BA (Hons)
Film Studies
Degree Programme

YEAR 1

Courses

• SCL 3100 Foundations of Sociology

  An introduction to the study of society. Topics include: the origins and nature of sociology and the social sciences; society and culture; social institutions such as family, education, and work; socialization; social stratification, power, and social change; industrialization; and urbanization.

• COM 3101 Foundations of Media Production: Sonic Media

  Radio has been called the first democratic medium, and the internet has enabled a new generation to share their message with a wide audience. This practical course introduces students to key aspects of contemporary audio production through the creation of their own podcasts and sound design for filmmaking. It focuses on the key skills of audio recording and digital audio editing using industry standard hardware and software, while also introducing students to the history of the medium and contemporary examples of professional work.

• ADM 3160 Foundations in Photography

  This course concentrates on developing the student’s visual intelligence via photography. Technically, students will learn to use digital Single Lens Reflex cameras and Photoshop for image workflow and editing. By looking at the work of a range of artists, students will be introduced to some of the theories that underpin photographic practice and consider photography’s place and role in contemporary culture. Throughout the course students make images which finally result in an edited portfolio of photographic prints. A studio fee is levied on this course.

• COM 3100 Foundations of Mass Media & Communications

  This course provides an introduction to the study of mass media in contemporary modern societies. The course will pay particular attention to the production and consumption of mass media, including newspapers and magazines, television, film, radio, and the internet. Thus the course will encourage students to critically analyse the strategies of media giants, the impact of media ownership over democracy, the effects of media over culture, identities and public opinion. Each topic of the course will be examined with reference to contemporary examples of mass media.

• GEP 3105 Tools for Change

  In this course, students will discuss and respond to social issues in the local area through group work, reflecting on how they can become both collaborative and independent learners. They will research the context of and plan for service learning in the local area. They will learn to use a range of digital platforms for individual and group project work, focussing strongly on effective communication, including oral presentation and written reports using a range of relevant primary and secondary sources.

• GEP 3180 Research & Writing I

  This core course concentrates on developing the students’ ability to read and think critically, and to read, understand and analyse texts from a range of genres. How do you successfully negotiate a path through a sea of information and then write it up? Using essential information literacy skills to help with guided research, this course develops the ability to produce effective and appropriate academic writing across the curriculum. This is the first course in the Richmond academic research and writing sequence.

Plus one of the following:

• GEP 3150 Visual Thinking

  This course provides an interdisciplinary grounding in the practice and theory of critical visual thinking. Through theoretical frameworks such as semiotics, it explores predominantly photographic images, from across a range of cultures and contexts: the arts, politics, science, sport and technology. Through visual analysis, it considers digital forms of observation and image making, as well as building understanding by visual practice. It examines questions concerning curating, circulating and making public the images we produce. It asks: What are the values and truths hidden in images? How can the practice of image production advance our thinking around images? How, in the context of a range of disciplines, can we learn to communicate ideas visually and verbally?

• GEP 3170 Narratives of Change

  This course considers a landscape of global ideas through the lens of contemporary literature. Students will be introduced to pivotal moments of recent thought surrounding gender, race, environment and technology, exploring how literature both shapes and responds to our changing world. Students will analyse literary, political, and theoretical texts from a variety of cultures, exploring the relationship between written form, content and context particularly the ways in which social change might play out in literature. There will be the opportunity to produce both critical analysis in essay form and creative writing that responds to the texts studied.

YEAR 2

Courses

• AVC 4205 Introduction to Visual Culture

  This course explores images and representations across cultural and historical contexts: the way meaning and ideologies can be decoded from such cultural artifacts as advertising, photography, cinema, modern art, sculpture, architecture, propaganda and comic books. Through varied examples, it takes an introductory route through some of the most important cultural theories and concepts.

• COM 4115 Digital Society

  This course introduces students to critical studies of the digital society, and how it effects institutions, media, and audiences socially, culturally, and politically. It explores the history of ‘the information revolution’, and how contemporary digital technologies, the internet, and social media are changing identities, relationships, and practices at both micro- and macro-levels. Through engaging with key debates within digital society (e.g. selfhood and social media, participatory culture, sharing economy, surveillance, truth of online information and democracy), students will develop critical understanding of the relationship between digital technologies and society, and reflect on their own use of digital media.

• FLM 4200 Introduction to Film Studies

  This course explores film as a medium across cultural and historical contexts. It covers films in its varied form, from the first projections in the late 19th century to online distribution today. Using examples of noteworthy films, it takes an introductory examination of the most important film theories and concepts, in the process examining how ideologies and meanings are imbedded in this vibrant medium.

