Welcome to Film Production and I look forward to meeting you all.

You will be required to be creative, well-organised, reliable, and enthusiastic, and will work both independently and in teams. We will endeavour to inspire you to learn, to create, to question and, ultimately succeed, in growing into a multi-skilled and creative individual.

As part of your degree you will be working with film production equipment from week one and over the course of your first year you will be introduced to a wide variety of different film production roles, including cinematographer, director, sound designer, editor and producer. Please take the opportunity to familiarise yourself with as many of these roles as possible.

This course is predominantly taught during face-to-face classes, these are vital as it in these sessions where you will learn how to use the equipment. These sessions will be enhanced with the online resources which will be available on your module Blackboard pages.

The staff and students on the degree are part of a wider community of creative practitioners in the School of Creative Arts and Industries that includes performers, composers, producers, game designers, photographers, and dancers, and we hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to gain inspiration from this diverse group to help expand and enhance your own creative practice.

You can see some student work from the School here: https://schoolofcreativeartsandindustries.com/

Follow us on Instagram: @cccu_scandi and @cccu_film

To get ready for September, do regularly watch as many different films and other media as you can, whether in the cinema, on television, or on streaming sites. Start to consider different genres to watch and challenge yourself to watch films that you wouldn't usually choose. Don’t forget to think about making films, whether on your own phone, DSLR or video camera.

If you don’t know Canterbury, please familiarise yourself with the city and check out the local cinemas, whether the Curzon (we now have two) or the Gulbenkian. Make sure you get a student discount and keep any eye out for information about the Film Society and Film Club (run by one of our lecturers).

A good place to look at film reviews is the Guardian's website; these come out on a Friday. Mark Kermode also does film reviews on his podcast show (with reviews also being uploaded to YouTube) and there are many independent film critiques on other sites - focus on those that offer evidence from the film to support their ideas. Some film websites and publications do have subscriptions - it's a good chance to look for student discounts. It's also important to think about short films as you will make many short films over your time with us. Please take a look at websites such as Screenskills, BAFTA and Kent Film Office as they are a great way of finding out what's going on locally and nationally and you could start to follow key film figures on social media.

During the semester we recommend that you check your university email every day as this is where your tutors will contact you. It is also where you will be sent news about exciting opportunities as well as information about events that are happening around the campus.

You will be hearing from leading industry figures in Professional Perspectives, your employability modules, every year; don't forget to check them out ahead of the session and start to build up your network with your peers and these guests through sites like LinkedIn.

Your ‘Welcome and Induction’ will be w/c 16 September 2024 - we look forward to meeting you then.

The text recommendations below are an excellent introduction to Film and can be used for many of the modules, but please note that there is no requirement to purchase every book you require for your studies as the University library has a very good selection of course books which gets updated every year.

• Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K., Smith, J., 2023. Film Art: An Introduction. 13th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• The Cinema Book. 3rd Ed. London: BFI. Hill, A. (2019)

It is useful to note that the University Bookshop offers 10% discount on most titles in print and have some price-beating book bundles. They also price match Amazon on core texts recommended in the module handbooks you will receive when you start in September. Your tutors will give you more information about specific texts when you start your taught sessions.