Disco Pigs director launches new BA in Film and Screen Media | Audrey Ellard Walsh
UCC last week launched a new BA programme in Film and Screen Media. Oscar nominated director Kirsten Sheridan was special guest at the launch of the new programme on Thursday 15th November at 6pm in Boole Lecture Theatre 4.The three year programme is complementary to the pre-existing MA in Film Studies and promises to introduce students to “the history, values, aesthetics and ideology of the moving image.” The new programme will be co-ordinated by Dott. Laura Rascaroli & Dr Gwenda Young and include modules taught by members of the Schools of English, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences.Topics to be covered in the course are related to the practicalities of digital filmmaking and theories of media. The programme will allow students to develop production skills through hands-on experience and gain thorough training in the use of cameras, lighting, and postproduction work. The programme also boasts the development of usefully transferable skills through oral presentations, web design and portfolio work.On the introduction of this new BA, Lord David Puttnam, Film producer and Adjunct Professor of Film Studies and Digital Humanities in UCC stated "The film business has been transformed by digital technology - and there's much more change to come. Any film studies course worth its salt needs to examine the opportunities and challenges presented by digital and to analyse their long-term consequences for the film industry, film culture and audiences. This is exactly what UCC's new BA in Film and Screen Media will do."The programme combines study options within the Film and Screen Media subject with two other 15 credit modules in the first year and 20 credits of one other subject in the second and third years of the course. Second subject options can be one of 26 listed in the programme guide. It is recommended that at least one of these subjects be a language/literature subject and it is important to remember that the subjects European Studies, History of Art, Studies in Psychology, Chinese Studies, Latin and Greek are available in first year only.Graduates of the BA in Film and Screen media can hope to acquire jobs in field such as film, journalism, advertising, design, audio-visual production, television, visual technologies and various culture industries.Entry requirements for CK105 Film and Screen Media are a minimum grade HC3 in two subjects and passes in four other subjects at H or O level in the Leaving Certificate from Irish, English, another language and three other subjects recognised for entry purposes. Recognised FETAC Level 5 Programmes with a minimum of 5 distinctions to include the module Communications can also be used.Intake for this course will begin in September 2013. More information on the programme can be found at http://www.ucc.ie/en/filmstudies/ba/