Film Studies

In an increasingly media-focused world, this course will develop your existing passion for film and TV into a prospective career, helping you acquire a skillset required for many technical and creative roles.

You will gain a strong theoretical understanding of film history and theory, and explore areas such as Disney, Warner Bros and the business of the Film Studio, Cinemas of the World and Fan and Material Cultures. You will also develop practical skills in diverse areas including film making, film reviewing, screen archives and film festival planning.

This course combines practice and theoretical study, giving you a strong theoretical understanding, as well as transferable skills such as communication and critical analysis. Our graduates go on to work in a variety of fields, including film and TV, but also finance, public relations and tourism.

Key features

• You will benefit from Education 2030 – DMU’s new way of delivering courses, focusing on ensuring the best possible experience for our students. Through block teaching, you will focus on one subject at a time instead of several at once. This means that you will be able to focus closely on each subject and absorb your learning material in more depth, whilst working more closely with your tutors and course mates.

• Learn in a real cinema environment thanks to our partnership with Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre, while benefiting from placement opportunities and the chance to organise and manage an annual film festival.

• Select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Drama, English Language, English Literature, History, Journalism or Media. These carefully chosen routes will complement and enrich your understanding of your main subject, alongside broadening your skillset to give you a wider range of career paths upon graduation.

• Benefit from experts in our prestigious Cinema and Television History Research Institute, as well as guest lectures from established film directors, exhibitors, writers, distributors, and journalists.

• Graduates have gone on to work for high-profile employers including the BBC and Odeon Entertainment in varied roles including research, teaching and writing for film, public relations and film journalism.

• Gain valuable international experience as part of your studies with our DMU Global programme. Students have been able to immerse themselves in Hollywood’s fan culture, tour iconic cinemas in Berlin and attend the famous Cannes Film Festival.

• Our communication, cultural and media studies research is ranked joint first in the UK for the proportion of research outputs, rated as world-leading (4*) in the latest Research Excellence Framework (2014).

Year one
Block 1: Filmmaking 1 – Introduction to Moving Image Production
Block 2: Film History and Theory 1 - Foundations of Film Studies: Concepts, Analysis, Film History
Block 3: The Film Industry 1 - Disney, Warner Bros and the Business of the Film Studio OR you can select to study one route from the list below:
Media: Media, Culture and Society
Journalism: Understanding Journalism
English Language: Evolving Language
Creative Writing: Writers Salon
English Literature: Introduction to Drama: Shakespeare
History: Global Cities
Drama: Shifting Stages
Block 4: Professional Practice 1 – Film Reviewing

Year two
Block 1: Film History and Theory 2 – Cinemas of the World: Concepts, Movements, Case Studies
Block 2: Filmmaking 2 - Moving Image Portfolio
Block 3: Professional Practice 2 – Screen Archives: Preservation, Conservation and Usage OR continue with the route selected in the first year:
Media: Public Relations
Journalism: Beyond News
English Language: Sociolinguistics
Creative Writing: Story Craft
English Literature: Digital Humanities
History: Humans and the Natural World
Drama: Theatre Revolutions
Block 4: The Film Industry 2 - Filmmakers

Year three
Block 1: Professional Practice 3 - Planning Film Festivals OR The Film Industry 3 - The Film Industry Now
Block 2: Professional Practice 4 - Delivering Film Festivals OR The Film Industry 4 – Fan and Material Cultures
Block 3: Filmmaking 3 – Independent Project: Idea Development and Pre-production OR Film History and Theory 3 – British Cinema: Creativity, Independents and Interdependence OR continue with the study route selected in the first and second year:
Media: Gender and TV Fictions
Journalism: Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism
English Language: Language, Gender and Sexuality
Creative Writing: Creative Misbehaviour
English Literature: World Englishes
History: The World on Display
Drama: Performance, Identity and Society
Block 4: Filmmaking 4 – Independent Project: Production and Delivery OR Film History and Theory 4 – Film Studies Dissertation

*(
Routes: You can select to study a route in Block 3 during your first year. When selecting a module for Block 3 in your second year you can opt to remain on your chosen route or return to Film Studies. If you choose to remain with the route, it must be continued in your third year.

Teaching

This is a full-time course. Each module is worth 30 credits. Outside of your normal timetabled hours you will be expected to conduct independent study each week to complete preparation tasks, assessments and research.

Course delivery is in block mode, which means each 30 credit module consists of a seven week teaching block.

The programme will be delivered through a series of tutor- and student-led lectures, seminars and workshops. A key goal of Film Studies has been to provide a programme offering academic modules drawing on the world-class scholarship and expertise of the DMU Film Studies team (spanning film history, industry, theory, criticism, and contexts) alongside modules delivering high-quality, distinctive and varied practice and employability-related learning, teaching, and experiential opportunities, while retaining the programme's well-established goal of producing film analysts, scholars and historians. As such, modules are offered within four key strands of the programme: Film History and Theory, Filmmaking, Profession Practical and The Film Industry. Students will study one module in each strand in Year 1/Level 4 and Year 2/Level 5, before choosing two strands to focus on, taking two modules in each of these strands in Year 3/Level 6. This will provide students with both a broad exposure to the full range of topics within their discipline, while also offering them the ability to specialise in specific areas which are of particular interest and value to them.

Assessment

Assessments have been designed to correspond to the QAA benchmarks and to enhance students' subject-related employability and transferable skills. There are no formal examinations, but rather a wide variety of assessment strategies, from essays, primary research projects and oral presentations to varied forms of assessed creative and professional practice.