Film and Screenwriting with a Foundation Year

Do you have a passion for writing, creating and filmmaking? This Film and Screenwriting with a Foundation Year course will provide you with the skills and knowledge to start your career in the creative film industry. You’ll explore fundamental skills such as academic and screenwriting writing, researching, collaborative practice and producing media to prepare you to start the first year of the BA (Hons) degree.

About the Foundation Year

The Foundation Year course option enables means you study for our BA (Hons) degree over an extended full-time duration of four years by including a Foundation year (year one of four). The Foundation Year provides a broad study programme that underpins the follow-on degree. To progress to the next year of your degree, it is necessary to achieve a pass in all the modules of the Foundation Year.

What's covered in this course?

The course considers of a wide range of script to screen traditions from theory, practice and industry perspectives.

You will gain an understanding of cinema and television conventions and screenwriting genres (such as romcom, thriller, science fiction and horror). You will also be introduced to a variety of film and TV formats such as feature film, single drama, drama series, serials, sitcom, soap and web series.

Focusing on the aesthetic and creative aspects of film and television screenwriting, you will consider storytelling techniques, narratology, pitching and screen adaptation.

Modules such as Film Primer and Script Development provide complementary skills relevant to the film industry. You will have opportunities to work on established film festivals that are associated with the course and have access to film collections that will enrich your course of studies.

How you learn

You will be taught in a range of lectures, seminars, writing workshops and production sessions, while regular film screenings help you contextualise cinema traditions against your own script creations.

There will be opportunities to work alongside other students on complementary degree programmes in Filmmaking and Digital Film Production to produce full pieces of work to add to your professional portfolio as well as experience of working with script in live productions in our industry-standard studios.

Your formal studies will be enriched by the possibility to work on a range of external events, such as the Cine-Excess International Film Festival. This annual event attracts visiting international filmmakers, as well as hosting UK theatrical premieres on a regular basis. Having previously operated in London’s West End and Brighton, Cine-Excess has now relocated to BCU to operate as a central resource for the course.