Film and Creative Writing (Placement Year)

Critical Reflections explores a number of key interdisciplinary philosophical and cultural concepts which will enable you to analyse, engage with, and reflect upon artworks in your own discipline. It also allows you to establish a common set of concepts which can be shared by students from all LICA subjects. The structure of the module consists of six three-week blocks: (1) Aesthetics, Formalism and Beyond, (2) Phenomenology, (3) Semiotics, Structuralism and Deconstruction, (4) Class and Society, (5) Feminism, Queer Theory and Gender, and (6) On Difference.Weekly plenary lectures make connections across the arts, and are supplemented by weekly, two hour seminars/workshops which allow students to work in their subject groups (art, film, theatre, design) on ideas and examples specifically tailored towards these disciplines

This core module has two main objectives. Firstly, it is designed to develop further your analytical skills in order to examine individual films in greater detail. Secondly, it is intended to encourage you to understand world cinema in relation to a variety of social, cultural, political and industrial contexts. The module will explore such issues as the relationship between film form and modes of production (from industrial film-making through to low-budget art film), theories of film style and aesthetics, and the political function of cinema. In the first term, we focus wholly on various modes of American film production, and in the second term we explore some broader theoretical questions through an analysis of films from a number of different national traditions. Across the whole module, you will gain a thorough grasp not only of the historical factors shaping various national and international cinemas, but also of some key critical and theoretical concepts within the field of film studies.

This year-long module is the gate-way to the second and third year experience of Creative Writing. You will be able to write in any literary genre, drawing on the accompanying half-units or exploring new areas of creative work. You will develop a portfolio of creative writing, supported by peer and tutor feedback. A lecture series will increase the professionalisation of your writing.

This module enables you to explore topics, techniques, and methods involved in memoir and life writing, as well as the risks and opportunities – technical, ethical and personal – inherent in this form. Through a series of seminars and workshops we will explore set texts, generative writing prompts, and give and receive feedback on works in progress. You will work towards the creation of your own memoir text – either a short stand-alone work or works, or a chapter / section from a proposed longer work. In addition, you will be supported in developing independent research to set your own work in its context in your reflective essay.

This module explores different approaches to both the analysis and the production of documentary film. As well as considering a range of styles of documentary film, typically including expository, poetic, observational, reflexive, political, and personal modes of documentary film, you will also examine key debates concerning the ethics of documentary filmmaking. An indicative list of film screenings includes Nanook of the North, Grey Gardens, Dont Look Back [sic], The Arbor, Sans Soleil, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Gleaners and I, and The Act of Killing.

The module aims to develop an understanding of historically important European films from the 1950s to the 1980s and the stylistic and historical significance of these films. It will explore the thematic importance of these films and consider the critical debates relating to this period of filmmaking enabling students to develop a critical understanding of the conditions of production, reception and distribution of these films.

This module examines a historical genre that now occupies the economic centre of Hollywood film production. The module focuses centrally on film and comic book aesthetics; on questions of narration and visual depiction in these two related media; on the shifting norms of this film genre in relation to technological change across history; and on the significance and uses of the comic-book film in society. The module develops ideas and skills introduced in the core Film Studies modules taken as part of the film studies and combined degrees.

How does our lived experience translate into poetry? And how does poetry crystallize or transform experience through language and form? These and many other questions are explored in this module as we read as well as write poetry; for the writing of poetry is dependent not only your experience but also your abilities as a reader and interpreter of poems. We will look at the base structures of poetry – from the line-ending to more complex forms like sonnets and sestinas; and you will be encouraged to seek out new reading as a result of seminar discussion. Finally, you are expected to keep a journal of your poems and thoughts throughout the course, the contents of which will be used to create the reflective essay for your portfolio.

What is short fiction as a literary form? The module approaches this question by exploring its unique opportunities and challenges. We will look at examples of modern and contemporary short stories from around the world (including work by Katherine Mansfield, Herve le Tellier and Walter Mosely) to see how the form can be manifested, pushed, pulled, and made malleable.

Critical and creative engagement with these set texts will allow you to see how key techniques of narrative, voice, imagery, and dialogue can be tailored for short fiction. You will put these techniques into practice through a series of writing exercises and in your own submissions for tutor and peer feedback, as you build towards a portfolio of original short fiction; this will be accompanied by a critical reflection where you can explore your strategies for writing in this form.

