Course description
MA / PGDip / PGCert
This course offers a film education for the 21st century. Students are encouraged to develop a broad portfolio of writing and research skills by combining academic and professional writing projects. We cover the history and theory of popular cinema in the US (classical and contemporary Hollywood), Europe and East Asia (especially Japanese cinema), and offer modules in advanced screenwriting and film journalism.
The course combines the academic rigour of a traditional Film Studies programme with practical components enabling you to develop skills which will equip you for a career in academia as well as the media industry. The course is taught by a diverse team of film specialists with different national and cultural backgrounds.
All Film Studies staff are active researchers whose recent or current research projects have attracted significant external funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the German Academic Exchange Service and the British Academy. The research culture in the Film Studies programme also benefits from the active involvement of our current filmmaker in residence, acclaimed Polish-born director Pawel Pawlikowski, AHRC Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts.
Course content
In addition to the compulsory core modules, Narration in Classical Hollywood Cinema and Research Methods and a dissertation, students take elective modules on a range of topics including:
* producers and consumers in popular European cinema
* popular cinema in East Asia
* film criticism and reviewing
* story development.
‘Popular cinema’ is the common thread running through the modules offered on this MA. In addition to the academic study of film, the course also offers professional writing skills in the form of film journalism and screenwriting.
Teaching, learning and assessment
Teaching is centred around film screenings, seminars, individual tutorials and, in the case of Film Criticism and Reviewing and Story Development, intensive writing workshops. Assessment activities include writing academic essays and a dissertation, plus professional writing activities - film reviews, feature articles, and screenplays.
