also explore topics such as posthumanism. Key to the module are debates about representation, and you will examine a variety of television programmes, films and other media, to unearth how animals are used in different kinds of culture. This will also map onto debates about genre with, for example, discussion of how human-animal hybrids are represented in science fiction, or the multitude of animals that appear in children's culture. The module will enable you to examine representations more thoroughly and with more nuance. It will also encourage you to think about the implications of animal representations in media, in terms of debates such as animal welfare and environmentalism.

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.

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.

Optional B Modules

(0-30 credits)

MEDIA PRACTICE PROJECT (AUTUMN)

Code AMAP6097A

Credits 30

You’ll be able to make use of your practical skills to produce a significant practice-based project investigating some aspect of Media, Film and/or Television studies. You’ll produce a significant practical work that refers to, and makes use of, relevant theoretical debates and issues, and will also write a critical evaluation of your work. Projects are individually negotiated with supervisors, and will build upon an area of practice that you have previously covered (film-making, screenwriting, digital media, magazine or sound media). Before taking this module students MUST have completed one of the following modules: AMAP5119B – Television Studio Production; AMAP5123A – Film & Video Production; AMAP5124B – Digital Media Theory and Practice; AMAM5052B - Writing the American Script; AMAM5051A/AMAM5052B – Writing The American Script: Hollywood and Beyond; LDCC5002A or LDCC5008B – Creative Writing: Scriptwriting.

MEDIA PRACTICE PROJECT (SPRING)

Code AMAP6098B

Credits 30

You’ll be able to make use of your practical skills to produce a significant practice-based project investigating some aspect of Media, Film and/or Television studies. You’ll produce a significant practical work that refers to, and makes use of, relevant theoretical debates and issues, and will also write a critical evaluation of your work. Projects are individually negotiated with supervisors, and will build upon an area of practice that you have previously covered (film-making, screenwriting, digital media, magazine or sound media). Before taking this module students must have completed one of the following modules: AMAP5119B – Television Studio Production; AMAP5123A – Film & Video Production; AMAP5124B – Digital Media Theory and Practice; AMAM6032A – Adaptation and Screenwriting; AMAM5038B – Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling; AMAM5049B – Writing The American Script: Hollywood and Beyond; LDCC5002A or LDCC5008B – Creative Writing: Scriptwriting

Optional C Modules

(0-30 credits)

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.

QUEERS READ THIS : GENDER, SEXUALITY AND NARRATIVE

Code AMAS6061B

Credits 30

Ideas and ideals of gender and sexuality in US culture and society are all around - in advertising, film, literature and more. Most Americans engage in the performative matrix of expected patterns of gender and sexuality without really ever thinking about it; for others they can be, often painfully, aware of the limitations and impositions of such expectations. This module will see students engage with narrative theory as a means to interrogate the sustained construction and dissemination of these patterns of gender and sexuality, as well as explore those points of challenge that create fissures and changes in such patterns.

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Important Information

Entry Requirements

A Levels

ABB or BBB with an A in the Extended Project

BTEC

DDM. Excludes BTEC Public Services, BTEC Uniformed Services and BTEC Business Administration

Scottish highers

AAABB

Scottish highers advanced

BCC

Irish leaving certificate

3 subjects at H2, 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

If you do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry, you may be interested in one of our Foundation Year programmes.

If you do not meet the academic and or English requirements for direct entry our partner, INTO University of East Anglia offers guaranteed progression on to this undergraduate degree upon successful completion of a preparation programme. Depending on your interests, and your qualifications you can take a variety of routes to this degree:

International Foundation in Business, Economics, Society and Culture

International Foundation in Humanities and Law

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

Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. 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.

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: 1463449

BA FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES