BA Film Studies and Music / Course details

Our BA Film Studies and Music joint honours course aims to develop your understanding and awareness of the rich possibilities of both creative media, encouraging you to approach your study from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives. 

Film Studies  

At the heart of our Film Studies courses is a commitment to expanding your experience of film through modules and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary cinema, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world. 

You will study mainstream and non-mainstream films in order to broaden your understanding of the history of film, as well as the debates and issues that are informing and generated by current practice in film and shaping its future. 

As you enhance your skills of close analysis, you will also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context, as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium. 

You will be taught through a combination of lectures and smaller seminar discussion groups, with the vast majority of course units supported by a programme of relevant film screenings, taking advantage of cinema-standard digital projection facilities. 

The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film, rather than practical production modules. 

You will be encouraged to develop as independent critical thinkers able to work in a diverse range of assessment scenarios, taking in solo written assignments, presentations and, on certain units, group work and creative projects that enable you to put theory into practice. 

One of our core aims is to deepen your enthusiasm and understanding of film and equip you with the skills and confidence to be able to convey your knowledge in a diverse range of settings and employment situations.

The course seeks to develop and enhance your transferable skills so that you will be able to look to making meaningful contributions to relevant fields, including careers in film education, distribution, exhibition and curation. 

Music   

We admit students of a high calibre, with graduates who go on to work in the music profession, the creative industries and beyond. 

We offer excellence in Performance , Composition  and Musicology , incorporating specialisms in Music Theory & Analysis and Ethnomusicology. 

Underpinned by our excellence in research, regular updates in the course content reflect the latest findings in music scholarship. 

With a range of course units to choose from (see the lists below), the course is diverse and flexible, enabling you to build upon existing interests, while allowing you the room to discover new ways of understanding, performing and creating music. 

With our mix of academic and practical experience, you will be taught by internationally recognised academics and a roster of professional instrumental and vocal tutors, drawn from Manchester and the North West. 

Our teaching and music-making takes place in the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama. 

You will rehearse, take masterclasses and perform in the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall and can get your hands on the latest digital-audio technology in the award-winning NOVARS studios for electroacoustic music and interactive media. 

You will also benefit musically, academically and socially from the extensive music-making and management opportunities provided by the Music Society and the 100+ concerts and events that the department sponsors each year.  

And this is to say nothing of the diversity of music to be experienced in cosmopolitan Manchester, a global city for the performing arts with a rich heritage of professional and amateur music-making.

• Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals, and build your external networks.
• You may also apply to spend one semester  studying abroad  during the second year of your degree. Exchange partners are offered in Europe, through the Erasmus Exchange scheme, or via the Worldwide Exchange scheme, in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore.
• You have a huge range of course units to choose from, with a range of theoretical and practical methodologies to discover, develop and innovate. You will also have access to a range of course units beyond Music or Drama, from modern languages to the Manchester Leadership Programme. Staff specialisms span all aspects of film and screen studies, theatre and performance studies, musicology, composition and performance.
• You will receive 18 hours of one-to-one practical tuition, by professional specialist performers, on your first-study instrument/voice with 20 hours in the final year (when solo performance courses are taken for credit).
• Join The University of Manchester Filmmaking Society, which exists to provide a platform for aspiring filmmakers attending the university to meet, exchange ideas and create their own cinematic productions.

You will learn through a flexible combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials (both group and one-to-one), e-learning techniques and practical group projects, designed to maximise opportunities for personalised learning within the course. 

You are placed in tutorial groups for first year course units and allocated a personal tutor who will monitor and advise on progress throughout your academic career.

The most significant and distinctive features of the methods used include the following. 

Film Studies  

• The emphasis on attending film screenings, which are compulsory for all students and are designed to enable you to advance your interpretive skills of close analysis and better understand the distinctive qualities of film as a medium.
• The emphasis on close analysis which is attached to most courses and which is designed to enable you to learn to interpret films and their discursive surround, including relevant paratexts (eg promotional material such as trailers and posters).
• You will take a variety of lecture-based units on historical and contextual themes. These units are supported by a related programme of films on the big screen, projected via cinema-standard facilities.
• We also have a substantial film library, as well as access to online film streaming sites featuring releases by major DVD labels and encourage students to expand their film knowledge through independent study and viewings. 

Music  

• All students who study solo performance as part of their degree programme receive one-to-one tuition on their first instrument, enabling learning goals and long-term targets to be tailored precisely to each student. This individual approach is enhanced by the fact that, in most cases, you will continue to learn with the same instrumental teacher throughout your degree.
• Every course unit is underpinned by online resources supporting your active study. Online resources range from downloadable lecture handouts to blogs, discussion pages, digitised copies of key reading, links to broadcasts and webcasts. Most course materials for electroacoustic course units are delivered using the studio-wide networking facility.
• Teaching and learning in Participatory Music and Making Art Public includes lectures from guest speakers, site visits and volunteering opportunities designed to help you engage with the city's broad range of artistic provision and with local communities.
• You will attend lectures and small group seminars for some course units, while others are taught entirely through seminar groups with workshops. You are also encouraged to study independently.
• Students taking solo performance courses for credit also receive private tuition for instrumental or vocal lessons. You have ample opportunity to test run your pieces as a performer or composer in informal lunchtime concerts.

Coursework is regularly assigned and assessed either continually or at the end of the semester, depending on the course units taken.

Film Studies

Assessment methods include assessed essays and other written coursework, written examinations, group and individual presentations, poster presentations and small-scale practical assignments (eg video essays, storyboards, screenplay extracts, concept art and sound design) combined with self-reflexive analysis on your creative process and the theory informing your practice.

Music

Assessment methods range from assessed essays and other written coursework, written examinations, group and individual presentations, analytical assignments, technical exercises, practical tests, aural tests and studio projects, to composition portfolios, individual and group recitals (many of our students choose to present a formal music recital for assessment on their instrument) and the Level 3 dissertation.

Composition courses are assessed through submission of scores of compositions, which (in the case of instrumental or vocal works) have been performed by fellow students.

The Martin Harris Centre is equipped with superb technical facilities, including sound-editing and video-editing suites.

You also have access to the University's Media Services facility, which houses additional editing suites and camera kits which can be hired for student projects. 

The Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall seats 350 spectators and is the primary venue for the concerts and recitals of our fellow staff and students in Music. 

It also sometimes hosts interdisciplinary events, with staging of works such as Brecht/Eisler's The Mother, Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Harrison Birtwistle and Tony Harrison's Bow Down. 

Generously endowed by Ian Lenagan, the Lenagan Library is a reference library that complements the extensive facilities of the John Rylands University Library, and houses collections in Drama and Music.

These consist of book holdings, multiple play texts, CDs, audio tapes, videos and DVDs. 

A viewing suite (sponsored by the Granada Foundation) and listening facilities are available, as well as an online catalogue. 

Learn more on the Facilities  page.