Course overview
Do you want to develop a deep understanding of film as an art form and cultural phenomenon? Do you want to learn the creative and technical skills to produce your own distinctive work to a professional standard?
On this programme you will study film and the film industry in a range of social and cultural contexts. You’ll study a combination of practical and academic subjects providing you with key critical and professional knowledge and abilities.
About this course
We’ll give you a broad introduction to film, developing your analytical skills and knowledge of contemporary developments in the international film industry. You’ll also study all aspects of audio-visual production, developing a range of practical and craft skills to write, shoot and edit your own films.
While your first year provides a common, broad-based introduction to film through a set of core modules, as you advance through the levels you will become increasingly independent as a learner. You can explore the aspects of film that interest you and are most relevant to your chosen career path.
We’ll also help equip you with the employability skills you’ll need for your future career. Real-world experience is at the heart of your degree and you’ll complete professional work placements as part of your studies.
By the time you graduate, you’ll have had the opportunity to become a confident, engaged, skilled professional with extensive specialist knowledge, the ability to generate and communicate original ideas, and a mastery of all the crafts of filmmaking.
Why study with us?
- Develop your portfolio. We’ll inspire you to create your best work in the classroom, on set and during your professional work placements.
- Professional placements give you real-world experience so you can be a working filmmaker before you graduate.
- Free equipment loans from our Media Centre give you access to a range of cameras, lighting and sound equipment.
Specialist facilities
You’ll have access to industry-standard spaces and equipment including production rooms, Mac and PC editing suites and TV, radio and photography studios. These specialist facilities will enable you to develop your practical and technical skills, produce a portfolio of professional work across different media platforms and prepare you for your graduate career in the industry.
Course Modules
Year 1
During your first year, you'll study four core modules.
Professional Development (core)
You'll develop teamworking skills through creative challenges, taught sessions, profiling and self-understanding.
You'll work on team presentation and develop a professional persona through attitude, commitment and effective communication.
In the second semester, you'll look at enterprise and sector analysis.
You'll develop your solo presentation and pitching skills.
We'll cover the creativity and skills needed to start, maintain and grow your production streams as independent creators.
We'll help you develop the skills valued by the creative industries to help you become a professional with an industry-relevant work ethic.
Core Production Skills (core)
You'll be introduced to the process of professional film and audio production.
Get a practical understanding of basic videography, lighting, audio production and post-production.
You'll use film production equipment appropriate for relevant distribution platforms.
Develop your production and creative skills while getting to know specialist equipment, techniques and practices.
Story and Script (core)
You'll get an introduction to scriptwriting through theoretical and practical work.
You'll explore ideas generation and development, narrative structure, character development, synopses, treatments and One-Page pitches.
You'll also learn the appropriate professional layout and format.
Analysing Film (core)
Analyse the form and style of motion pictures and how they can be seen as culturally and industrially significant products.
You'll develop core vocabulary and skills for analysing film form and style, focussing on mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, sound and narrative.
You'll consider conventions and norms within films and filmmaking practices, from mainstream productions to art cinema and independent film.
You'll also explore core concepts and approaches to studying film.
You'll apply these and your own analyses to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of competing or complementary perspectives on film.
We'll use lectures, screenings and workshops to consider the diversity of movie-making styles and filmmakers.
Year 2
During your second year, you'll study three core modules and will be required to choose one optional module.
Professional Placement (core)
Develop your professional skills to help with your CV, interviews, networking, self-marketing, and industry-specific employability skills.
You'll have talks from external speakers and industry contacts as well as internal expertise, preparing you for your first external placement.
Develop your skills in creative problem-solving, idea generation, project management and enterprise through creative productions.
This will also develop freelancing skills and equip you to be flexible and professional in the creative industry, whether self-employed or as an employee or employer.
Film Industries (core)
You'll get an introduction to the contemporary film industry and how movies are produced and consumed.
We'll look at the production, distribution, exhibition, marketing, promotion, advertising and diversity and representation of contemporary films.
Looking at institutions such as the BFI, BBFC and Screen Yorkshire, you'll study funding, public policy, markets, audiences, festivals, regulation and censorship.
We'll focus on the impact of the internationalisation and globalisation of the film industry and look at world cinema as well as UK and Hollywood business models.
Film: Relating Theory and Practice (core)
You'll study ways to theorise and research film.
