Film Studies (Placement Year) : BA Hons : P304

Your degree recognises cinema’s role as a major cultural form and investigates film through a variety of approaches. You’ll examine cinema’s aesthetic, social and political importance in the context of an increasingly visual and media-orientated culture, while also investigating the intersections between contemporary art, theatre, dance, music, sound and film.
You begin your degree with the module Introduction to Film Studies, which introduces you to a range of key critical approaches with an explicit focus on the meaning-making structures and techniques of film. You will expand your knowledge and understanding of a wide range of filmmaking traditions and be introduced to fundamental terms and concepts such as mise-en-scène, editing, narrative, acting, stardom, film sound and genre.

In addition, you’ll explore the key areas of cinema history, encompassing silent films, classical Hollywood cinema, French, German, Italian and Chinese cinema. In the third term, you will work in a small group to produce a short digital video. You will also take a LICA-wide module on modernism in the arts, and a third module from another LICA discipline or from a range of subjects offered across the University.

In your second year, you’ll take the core modules Global Cinema and Critical Reflections (Contemporary Arts Theory). You can also choose from a range of optional modules including Silent Cinema, Film Modernism and the Avant-garde, Politics and Ideology in the Cinema, Film and Comic Books, The Hollywood Musical, and Documentary Cultures, which uniquely combines the academic study of documentary cinema with the production of a short documentary video.

You will have the opportunity to spend Year 3 on placement with a public, private or voluntary organisation in the UK or overseas. This experience will boost your employment prospects and will help you to decide on your career direction and the kind of organisation in which you want to work once you graduate.