BA Film Studies and Music

Our BA Film Studies and Music joint honours course aims to develop your understanding and awareness of the rich possibilities of both of these 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.

In your first year, you will take three core units or modules that establish the conceptual building blocks of studying film, as well as providing you with a thorough grounding in major developments in early and classical cinema before progressing into the various new wave movements and developments in contemporary cinema.

In your second and third years, 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, as well as genres such as horror and science fiction, 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?

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 forms and traditions of music and 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.