TV/Film Production Courses – A Guide

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Well, they might write back to you next year and ask again, although that's possibly less likely since next year is a full series to be filmed opposed to the specials they'll be filming this year. They might offer you a job next year. Just e-mail them back next year as you finish, and just say something like "You offered me the oppurtunity to be a Director's assistant last year, but declined me when you found out I was only finishing my second year. I have now finished my degree and am wondering if there are any possibly positions I could fill" or something, although you might have ended up working somewhere else by then :P

Looks like I've got more prospectuses to order v_v

Reply 61

cpj1987

LastLordofTime

Yeah, I have the e-mail saved for future use. Hopefully they'll have some record of my application for when I graduate, so I'll be trying again.
Yeah; I would've just been working on the special episodes this year, which would've been enjoyable! :biggrin:

Reply 62

LastLordofTime

Ah, lucky you. It's actually one of the reasons I want to do a course near Cardiff, so there's a higher probability of such opportunities. Right ... working on the opening scene of the first episode now v_v I want to get this done by results day so I can give it to my English teacher to read ... that's two weeks to write it XD

Reply 63

mooseface

A great site for looking for Film and TV Production jobs is mandy.com Check it out!

Reply 64

$loth

Also this one for post jobs:

http://www.grapevinejobs.com/home/home.asp

Reply 65

LastLordofTime

Just got my UCLAN prospectus through this morning :biggrin:

I can't seem to find the BSc in there, but I easily found the BA in Film Production (which I assume is a fairly different course, being a BA and not a BSc)

Nevermind, found the BSc ... I could swear it was less than 300 points when I checked on the website o-o

Gaaahhh ... this is going to be soo hard to choose where to apply to, at least when I get my AS results it will help with where to apply to I suppose ...

Reply 66

cpj1987

LastLordofTime

Just got my UCLAN prospectus through this morning :biggrin:

I think the website's about 5 years out of date on entry requirements actually; and yeah, the BA Film Production and BSc TV Production are completely different courses in terms of focus and content; but share a common film production module.

Reply 67

LastLordofTime

Out of curiousity, if you don't mind answering, which universities did you apply to?

Reply 68

cpj1987

LastLordofTime

Out of curiousity, if you don't mind answering, which universities did you apply to?

Not at all. :smile:

I applied to:

UCLan (obviously; and everything about here appealed to me - the course was perfect, the way it was taught was great, the staff were all industry professionals, the facilities were excellent, and I loved the atmosphere)

Sussex (wasn't impressed at all at the open day; the facilities didn't look great, though admittedly they didn't bother unlocking most of the building for us, and sent a cleaner to give us the tour because the course leader didn't turn up...it could've been a great place, but that put me off a lot).

Bournemouth (Another incredibly strong media university, but it all seemed a bit too formal to me I prefer a more relaxed educational environment)

Coventry (I applied to do Media Production here; it ended up being my insurance choice as the university was one I liked, and the course covered TV Production but also had photography aspects - but I wanted to keep photography as a hobby, not a career).

Sheffield Hallam (I arrived at the open day to a really oppresive atmosphere; something just didn't feel right for me when I arrived. Went into a subject talk, and the lecturer turned up 20 minutes late and began 'Right; about the course; you can't expect to get a job after studying here. Our equipment is all old, nowhere near industry standard, but at least you'll learn the basics and then you can take another degree afterwards...' Everyone walked out and left.)

Reply 69

LastLordofTime

Wow, you'd think they'd try to make you stay, although I suppose if they lied and said it was fantastic they could be sued for fraud, you're paying for a course which wasn't what was advertised.

Reply 70

cpj1987

LastLordofTime

Wow, you'd think they'd try to make you stay, although I suppose if they lied and said it was fantastic they could be sued for fraud, you're paying for a course which wasn't what was advertised.

Hm, yeah.

