Cinematic Arts BSc (Hons) (Placement)

Here is a guide to the subjects studied on this course.

Courses are continually reviewed to take advantage of new teaching approaches and developments in research, industry and the professions. Please be aware that modules may change for your year of entry. The exact modules available and their order may vary depending on course updates, staff availability, timetabling and student demand. Please contact the course team for the most up to date module list.
Year one
Introduction to Film Art
Year: 1

With an emphasis on variety of film practice, this module aims to introduce students to the essential elements of film narrative and engage them in thinking critically about the choices made by film-makers in constructing the look and sound of their films. We will be asking, therefore, how meaning is created in the cinema, as well as what ideas and arguments such meanings may generate among critically aware spectators of it. In doing so we will be exploring the richness and complexity of cinema's potential to communicate with its spectators through a carefully selected variety of films. Represented amongst these will not only be the classic Hollywood model with which we are all most familiar, but also films from other national and artistic traditions. These will be examined in the context of both weekly lecture/workshops and practical tutorials.

Visual Storytelling
Year: 1

This module aims to introduce the students to the art, craft and technique of filmmaking. Students are expected to learn basic principles of film script development, pre-production processes and paperwork and final post-production stage.

Editing 1
Year: 1

This module aims to provide students with a basic of narrative editing for film. Students will be introduced to the use of non-linear editing software for filmmaking and appropriate networked lab procedures. They will gain practical experience in managing the order and timing of each shot in making editing decisions to produce positive narrative continuity.

Mobile Moving Image Production
Year: 1

This module aims to introduce students to the necessary skills and techniques for successfully producing a 3min single-camera mobile moving image production.

Ligthing, Camera, Sound
Year: 1

This module demonstrates lighting, sound and camera techniques for digital video productions. Through in-class tutorials and group projects students will learn equipment operation and production roles. Topics also include operating film cameras, lighting setups and mixing location sound.

Dramatic Structures on Stage and Screen
Year: 1

This module serves as an introduction to the fundamental structures of dramatic performance. Weekly lectures will introduce a range of core concepts. Students then take a weekly seminar through which they will develop the knowledge and frameworks provided to analyse the creation and reception of dramatic performances. The module will refer in detail to a range of set plays, studied from both the script and in live performance.

Year two
World Cinemas
Year: 2

This module covers the entire period from the silent era to contemporary filmmaking, taking into account the technological, formal, stylistic, socio-political, economic and cultural backgrounds of different movements and styles. Classes will be supported by film screenings.

Screenwriting
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module offers students an introduction to the terms, ideas and craft, involved in the creation of screenplays. The module explores the conventions of dramatic structure, new narrative forms and short film variations. Students are encouraged to think critically about screenplay writing and will have an opportunity to write their own screenplay. A selection of writing exercises have been designed to take them through the writing process; from preparation and initial concept to final draft. The emphasis here will be on practical knowledge and support as student's uncover their creative voice.

Cinematography
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module covers a range of areas from the technical basics of cinematography, taking full, manual control of industry standard cameras, focus pulling, camera movement (using tracks and dollies), lighting for narrative or pack shots. The module explains basic principles of cinematography - storytelling with visual imagination. By using historical (history of motion picture art) digression, comparing with painting and poetry, the module features analyses of best examples of the European, Russian and American cinematographer's work. At the same time the module provides giving basic information about practical cinematography - motion picture cameras, lenses, film stock, lighting and postproduction.

Dramatic Short
Year: 2

This module is optional

The module teaches students how to apply film production techniques such as writing for screen, directing, camera, sound and editing to effectively tell a story which will engage a wide audience. Subjects include 'industry standards'; students learn the role of the producer in establishing the financing of short films, exhibition and methods of progression beyond short films. The required skills of professional self management, including tax, liability and communication skills, will be an essential part of the student's development in this module.

Feature Screenwriting
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module aims to develop the students' ability to fully execute a feature film script to a high commercial standard. Students will show their creative writing expertise in story development, structure, plotting, character, use of arena, dialogue, visual exposition and narration. They will also complete a detailed professional production strategy to an industry standard, which places the work in a marketing and commercial arena, indicating the feasibility and practicalities of its production.

Art Direction/Production Design
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module introduces students to Art Direction and Production Design in film. The module is structured to follow the design process used by practicing Art directors and Production Designers culminating in the creation of an online Portfolio/Show Reel which they may use to disseminate their developing practice.

