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LOCATION
Docklands Campus
Location Fees and Funding
Here's the fees and funding information for each year of this course
Overview
Some courses teach you about film-making while others concentrate on the theory and history of film. At UEL, we'll give you a thorough, expert grounding in both.
We combine theory and practice, teaching you not just how to make films and videos but throwing you into every aspect of the film world, from screenwriting to cinema history.
Each year, you'll make your own films, from fiction to documentaries. And in your last year, your final piece of work will be screened at a special show at a London cinema, attended by film industry executives.
Throughout your course, you'll get the opportunity to develop your production skills by studying modules focused on documentary, fiction, screenwriting and avant-garde filmmaking.
We'll give you the skills to work in all film-related fields. Our graduates have gone into a variety of rewarding careers, from film production to festival administration to film journalism.
Foundation year course
If you don't meet the entry requirements for a BA, you can study this course as an extended, four-year programme. You'll begin by taking a foundation year which prepares you for a successful transition to the BA degree. This means it will take you four years to complete the course full-time, and eight years to complete the course part-time.
What makes this course different
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
In our video-dominated world, we offer one of the few remaining courses in the country that gives you the chance to learn how to make films with actual celluloid on 16mm cameras.
There are three strands to our three-year course - film history, film theory and film practice. In your first year, that means you'll make short documentary and fiction films, while learning how to analyse films and studying the history of Hollywood cinema.
In year two, you'll explore screenwriting and you’ll also be encouraged to experiment - looking closely, for instance, at avant-garde cinema. You'll have the chance to go on a highly sought-after work placement in a film production company, and you'll make films for a particular client outside the University, such as a local charity.
In your third year, you'll study different film genres and the history of cinemas from different parts of the world, including European, Asian and Bollywood cinema. At the end of the course you'll have the chance to make a longer film for a prestigious screening of our students' work at a London cinema.
Foundation year
If you don't meet the entry requirements for a BA, you have the option of taking an extended version of this course.
You'll begin with a foundation year that will prepare you for the BA course, giving you the academic and personal skills you need for successful degree-level study.
DOWNLOAD COURSE SPECIFICATIONS
BA Hons Film with foundation year - course specification
pdf, 99.43 KB
COURSE SPECIFICATION - BA (Hons) Film
pdf, 184.39 KB
MODULES
- Core Modules
Academic Development CloseAcademic Development
This module will provide students with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to embarking on their university degree and successfully completing it and progressing on to a range of potential future career areas.
Central to the developmental process is for each student to cultivate the reflective skills, openness and self-awareness to enable themselves to assess what they are doing, identify areas for improvement, and confidently receive and give constructive feedback.
Social Media Project CloseSocial Media Project
The module will develop basic individual research and production skills for social media content. Students will also develop their reflection and evaluation skills. Throughout the module students will create new content for a social media account relating to their chosen subject pathway, or topic of interest. Students will also be encouraged to consider current issues and debates surrounding social media.
Ways of Looking CloseWays of Looking
This module will introduce students to how meaning is made and transmitted in visual texts. Students will be introduced to the various ‘ways of looking’ (frameworks) at media, and how this is applies to current media examples. Students will be expected to conduct their own research and encouraged to consider how the ‘ways of looking’ at media can be applied to their own subject specific pathway. Students will also learn how to apply key composition and aesthetic (typography, colour, and layout) skills to their own work in the form an academic poster using industry standard software.
Narrative and Creativity CloseNarrative and Creativity
This module will provide students with the opportunity to identify the skills and knowledge necessary to create oral, visual and written narratives for all kinds of media production. This module aims to give students the theoretical understanding of narrative and creativity. Throughout the module students will be encouraged to consider how these theories shape their chosen subject. Students will be assessed on their ability to present their understanding of narrative theories and give supporting examples of how these apply to various forms of media.
Group Film Project CloseGroup Film Project
Students will develop fundamental digital media production skills required to make a film. Over this course of this module, students will work in groups to research and produce a short fiction or non-fiction film for online distribution. Students will also have the opportunity to reflect (critically evaluate) on their own practice in relation to the main topics covered during the module; including professional practice.
Mental Wealth: Professional Development CloseMental Wealth: Professional Development
This module will provide students with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for employment and employability and how employability and industry connections are implemented in the curriculum.
You will begin to recognise the areas for your own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activity.
Central to the developmental process is for each student to cultivate their reflective skills through collaboration with other undergraduate students and analysing effective approaches to industry briefs and creative problem solving.
- Core Modules
Creative Content CloseCreative Content
Media Cultures CloseMedia Cultures
This keystone module provides you with the contextual knowledge essential to your subject area. The module will introduce a range of perspectives on contemporary media cultures and landscapes to develop competencies appropriate to your field of study and to the world of work. The module will introduce you to core study skills and practices including how to identify, access, collate and evaluate evidence, understanding academic writing conventions and how to express a range of ideas through appropriate means of communication.
