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Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries
We are members of the British Fashion Council, The Association of Fashion and Textiles Courses, the Association of Illustrators and AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges), enhancing your graduate employment opportunities
Our Fashion Design graduates have entered many areas of the fashion industry and completed internships with Alexander McQueen, Mary Katrantzou, Sophia Webster and Amanda Wakeley
Our students work on live briefs for companies such as Bedford Creative Arts, London Luton Airport, Luton Town FC, Luton Culture Trust and Penguin Books and participate in collaborative projects with leading art and design practitioners
About the course
This is a top-up course for those who already have a Level 4 qualification, such as a CertHE or HNC, in a related subject and would like to progress to the level of Foundation degree and/or full Honours degree.
Media production is influenced by many cultural economic and political factors. While focusing on the production process this course also widens your knowledge of these factors alongside learning about the history of the media. This broad area of study enables you to make really effective powerful media products that connect with their target audience.
In addition the course's design recognises that you may wish to be either a generalist or develop an area of specialism.
Why choose this course?
- The course covers both theory and practice
- You learn to combine these elements to communicate effectively across a wide range of digital-media projects
- The course provides you with the skills to contribute to the media industry and society in general
- Many of our graduates have progressed to successful careers in the UK and international media
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
What will you study?
Studying our Media Production (Top up) BA (Hons) course will equip you with the knowledge and expertise around media theory and the production process. One important element of any production is sound, and you will learn to effectively communicate with still or moving images together with sound and interaction in our Sound, Image and Interaction unit.
You will explore the potential of stills in portraying narratives and movement alongside the use of soundtracks. In areas of media theory, you will consider Contemporary Practices and Debates in The Media in the context of their cultural, political and socio-historical developments.
Finally, you will have the opportunity to produce a piece of practical media production work or a media studies dissertation in our Special Project: Media Production unit. If you prefer to work on a practical project, you will have the option to choose the type of production you want to submit, and this could range from a documentary film to a script supported by a 3,000-word contextual study.
With the dissertation option, you will be able to explore a topic of your interest that is strongly relevant to media studies while working on this with a supervisor. To help you with this, our unit in Research, Development and Industry will develop your skills in production research, documentation and development.
Contemporary Practices And Debates In The Media
This unit will help you to develop your critical, contextual and self- reflective thinking to an advanced level. It will revisit the ideas acquired and explored in earlier units, for instance Media Theory and Research, and place them in the uncertain context of the latest cultural, political, theoretical, aesthetic, technological and industrial development impacting on the media. The central question that this unit addresses is:
- What is the relationship between contemporary developments in the media and their socio-historical and theoretical contexts?
The key ability to engage critically with challenging new media contexts will inform and enhance your subsequent undergraduate final project work and your continuing academic, professional and personal development.
Special Project: Media Production
This unit allows you to demonstrate the skills, ideas and learning acquired during your degree in an extended piece of practical media production work OR in a media studies dissertation, that is self- initiated, self-managed, and supported by your assigned supervisor.
The practical option is an individual activity. You will work on a project that requires you to complete a digital media production (e.g. a documentary film, a web presence, or script etc.); this practical work will be supported by a 3000 word individual contextual study.
The dissertation option is an individual study. The project focus should be taken from your main area of interest within media studies and will require the prior approval of the unit coordinator.
The aims of the unit are, therefore:-
To produce work of a high quality work in the field of media production that shows that you can combine professional and academic standards
To enable the development of high levels of competency in the production of practical and theoretical material
To encourage you to think independently, research, collaborate, create, be enterprising and achieve high-level communication skills.
To enable you to use appropriate media constructively and with responsibility.
Sound, Image And Interaction
To explore the relationship between still, moving images, sound, and Interaction.
This will be valuable for anyone working with still or moving images. It will help students concentrate on the basic elements of communicating with images.
To study the history and practices of working with still images, sound, and interaction, from early painting technologies to virtual environments.
To enhance students’ theoretical and practical skills through the production of a short creative practical piece exploring the potential of stills to portraying narrative and movement in conjunction with a soundtrack.
To enhance students’ skills of exhibition and presentation.
Research, Development And Industry
To provide an opportunity to focus in depth on the development of a media project. You will work with a supervisor to produce a portfolio of applicable production development documents. These will not only help you work towards your final project/dissertation but also enable you to investigate relevant industry contexts and practices relevant to your chosen field of exploration.
To enhance your critical understanding of the value of effective production research and development in both professional and academic contexts.
To enhance your understanding of the relationships between the proposal, development and production documentation to potential production outcomes.
To enable you to understand and apply the expected high professional standards of industry to your own work.
To enable you to develop effective research methods for academic enquiry.
To emphasise the need to have effective research and preparation in production/employment contexts.
How will you be assessed?
Assessment is an integral part of your learning. Your assessments will follow the pattern of teaching and learning. As you complete each stage of your production we will give you feedback and give you advice on how to develop and improve your work so that you can take it to the next stage. We will assess both the processes you use to produce work and the quality of the final production. The media industry expects high quality work completed to absolutely fixed distribution deadlines. We will reflect this in our assessment of your work and so whilst the way in which you work is important ultimately it is the quality of what you produce that will be the main influence on your grade.
The theoretical aspects of the course will be assessed through essays and presentations. This will prepare you for writing a dissertation for your final project if you wish. As the course progresses we will move from well-defined conventional production briefs to more open-ended challenging briefs that require you to generate new ideas and new ways of working. You may also be required to research the availability of new production tools and apply them to your work.
We will always expect your production work to be contextualised. You will normally be required to submit a written evaluation of your production work along with some reflection on its strengths and weaknesses. You will also be required to relate your work to current genres and practices.
Careers
Career paths open to you in any industry that requires excellent communication and team-working skills alongside understanding of different media platforms and how they work together.
Many of our graduates have now progressed to successful careers in the UK and international media.
Entry Requirements
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