• FLM 4205 Film in the Americas

  This course introduces students to the theory and practice of transnational cinema, focussing specifically on film in the Americas. It begins with exploring Hollywood's changing representations of national, ethnic and gender differences and its historical domination of world film markets. A variety of counter hegemonic responses of filmmakers from former colonial and less developed countries in the region are considered. The course also examines the role that television and new media technologies have played in shaping contemporary film studies within the context of identity politics and trans-border narratives.

• FLM 4210 Introduction to Filmmaking

  This course introduces students to key skills required for contemporary film making in its various contexts. Students learn how to use essential tools including video cameras, tripods and video editing software. Using these tools, students produce their own short videos and consider possible methods of distribution. By looking at noteworthy examples of film making, students are introduced to the breadth of contemporary film making practice and gain a basic introduction to relevant theoretical concerns.

• GEP 4180 Research and Writing II

  How do you train your critical research and writing skills to be effective in the academic and professional arenas? How do you design and structure an argument that is convincing? This core course focuses on the principles of good scholarship and academic practice that will be required throughout the students’ studies and in the workplace. These skills are developed throughout the course so that students may, with increasing confidence, produce well-researched writing that demonstrates critical engagement with a self-selected academic topic. This is the second course in the Richmond academic research and writing sequence.

• GEP 3170 Social Change in Practice

  This course considers a landscape of global ideas through the lens of contemporary literature. Students will be introduced to pivotal moments of recent thought surrounding gender, race, environment and technology, exploring how literature both shapes and responds to our changing world. Students will analyse literary, political, and theoretical texts from a variety of cultures, exploring the relationship between written form, content and context particularly the ways in which social change might play out in literature. There will be the opportunity to produce both critical analysis in essay form and creative writing that responds to the texts studied.

• DGT 4120 Data Analysis for Social Engagement

  How do users engage with digital and social media content, and how can these reactions and behaviours be measured? This course introduces students to the primary tools for analysing and exploring user experience, the mathematical processes underpinning this analysis, and encourage wide-ranging debates about the ethical and social implications of data analysis.

YEAR 3

Courses

• ADM 5200 Video Production

  A ‘hands-on’ video course involving most aspects of production from camera work and sound recording to editing and audio dubbing. The theory and practice of video technology are taught through a series of group exercises and out of class assignments. Students also study a range of classic videos and film as a means of understanding the language of the medium. A studio fee is levied on this course.

• ADM 5405 Photography: Theory & Practice

  This course is designed to familiarise students with skills which combine visual research, photographic composition, analogue camera operation and printing, together with conceptual ideas, especially those of narrative photography. Students provide their own film and photographic paper. A studio fee is levied on this course. The University has cameras for student use, although it is recommended that students provide their own manual 35mm SLR camera. A studio fee is levied on this course.

• FLM 5200 Mainstream Cinema: Studies in Genre

  This course investigates the development of genre films over a historical period. Students examine issues critical to genre studies, which can include iconography, key themes, authorship, and stardom. Specifically, through a study of film criticism and theory, students examine distinct genres from the 1920s to the present. The course also explores the idea that genre films necessarily retain basic similarities to reflect cultural concerns and to keep audience interest. In addition, the course provides an opportunity for students to examine and compare the perspectives of Hollywood and non-Hollywood genre films.

• FLM 5420 Post-Apocalyptic Worlds

  This course investigates the cultural, political, historical and industrial development and contexts of post-apocalyptic film, television and media. Students will examine issues critical to the post-apocalyptic genre, covering histories, allegories, and storytelling strategies from the turn of the 20th Century to present day through early literature and contemporaneous media adaptations. Students will also engage with topics that explore Western and Non-Western (centric) perspectives, and a wide range of environmental and economic concerns. The course explores the idea that post-apocalyptic storyworlds offer a means of unpacking why popular culture of the last 20 years seems to resonate with so many notions of ‘uncertainty’: ascertaining why this genre is exemplary of the evolving hopes, desires and fears of the 21st Century.

• SCL 5200 Social Research

Plus one of the following:

• AMS 5400 American Television Drama

  The new ‘golden age’ of television, which has emerged since the beginning of the 21st Century, has become a significant and influential part of contemporary American culture. The course explores a number of cultural and technological shifts that have shaped the medium, and considers the ways in which writers are engaging with contemporary social and political realities and examining the values and myths of a society ‘conversing with itself.’ The course studies the reinvention of a variety of different genres, from crime fiction to science fiction, and students will have the opportunity to analyse some ground breaking series that offer portraits of a society undergoing crisis and change.

