- UCAS course code
- PQ22
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Course description
You will learn through taught units and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary films, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world.
You will study both mainstream and non-mainstream films 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.
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.
The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film rather than practical production, encouraging you to develop as an independent critical thinker 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.
Through your English Language units, you will explore the history of the English language and the variation between English dialects in the UK and further afield.
You will acquire the skills required for analytical language study alongside the means to apply those skills to the study of historical and present-day English.
In addition, you will practise key transferable skills, such as essay writing and how to give a presentation.
Aims
- Develop your understanding and awareness of the rich possibilities of Film.
- Expand your approach to Film from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives.
Special features
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.
Study abroad
You may apply to spend one semester studying abroad during Year 2. Exchange partners are offered through the Erasmus Exchange scheme (in Sweden) and the Worldwide Exchange scheme (such as USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore).
Get involved with interesting projects
Our students are encouraged to take an active role in funded teaching-enhancement projects, whose outputs benefit them individually and collectively.
For example, some of our students have developed an online atlas of dialect variation in the UK and storyboards for the use in fieldwork.
Connect with likeminded students
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.
Join The University of Manchester Drama Society, which is for anyone with an interest in drama, be that acting, directing, writing, filmmaking, costume, set building, stage managing or just watching. One of the largest in the Student Union, the society has links with many of Manchester's award-winning theatrical venues, including the Contact Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre. Each summer the society showcases at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Teaching and learning
You will learn through lectures, seminars, tutorials, and practical group projects.
There's emphasis on attending film screenings, which are compulsory and designed to enable you to better understand the distinctive qualities of film as a medium.
There's also emphasis on close analysis 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).
In English Language, you'll be taught through a mixture of formal lectures, tutorials and one-to-one supervision.
You will spend approximately 12 hours a week in formal study sessions.
For every hour spent at university, you will be expected to complete a further two to three hours of independent study.
You will also need to study during the holiday periods.
Coursework and assessment
In Film Studies, assessment includes:
- essays
- seminar presentations and participation
- exams
- practical work.
In English Language, assessment includes:
- written examinations
- oral presentations
- different types of coursework.
Coursework may include library research, linguistic fieldwork and data collection, or web-based research.
Many course units are assessed through a mixture of techniques. In your final year, you can choose to write a dissertation.
Course content for year 1
The Art of Film covers the core concepts and terminology in studying film. The unit addresses the distinctive properties of film as a medium and engages with debates about film's status as an art. Introduction to Early Film Histories covers the origins of cinema up to the 1950s. Introduction to World Cinema covers a range of film cultures from different countries with an initial emphasis on the various new wave movements, which began to emerge around the world in the 1950s and 1960s.
In English Language you'll study the foundations of English grammar and be introduced to the history of English and varieties of English in the UK and further afield. You may also choose additional optional units, including those in which you learn about the study of meaning or of sounds, or learn how to investigate English using corpus methods.
Course units for year 1
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
The Art of Film | DRAM10031 | 20 | Mandatory |
Drama and Film Study Skills | DRAM11111 | 0 | Mandatory |
DRAM12220 - Drama and Film PASS | DRAM12220 | 0 | Mandatory |
Introduction to Early Film Histories | DRAM13331 | 20 | Mandatory |
English Word and Sentence Structure | LELA10301 | 20 | Mandatory |
History and Varieties of English | LELA10342 | 20 | Mandatory |
Study Skills | LELA10601 | 0 | Mandatory |
Introduction to World Cinema | SALC11002 | 20 | Mandatory |
Language, Mind and Brain | LELA10201 | 20 | Optional |
The Sounds of Language | LELA10322 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 2
You will be able to select from a range of specialist study options on specific issues in Film Studies and focus on aspects of American, British, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian or Spanish and Portuguese language cinema with a particular interest in questions of identity and representation - how have films perpetuated or subverted notions of gender, sexuality, national identity, ethnicity and class?
For English Language, you will be studying two compulsory units in subjects like language change, sociolinguistics, stylistics or pragmatics. You may additionally choose from a wide range of optional units tapping into academic expertise in specialist fields such as phonology and experimental phonetics, and psycholinguistics.
Course units for year 2
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Screen, Culture and Society | DRAM20041 | 20 | Mandatory |
Contemporary British Cinema | DRAM20032 | 20 | Optional |
The Child in Global Cinema | DRAM20432 | 20 | Optional |
God at the Movies | DRAM20631 | 20 | Optional |
A Score is Born: History and Ideology in Hollywood Film Music | DRAM20711 | 20 | Optional |
Introduction to Documentary Film Practice | DRAM21091 | 20 | Optional |
Audio Project 1: The Audio Feature | DRAM21222 | 20 | Optional |
Horror Film: Genre, Periods, Styles | DRAM21261 | 20 | Optional |
Virtual Reality (VR) Film Making | DRAM21282 | 20 | Optional |
Television Drama | DRAM21291 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 3
You will also have the option of writing a dissertation, where you explore and write about a particular topic in depth.
Course units for year 3
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Dissertation in Drama/Film (Semester One) | DRAM30001 | 20 | Optional |
Dissertation in Drama/Film (Semester Two) | DRAM30002 | 20 | Optional |
Docufiction Filmmaking | DRAM30061 | 40 | Optional |
Queer Bodies and the Cinema | DRAM30331 | 20 | Optional |
Social Lives of Cinema | DRAM30842 | 20 | Optional |
Extended Dissertation | DRAM30990 | 40 | Optional |
From Documentary to Mockumentary | DRAM31011 | 20 | Optional |
Falstaff and Gandalf go to the Movies: Adapting Fantastic Texts to Screen | DRAM31042 | 20 | Optional |
Global Television Industries | DRAM32012 | 20 | Optional |
Contemporary Documentary Film Making | DRAM32102 | 40 | Optional |
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Facilities
Study with us and you'll have exclusive access to award-winning learning resources, including some of the city's key cultural assets such as John Rylands Library, Manchester Museum and the Whitworth.
For Film Studies, the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama is a purpose-built creative facility that includes a flexible, fully equipped performance space, workshops, rehearsal rooms and screening rooms, as well as the Lenagan Library - our dedicated performing arts library.
For English Language, you will be able to access various resources to enhance your learning, including an extensive collection of linguistics texts and our psycholinguistics and phonetics laboratories, with facilities for:
- signal analysis
- speech synthesis
- laryngography
- electropalatography.
Find out more on the Facilities pages for Drama and English Language .