You'll learn how to critically discuss documentary and fiction films, focusing on a range of examples, historically and within various movements and sub-genres.
You'll apply this learning to the processes of production in other modules.
You'll learn how to identify research topics and think about ethics.
We'll also explore relationships between theory and practice.
Drama: Concept to Practice (optional)
You'll get an introduction to professional film and audio production.
You'll get a practical understanding of basic videography, lighting, audio production, post-production and using film production equipment.
You'll find out how to light a set, shoot on location and work with scripted materials.
Documentary: Concept to Practice (optional)
Develop your production and story-telling skills, working as a team to produce a seven-minute short film.
You'll learn the process of development, research, production, post-production, and the crucial role of narrative structure.
We'll explore the ethics behind the creative treatment of actuality, and provide a theoretical understanding of the role of non-fiction media products and their historical development.
Digital Visualisation: Concept to Practice (optional)
Get a history of special visual effects production for film and television.
Examine the visual use of practical and physical effects, motion graphics, visualisation and computer-generated digital effects.
You'll explore technical production using visual, digital or studio activities.
We'll discuss creative possibilities within film, TV and associated media, along with the constraints of budget, skills, production time, facilities and location.
You'll apply theory to practical production and use software packages to create a visual effect/sequence using motion graphics.
Year 3
During your final year, you'll study two core modules and will be required to choose three optional modules.
Research Project (core)
You'll produce a piece of critical writing or media artefact, taking the form of a dissertation, research by practice or creative project.
You'll conduct detailed research with appropriate levels of supervision.
The topic will reflect your interests, enabling you to explore an aspect of study in more depth and build on your studies across the levels.
Professional Project (core)
You'll take on a work-based project or intervention, or an alternative professional development project.
You'll negotiate a project with your employer or placement provider that meets their needs as well as the university.
You'll have a series of seminars to outline the challenge, followed by tutorial support to chart progress and help you towards your assessment.
As a negotiated, self-managed module, you'll receive initial support to establish the learning outcomes and appropriate assessment methods.
You'll engage in online support and arrange tutorials with your academic supervisor.
Advanced Short Film (optional)
You'll put your knowledge and technical skills into practice to produce work for your portfolio.
Thinking about briefs, treatments, scripts, storyboards, logistics of location recording, camera crew roles, single camera techniques and editing, you'll produce work in small groups.
This'll culminate in a presentation of completed films, followed by critical peer appraisal in preparation for your final submission.
Advanced Documentary Production (optional)
You'll devise, research and produce a ten-minute documentary film.
In sessions, you'll get a theoretical understanding of the nature, impact and role of contemporary documentaries as well as practical aspects of production.
This includes devising and researching programme ideas, finding key contributors, preparing and executing single-camera location filming and story-telling in the editing process.
In an intensive period of self-directed team-based production, you'll create a professional-quality documentary and a legal binder of industry-standard production documents.
You'll also supply an individual critical analysis of the finished film, your role, what you learned and how you would do better in the future.
Digital Studio (optional)
Get a collaborative digital studio experience of the creative production workflow for film, TV and creative visual effects production.
In a studio environment, you'll produce a digital visual effects sequence using practical effects, motion graphics, visualisation and computer-generated digital effects.
You'll have weekly technical production meetings to direct and delegate the development and progress of the digital studio activities.
You'll produce media artefacts within the available workflow, budgets, skillsets, production time, facilities and location.
Creative Project (optional)
Pursue your own area of interest to produce work in an appropriate format to reflect broad engagement and understanding of your chosen field of study.
For example, if you are producing a film in another module, you could use this module to research, outline and produce a PR campaign for it.
You'll work with a tutor to come up with a project agreement.
Science Fiction (optional)
Explore science fiction across literature, film, TV, graphic novels and interactive narratives, from different historical and contemporary cultural contexts.
By exploring how the genre developed through science, technology, progress, future and past, you'll study how sci-fi has survived many mutations, from the radiated adventurers of superhero fiction to the clockwork mechanisms of steampunk.
We'll consider how some of the movement's most significant works include science fiction as allegory and satire, utopias and dystopias, posthumanism, the monstrous, race, and gender.
Cult Fandom (optional)
Explore contemporary cult film and television drama productions made in the UK, USA, and Europe, but marketed, distributed, and screened globally.