Editing 2
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module aims at providing the students with conceptual knowledge and the techniques of visual and audio editing. Students will learn how to develop their storytelling craft by assembling scenes and sequences. Special emphasis will be given to concepts such as cinematic space and time, cinematic reality, rhythm, and continuity. Through practical experience with digital editing software students will learn to manage the order and time of each shot and the decision process to produce positive visual continuity.

Independent Film
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module introduces the students to ideas and concepts related to film policy in the creation of independent cinema. Special focus is on Irish cinema and film festival studies.

Visual Effects
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module supports student learning in the area visual effects for film. The module is structured to support a wide range of techniques employed by visual effects artists from industry and to support individual student learning culminating in the creation of a show reel and developmental weblog of their developing practice.

Lifewide Learning & Personal Development (Cinematic Arts)
Year: 2

This module is optional

The purpose of this assessment-only module is to encourage students to reflect on and apply their lifewide learning experiences to their own personal and professional development and to their future employment. The design is highly flexible, enabling students to negotiate their preferred assessment method and to fit in and around their BSc Cinematic Arts programme.

Sound for Productions
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module aims to introduce students to the necessary skills and techniques for successfully producing a 5-10-minute sound piece.

Acting 4: Acting and Screen
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module develops acting techniques studied at Level 4 and adapts them to screen. Students become familiar with working procedures involving acting to camera and are encouraged to reflect on the place of the actor historically and in relation to creative applications in performance.

Writing for Stage and Screen
Year: 2

This module is optional

This module offers the student the opportunity to explore the processes of creative writing for a range of media, including live and filmed performance. The student will read from a range of materials and encounter a range of working methods, before opting for one medium and developing a piece of writing for performance in that medium.

Year three
International Academic Studies (Cinematic Arts)
Year: 3

This module is optional

This module provides an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline whilst generating educational and cultural networks.

Industrial Placement (Cinematic Arts)
Year: 3

This module is optional

This module provides students with the opportunity to experience life as a professional in the creative industries as a paid employee of a company. They will be expected to conduct themselves professionally being an employee of a company and an ambassador for the University during this period. They will be supported by an academic coordinator.

Year four
The Business of TV & Film
Year: 4

The module seeks to develop students' awareness of the business context of Cinematic Arts, so that they gain an understanding of distribution, financing, marketing & how to launch their own careers.

Final Project (Practice)
Year: 4

This module involves students in designing a project and negotiation with an appointed member of staff suitable learning outcomes (including technologies, artistic output and presentational issues and contextual / theoretical development) and assessment strategies. The project's practice-based elements must be of a suitable scope to be public-facing. The project should also incorporate forms of learning undertaken in the previous two years.

Final Project (Theory & Context)
Year: 4

This module involved students in designing a project and negotiation with an appointed member of staff suitable learning outcomes (including technologies, artistic output and presentational issues and contextual/theoretical development) and assessment strategies. The project's practice-based elements must be of a suitable scope to be public-facing. The project should also incorporate forms of learning undertaken in the previous two years.

Web Series
Year: 4

This module is optional

This module will provide concepts related to web series development. Students will learn to critically assess the differences between conventional television and web series and be able to develop, shoot and upload a web series.

Documentary Practice
Year: 4

This module is optional

The module concentrates on documentary film project research, development, and realisation. The students will individually develop and direct a documentary film with the technical and creative support of their peers under the guidance and support of the module coordinator. Activities will include project-oriented writing assignments; practical research assignments; exercises in visual story-telling; individual pitch presentations, discussions and evaluations; practical camera and sound exercises.

Horror Film: Theory and Practice
Year: 4

This module is optional

This module aims to introduce students to the necessary skills and techniques for successfully writing, producing and directing a short horror film. Students will conceive of the craft as a practical way of thinking, recognising skill and technique as manifestations of deep rational knowledge and competence grounded in film history, genre, theme, codes and conventions.

Experimental Film Practice
Year: 4

This module is optional

The module focuses on Experimental Film and Alternative Cinema in theory and practice. The students will individually develop and direct an Experimental Film with the technical and creative support of their peers under the guidance and support of the module coordinator. Activities will include screenings and discussion; the writing of a treatment and proposal; the chronicling of experimental practice on a developmental weblog; and the completion and submission of a final film piece as a manifestation of the student's voice as a filmmaker.

Law, film and visual culture
Year: 4

This module is optional

Law, Film and Visual Culture is a deliberately alternative approach to the traditional study of law, both in terms of the basic materials used to ground an approach to the topics under study, and in the teaching arrangements. It is an attempt to foster a developed spirit and capacity in critical intelligence in relation to the cultural make-up of the social environment and thus aims for wide applicability and to break the notion of law as confined to a specific arena.