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Film Studies

Entry requirements


Pass in the QAA-accredited Access to HE course with at least 30 level 3 credits at Merit or equivalent, with English GCSE required as a separate qualification. We will normally require students to have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

24

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DMM

BTEC National Diploma / Extended Diploma Plus, five GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including English or equivalent

T Level

M

UCAS Tariff

104

from at least two A-levels. Plus, five GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including English or equivalent

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Film studies

In an increasingly media-focused world, this course will develop your existing passion for film and TV into a prospective career, helping you acquire a skillset required for many technical and creative roles.

You will gain a strong theoretical understanding of film history and theory, and explore areas such as Disney, Warner Bros and the business of the Film Studio, Cinemas of the World and Fan and Material Cultures. You will also develop practical skills in diverse areas including film making, film reviewing, screen archives and film festival planning.

This course combines practice and theoretical study, giving you a strong theoretical understanding, as well as transferable skills such as communication and critical analysis. Our graduates go on to work in a variety of fields, including film and TV, but also finance, public relations and tourism.

**Key features**

- You will benefit from Education 2030 – DMU’s new way of delivering courses, focusing on ensuring the best possible experience for our students. Through block teaching, you will focus on one subject at a time instead of several at once. This means that you will be able to focus closely on each subject and absorb your learning material in more depth, whilst working more closely with your tutors and course mates.

- Learn in a real cinema environment thanks to our partnership with Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre, while benefiting from placement opportunities and the chance to organise and manage an annual film festival.

- Select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Drama, English Language, English Literature, History, Journalism or Media. These carefully chosen routes will complement and enrich your understanding of your main subject, alongside broadening your skillset to give you a wider range of career paths upon graduation.

- Benefit from experts in our prestigious Cinema and Television History Research Institute, as well as guest lectures from established film directors, exhibitors, writers, distributors, and journalists.

- Graduates have gone on to work for high-profile employers including the BBC and Odeon Entertainment in varied roles including research, teaching and writing for film, public relations and film journalism.

- Gain valuable international experience as part of your studies with our DMU Global programme. Students have been able to immerse themselves in Hollywood’s fan culture, tour iconic cinemas in Berlin and attend the famous Cannes Film Festival.

- Our communication, cultural and media studies research is ranked joint first in the UK for the proportion of research outputs, rated as world-leading (4*) in the latest Research Excellence Framework (2014).

Modules

**Year one**
Block 1: Filmmaking 1 – Introduction to Moving Image Production
Block 2: Film History and Theory 1 - Foundations of Film Studies: Concepts, Analysis, Film History
Block 3: The Film Industry 1 - Disney, Warner Bros and the Business of the Film Studio OR you can select to study one route from the list below:
Media: Media, Culture and Society
Journalism: Understanding Journalism
English Language: Evolving Language
Creative Writing: Writers Salon
English Literature: Introduction to Drama: Shakespeare
History: Global Cities
Drama: Shifting Stages
Block 4: Professional Practice 1 – Film Reviewing

**Year two**
Block 1: Film History and Theory 2 – Cinemas of the World: Concepts, Movements, Case Studies
Block 2: Filmmaking 2 - Moving Image Portfolio
Block 3: Professional Practice 2 – Screen Archives: Preservation, Conservation and Usage OR continue with the route selected in the first year:
Media: Public Relations
Journalism: Beyond News
English Language: Sociolinguistics
Creative Writing: Story Craft
English Literature: Digital Humanities
History: Humans and the Natural World
Drama: Theatre Revolutions
Block 4: The Film Industry 2 - Filmmakers

**Year three**
Block 1: Professional Practice 3 - Planning Film Festivals OR The Film Industry 3 - The Film Industry Now
Block 2: Professional Practice 4 - Delivering Film Festivals OR The Film Industry 4 – Fan and Material Cultures
Block 3: Filmmaking 3 – Independent Project: Idea Development and Pre-production OR Film History and Theory 3 – British Cinema: Creativity, Independents and Interdependence OR continue with the study route selected in the first and second year:
Media: Gender and TV Fictions
Journalism: Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism
English Language: Language, Gender and Sexuality
Creative Writing: Creative Misbehaviour
English Literature: World Englishes
History: The World on Display
Drama: Performance, Identity and Society
Block 4: Filmmaking 4 – Independent Project: Production and Delivery OR Film History and Theory 4 – Film Studies Dissertation

*(
**Routes**: You can select to study a route in Block 3 during your first year. When selecting a module for Block 3 in your second year you can opt to remain on your chosen route or return to Film Studies. If you choose to remain with the route, it must be continued in your third year.

Assessment methods

Teaching

This is a full-time course. Each module is worth 30 credits. Outside of your normal timetabled hours you will be expected to conduct independent study each week to complete preparation tasks, assessments and research.

Course delivery is in block mode, which means each 30 credit module consists of a seven week teaching block.

The programme will be delivered through a series of tutor- and student-led lectures, seminars and workshops. A key goal of Film Studies has been to provide a programme offering academic modules drawing on the world-class scholarship and expertise of the DMU Film Studies team (spanning film history, industry, theory, criticism, and contexts) alongside modules delivering high-quality, distinctive and varied practice and employability-related learning, teaching, and experiential opportunities, while retaining the programme's well-established goal of producing film analysts, scholars and historians. As such, modules are offered within four key strands of the programme: Film History and Theory, Filmmaking, Profession Practical and The Film Industry. Students will study one module in each strand in Year 1/Level 4 and Year 2/Level 5, before choosing two strands to focus on, taking two modules in each of these strands in Year 3/Level 6. This will provide students with both a broad exposure to the full range of topics within their discipline, while also offering them the ability to specialise in specific areas which are of particular interest and value to them.

Assessment

Assessments have been designed to correspond to the QAA benchmarks and to enhance students' subject-related employability and transferable skills. There are no formal examinations, but rather a wide variety of assessment strategies, from essays, primary research projects and oral presentations to varied forms of assessed creative and professional practice.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,750
per year
International
£15,750
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Leicester Campus

Department:

Computing, Engineering and Media

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

55%
Film studies

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Media studies

Teaching and learning

71%
Staff make the subject interesting
79%
Staff are good at explaining things
66%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
67%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

73%
Library resources
81%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
56%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

89%
UK students
11%
International students
56%
Male students
44%
Female students
82%
2:1 or above
16%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Media studies

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£18,000
med
Average annual salary
98%
high
Employed or in further education
35%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

25%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
19%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
12%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Media studies

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£17k

£17k

£20k

£20k

£25k

£25k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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Course location and department:

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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