We'll discuss issues related to production, such as industrial, technical, and aesthetics.
You'll look at cultural, political, and societal themes related to the contemporary nature of textual content.
You'll also explore critical and theoretical concepts related to scholarly definitions of cult film, television drama, narrative, storytelling, and cult audiences/fandom.
We'll consider the reception and interactive use of cult film and TV texts in a "post-television" convergence age.
Franchising Intertextuality (optional)
Explore and interrogate contemporary forms of intertextuality - the relationship between texts.
Drawing upon theories of adaptation, transmedia, remakes, series, franchises, intertextuality and paratextuality, you'll analyse ways intertextuality functions in relation to presold media products.
You'll consider intertextuality in production, including adaptation, updating, recontextualisation, rebooting, extension and expansion through spin-off content and transmedia storytelling.
You'll contextualise creative choices in individual texts, and broader cross-media storytelling including the prevalence of franchising as a strategy in film, television and video game industries.
Professional work placements
Experience matters. That's why we include professional work placements with every undergraduate degree.
How does it work?
Careers and Placements will work with you to find your perfect placement or help you arrange your own, whether that's in Leeds, another part of the UK or even abroad. You will be able to take part in a series of workshops, events and live ‘employer challenges’ to boost your confidence and prepare you for your placement.
During your placement, you will have an opportunity to gain degree-relevant work experience, build your knowledge of career sectors and secure valuable employer references and industry contacts. This experience will help you to shape your career decisions and find the right path for you.
Our students have undertaken placements working as camera operators, production assistants, editors, photographers, visual effects artists, graphic designers, animators, scriptwriters, and researchers. We have strong links with many key employers in the region and beyond, including the BBC; ITV; independent production companies in film, television and new media; and marketing, public relations and advertising agencies.
To find out how we can help you make your career ambitions a reality, visit:
Learning and Teaching
At Leeds Trinity we aim to provide an excellent student experience and provide you with the tools and support to help you achieve your academic, personal and professional potential.
Our Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy delivers excellence by providing the framework for:
- high quality teaching
- an engaging and inclusive approach to learning, assessment and achievement
- a clear structure through which you progress in your academic studies, your personal development and towards professional-level employment or further study.
We have a strong reputation for developing student employability, supporting your development towards graduate employment, with relevant skills embedded throughout your programme of study.
We endeavour to develop curiosity, confidence, courage, ambition and aspiration in all students through the key themes in our Learning and Teaching Strategy:
- Student Involvement and Engagement
- Inclusion
- Integrated Programme and Assessment Experience
- Digital Literacy and Skills
- Employability and Enterprise
To help you achieve your potential we emphasise learning as a collaborative process, with a range of student-led and real-world activities. This approach ensures that you fully engage in shaping your own learning, developing your critical thinking and reflective skills so that you can identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and use the extensive learning support system we offer to shape your own development.
We believe the secret to great learning and teaching is simple: it is about creating an inclusive learning experience that allows all students to thrive through:
- Personalised support
- Expert lecturers
- Strong connections with employers
- An international outlook
- Understanding how to use tools and technology to support learning and development
Programme delivery
Your time on campus, learning through in-person teaching, is at the heart of your academic experience and the way we deliver our programmes. This is supported and further enhanced by additional engagement activities and opportunities provided online and through digital teaching materials. This blended approach seeks to ensure a positive learning and teaching student experience.
Your programme of study has been carefully designed around a three-phase model of delivery:
- Preparation: You will be given clear tasks to support you in preparing for live teaching. This could include watching a short-pre-recorded lecture, reading a paper or text chapter or preparing other material for use in class.
- Live: All your live teaching will be designed around active learning, providing you with valuable opportunities to build on preparation tasks, interact with staff and peers, and surface any misunderstandings.
- Post: Follow-up activities will include opportunities for you to check understanding, for staff to receive feedback from you and your peers to inform subsequent sessions, and for you to apply learning to new situations or context.
Preparation, Live and Post teaching and learning and the digital materials used will vary by course, but will be designed to help you structure your learning, take a full and active part in your course, and apply and test your developing knowledge and skills.
Assessment
A variety of assessment methods are used, matched to the learning outcomes for your programme, allowing you to apply and demonstrate the full range of knowledge and skills that you have developed.
