Film Technology BSc (Hons)

Program Overview

Hands-on experience with industry-standard equipment and software is emphasized, and students gain practical skills through collaborations and a potential work placement year. The program also cultivates research, innovation, and storytelling abilities, preparing graduates for a range of roles in the film industry.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The BSc (Hons) Film Technology course at Nottingham Trent University is designed to equip students with the technical skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the film industry. The program combines the core elements of film production with a focus on technical specialization in cinematography, sound, and editing. Students will gain hands-on experience using high-specification digital cameras, a purpose-built virtual production studio, and the latest software applications for post-production editing. The course emphasizes practical training and aims to develop students' professional skills through self-initiated work experience placements, industry competitions, collaborations with organizations, and guest lectures.

Outline:

Year One:

• Craft Skills and Technologies (40 credit points): Introduces students to digital film production equipment and techniques, focusing on the basics of sound, camera, and editing through practical demonstration and experimentation.
Students will create projects using digital filming technology to develop their basic audio-visual communication skills.
• Approaches to Film (40 credit points): Immerses students in a range of theoretical and critical approaches to engaging with film and film cultures.
Students will develop their awareness through discussion of a range of films, directors, and practitioners and examine a breadth of theoretical approaches to writing about and engaging with film.
• Storytelling and Production (40 credit points): Introduces students to the fundamentals of content development and teaches them how ideas are generated, refined, and pitched in professional contexts.
Students will progressively hone their storytelling skills and work intensely and intensively in key areas of film and television production.
• Digital Workflows (20 credit points): Investigates the fundamental core technical concepts that make up the digital moving image, as well as multimedia and digital film production pipelines and workflows.
Students will engage with foundation-level mechanisms and standards essential to image acquisition, reproduction, and display.

Year Two:

• Advanced Production (40 credit points): Develops students' practical and technical skills in three main areas: digital cinematography, audio capture and design, and the editors' craft in post-production.
Students will learn about how these areas have evolved and how new aesthetics and techniques are emerging as digital technologies advance.
• Emerging Technologies (40 credit points): Explores recent developments or emerging trends in film and wider creative industries through students' own research, innovation, and experimentation.
Students will hone their research skills to prepare themselves for the fast-paced, constantly evolving workplace where ongoing learning in the industry will be vital to their future success.
• CoLab: Research, Exploration, and Risk-taking (20 credit points): Through active participation with team-based problem-solving, students will work together in mixed teams on a project where they will use their creative ideas to generate solutions to the challenge or brief.
Their project will allow them to explore outside of their usual frames of reference and to move beyond their comfort zone. They can expect to engage in new conversations as they explore disruptive learning opportunities through participation in unfamiliar creative places and experiments as they embrace new opportunities.
• Optional module (20 credit points): Students can choose one optional module from a range of eight options, including:
• Storyboarding
• Character Ideation
• Experimental Animation
• The Art of the Video Interview
• Typography: Use and Expression
• Motion Graphics
• Responding to the Visual World
• Digital Matte Painting

Year Three:

• Optional Placement Year (Sandwich): Students have the option to undertake a placement year (Sandwich) and gain crucial work experience in the industry.
This placement can lead to an additional Diploma or Certificate in Professional Practice, dependent on duration.
• Personal Project - Film Technology (40 credit points): Provides students with the opportunity to undertake a sustained investigation into a specific area of creative technology that builds on their previous knowledge, experience, and skills.
Students will achieve this by undertaking a self-initiated research project with a practical creative or technical outcome supported by tutor supervision.
• Enterprise and Entrepreneurship: Personal Portfolio (20 credit points): Prepares students to function and prosper in the commissioning, production, and distribution landscape of enterprise and employability.
This module builds on the creative work from their degree and the strategic planning completed in previous modules. This is their opportunity to enhance their career prospects by producing creative artefacts that align their skills with their commercial and professional objectives.
• Film Crew Collaboration (60 credit points): Building on the collaborative skills developed in Year Two, students will have the opportunity to work with BA Filmmaking and BSc Television Production students to make a screen production to professional standards and to take on a role with an emphasis on their chosen career field in television.

Assessment:

• Year One: Coursework (83%), practical exams (17%)
• Year Two: Coursework (100%)
• Year Three: Coursework (100%)
Students will be assessed on a range of individual and group presentations, and their final year project. Their work in Year Two accounts for 20% of their final degree mark, and their work in their final year accounts for the other 80%.

Teaching:

Teaching and learning experiences will include:

• Lectures
• Staged briefings
• Independent learning
• NOW online learning portal
• Demonstrations
• Tutorials
• Seminars
• Team working
• Verbal and visual presentations
• Live projects
• Study trips
• Peer group activities

Careers:

The course will equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to forge a career in a variety of technical or creative roles and productions. This could include roles such as runner, camera assistant, sound recordist, editing assistant, or production coordinator. Students could be working with major production studios on the sets of blockbuster films and award-winning TV series.

Other:

• The course offers a new innovative collaboration module, "CoLab," which gives students the opportunity to work collaboratively with their contemporaries from a range of different art and design subjects and beyond.
• Students have the opportunity to exhibit their work during their time at NTU to members of the creative industries.
• The course has exchange agreements with a number of institutions around the world, allowing students to study part of their degree abroad in Year Two.
• The course is based in the new Design and Digital Arts Building, which will place Nottingham as a UK hub for film, television, animation, UX design, games design, graphic design, and more.
• Students will have access to industry-standard facilities, including a virtual production studio, an in-camera VFX studio, a black box studio, collaborative studio spaces, future technology suites, and exhibition spaces.