2024/25 entry
BA (Hons) Film Studies
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Minimum UCAS points required: TBC
Why study Film Studies at Liverpool John Moores University?
- Explore the history and development of cinema from around the world
- Study film theory, criticism and interpretation
- Hands-on practice with digital cameras and editing software
- Opportunity to learn filmmaking skills
- Opens up careers in film production, exhibition and distribution as well as research and teaching
- WATCH: 2022 Degree show and graduate projects
About your course
The BA (Hons) Film Studies at Liverpool John Moores University is a hybrid degree that combines practical and theoretical work. The course will enable you to explore the development of cinema worldwide, while providing you with extensive hands-on filmmaking and editing experience using our industry-standard production studio and editing suites.
The degree offered by LJMU is an academic programme but you will also be given the option of receiving hands-on practical experience with digital cameras and editing software to create an impressive portfolio of your own. This will include short fiction and documentary. Liverpool is the second most filmed city in the UK after London and the perfect place to start your filmmaking career.
You will be based in the Liverpool Screen School, which is located in the £38million Redmonds Building in the Knowledge Quarter of Liverpool city centre. The building features the latest in specialist facilities, including a production studio, a green screen and designated editing suites.
Additional course costs
Production expenses are subsidised for Final Film Production at level 6.
"The degree was the first time I had direct academic support towards becoming a filmmaker. Having never written or worked on a film's production before, the course gave me my first invaluable practical experience. Since graduating, I have received two short film commissions from the UK Film Council as a writer-director."
Professional accreditation/links
The Liverpool Screen School enjoys excellent connections with key film and media organisations in the UK and internationally. Such connections open up exciting chances to network with leading practitioners as well as diverse work-related learning opportunities where you can put what you have learnt at LJMU into practise out in industry.
Fees and funding
There are many ways to fund study for home and international students
Fees
The fees quoted above cover registration, tuition, supervision, assessment and examinations as well as:
- Library membership with access to printed, multimedia and digital resources
- Access to programme-appropriate software
- Library and student IT support
- Free on-campus wifi via eduroam
Additional costs
Although not all of the following are compulsory/relevant, you should keep in mind the costs of:
- accommodation and living expenditure
- books (should you wish to have your own copies)
- printing, photocopying and stationery
- PC/laptop (should you prefer to purchase your own for independent study and online learning activities)
- mobile phone/tablet (to access online services)
- field trips (travel and activity costs)
- placements (travel expenses and living costs)
- student visas (international students only)
- study abroad opportunities (travel costs, accommodation, visas and immunisations)
- academic conferences (travel costs)
- professional-body membership
- graduation (gown hire etc)
Funding
There are many ways to fund study for home and international students. From loans to International Scholarships and subject-specific funding, you'll find all of the information you need on our specialist funding pages.
Employability
This course has a strong vocational dimension and encourages the development of a particular set of skills that are valued not only in the film industry but in other industries as well.
LJMU Film Studies graduates have gone on to work in the film and television industries as writers, directors, researchers and actors. Employers include the BBC, Channel 4, FACT, LA Productions and Lime Pictures.
Key skills gained during the degree - such as problem solving as part of a team, critical judgement and being able to approach tasks independently, creatively and in a disciplined manner - are also in demand in public relations, advertising, corporate communications, cultural journalism, research and the film and television service industries. As a Screen School student, you will receive lots of opportunities to gain paid and unpaid work experience from PULSS (Production Unit Liverpool Screen School) alongside the taught curriculum
Alternatively, you may want to pursue postgraduate study at MA and PhD level or go into teaching.
Some of our graduate destinations include:
- Joshua Pullar: ProducerMTV (New York)
- Alex Beards: Editor LA Productions
- Matthew Plant: Locations Assistant on Peaky Blinders
- Abby Brennan: Digital Content Producer Creative England
- Matthew Wiggins: PA/Editorial Department - Artemis Fowl, Rocket Man, Mamma Mia 2
- Adam Yee: Social Media and Marketing - Sichuan Education Association (China)
- Emma Green: Digital Marketing - Northern Powerhouse Partnership
- Adam Jones: Won BAFTA Scholarship
- Joe Costin: MCR Manager - Envy Post Production
- Danny Kilbride: Creative Director - Thinking Film Ltd.
Student Futures - Careers, Employability and Enterprise Service
A wide range of opportunities and support is available to you, within and beyond your course, to ensure our students experience a transformation in their career trajectory. Every undergraduate curriculum includes Future Focus during Level 4, an e-learning resource and workshop designed to help you to develop your talents, passion and purpose.
Every student has access to Careers Zone 24/7, LJMU's suite of online Apps, resources and jobs board via the LJMU Student Futures website. There are opportunities for flexible, paid and part-time work through Unitemps, LJMU's in-house recruitment service, and we also offer fully funded Discovery Internships.
One-to-one careers and employability advice is available via our campus-based Careers Zones and we offer a year-round programme of events, including themed careers and employability workshops, employer events and recruitment fairs. Our Start-Up Hub can help you to grow your enterprise skills and to research, plan and start your own business or become a freelancer.
A suite of learning experiences, services and opportunities is available to final year students to help ensure you leave with a great onward plan. You can access LJMU's Careers, Employability and Start-up Services after you graduate and return for one-to-one support for life.