In the Short Film Production module you will develop, produce and complete a short dramatic film. You will be taught and given the opportunity to follow industry standard practices throughout your project. You’ll participate in at least two class productions as both a key role member (roles like Writer/Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Art Director, and Sound Designer/Editor) and a minor role member (roles like Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, Assistant Camera, Gaffer, Grip, Sound Recordist, Boom Operator, and etc.). You’ll keep a production diary outlining your individual contributions, and be given the opportunity to gain real world experience of what working on a film production is like in the various roles. You’ll write up your experiences in an essay critically analysing the production process and outcomes.

You will need to have completed Introduction to Film Studies to take this module.

This module aims to give students a grounding in “the contemporary” as a key critical concept used in artistic discourses, and provide a number of ways that students can explore and articulate their own contemporaneity. In conversation with cutting edge ideas from art, science, technology and popular culture, the module will enable participants to discuss and identify what they are contemporaries of, how they relate to their own time as artists, citizens and critical writers and what this necessitates in their own practices.

Students will engage in critical discussion of key terms used to define the current moment, such as Anthropocene, Singularity, Post-Truth, and Globalisation, as well as understanding how particular technologies and phenomena, such as distributed and decentralised networks, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are reshaping the contexts in which the arts are made. These topics are explored through lectures and seminar discussions in which students are encouraged to produce and define their own position and modes for articulating what makes them contemporary.

The module is designed for creative students who wish to use writing and material practice to explore their own relationship to the ecologies, politics, trends, technologies, and aesthetics that typify our experience of the world today.

This module will explore the work of some of the most historically important female film-makers from the 1890s through to the present, considering films from around the globe. The module will examine the significant but often marginalized and obscured roles that women have played in industrial, experimental and avant-garde film production across a spectrum of roles from costume and production designers through to screen-writers, editors and directors. You will be invited to reflect upon the fact that, despite playing key roles in the development of the medium, women continue to be excluded at all levels of film production. The decision by Hollywood star and activist Geena Davis to establish a campaigning ‘Institute on Gender in Media’ is a measure of the urgency of this subject.

The module will engage with revisionist film histories concerned with interrogating the dominant bias of academic and popular histories of the medium; it will also draw on feminist film theory concerned both with a critical understanding of mainstream cinema and the development of politicized women’s cinemas. The module will examine a series of female directors and their work, and each week will be oriented around the screening of a case study film that will be the focus for the seminar. An example of directors included is Alice Guy-Blaché, Dorothy Arzner, Leni Riefenstahl, Ida Lupino, Laura Mulvey, Mira Nair, Kathryn Bigelow, Marziyeh Meshkini, Lynne Ramsay.

Assessment is by a combination of coursework essay and exam.

The module aims to enable you to write for the theatre and develop your awareness of the processes by which a written script makes its way to performance. You will be taught through weekly seminars/workshops in which you will explore the effects that different staging approaches and performance strategies have on your scripts.

The module usually ends with a performance showcase at the Dukes Theatre, Lancaster, in which you will be actively involved; the showcase will allow you to reflect upon your work in the light of audience feedback.

Over the course of the module, you will develop your own writing styles and gain an awareness of the professional requirements of playwriting.

This module seeks to helps you write imaginatively about places and/or landscapes. You will be able to write poetry, prose fiction, or non-fiction as we explore the broad field of nature, environmental, and place-writing. You will study major texts that engage with different kinds of place and landscape – from fields and forests to rivers and urban edgelands – and explore your own emergent interests in place-writing. You will be encouraged to consider your own work as part of a larger, ongoing literary conversation about place, and to explore those places and landscapes that interest and excite you. The module also contains an element of fieldwork, linking the act of physically walking through a landscape to the practice of reading and writing about it.

You will spend your third year working in a graduate-level placement role. This is an opportunity to gain experience in an industry or sector that you might be considering working in once you graduate.

Our Careers and Placements Team will support you during your placement with online contact and learning resources.

You will undertake a work-based learning module during your placement year which will enable you to reflect on the value of the placement experience and to consider what impact it has on your future career plans.

