The course
Film, television and digital media affect every aspect of our lives. When you understand them and have a passion for how they work – in practice and theory – you'll find doors to any number of careers in the creative industries, media arts and beyond.
Studying Film, Television and Digital Production, you will become part of our creative and critical community, learning how to analyse and judge a range of cinematic, televisual and digital media forms. Then you’ll create them, from screenwriting to cinematography, directing to digital media, sound design to documentary. It's this equal combination of critical theory and creative practice that makes this course at Royal Holloway so uniquely compelling and rewarding.
You will develop critical and creative skills, including the ability to produce a range of work across media forms – from short films, screenplays and documentaries to a range of digital, interactive and immersive media. These creative practices are underpinned by a range of critical abilities, from historical and ideological analysis to an understanding of aesthetics, economics and power structures that inform media production.
Work with world-leading experts in European and World cinema, and award-winning practitioners from across the media industry. You'll trace the development of film, television and digital production across a range of national and international contexts.
Our flexible degree programmes enable you to apply to take a Placement Year, which can be spent studying abroad, working or carrying out voluntary work. You can even do all three if you want to (minimum of three months each)! To recognise the importance of this additional skills development and university experience, your Placement Year will be formally recognised on your degree certificate and will contribute to your overall result. Please note conditions may apply if your degree already includes an integrated year out, please contact the Careers & Employability Service for more information. Find out more
- Understand how aesthetics, economics and power structures inform media production.
- TV and sound studios, post-production and media labs 24-7.
- Tuition from world leaders in media history, theory and practice.
- Access to our professional location filming equipment.
- Regular visits from industry professionals.
Course structure
Core Modules
Year 1-
In this module you will develop an understanding of creative thinking across both fiction and non-fiction audio-visual content creation. You will look at the key creative roles in production, and work in small groups to make both a short documentary and undertake TV Studio production. You will participate in a range of creative and technical skills workshops, with sessions delivered by experienced professional as well our world-leading staff.
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In this module you will develop an understanding of film, television and digital media history. You will look at how and where digital media intersect and converge with these moving image forms, examining media from the late 19th century through to the present. You will consider how even 'old' technologies were 'new' at some point, and analyse the relationship between technological, social and aesthetic developments in new media forms.
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In this module you will develop an understanding of the key debates in critical theory. You will look at a range of different methods in studying film, television and digital media, including artistic achievement and critical interpretation, close textual analysis, ideological analysis, national cinema, and psychoanalysis. You will examine the relationship between the intentions of individual film and programme-makers and wider processes. You will consider films and television programmes in close detail, analysing the relationship between how something is achieved and what it means.
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In this module you will develop an understanding of how creativity is constrained and enabled by the industrial logics of the creative industries. You will focus on film, television and digital media, exploring issues such as economics and financing, pitching and commissioning, policy and regulation, copyright, formats and global trade, ratings and audience measurement, branding and marketing, digital production logics, and production cultures. You will also consider a number of important industry-oriented research skills, such as interviewing, market/demographic analysis, locating and interpreting legal documents, and archival research.
- Media Arts Dissertation
- Media Research Project
Optional Modules
There are a number of optional course modules available during your degree studies. The following is a selection of optional course modules that are likely to be available. Please note that although the College will keep changes to a minimum, new modules may be offered or existing modules may be withdrawn, for example, in response to a change in staff. Applicants will be informed if any significant changes need to be made.
Year 1- All modules are core
- Directing Screen Fiction
- Screen Documentary
- Cinematography
- Interactive Storytelling
- Animation and Visual Effects
- Screenwriting
- Producing Film and Television
- Creative Digital Arts
- Creative Social Media
- Creative Post Production
- Film Theory: Hitchcock and Point of View
- Post-Classical Hollywood
- Television Histories
- Modern European Cinema
- Contemporary Chinese Cinemas
- Exotic Cinema: Encounters with Cultural Difference
- Modernism and Avant Garde Film
- Beyond Bollywood: Indian Cinema in a Transitional Frame
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In this module you will develop an understanding of the core concepts of the digital age, looking at how today's computer networks, devices and infrastructure underpin nearly all forms of aesthetic, cultural social and political life. You will consider the concepts of technicity, affective turn, digital subjectivity and extended mind, creative expression and participation in the digital era, amateur production, free software, fun and politics, self-organisation, media archaeology and sonic architectures. You will examine the systematic challenges brought about by digital change and critically interpret and analyse digital phenomena.
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In this module you will develop an understanding of how creativity is constrained and enabled by the industrial logics of the creative industries. You will focus on film, television and digital media, exploring issues such as economics and financing, pitching and commissioning, policy and regulation, copyright, formats and global trade, ratings and audience measurement, branding and marketing, digital production logics, and production cultures. You will also consider a number of important industry-oriented research skills, such as interviewing, market/demographic analysis, locating and interpreting legal documents, and archival research.
- International Film 2: Readings and Representations
- Cinema in France
- Representations of Childhood and Youth in Modern German Culture
- 20th-Century Mexican Visual Arts and Film
- Constructing Identity in Contemporary Spanish Film
- Rebels, Revolution & Representation in Latin America
- Postwar Italian Cinema: the Auteur Tradition
- Directing Screen Fiction
- Screen Documentary
- Advanced Screenplay- Major Project
- Producing Film and TV
- Cinematography
- Transmedia
- Creative Digital Arts
- Creative Sound Design
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In this module you will develop an understanding of the theoretical debates around digital media. You will examine the use of various publishing platforms and strategies for digital and social media, assessing non-linear narrative forms and interactive story-telling from a creative and critical perspective.