Production Lab 1 CloseProduction Lab 1
Professional life: Mental Wealth - Agency 1 CloseProfessional life: Mental Wealth - Agency 1
Developing the key psychological and physical determinants of human performance is increasingly critical for successful graduate-level employment, entrepreneurship and career progression in the 4th industrial revolution.
This module will provide students hoping to work in the creative industries with the opportunity to learn and apply the full range of skills, competencies and experience required for successful progression into in a range of potential future career areas.
Students will learn about conventions and expectations in the creative industries, focussing on areas specific to their programme of study. They will also advance their own personal professional development through taught and workshop activities, and explore possible strategies to further develop their reflective skills and self-awareness.
Students will have opportunity to select an in-house microbusiness to join in the role of 'Apprentice'. In this position they will focus on the importance of research in the creative industries. Students will practice key methods including digital and other research and qualitative methods used in industry today, including trends, news coverage and customer reviews. Students will also learn the conventions of research and analysis in order to develop a pitch or proposal in response to a client brief.
Film History CloseFilm History
This module will introduce you to the history of film, from its very beginnings to the present day. The module will chart the rise of Hollywood, as well as explore significant film movements from around the world. The module will also explore alternative histories that have often been overlooked, taking into account the work of filmmakers who have used cinema as a tool of resistance and decolonisation. This module will provide a context for you to write about and analyse this history, as well as think about your own work in relation to what has come before and use it as a source of inspiration for practice-based exercises.
- Core Modules
Production Lab 2 CloseProduction Lab 2
Advanced Storytelling CloseAdvanced Storytelling
European and World Cinemas CloseEuropean and World Cinemas
This module offers the opportunity to engage with the historicity of a cinema's aesthetics by exploring a range of national cinemas. You will be encouraged to familiarise yourselves with aspects of different national film industries, and to relate their historically specific modes of operation to the generic categories and stylistic features of the films these industries produced at different times in their history. Above all, you will be expected to engage with the history of diverse geographical areas and to consider how the films examined relate to those broader socio-cultural contexts.
Mental Wealth: Professional life: Agency 2 CloseMental Wealth: Professional life: Agency 2
Best learning experiences follow a 'learning by doing' approach followed by reflection and assimilation. Building upon the competencies and skills identified at level 4, this module supports effective professional development through practical experience.
You will work on live project briefs to produce media content which is informed by appropriate research in the field of study.
Professional understandings and skills sets will be furthered through practical work enabling you to strengthen key graduate skills such as teamwork, organisation skills, digital skills, effective communication, and professionalism.
Through reflective practice, you will evaluate your ongoing progress as a learner and as a practising professional.
Optional ModulesOptional placement CloseOptional placement
This course offers the opportunity of year-long placement between years two and three. If you choose to take this option, you’ll spend your third year on a placement with a relevant company or organisation, adding valuable practical experience to your growing academic knowledge.
The extra placement year means it will take four years to complete your studies, instead of three. - Core Modules
Professional Practice CloseProfessional Practice
Final Project: Development CloseFinal Project: Development
- For students to acquire detailed knowledge of the threats which journalism currently faces
- For students to become closely familiar with journalism’s current opportunities
- For students to engage with threat and opportunity as rehearsing journalists
- For students to come to see themselves as the future of journalism
Final Project: Completion CloseFinal Project: Completion
The module will lead on from the development stage of your self-identified research project based on your preferred choice of production, for example a written dissertation that engages with contemporary debates in media or a complete practice project, produced through a developed programme of research supported by a verbal demonstration of the critical discourses it speaks to.
The aim of the module is to extend knowledge in the chosen field of research, to produce or write the project according to your planning and to complete and present the final research project within the given time frame. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your skills in an accompanying project portfolio, including production folders for practice projects or reviews of existing academic literature on the written dissertation topic and a comprehensive bibliography.
Projects will be developed through subject-specific supervision and peer support.
Mental Wealth: Professional Life: Agency 3 - Freelancing at UEL Creatives CloseMental Wealth: Professional Life: Agency 3 - Freelancing at UEL Creatives
This module is delivered as part of UEL’s creative agency, UEL Creatives, where students will work on live projects that will develop their employability skills and give them experience of working with industry.
Students can apply for a range of projects suitable to their skill-set and will be matched to at least one project as part of the unit. Working either individually or as part of a team to meet the brief set by a real client, students learn how to work as a freelancer and manage their own workload.
This will include practical information such as how to manage intellectual property as well as best practice on communicating with clients, working as a team and planning for the future.
In addition, students will be required to reflect on the experience, helping them to develop key enterprise skills including reliance and problem-solving.