This module allows you to undertake a major independent research project on a topic of your choice, presented in the form of a dissertation. The module is taught through lectures focused on research skills and one-to-one supervision. As a design student, you are encouraged to do a practical design project that shows a critical awareness of key debates in a particular field and, optionally, the skills required to produce a portfolio on the design aspects of the dissertation. Upon completion, you will be able to demonstrate your ability to undertake a major project that includes conducting research, engaging in a sustained critical analysis of relevant texts, building an argument and applying this to design practice.

This year-long module forms the core Creative Writing offering in your final year, and allows you to write in any literary genre. You will be encouraged to draw on the other creative writing modules you are taking and to explore new areas of creative work as you develop your portfolio. Throughout, you will be supported by feedback from both your tutor and fellow students.

This third-year course will add to the theoretical, historical and cultural aspects of film investigated in Years 1 and 2, while focusing more closely on the challenging aesthetic and critical debates surrounding the concept of modernity. It will look at films made in the silent era, in post-war Europe and in Britain and the US. Writings on film will be considered in conjunction with viewings of particular films, close analysis of specific filmic techniques and methods, and historical and theoretical approaches to film. The course will also pay attention to the debates of classical and contemporary film theory, feminist approaches and other critical traditions (semiotics, structuralism, formalism, cognitivism). Students will be introduced to key debates in classical and contemporary film theory, with topics exploring the relations between film and art, cinema and politics, cinema and psychoanalysis, and, above all, the question of how films produce meaning(s).

This module develops the key techniques studied in the second-year module, ‘Short Fiction: Genre and Practice.’ It explores endings that use misdirection and ‘the reveal,’ as well various forms/genres of short stories, such as flash fiction, the ghost story, and rewriting fairy tales. As we go, we will be discussing several contemporary short stories, experimenting through writing exercises, and workshopping student drafts. You will thus develop a portfolio of your own original short stories, which is accompanied by a critical reflection on your use of form and technique. The module ends with tips on sending work for publication.

This module centres on the artistically and politically adventurous phase of American filmmaking circa 1967-1979. Typically topics studied include:

• Introduction – Hollywood breakdown (Easy Rider, Medium Cool)
• The future of allusion: New Hollywood’s nostalgic mode (The Godfather)
• Popular feminism (Klute, Woman Under the Influence)
• Politics and conspiracy (The Parallax View, All The President’s Men)
• Disaster movies (The Poseidon Adventure)
• Comedy (Annie Hall)
• Exploitation cinema I: blaxploitation (Coffy, Foxy Brown)
• Exploitation cinema II: horror/body genres (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
• Blockbuster cinema and the franchise film (Star Wars)
• The end of the New (Apocalypse Now)

This module explores Hong Kong cinema from the mid-1980s up to the present – an era whose beginning witnesses the international breakthrough of a new wave of local filmmakers, and which goes on to encompass the early 1990s’ production surge, the 1997 handover to mainland China, the crippling economic crisis, and the outbreak of the SARS virus. The module will give you the opportunity to develop an understanding of a number of basic industrial, aesthetic, social and cultural trends marking Hong Kong films in the contemporary era. These include the emergence and impact of independent production; the rise of ‘high-concept’ filmmaking; the movement toward pan-Asian co-productions; the importance and cross-marketing of star performers and local musical traditions such as Cantopop; the popularity of genres like the swordplay film; and aesthetic tendencies such as episodic plotting and the narrative ‘thematisation’ of politics and identity. Emphasis will be placed not only on representative mainstream product, but also on the emergence of a distinct Hong Kong art cinema, whose presence and success on the international festival circuit has brought artistic credibility to a predominantly popular cinema, and which has heralded the arrival of a fresh wave of local ‘auteur’ filmmakers.

In this module you will examine, through both set reading and writing prompts, the unique features of long fiction. Through tutor presentations and discussion of set texts, the workshopping of creative writing in progress, and the writing of synopses and other planning documents, you will develop competence in approaching a long fiction project. You will thus learn to: find strategies for planning and structuring; choose point of view and tense; develop plot; work with setting; address themes and characterisation; experiment with form; and write an ending. You may work in any adult genre you wish, but we will focus on literary, historical and science fiction, as well as both speculative and crime genres