I'll never know if it was intentional or not. I could understand if it'd just been 'You can't just walk into a job after doing this degree'; completely understandable - but the fact that she basically told us that the facilities were so rubbish that we'd have to take another degree afterwards to make up for it seemed ridiculous.
Still, that's just my experience so don't rule it out; perhaps someone will see this and come to its defence. :biggrin:

Reply 71

$loth

cpj1987

Sheffield Hallam (I arrived at the open day to a really oppresive atmosphere; something just didn't feel right for me when I arrived. Went into a subject talk, and the lecturer turned up 20 minutes late and began 'Right; about the course; you can't expect to get a job after studying here. Our equipment is all old, nowhere near industry standard, but at least you'll learn the basics and then you can take another degree afterwards...' Everyone walked out and left.)

OMG, that is terrible! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's bad... when I had an interview at UCCA farnham they made it sound that they had steenbecks for a reason.

Reply 72

chicaaaa

hahahha i went to chester (warick campus) for an open day and what a joke

so i didnt even apply there int end.

tell you, some of the unis were hilarious.

Reply 73

mattf60

try checking out leeds metropolitan aswell, they have a lot better equipment than the uni. And they are more about getting people who are good at film/tv in, they dont take you in on your grades, they interview and look at your portfolio...

I had a similar awful day at portsmouth university, where i was told "you want to get into the tv industry..? Dont go here our course isnt good enough"... during my interview!

Reply 74

logo15

Hi to all!!!
I am new around here and i have some questions.
First of all.I am doing a foundation year in my country Greece.But there isnt a foundation year in art&design as most of the unis want.What are the courses i have to take in order to be accepted more easy?The foundation college suggested me computer science,design,english and a course that i like(psychology).Are this ok or have i to take other courses than those?

I also have a problem to understand what is the difference between tv and film production studies and tv studies.
I mean is this a big difference like lets say the 1st is more theoritycal than the 2nd.

Well before deciding on the uni i would also like to go and have a look(tour) of the facillities and the staff and things like that.Have i to make an appointment or there are days that the unis have a tour or something like this.

hahahha i went to chester (warick campus) for an open day and what a joke

so i didnt even apply there int end.

tell you, some of the unis were hilarious.

(the open day thing is what i am looking for?)

Thats all...
hope that you people here will help.

P.S. sorry for my spelling/grammatical/syntax mistakes.I have disexia.

Reply 75

cpj1987

logo15

Generally, the foundation course that you take won't matter too much. Universities here for subjects such as TV/Film look for passion, interest and experience more than which courses you've done, because there aren't many chances to study those subjects at a lower level anyway. As long as you can make some kind of portfolio and prove that you want to study the subject, you'll be okay at most universities. Computer Science, English, Design and Psychology are four of the best subjects you could pick, though - they're all very relevant.

The differences between the courses are that:

TV Production - Focuses on the technical/physical production of television (either within the studio or using film production techniques)

Film Production - Focuses on the technical/physical production of film using a variety of different film-making styles and equipment.

TV or Film Studies - The theoretical study on film or television, similar to English classes.

Universities hold open days here; some you can just turn up to, some you have to register on. If you Google the name of the university and the words 'open day' you should easily reach a page with the dates on them, and information about how to register if you need to.
:smile:

Reply 76

logo15

http://www.port.ac.uk/courses/coursetypes/undergraduate/BAHonsTelevisionAndFilmProduction/ so that means that portsmouth does both tv and film production???
Do you know if this uni is good?
or should i pick a uni with onl one of the 2 subjects cause it will be more focused in it?

Reply 77

LastLordofTime

That sounds like a nice course. I'm going to look in to it after I get out of school today/in a free period.

Reply 78

cpj1987

logo15

That course looks good. I don't know much about the university but the course covers a lot. It seems slightly more focused towards film, but it covers both; there's no need to focus on just one area at all - both overlap greatly. Even a good TV Production course will include aspects of film production (though Film Production courses don't always include a lot of TV Production).
Plenty of theory to back that one up included in the course too. It'd be a good choice if you're looking for both aspects in a BA.

Reply 79

LastLordofTime

I just sent off for a prospectus. I'm unlikely to apply though since there's a chance I might need a portfolio (which I don't have) of filmed work. Also, it doesn't seem to list Scriptwriting on there ... so that's putting me off.