• COM 5200 Mass Communications and Society

  In this course, "mass communications" is taken in its broadest sense, which may include cinema, television, newspapers, magazines, comics, and the Internet, as well as fashion and merchandising. "Society" involves the people who engage with those texts, from critical theorists to fans, censors to consumers. The course examines the relationship between texts and the people at various points during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from various cultural and national perspectives. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to test and debate established theories by bringing them to bear on everyday popular texts.

• FLM 5410 Gender in Film

  This course explores key concepts that have shaped the study of gender in film in the past 50 years. It considers different spectators’ viewing positions and analyses how historical and social changes in the construction of masculinities and femininities have shaped specific film genres. A variety of issues related to sexuality, race/ethnicity and non-western representations are also considered as students are encouraged to study film texts closely to make their own readings based on the semiotics of the film and the ideology behind it.

• FLM 5415 Superhero Cinema

  This course investigates the cultural, political, historical and industrial development and contexts of superhero film, television and media. Students will examine issues critical to the superhero genre, beginning with mythological archetypes and Hollywood heroes found in Westerns, Science Fiction and Action-Adventure. The course expands beyond Western-centric contexts by exploring established and emerging superheroes of India, the Middle East, China and Japan as well as key anime forms. Covering eight decades of film history, a study of film criticism and theory will engage with topics including identity politics and Capitalist values. The course explores the idea that cinematic superheroes invoke contemporary zeitgeists, providing an opportunity for students to better understand the evolving topicality of these film and television franchises and products.

• PSY 5415 Psychology and Cinema

  This course examines psychological approaches to understanding films. Beginning with classical psychoanalytic interpretations of contemporary films, the course will evaluate the relevance of Freud’s work on the uncanny, voyeurism, repetition compulsion and trauma. Students will also be introduced to Barthes’ influential semiotic work on narrative codes and their use in the film industry, as well as Laura Mulvey’s seminal feminist critique of Hollywood. Of special interest is the cinema’s potential, as an art form, to capture contemporary psychological processes such as individuation, the fear of fragmentation and the search for a narrative identity. There is a special emphasis on Jungian approaches to film, the Symbolic cinema, critical analyses of narrative structures, and the application of existential-phenomenological categories of thought to reading films. The course is run as a seminar, so students are expected to read widely and participate with interest.

Plus one of the following:

• GEP 5101 Service Learning: Digital Collaboration

  This Digital Collaboration Service-Learning course is a student community engagement course that aims to provide students from all disciplines and majors with the intellectual, professional, and personal skills that will enable them to build professional links and function well in culturally diverse communities both locally and globally, in a digital capacity. In addition to the hours of field work (typically 30 hours*), the student will also produce a critical reflective progress report of their experience (a learning log), a ‘community action’ portfolio (analytical essay), and a final oral presentation, based on their own creative project. These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the application of their specialist knowledge, the skills they are learning, and the benefits gained from the service-learning experience. During this service-learning course, the faculty supervisor work closely with each student to ensure that the community engagement is a successful one.This course enables students engage with organizations and communities outside of the university. Over two semesters, students will devise, plan and construct their own digital project for Charities, NGO’s and non-profit organisations via digital engagement and media networks. This course expands theories from digital global service learning, across different employment sectors, and aspects of society. It equips students to identify the ranges of opportunities for innovation and employment that digital skills offer, using digital resource and community building for physical and mental health. The course examines decolonial theories of global digital community. It is highly recommended that students have access to the use of a laptop and a smartphone for the duration of the course.

• GEP 5102 Service Learning: Leadership in a Changing World

  This is a Service Learning course that focuses on emerging forms of leadership. It aims to introduce students from all majors to the professional, intellectual and personal skills to enable them to understand different approaches to leadership and function well in culturally diverse communities globally. In addition to the hours of field work (typically 30 hours* depending on the organisation), the student will also produce a critical reflective progress report of their experience (a project log), and a portfolio of their work (potentially as an analytical essay, or a video or a Report or an oral presentation). These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the application of their specialist knowledge, the leadership skills they are learning, and the benefits gained from the critical experiential service-learning. It will also help them determine if their current career goals are the correct fit for them.This course enables students to engage with organizations and communities outside of the university. During the semester, students will consider topics such as negotiation and behavioral influence. They will devise, plan and carry out their own engagement project for Charities, NGO’s and non-profit organisations. This course combines design thinking and behavioural design theories with global service learning theory, across different employment sectors and aspects of society. It equips students to identify opportunities for influence, leadership and employment both in and adjacent to their field. The course is underpinned by JEDI approaches to justice, equality, diversity and inclusion across the global community.