This module offers a broad overview of the history of the musical genre in cinema. It begins by examining the use of sound in silent cinema before focusing on the original success of musicals with the arrival of synchronised sound in 1927. The module then tracks the success of movie musicals from the 1930s-1950s, with particular focus on Hollywood successes of MGM, Busby Berkeley, the Astaire-Rogers cycle and the emergence of the self-reflexive musical. Elements of the Hollywood musical in the 1960s and beyond are then studied, with a focus on the importance of the musical soundtrack in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and other films. The module will also examine other traditions where the Musical has been significant, such as India and France. In addition to this, aspects of race, gender and sexuality in the movie musical will be discussed. Some recent Hollywood successes (such as La La Land [2016] or The Greatest Showman [2017]) are studied towards the end of the module in the light of the Musical tradition

This module aims to challenge received structures of poetic language through a close reading of poets who opened up new frontiers of 20th/21st century literature through their approaches to language. In each seminar, there will first be a close reading of work by a published poet, from Alice Oswald to Ezra Pound, looking at how they stretch or break the lyric formula; and then your own poetic experiments are workshopped.

In week two, there is a basic introduction to Ludwig Wittgenstein's famous theory of language games, with each subsequent poet examined in the light of how they try to break the rules of the game. Your own experiments will be very much encouraged, as either continuations of the radical departures first implemented by the poets in question, or your own attempts to break from comfortable notions of confessional or lyric poetry.

This module offers an introduction to the broad area of silent cinema and to a range of critical approaches to this rich area of study. You will have the opportunity to view and analyse a number of important films. We will also explore a number of critical questions raised by this material with regard to the writing and study of histories of cinema (and popular culture in general). We will examine the relationships between technology and form, the economics of film production, distribution and reception, the relationship between cinema and national identity, the social and cultural impact of new (entertainment) media and the study of cinema audiences.

‘Transgressive Cinema’ is a practice-based module that aims to broaden students’ understanding of film as a form of political enquiry. The module introduces students to critical practices in film, video and expanded cinema that favour process over the end-product. Among the key questions the module addresses are the following: How can film go beyond describing and critiquing the world “as is” and constitute the critique formally? What are the political implications of a film’s formal construction? How do we identity legacies of colonialism in filmic construction and how do we challenge them through creatives devices that transgressive cinema offers? How do we problematise the dominant forms of spectatorship in film practice?

So, while these questions involve rigorous thinking, in practice the module offers a platform where playful experimentations are encouraged. Bringing critical thinking and making into focus, the module invites students to re-examine the dominant aesthetic and narrative conventions of the film/video medium and explore formal elements and their political implications in theory and by practice.

This year-long course offers an in-depth exploration of the Gothic mode from the vantage point of the early twenty-first century. It is split into five sections: Defining, Localising, Salvaging, Haunting and Transforming. These themes have been chosen to enable the combination of traditional Gothic concepts (ghosts, monsters) with new theoretical ideas addressing a range of topics including gender, sexuality, decolonisation, and environmental crisis. A small selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts, incorporating both canonical and less familiar works, introduce key concepts and establish a foundation for approaching a diverse and challenging collection of contemporary works. These will cover anglophone writing in a variety of literary forms, including long and short-form fiction, drama, and the graphic novel. Asking the question of what Gothic *does*, rather than what Gothic *is*, the module aims to challenge preconceived opinions, boldly enter difficult territories, and show how Gothic may be used as a critical tool to address some of the most pressing questions facing contemporary Western culture.

What are the constraints and opportunities of writing for children and young adults? By reading, analysing, and responding creatively to a range of texts, you will become more familiar with: contemporary practitioners of writing for young people; the expectations of the audience; and the opportunities for innovation.

The module begins with picture-books, and concludes with young adult novels. You will come to appreciate the complexities of writing fiction for young people, exploring everything from the constraints of paper engineering to the opportunities of a multi-modal narrative in picture books; and from the constraints of coming-of-age tropes to the opportunities for fresh, inventive language in YA fiction.

You will be asked to engage in a close reading of the texts studied and to respond creatively to them.

This module will build on the second-year module ‘Writing Poetry,’ thus deepening your engagement with both writing and reading process. We will explore poetic form through a wide-ranging selection of poems, and consider form as a tradition that has been questioned, adapted, subverted, upcycled, reaffirmed. We will focus, in particular, on forms regularly employed or reimagined in the twentieth century and more recently.