Chichester University Screen Acting

Hi everyone,

I'm looking into doing the BA in Screen Acting and Creative Technologies in 2020. I've read into what the course is all about but this course is fairly new and there isn't much information about it other than on their website. I was wondering if there's anyone here that has done/doing the course themselves, and I would love to hear what you think about the course and the university itself (This can also apply to people that are taking either acting or creative technology courses at Chichester too!)

Thanks

Edit: I've realised that I've posted in the wrong sub-forum and I don't know how to change it. Maybe a moderator can help out?

Hi @Lilbiscus

We've just got in contact with a few students on that course to answer your questions so will have a student response soon for you!

The University as a whole is an extremely welcoming community where students are able to be completely themselves in an inclusive environment. Your course is also based on the Bognor Regis Campus in our brand new Engineering and Digital Technology Park which has state of the art facilities that are industry standard to make sure that our students are fully prepared for industry for placements and once they graduate. Our lecturers are also experts in their fields and still work in industry which means they're teaching relevant topics.

If you have any other questions, we're happy to help!

Edit: Here is third year William's thoughts on the course/university:
"What’s impressed me the most about this course is how practical it is. Hardly any time is spent in lectures or taking notes. Most days we all up on our feet, either working on a performance or learning the various roles on set.

I’ve learnt useful acting methods, including Stanislavski and Meisner, as well learning how to expand the roles we play, with creating character backstories and rehearsal exercises. This has allowed to become far more poignant as an actor, learning how to draw upon events within my life to help find an emotional truth for a character.

Doing motion capture, green screen and audio recording work has allowed me to gain far more skills as an actor, making myself more employable than someone who has just learnt ‘traditional’ acting. It’s allowed the course to have a great deal of variety and keeps things fun and interesting as each semester comes.

As someone who also is interested in the other areas of filmmaking, this course has also expanded my abilities to work on set. I’ve learnt every single stage of filmmaking, from pre-production to post-production. Meaning I can confidently organise a short film myself or help out on other university films as a crew member. Recently in the summer I came back down to uni, to help out on a friend’s passionate project short film where I was a runner and also boom operator.

All my lectures and workshops take place in the brand new Tech Park. A fantastic facility that has so much industry standard equipment. I’ve been able to use the edit suites, the audio recording room, the giant sound stage, the green screen room and so much more throughout my course, it’s been far more educational to have a hands on approach that to just be stuck watching a lecture about this equipment."

Hey, thank you for responding so quickly! I appreciate the thoughts from another student.


I do have a lot more questions, but I won't bombard them on you all at once :


One of the more important questions that I have is regarding the monologue audition. Will the monologue itself have to come from a film/tv or play? Or could it come from another medium such as a video game, so as long as it's a solo and is around the 2-3 minute mark?

I also have some smaller questions for the course in general:

Could you give me some examples of the projects students have collaborated on?

How many contact hours is the course?

Do you know where your graduates of this course have gone in terms of empolyment?

No problem - we asked your questions to William again!

1. Will the monologue itself have to come from a film/tv or play? Or could it come from another medium such as a video game, so as long as it's a solo and is around the 2-3 minute mark?
My monologue was from a film and I think you’d be better off auditioning with a monologue from a film or TV show, as you don’t really learn about ‘video game acting’ on the course, so I think it’s better to keep your focus on film/TV. Plus if you do a monologue from a film/TV show that the lecturers know about, it will give them a better sense of your taste in film and the type of actor you are.

2. Could you give me some examples of the projects students have collaborated on?
In your first year you do a module about Alfred Hitchcock where you work with the Film Production and Sports Media students to re-create a scene from a Hitchcock film, you’d probably be on a crew role. Then in the 2nd half of first year you do a module called ‘Script to Screen’ where you will work with the Film Production students to go away for a week to create a short film (very fun!), you could act in that or be on the crew. 2nd year there’s the Drama Craft module where you will work with the Film Production students to create a short film where you’d work on crew, with industry professionals. I used that time to speak to the professional actors they brought in to learn about their craft. Then there’s the Short Drama module (that you could pick) in the 2nd half of 2nd year, where a short film is made, that you could either act in or be on crew for. Plus during this time they’ll be 3rd year short films needing crew members or other little short films being made that will need actors.

3. How many contact hours is the course?
In the first year, I was in about 3 to 4 days a week, I’d say on average I was in about 15 to 20 hours a week. In the second year, I was in only a little less. Now in third year, I’m in only two days a week, for about 10 hours.

4. Do you know where your graduates of this course have gone in terms of employment?
My year is the first year to ever do this course, so there hasn’t been any graduates yet. However, I’ve spoken to Mike Holley (the head of Creative and Digital Technologies department) about this and he said this course is approved by the website ‘Spotlight’, where actors can get selected for auditions and such. He also said he’d be bringing in a photographer to give us some headshots, so when we leave we’ll have something to post on Spotlight. Also you will work on projects that will give you materials that you could use to create a show reel to show casting agents.

Hope this helps!

I appreciate you helping me out
Just a few more questions if I may:

- Do students find it easy to find friends in the first week? I've had issues at college with doing so, I hope that's not the case here.

-Have students been able to network efficiently with people in the industry?

- In terms of the dissertation, what have students written about in the past?

- Is work outside of University easy to obtain?