• GEP 5103 Service Learning: Environment and Society

  This Environmental Service Learning course is a student community engagement course that aims to provide students from all disciplines and majors with the intellectual, professional, and personal skills that will enable them to build professional links and function well in culturally diverse communities globally and within an Environmental perspective. In addition to the hours of field work (typically 30 hours* depending on the organisation), the student will also produce a critical reflective progress report of their experience (a learning log), a ‘community action’ portfolio (analytical essay), and a final oral presentation. These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the application of their specialist knowledge, the skills they are learning, and the benefits gained from the service-learning experience. It will also to help them determine if their current career goals are the correct fit for them. During this service-learning course, the faculty supervisor will work closely with each student to ensure that the community engagement is a successful one.

• GEP 5104 Service Learning: Global Citizenship and Migration

  This course examines the theoretical, political and sociological conceptions of citizenship and their limitations. It looks at both the theoretical constructs and the concrete policies that have shaped the experience of the citizen and of the migrant. The course therefore considers the development of the nation state and the establishment of legal and social citizenship. It also examines the border as a mechanism of control and security. The course further addresses the intersection of experiences of citizenship across economic, racial and gender differences in the context of international governance as well as the globalization of economies and environmental issues. This is a Service-Learning student community engagement course that aims to provide students with the analytical and inter-personal skills to support key non-governmental and policy-making actors around the broad theme of citizenship and migration as well as to build an understanding of the needs and challenges faced by key stakeholders and local communities globally. Through consultation with key stakeholders, students will produce analytical written assessments on key questions around the theme of global citizenship and migration, they will also produce a range of work introducing them to a range of key employability skills in a range of key sectors related to citizenship, these might include: the local and global charity sector, local and national policy-making, as well as regional or international organisations. Students will be required to maintain a progress report that tracks learning and can act as a reference point for problem solving in the future.

YEAR 4

Courses

• FLM 6101 Advanced Digital Video

  The contemporary practitioner is often called upon to deploy media technologies (filming, sound recording and editing software) in a range of new and unexpected ways and must understand not just the application of these tools but how to sophisticatedly exploit them in the service of a complex, often minimal brief.The course gives students the space to develop their own projects within an open brief that allows them to develop their own interests as a filmmaker and consider the context they intend to work within in the future. Alongside the student-led structure of the class, students will gain advanced skills in using the tools of contemporary production and will need to carefully consider how they apply this new knowledge to their own projects. As part of the class students will need to consider the distribution of their projects, culminating in a collaborative public event.

• FLM 6102 Documentary Theory and Production

  This course introduces students to theories of documentary that are applicable to both filmmaking and photography and gives students hand-on experience in producing their own short documentary films. Students will examine some of the major works of the genre and explore how documentaries, like other types of “factual” texts, can present evidence, argue persuasively, shape public opinions, as well as entertain. We will also analyze many theoretical debates posed by the documentary practices, including the blurring of fiction and nonfiction, the shifting definition of “documentary” through the last century and the problematic assumption of objectivity. Students have the opportunity to try the different ‘parts’ of documentary film-making, including researching and developing topics for a documentary production, writing a treatment or proposal for the film, shooting and interviewing in the field, as well as crafting a story during the post-production and editing process.

• FLM 6103 International Cinema

  This course examines global cinema while considering the extent to which cultural, political, and historical contexts have influenced the form and grammar of film during the last century. The overall focus of the course is broad, ranging across more than eight decades and many different countries; it aims to study a variety of approaches to and theories of narrative cinema. During the semester, many international film "movements" are covered, which can include the French New Wave, the Chinese Sixth Generation, and Italian Neo-Realism. In addition, the representations of non-Western cultures from an “insider” and a “Hollywood” perspective are compared.

• FLM 6104 From Script to Screen

  From Script to Screen will explore the creative and practical aspects of script writing and advanced video production. The course is intended for students who have experience of video production and want to expand their knowledge and skills.Students will create and produce a video, starting from the inception of the idea through to the realization of the idea as a finished film to be screened at the end of the course. Focusing on the journey from having an idea for a film through to writing a high spec script, students will learn how drama is represented in the written form, analyze and explore scripts from existing films or other forms of drama, and learn more about the film and TV industry and the place of screenwriting in it. In doing so, students have the opportunity to try the different ‘parts’ of filmmaking, from the creative and theoretical – writing, story boarding, workshopping, casting and directing, to the technical – camera operation, sound recording and video editing.