Go abroad
LJMU aims to make international opportunities available to every student. You may be able to study abroad as part of your degree at one of our 100+ partner universities across the world. You could also complete a work placement or apply for one of our prestigious worldwide internship programmes. If you wanted to go abroad for a shorter amount of time, you could attend one of our 1-4 week long summer schools.
Our Go Citizen Scheme can help with costs towards volunteering, individual projects or unpaid placements anywhere in the world. With all of these opportunities at your feet, why wouldn’t you take up the chance to go abroad?
Find out more about the opportunities we have available via our Instagram @ljmuglobalopps or email us at: goabroad@ljmu.ac.uk.
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What you will study on this degree
Please see guidance below on core and option modules for further information on what you will study.
Further guidance on modules
Modules are designated core or optional in accordance with professional body requirements, as applicable, and LJMU’s Academic Framework Regulations. Whilst you are required to study core modules, optional modules provide you with an element of choice. Their availability may vary and will be subject to meeting minimum student numbers.
Where changes to modules are necessary these will be communicated as appropriate.
Level 4
Core modules
Writing for Screen
20 credits
Writing for Screen will equip the students with industry standard practices for screenwriting whilst at the same time encourage them to find their own creative voice as a screenwriter. They will be encouraged to engage with both theoretical writing and short film narratives which will be chosen from a range of sources to encourage and reflect diversity. Writing for Screen is part of the screenwriting strand within the film studies curriculum which will scaffold into the Film Adaptation Module ( 5021Film) in Level 5 and the Film thesis (Screenplay) (6064Film) in Level 6. It will also provide a bank of short screenplays which can be used for Fiction Filmmaking (5029Film) at Level 5.
British Social Realism in Film
20 credits
This module will outline the social realist traditions associated with British cinema. After establishing the initial links with documentary film, students will understand how social realism has developed from the early 20th Century up until the modern day. Students can then use this knowledge in order to develop a pre-production portfolio of their own, which has the potential to be developed into a film at a later date on production modules on the programme.
Teaching and work-related learning
Excellent facilities and learning resources
We adopt an active blended learning approach, meaning you will experience a combination of face-to-face and online learning during your time at LJMU. This enables you to experience a rich and diverse learning experience and engage fully with your studies. Our approach ensures that you can easily access support from your personal tutor, either by meeting them on-campus or via a video call to suit your needs.
Teaching is delivered via a combination of lectures, seminars, writing workshops, film screenings, online activities and production group work. Your tutors will also be available for one-to-one tutorials and we make extensive use of our virtual learning environment, Canvas, to provide course information, further reading and peer interaction.
Work-related Learning
The programme includes opportunities for work-based learning in which you spend a portion of your studies working in film or film-related industries, followed up by a written account of your experience. This is an invaluable opportunity to further enhance the practical and transferable skills that give you a professional edge when it comes to securing your first job in this very competitive market.
Support and guidance
Dedicated personal tutor, plus study skills support
From the moment you begin your studies at LJMU, you will be allocated a personal tutor who will provide one-to-one support over the three years of the course. Their role is to give you feedback on how well you are progressing with your studies and encourage you to plan for your educational and professional development.
Assessment
Assessment varies depending on the modules you choose, but will usually include a combination of exams and coursework.
We appreciate that all students perform differently depending on how they are assessed, which is why we use a combination of assessment methods. These include coursework (essays, reviews, individual and group presentations, individual and group critical self-evaluation, logbooks, self-reflective group portfolios, research exercises, individual work-based learning reports and dissertations); exams (seen and unseen, plus class-tests) and group productions (pre-production portfolios, factual and fictional films).
Constructive feedback is vital in helping you to identify your strengths and areas where you may need to put in more work. We aim to provide this within 21 days of submission of a piece of work.
Course tutors
Our staff are committed to the highest standards of teaching and learning
Dr Ruth Doughty
Programme leader
Dr Ruth Doughty is the Programme Leader for Film Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. Her research interests include African American cinema, Film Music, Theory and Liverpool. Ruth is one of the co-founding editors of the peer-reviewed Routledge journal Transnational Screens (formerly Transnational Cinemas). She has also co-authored the book Understanding Film Theory (2017, 2nd edition) which has been translated into easy Chinese . Ruth is the principal investigator on a Heritage Lottery Funded project looking at the history of the Littlewoods Pools building in Liverpool as part of an oral history/audio-visual community project.
This hybrid course will enable you to explore the development of cinema worldwide, while providing you with extensive hands-on filmmaking and editing experience using our industry-standard production studio and editing suites.
Facilities
What you can expect from your School
The School is based in the Redmonds Building, in the heart of the bustling Mount Pleasant Campus and Liverpools growing Knowledge Quarter. The building is home to high quality lecture theatres and seminar rooms, TV studios, radio suites, green screen, editing rooms and news rooms, social spaces, and a caf. It is only a short walk from LJMUs Aldham Robarts Library, which contains all the resources you will require for your studies.
The university reserves the right to withdraw or make alterations to a course and facilities if necessary; this may be because such changes are deemed to be beneficial to students, are minor in nature and unlikely to impact negatively upon students or become necessary due to circumstances beyond the control of the university. Where this does happen, the university operates a policy of consultation, advice and support to all enrolled students affected by the proposed change to their course or module.
Further information on the terms and conditions of any offer made, our admissions policy and the complaints and appeals process.