BA Film and Television

Compulsory modules

Year 1

• Approaches to Film: Critically interpret film texts and discover the conventions of fiction and non-fiction cinema. Explore cinema as a diverse, global and transcultural medium, focusing on historical and cultural contexts.
• Introduction to Filmmaking: Explore the methodologies and working practices related to the creative production of film and television texts, learning about the relationship between development of meaning and creative decision-making in these forms. Gain hands-on experience of the practices and processes involved in planning, documentation and analysis of critically engaged moving image production, and use specialist equipment necessary for production work.
• Introduction to Scriptwriting: Develop in-depth knowledge of scriptwriting and analysis of creative works and enhance your own scriptwriting skills with creative and intellectual tools. You’ll explore personal storytelling in cultural and intellectual contexts, as well as following script development – from the final draft through to creative production.
• Approaches to Television: Gain a critical understanding of central issues in television texts and fiction and non-fiction programming. You’ll examine television forms and narratives, industrial contexts, digital platforms and new delivery technologies, as well as the role of the audience and public service broadcasting.
• TV Studio Production: Develop critically engaged film/television production, cultivating an understanding of the practices and processes of devising, planning, realisation and documentation. You’ll learn to apply systematic approaches to film/television practice, individual research and collaborative decision-making.

Year 2

• Creative Screen Practice: Understand how creative processes relate to research, critical analysis and industry practices. You’ll develop your skills in collaborative production by working on a short practical project. You will also critically analyse and evaluate theoretical issues that are crucial to filmic or television decision-making, and enhance your professional skills in the fields of film and television.
• Professional Roles and Screen Industry Pathways: Gain lived experience of professional roles and industry pathways in film and television production. You’ll develop knowledge and skills in a specific department of production and have the chance to experiment and reflect on future career directions.
• Film Forms and Cultures: Discover the rich variety of film forms and explore critical and conceptual issues of form, including theoretical perspectives, questions of form, and form’s meaning and politics.

And one of the following:

• Documentary: Develop skills to critically analyse and produce non-fiction films and television through close analysis of texts and engagement with various industrial and technological contexts. You’ll engage with critical debates and conceptual issues and put ideas into practice. You’ll understand documentary-makers' creative decision-making and their connection to ideological concerns.
• Television and Contemporary Culture: Engage with issues of genre, globalisation, industry, and representation. You’ll examine the construction of critical and contextual frameworks that underpin television studies. Explore television’s international flows, build a picture of national industrial practices, and analyse digital media practices and platforms. You’ll develop a critical understanding of conventions and histories of selected genres and explore the implied impact of ideologies of representation.

Year 3

Choose one of the following:

• Advanced Film/TV Project: Apply the knowledge and skills you’ve gained to a practical, research-based project, independently developed by you and your group under the guidance of a supervisor.
• Creative Research Project: Apply your previously gained knowledge and skills to a significant research-based project that includes a creative element and critical research and reflection. You’ll developed the project independently under supervision.
• Dissertation: Film and Theatre: Apply the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired in the previous modules to a major piece of independent work around an area you are interested in. Independently initiate and develop the project under the guidance of a supervisor.

These are the modules we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they're informed by the latest teaching and research methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Film and television play a vital role in how people understand and shape the world, and so sustainability, accessibility and social engagement are thoroughly embedded in our degree. As a critically informed film/TV practitioner, you’ll gain the employability and entrepreneurial skills needed to start your career in the creative industries.

95% of graduates from Film, Theatre and Television are in work or further study within 15 months of the end of their course.*

Past UG graduates from the Art department at Reading have gone on to work for employers such as:

• Delfont Mackintosh Theatres
• Pocket Motion Pictures
• Sky
• Bloomsbury Publishing.**

Alternatively, you will be well equipped to undertake further critical study if you choose to move on to a postgraduate degree.

Graduates of this degree have gone on to work in:

• film-making
• production
• performance
• cinematography
• teaching and education
• fundraising and development
• publishing and media
• arts management and administration
• advertising and marketing
• film criticism.