• FLM 6296 Senior Seminar in Film Studies I

  This research intensive course for the major is the first part of a two semester sequence taken in the Senior year. Students produce a research proposal, a literature review and a substantial draft that feeds directly into Senior Seminar 2 which culminates in a 8,000 - 10,000 word dissertation. Students are guided through the various stages of proposal and dissertation writing, and draft work is supervised regularly in a process of continuous feedback.

• FLM 6297 Senior Seminar in Film Studies II

  This research intensive course for the major is the first part of a two semester sequence taken in the Senior year. Students produce a research proposal, a literature review and a substantial draft that feeds directly into Senior Seminar 2 which culminates in a 8,000 - 10,000 word dissertation. Students are guided through the various stages of proposal and dissertation writing, and draft work is supervised regularly in a process of continuous feedback.

Plus one of the following:

• AVC 6101 Working in the Art World

  This course engages students with a broad practical and theoretical appreciation of what it takes to work in the 21st century art market. Students will engage with current discourse related to curatorial practices, management skills, the international art market, arts policy, as well as the educative, social, and regenerative potential of working within the arts. Making use of London as a ‘second classroom’, the course will involve analyses of and trips to a number of arts organizations; these include not for-profit arts institutions as well as commercial galleries, auction houses, and art fairs. The course takes a self-reflexive and critical approach to analyzing issues connected to inclusion/exclusion as well as diversity initiatives at various international arts organizations. The class will also integrate a number of guest lectures from leaders in the art market today as well as young and inspiring art world professionals.

• AVC 6102 Non-Western Visual Cultures

  This course explores issues that relate to the interpretation, perception, and representation of the visual arts of non-Western cultures, with a focus on indigenous (ethnographic) and prehistoric (archaeological) art. The course investigates issues that relate to engaging with art across cultures and considers colonial/neo-colonial/postcolonial encounters. The course takes a critical and self-reflexive approach to the representation and display of non-Western visual cultures in the West. A range of case studies will be examined which usually range across Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.

• COM 6101 New Media

  This course traces the historical development of new media, emphasizing the social, political, and cultural context of new media technologies. It introduces the students to a number of contemporary theoretical debates for understanding the role of new media in contemporary democracies and their impact on identity formation processes. Interfacing practical skills and critical thought, a number of key debates in digital culture are addressed through written texts and the investigation of internet sites and electronic texts.

• HST 6105 Propaganda: History and Image

  The course aims to introduce students, by way of specific case-studies ranging from the ancient world to the modern day, to innovative methods of studying the past that utilise popular forms of visual culture and propaganda. While recognising the complexity of the propaganda process and the various influences that form and shape images, the course will focus on the historical relationship between propaganda (in architecture, cartoons, film, painting, pamphlets, photography, posters, sculpture, and television) and politics. The focus on the theme of propaganda and its relationship with various forms of media through the ages allows for the opportunity to compare and contrast particular case- studies over time and geographical space and therefore to distinguish elements of continuity and change, which will help students to ‘read’ historic images critically, both as vehicles for understanding the past and in order to identify the relationship between propaganda and power.

Integrated Internship

• FLM 6901 World Internship in Film

  The course aims to introduce students, by way of specific case-studies ranging from the ancient world to the modern day, to innovative methods of studying the past that utilise popular forms of visual culture and propaganda. While recognising the complexity of the propaganda process and the various influences that form and shape images, the course will focus on the historical relationship between propaganda (in architecture, cartoons, film, painting, pamphlets, photography, posters, sculpture, and television) and politics. The focus on the theme of propaganda and its relationship with various forms of media through the ages allows for the opportunity to compare and contrast particular case- studies over time and geographical space and therefore to distinguish elements of continuity and change, which will help students to ‘read’ historic images critically, both as vehicles for understanding the past and in order to identify the relationship between propaganda and power.

• FLM 6902 Internship in Film

  The course aims to introduce students, by way of specific case-studies ranging from the ancient world to the modern day, to innovative methods of studying the past that utilise popular forms of visual culture and propaganda. While recognising the complexity of the propaganda process and the various influences that form and shape images, the course will focus on the historical relationship between propaganda (in architecture, cartoons, film, painting, pamphlets, photography, posters, sculpture, and television) and politics. The focus on the theme of propaganda and its relationship with various forms of media through the ages allows for the opportunity to compare and contrast particular case- studies over time and geographical space and therefore to distinguish elements of continuity and change, which will help students to ‘read’ historic images critically, both as vehicles for understanding the past and in order to identify the relationship between propaganda and power.