Fiction Filmmaking: directing and visualisation (879P4)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

This course will build and develop your skills and experience in the practice of visualising and realising concepts for fiction film. You will learn about visual conception and how to develop ideas through visually led exercises and tasks. You will engage with a range of approaches to visual composition and continuity filming evidenced in the 'Indicative reading' list. Informed by this and other reading, film screenings and close analysis, tutor-led discussions and group workshop exercises, you will work in close collaboration to a tightly scheduled structure over the course of the term.

In the first weeks you will learn about camera, lighting, composition and how to create meaning visually. Through exercises and demonstrations you will gain the practical skills and apply them in the completion of your first assessment. In later weeks, you will learn about directing actors. This includes casting, rehearsals, directing actors for camera and working with the script and actors. You will be required to cast for, and produce, a five minute scene from a script with emphasis on performance and visual realisation of the scene through camera and lighting. you will learn about continuity based pre-production, working with actors and continuity filming and editing.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.