Optional ModulesHorror and Science Fiction CloseHorror and Science Fiction
The module is designed to involve you with the history and theory relevant to the development of the Science Fiction and Horror cinematic genres, and its negotiation of human, non- and post-human identities. You will come to know and analyse some of the key examples of these genres, and others that exceed and revise its generic conventions and themes. One key theme you learn about is the use of the alien and the monster as a narrative carrier of the social (or the human) other. The identities of the other/s, social, sexual, political and cultural, will be investigated through an examination of the historical genre and its contemporary iterations; special attention will be given to the topics and tropes of birth vs creation, the human vs animal/alien/robot/monster, and the gendered identities of the alien/monster in many of the iconic SF and horror formative period films, as well as later film.
Urban Film CloseUrban Film
The module will examine urban film as a global phenomenon, tracing both the historical development of the genre, and the mimetic flows between different national cinemas, including those of the US and Hong Kong. The course aims to critique and go beyond dominant Media and Film Studies' theories of representation by exploring the relations between cinematic form and affect, other media forms, and constructions of race, gender and national identity. The urban crime film will be explored as a particularly visceral and immediate form of cinema, within the historical contexts of modernity and postmodernity, and different national cultural identities. The module will utilise theories of the city and geo-politics to explore contemporary theoretical and political questions of the body, and identify historical changes in the cinematic construction of the body of the viewer, and "on-screen" bodies.
Transmedia and Digital Futures CloseTransmedia and Digital Futures
In this module, you will examine various theories both on transmedia storytelling as well as on complex narratives that underpin these types of intercompositional narratives, analysing the impact of convergence culture on the way in which we produce and consume media.
The module encourages you to employ experimental and imaginative approaches to concept, process and final realisation of your projects - skills essential to the creation of digital artworks and to the creative industries in general. It also provides you with a greater awareness of the creative context in which to locate their work. You will produce a transmedia narrative working across multiple platforms and formats, including but not limited to video, sound, music, animation, and photography.
Creative Mobile Media CloseCreative Mobile Media
This module seeks to understand the development of mobile phone technology as part of a new creative and cultural practice and its application in networked communities.
Aims are:
- To develop production /technical skills through the realisation of a mobile media project
- To critically engage and reflect on a range of practitioners and theorists relevant to the module and wider studies
- To develop an understanding of the aesthetics, ethics and creative medium of mobile technologies and their wider applications in both real and virtual communities
HOW YOU'LL LEARN
Some courses teach you about film-making while others concentrate on the theory and history of film. At UEL, we'll give you a thorough, expert grounding in both.
We combine practice with critical analysis, teaching you not just how to make films but throwing you into every aspect of the film world, from screenwriting to cinema history.
Each year, you'll make your own films, from fiction to documentaries. And in your last year, your final piece of work will be screened at a special show at a London cinema.
Throughout your course, you'll get the opportunity to develop your production skills by studying modules focused on documentary, fiction, screenwriting, avant-garde filmmaking.
We'll give you the skills to work in all film-related fields. Our graduates have gone into a variety of rewarding careers, from film production to festival administration to film journalism.
Guided independent study
When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.
Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, specialist facilities, such as edit suites, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.
Academic support
Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas - including learning and disability support
Dedicated personal tutor / academic advisor
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.
Workload
Each year you will spend around 280 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.
The approximate workloads for this course per year are:
- Scheduled teaching - 284 hours
- Guided independent study - 916 hours
Your timetable
Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.
Class sizes
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally attracts 40 - 50 students a year. Lecture sizes are normally 40 plus students.
In workshops you will be taught in groups of 12 - 15 students. However, this can vary by academic year.
HOW YOU'LL BE ASSESSED
100% coursework, which includes 70% practical work: individual and group-based film productions, written assignments.
Feedback summary: we aim to provide feedback on assessments within 15 working days.
CAMPUS and FACILITIES

Docklands Campus, Docklands Campus, London, E16 2RD
WHO TEACHES THIS COURSE
The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.
What we're researching
At the University of East London we are working on the some of the big issues that will define our future; from sustainable architecture and ethical AI, to health inequality and breaking down barriers in the creative industries.
Our students and academics are more critically engaged and socially conscious than ever before. Discover some of the positive changes our students, alumni and academics are making in the world.
YOUR FUTURE CAREER
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it's the students who throw themselves most wholeheartedly into the many opportunities our course offers that end up landing the best positions in the competitive world of film. We have a terrific track record of success here.
One of our students recently finished her course and landed a job as a producer with a film company within the space of a couple of months. Another student returned home to Denmark where he has become a successful TV documentary maker.
Last year, we were visited by a leading filmmaker from Chicago, who set up a screening project where 16 films run simultaneously, all controlled by a single computer. He taught one of our students how to run this extraordinarily complex project and she ran it for the next three weeks when he returned to America.
After graduating, some of you may choose to continue your studies with us by studying for an MA in Film or moving on to film school. You can take advantage of our close connections with the British Film Institute, Film London and the capital’s film festivals throughout your course.
You'll also have a great opportunity to showcase your talents when your third-year film is shown at a special screening at a London cinema attended by film industry executives.
As well as opportunities in the film and video industries, our graduates have gone on to work in a variety of other related areas in the media and culture industries such as television, advertising, journalism and teaching.
Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.