- Contemporary British Cinema 1
- Digital Cultures
- Film Aesthetics 1: Issues of Interpretation and Evaluation
- Psychoanalysis and Cinema
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In this module you will develop an understanding of how the destruction of European Jewry by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945 has been represented and responded to across a range of both fictional and non-fictional media. You will look at the specific theoretical debates surrounding how the Holocaust can or should (or should not) be represented in art and popular culture. You will consider the role of mass media in constructing both popular and elite relationships to historical experience, and in documenting history.
- Media Technologies
- See This Sound - Audiovisuology
- Cinephilia
- 360º Cinema
- Political Cinema: From Eisenstein to Youtube
- The Poetics of Contemporary Television
- Contemporary British Cinema 2
- Film Aesthetics 2
- Transnationalism, Diaspora and Globalisation in Contemporary Film
- Text and Image in France: from Cubism to the Present
- Ethics and Violence: Murder, Suicide and Genocide in Literature and Film
- National Socialism and the Third Reich in German Film and Visual Culture from 1933 to the Present
- Shooting History: Dictatorship, Terror and Crime in Italian Film
- Horror Cinema in the Hispanic World
- Contemporary Mexican Cinema
- Seducing the Nation: Spanish Film 1940s to 1980s
Teaching & assessment
You will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, small-group tutorials, screenings, online tools, group work, guided independent research and practical workshops, including location work or using our purpose-built TV studio and multimedia labs. Private study and preparation are essential parts of every course, and you will have access to many online resources and the University’s comprehensive e-learning facility, Moodle. When you start with us, you are assigned a Personal Tutor to support you academically and personally.
Assessment is carried out by a combination of written and practical work. Critical written assignments include essays, blogs, reviews, reports, dissertations and exams. You will produce a wide range of creative work, from short films and documentaries to TV studio productions, interactive installations, screenplays and production portfolios.
Outside the tasks and assessments required by their curriculum, students are encouraged to take full advantage of our technical facilities which are available on a 24/7 basis to create a portfolio of individual creative work.
Entry requirements
A Levels: ABB-BBB
Required: At least five GCSE passes at grades A* to C or 9-4, including Maths and English.
Where an applicant is taking the EPQ alongside A - levels, the EPQ will be taken into consideration and result in lower A-level grades being required. Socio - economic factors which may have impacted an applicant's education will be taken into consideration and alternative offers may be made to these applicants.
Other UK and Ireland Qualifications
International & EU requirements
English language requirements
All teaching at Royal Holloway is in English. You will therefore need to have good enough written and spoken English to cope with your studies right from the start.
The scores we require
- IELTS: 6.5 overall. Writing 7.0. No other subscore lower than 5.5.
- Pearson Test of English: 61 overall. Writing 69. No other subscore lower than 51.
- Trinity College London Integrated Skills in English (ISE): ISE III.
- Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) grade C.
Country-specific requirements
For more information about country-specific entry requirements for your country please visit here.
For international students who do not meet the direct entry requirements, we offer an International Foundation Year, run by Study Group at the Royal Holloway International Study Centre. Upon successful completion, you may progress on to selected undergraduate degree programmes at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Your future career
Step towards a thriving career in the creative arts, media industries and beyond. The focus of this innovative degree course is developing both critical and creative skills. You will develop the transferable skills most valued by employers, such as written communication, presentation, working as part of a team and critical thinking.
We use our strong links with industry to run an award winning work placement scheme, which provides not only a fantastic opportunity to apply your skills in a real-life environment, but the chance to practice the skills required when applying for a job or making a pitch.
Graduates go on to produce films, television programmes and documentaries while others use the skills they have gained during their degree to pursue careers curating exhibitions and international film festivals, working in social and digital media, marketing or starting editorial careers. Alumni have won prizes at international film festivals and shown their films on major channels including BBC, Channel 4 and Vice. Many graduates also go on to advanced study in a variety of fields. To find out more about what our graduates are doing now, please see the department’s website.
Fees & funding
Home and EU students tuition fee per year*: £9,250
International students tuition fee per year**: £17,300
Other essential costs***: £80-£500
How do I pay for it? Find out more about funding options, including loans, scholarships and bursaries. UK students who have already taken out a tuition fee loan for undergraduate study should check their eligibility for additional funding directly with the relevant awards body.
*The tuition fee for UK undergraduates is controlled by Government regulations. For students starting a degree in the academic year 2020/21, the fee will be £9,250 for that year. The Government has also confirmed that EU nationals starting a degree in 2020/21 will pay the same fee as UK students for the duration of their course.
**Fees for international students may increase year-on-year in line with the rate of inflation. The policy at Royal Holloway is that any increases in fees will not exceed 5% for continuing students. For further information see fees and funding and our terms and conditions.
***These estimated costs relate to studying this particular degree programme at Royal Holloway. Costs, such as accommodation, food, books and other learning materials and printing etc., have not been included.
