Film and Creative Writing

Description

The University of Essex is one of the UK's leading academic institutions, ranked ninth nationally for research excellence following the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

Our BA Film and Creative Writing develops existing strengths in film and creative writing at Essex and you pursue your interests in filmmaking and creative writing in an integrated study programme.

Our distinctive syllabus combines hands-on practical filmmaking, creative writing workshops, and theoretical and contextual studies. We encourage you to form links between theory and practice, and to make critically-informed choices in your own creative work through the knowledge you gain of film history, literary classics and writing across a range of genres.

Your second-year module on screenwriting, taught by a film professional, forms the keystone of your course, bridging the two parts. For your practical filmmaking, you are instructed by staff in our Media Centre and by industry practitioners at the Colchester-based Signals Media Arts company. You also have the opportunity of working on a script as part of your third-year independent study.

Detailed Course Facts

• GBP 9000 Year (EEA)
• GBP 11950 Year (Non-EEA)

• English

Course Content

The special characteristics of our courses are flexibility and choice. In your first year, you usually take four or five modules that include pre-requisite(s) for your course but, in many cases, mean you can try subjects you have not come across before. If you are taking a humanities or social science, then you have the greatest choice, as most of our first-year modules do not assume any specialist knowledge.
With a small number of exceptions, if you successfully complete the first year of your BA, then you are qualified to enter the second year of that course and a range of other courses: for example, if you take economics, politics, philosophy and sociology, then you have a choice of at least nine possible single or joint honours courses at the end of your first year. This means you can change your course, providing you have taken the appropriate pre-requisites and places are available. We offer a range of optional modules in your second- and final-years and most courses allow you to undertake a final-year project, an individual piece of research on a topic that interests you.
We operate a credit framework for our awards, which is based on principles widely used across the UK university sector. Each module has a credit rating attached and our standard three-year course consists of 360 credits (120 credits in your first year, and 240 credits across your second and final years).
Please note that module information on our course finder provides a guide to course content and may be subject to review on an annual basis.

Year 1

Introduction to Film;
Introduction to Film Production;
Literature: Origins and Transformations;
Writing for the Radio; and
Close Reading Skills

Year 2

Filmmaking;
Approaches to Text;
Introduction to Screenwriting; and
Creative Writing: Theory and Practice

Year 3

One creative writing option;
one literature option; and
two film options

English Language Requirements

IELTS band : 6

To study at this university, you have to speak English. We advice you to

Requirements

• A-levels: ABB-BBB, including one A-level in a humanities subject
• GCSE English: C
• BTEC Extended Diploma: DDM in Fine Art or Media
• IB: 32-30 points (we consider IB certificates at the Higher Level on a case-by-case basis)
• Achievement of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 6 level three credits at distinction and the remainder at merit (or above) or achievement of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 45 level three credits at merit (or above).

English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 6.0 overall with minimum 5.5 in each component (or equivalent). Different requirements apply for second year entry.

Work Experience

No work experience is required.

Related Scholarships*

• Academic Excellence Scholarship

  "The Academic Excellence Scholarship can provide up to a 50 % reduction in tuition per semester. These scholarships will be renewed if the student maintains superior academic performance during each semester of their 3-year Bachelor programme. The scholarship will be directly applied to the student’s tuition fees."

• Access Bursary

  Bursary for UK students all subjects where the variable tuition fee rate is payable.

• Alumni Bursary

  Alumni Bursary for UK Undergraduate students

* The scholarships shown on this page are suggestions first and foremost. They could be offered by other organisations than University of Essex.

Funding

For up-to-date information on funding opportunities at Essex, please visit: www.essex.ac.uk/studentfinance.