Modules

Foundation in Screen Practice (30)

This module will introduce you to CFS filmmaking equipment through technical induction sessions, workshops and supervised studio practice.

Your understanding of the equipment will be applied to the making of a short film where you will also learn about the basic production management paperwork required when producing a film project.

Screen Industries Research (15)

This module will familiarise you with study skills and research methodologies that develop your ability to search for, locate, extract, organise, evaluate, use, present and retain relevant information appropriate to their study. 

Writing Short Scripts (15)

This module will introduce you to dramaturgy, narrative structure and character development through lectures, seminars and practical exercises. You will be introduced to different genres and explore these through the analysis of short films.

Professional Practice (30)

This module will introduce you to the practical film production processes, including the production stages, elements and organisational requirements.

Final Group Project (30)

For your final projects, the filmmakers will choose a screenwriting project and develop that into a short film on which all of you will collaborate fulfilling the production roles.

Modules

Visual Storytelling

In this module you will engage with moving image as a specifically visual medium; drawing on traditions of art, photography and theatre. This module will foreground the importance of narrative sequence, with emphasis on framing, staging, and syntagmatic storytelling.

Screen Studies

This module focuses on the study of films from multiple perspectives, including thematic, narrative structure, genre, ideology, and the relationship between style and technology. A number of critical responses to cinema – including genre study, auteur theory, and feminist critiques, will also be applied to featured titles both fiction and documentary.

Introduction to Writing Drama 

This module focuses on analysing the origins of drama, and the different forms, media and elements of dramatic writing. Character, situation, conflict, action and theme are considered separately and illustrated via examples drawn from a range of media platforms. 

Writing Coverage 

This module aims to develop a professional critical eye in the assessment of a screenplay; and to provide you with the vocabulary and the tools for relevant analysis of a screenplay. You will be provided with the means to enhance your writing and narrative skills through advanced ‘writing coverage’ workshop activities.

Writing for Interactive Storytelling 

This module aims to develop your skills in approaching narrative design in a professional and pragmatic manner – to develop an understanding of how to make good art with limited time and budget, in a way that is respectful to your audience.

Modules

Writing Episodic Drama 

This module will examine the characteristics of episodic fiction on television and online platforms. The principles and conventions that inform TV and internet platforms are examined in this module for you to fully understand the specific format characteristics. 

Genre Analysis 

This module will explore the codes, conventions and themes of various genres – via seminars, workshops, close textual analysis and student presentations, to see how these elements are applied to screenwriting. 

Adaptation for the Screen 

This module aims to critically evaluate the theory and practice of interpretation and transposition, as key processes associated with adapting media for the screen.

Major Feature Film Project 

This module requires you to write and pitch a completed professional treatment, and to prepare you for writing a second draft screenplay. The overall aim for this module is to develop your skill set to:

▪ draft and write professional feature film treatments 

▪ enhance your pitching and presentation skills to a professional level 

▪ develop close textual analysis skills, to evaluate feature treatments and screenplay 

▪ develop and apply feature film writing skills 

▪ plan and self-manage independent writing weeks. 

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