What Makes This Course So Special?
Designed and taught by an award-winning team of filmmakers, this course will give you the practical and storytelling skills you need. We produce intelligent and creative storytellers who are energised by the idea of making films ‘in’ and ‘about’ the real world!
Our documentary students win awards at major film festivals in the UK and beyond. This year a student won the Sheffield Student Doc Award at the 2011 Sheffield International Documentary Festival for the film ‘ Eight Eight’. For the last two years our students have been nominated for awards at the prestigious Grierson Documentary Awards and of the two nominations, one was highly commended. Films have also been screened at the Ffresh Festival, Celtic Media Festival, Hot Docs and Raindance festivals. Two recent graduation films so impressed the BBC that they funded further filming and screened both on BBC network television. In 2009 The documentary department made a 30 minute anti text and drive film COW, which with over 7 millions hits, became a worldwide YouTube sensation! Building on this success the students and staff from Documentary have just completed another 30-minute drama called ‘Loserville’ which has been picked up by the BBC for broadcast in 2012.
We are very well connected to the TV industry, and you can take advantage of internships, placements and commissions from major broadcasters and independent companies. High profile guest lecturers, such as Kevin McDonald and Paul Watson, provide you with a varied picture of contemporary documentary production.
The course benefits from Newport’s membership of Skillset Media Academy Wales - ensuring that we continue to maintain exceptionally high standards of education for those wishing to work in the creative media industries. The benefits of studying within the Media Academy include:
• Support from the unique Industry Panel
• Masterclasses with industry professionals
• Access to an exclusive online network
• Placements and careers support
• Access to industry-standard equipment and software
• Networking and collaborative opportunities
Our students also benefit from our full membership of CILECT, an international association of the best film and television schools from around the world, opening the door to joint projects and exchanges with other film schools. Newport is the only film school in Wales with this accreditation, and one of only a handful in the UK.
Find out more about the subject of Film & Screen Media at Newport.
Course Intro
This course is a three-year adventure in filmmaking! Our hands-on approach develops your practical skills in the use and understanding of cameras, sound, editing and lighting, stimulated by practical challenges, talks, discussions and screenings. This course will further broaden your potential as a filmmaker by developing vital research, writing, interviewing and pitching skills.
Newport Film School began in 1966, founded by the world famous documentary filmmaker John Grierson (Drifters, Nightmail). Grierson’s philosophy that story and ideas are the keys to filmmaking is a mantra that still underpins everything we do at Newport. The Film School is placed within the vibrant School of Film, Photography and Digital Media – this means that the film students have a complete ‘filmmaker’s toolbox’ at their disposal – designers, photographers, actors, animators, costume makers and multimedia students are all on hand to contribute to the films.
The competitive internships at BBC Wales and placements with independent companies such as Indus Films give our students a head start in the industry. Currently, within a year of graduation well over 70% of our graduates find work with broadcasters, independent production companies or set up their own companies.
What you study
The first part of the course is all about laying the vital foundation stones, and ‘storytelling’ is the central theme. You will make films using digital video, mobile and online technologies, and photography. Each project and module is designed to enhance your ability to tell stories as well as developing your practical skills in handling cameras, sound and editing equipment. As a film student you will be expected to listen, watch, think, discuss, read and write in a new way – the vital transformation from being a consumer to a producer of media.
As your ability and confidence increase you will build on your practical filmmaking skills with exciting short projects and ‘day challenges’, some of these as “live briefs” working with industry clients. Honing your skills by writing proposals and pitching ideas, you will also produce a series of longer film projects, supported by workshops, seminars and tutorials.
As your work starts to reach professional levels you will produce several 15-minute film projects. We will also expect you to show the quality of your thinking by writing/broadcasting about your work and how it fits in with the culture and industry you have chosen.
Simply developing technical ‘skills’ is not enough – at Newport we also develop your professional ‘mindset’ and work ethic. Our close links with broadcasters and production companies combined with our hands on approach provide you with a solid grounding to enable you to approach the creative industry with confidence in your abilities, energy and flair. The filmmaking journey that you started just three years earlier will prove to be the door to the next stage of the adventure.
A programme specification is available for this course.
Where Next?
Recent graduates are currently working for BBC Wales, ITV, Channel 4, ZDF (Germany) ABC (Australia), Red Dragon Radio, Presentable Productions and Indus Films. We recently had documentary graduates on the set of Harry Potter, ‘Warhorse’ alongside Steven Spielberg, and three currently filming on the front line in Afghanistan! Students set up their own successful production companies such as ‘Zipline Creative’, whose clients include Aston Martin and the BBC. We now have 7 graduate start-up production companies, one of which won a BAFTA Cymru award. You can go on to postgraduate study including the MA/MFA Film course at Newport.
Interview Required
Interviews are friendly and informal and all applicants are interviewed. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your passion for the subject area and discuss your creative portfolio, along with a completing an interview task.
Assessment
Along with our assessed projects, films, proposals, pitches, and research, we allow you to develop by providing many unassessed projects for you to be involved with. This means you can continue to learn (and make mistakes) without worrying about ‘grades’ all the time.
Technical Facilities
We operate within a new £35 million pound City campus. Teaching takes place in a large professional film studio (with automated lighting rig/green screen), sound editing suites, a dubbing studio and editing suites equipped with Apple Mac workstations running Final Cut Pro editing software, Avid Media Composer HD suites linked to a Unity Server and Avid Media Composer Adrenaline HD. We have a wide range of 16mm cameras, digital video, tapeless HD cameras and sound equipment to draw on.
Student Soundbite
“Documentary Film & TV is more than a course, it’s a 24/7 three year experience, that 100% prepares you for a future in filmmaking.”