For more details on specific assessment methods for this course contact hello@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Entry Requirements
Leeds Trinity University is committed to recruiting students with talent and potential and who we feel will benefit greatly from their academic and non-academic experiences here. We treat every application on its own merits; we value highly the experience you illustrate in your personal statement.
Information about the large range of qualifications we accept, including A-Levels, BTECs and T Levels, can be found on our entry requirements page. If you need additional advice or are taking qualifications that are not covered in the information supplied, please contact our Admissions Office.
| Qualification | Grade |
|---|---|
| UCAS tariff | 112-136 |
| GCSE requirements | GCSE English Language or English Literature at grade C or 4 (or higher) will be required |
Fees and finance
Funding
UK Home Students:
Tuition fees cost £9,250 a year for this course in 2023/2024.
Part-time tuition fees will be prorated accordingly to the number of credits you're studying.
Depending on government policy, tuition fees may change in future years.
Tuition fees for 2024/25 entry will be set in summer 2023.
Living costs, e.g. accommodation, travel, food, will also need to be taken into consideration.
Leeds Trinity offers a range of bursaries and scholarships to help support students while you study.
International Students, including EU Students:
Visit our webpage for international students.
Part-time study is not available for international students on a Student Route Visa.
Additional costs
We advise students that there may be additional course costs in addition to annual tuition fees:
- Recommended and required reading lists will be provided at the start of your course. All the books and e-books are available from our Library to borrow but you may choose to purchase your own.
- On some courses there may be additional costs, such as field trips, equipment, accreditations, that may be part-funded by the University. More details will be provided at the start of the course.
- You'll need to include placement/s travel and associated costs too, however the University will contribute a standard amount towards your total expenditure.
- The University provides students with a £6 printing credit each academic year which can be topped up either on campus or online.
How to apply
For full-time undergraduate courses, you apply through UCAS. That's the University and Colleges Admissions Service.
On your application form, you'll need to know our institution code - it's L24 - and the course code. If you click through to the UCAS website using the button below, it'll take you to the right place with all the information you need.
You'll need to write a personal statement - we've prepared a guide to help you.
If you require a Student Route Visa in order to study in the UK, then you must meet all the conditions of your offer and present all supporting documentation required for the visa application no later than Friday 28 July 2023.
Although the main UCAS deadline has passed for 2023 entry, you can still apply until 30 June if you haven’t applied yet or haven’t used all five choices on UCAS. After this date, all applications will go through Clearing.
Alternatively, if you’ve used all your five choices, but received no offers or declined your offers, you may be eligible to add another choice through UCAS Extra. UCAS will send you information on UCAS Extra if you’re eligible.
UCAS Extra opened on Thursday 23 February 2023 and closes on Tuesday 4 July 2023.
Applications are not yet open for courses starting in September 2024. You can register and start your application for 2024 from 16 May 2023, although you cannot submit it until later in the year. The UCAS application deadline for courses starting in September 2024 is 31 January 2024
There's lots more information about the application process on the UCAS website, or you can get in touch with our admissions team who will be happy to help:
- call 0113 283 7123 (Monday to Thursday, 9.00am to 5.00pm, or Friday 9.00am to 4.00pm)
- email admissions@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Graduate opportunities
Providing you with the opportunity to develop the professional skills and experience you need to launch your career is at the heart of everything we do at Leeds Trinity University.
Our graduates work as film and television producers, programme schedulers, camera operators, sound recordists, freelance filmmakers, or go on to further study to prepare for careers as teachers and university lecturers. Many of our graduates have established their own businesses or are working with media companies including the BBC, Sky and ITV.
After you graduate, Careers and Placements will help you as you pursue your chosen career through our mentoring scheme, support with CV and interview preparation and access to graduate employability events.
To find out how we can help you make your career ambitions a reality, visit:
Chat with our students
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Ask our Student Ambassadors about what it’s like to be part of the Leeds Trinity University community, chat to them about your course(s) of interest and hear more about their Leeds Trinity University student experience.
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Discover Uni is the official, authoritative source of information and guidance on higher education in the UK. The website allows you to search for and compare data and information on university and college programmes from across the UK.
It helps you make sense of all the information out there by linking to other quality resources and explaining what can be found where. It also allows you to search for and compare information and data for individual undergraduate courses across the UK.