BA (Hons) Media Production

Course details On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry. Year 1 Core units Developing Arguments: This introduces you to the critical thinking and learning processes involved in studying media at academic level and beyond. Scriptwriting Fundamentals: This unit reveals the role of the script in media products and will provide a foundation in the development of your scriptwriting skills for a range of platforms and formats such as film, television, radio and the web. Digital Film: In a group scenario, you'll explore the principles and practice of digital film production and workflows, including pre-production, production and post-production considerations. Media in Transition: This unit examines different creative and media industries, and explores their relationship to new technology and audiences. Networked Media: You'll consider the basic concepts and develop key skills for understanding and producing networked media artefacts during this unit. Audio Production: You'll develop a critical awareness of professional processes and practices in the creative experimentation, conception, planning, design and realisation of audio content. Year 2 Core units Media Theory Perspectives: You'll choose two theory study options from a menu of choices to help you further your skills of applying media theory to current industry debates. Fictional Production: This unit will extend both your practical skills and your critical understanding of fictional forms and content, examining the similarities and differences in practice across media, with particular reference to audio and video content. Factual Production: Running parallel with, and complementary to Fictional production, this unit focuses on factual content with the creative emphasis being online environments. Stories and Spaces: The emphasis of this unit is on ‘experience design’ and a range of both virtual and physical spaces for media-based storytelling are explored, including event-led, live, and installation focused media on the one hand, and multi-platform and trans-media storytelling on the other. Work in the Media Industries: You'll look at the current state of the media industry, its adaptive and evolutionary nature, and the implications of this transitional culture for the professional demands upon, and subjective experiences of, industry workers. Client and Audience: This unit focuses on understanding the client relationship, responding to a brief, pitching ideas, managing client expectations, and producing a solution to a specific communications challenge. Year 3 You'll have the option to complete either a 4-week or optional 30-week (minimum) work placement during the course, the placement is a key feature in helping you to develop your abilities and understanding of media production. It also provides a platform for successful entry into the profession following graduation. Year 3/4 (final year) Core units Advanced specialist production skills: This unit will enable you to review, sharpen and further develop your craft skills within aspects of media production to inform your production work in year three. Ideas and impact: You'll explore turning ideas and concepts into commercially viable end products to be pitched, sold, defended and tested in the global creative media market place. Industry research project: You'll undertake a research project into a current industry debate that arises from your placement experience. The graduate production project: You'll individually produce a production project where you decide the mix and range of media to engage with, and the industry context it sits within. This is your ‘calling card’ for employment. Career planning: This unit provides a reflective space where you can consider your experiences of the course and the industry whilst constructing a forward-facing career plan. Scheduled learning and teaching activities The emphasis of this course is in guided independent learning, which helps you develop into a self-motivated learner. When not attending lectures and seminars, you will be expected to read around the subject. Your typical week’s activities will include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments. The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during each year of this course. Year 1 – 21% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 247.5 hours Independent learning: 952.5 hours Year 2 – 24% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 284 hours Independent learning: 916 hours Year 3/4 – 10% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 108 hours Independent learning: 1092 hours 100% of the course is assessed by coursework Year 1: 100% Year 2: 100% Year 3/4: 100% Throughout the course you will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, but you will also undertake group work and written exams. Programme Specification Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used. Download the programme specification for BA (Hons) Media Production. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.