BA (Hons) Film and Television Production
Course Overview
The television and film industries are thriving, with Greater Manchester and the North West as key powerhouses outside London. From landing an entry-level job to strategising your future career progression, the University of Bolton’s BA (Hons) Film and Television Production course prepares you for a career in this exciting sector, whatever your specialism or ambition.With a love of storytelling at its heart, this practice-based, industry-shaped course teaches the creative, business and technical skills of the television and film industries, and, crucially, how those skills interact to create work that connects with audiences. By creating and making short-form productions you’ll develop ideas and stories, learn industry production and post-production skills and processes, and be inspired and challenged to question how, why, and what you make. Grounded in critical thinking, our creative environment empowers you to question and explore the world around you and to feed this into your creative work.
Initially, the course focuses on the foundations: technical skills, scriptwriting know-how, understanding of the industry, and the use of cinematic language. As you progress, we’ll immerse you in real-life industry simulations of a production company and set, where you’ll perform key roles, and learn in-demand skillsets, software packages and processes as you create, make and market your own TV show. In the final year, you‘ll bring all your skills together to create a major project designed to make you shine, whatever your specialism. You’ll also undertake an industry placement and create an employment strategy using your major project as a calling card.
In a nutshell, the course delivers the creative, technical, and business skills you need to build a portfolio that showcases you and your unique voice. Our focus is on helping you gain the skills and knowledge necessary to progress in the media industry as an employee, become self-employed, or create your own production company.
Highlights
- We offer you excellent access to individual tutor support and small-group teaching. Our team takes pride in getting to know each of our students as individuals, helping you become part of our welcoming and supportive production family at our student-focused, multicultural campus.
- Our real-life industry simulations are guided by professionals who teach the roles and processes of television and film production, demystifying the industry.
- You’ll be supported by lecturers with first-hand experience across the screen industries in a variety of roles, and you’ll benefit from guest lecturers from high-profile industry professionals.
- You’ll work on collaborative projects across year groups with students from our film effects courses, mimicking industry processes and standards so your experience is a realistic preparation for a career in film and TV production.
- You’ll have access to first-rate, broadcast-quality digital equipment, and there are production budgets for student films to cover essential costs.
- Our lecturers have strong industry links and are engaged with current industry practices, so we’re well-placed to help you build your industry contacts and secure work placements.
- We help you develop lifelong learning skills, such as resilience, adaptability, and collaboration so that you can take ownership of your professional development and maximise your potential for success.
Key Features
- Eight dedicated video edit suites with sound processing capability.
- Computer facilities with dedicated media software are available for your use.
- Two fully equipped studio facilities with lighting rigs, screens and equipment that will be used as industry-simulation of television production sets.
- Sound recording facilities.
- Professional HD film production equipment and a supply of ancillary equipment for professional production.
- Guides for each individual module provide information about the programme.
- By choosing to study with us, you'll have the chance to enjoy Bolton's many shops, bars, restaurants and leisure facilities. Nearby Manchester is one of the UK's most multicultural and lively cities, and the Northwest of England is renowned for its beautiful countryside, coastline, and heritage.
Entry Requirements
- 96 UCAS points. We accept a full range of qualifications that carry UCAS points, including A-levels, BTECs and T-levels. Please see our guide to the UCAS Tariff for examples of how to achieve these points. For most courses, we are also able to consider non-tariffable qualifications.
- Any subjects are acceptable at Level 3.
- You should also have five GCSEs at grade C or above or grade 4 to 9 (or equivalent), including English and Mathematics.
- We'll be happy to consider your application if you have non-traditional entry qualifications and relevant experience, and/or a suitable portfolio of work that we deem a reasonable substitute for the qualifications we typically accept for this course.
- You'll be required to attend an interview and provide a portfolio of appropriate work.
- If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
Career Opportunities
The University of Bolton's BA (Hons) Film and Television Production course provides in-depth knowledge of working in film, TV and multi-platform formats. You'll have the opportunity to develop a wide range of technical and creative skills and learn to challenge, question and explore what's possible in moving image media.
A key part of the course is your chance to benefit from creative industries placements and extracurricular opportunities to help build appealing CVs, showreels and portfolios in preparation for employment.
As a graduate, you'll possess a range of transferable skills such as creativity, communication, teamwork, managing deadlines, critical analysis, and commercial and cultural awareness.
What can I do with this qualification?
After graduation, you could choose to continue your studies by pursuing an MA or PhD in a variety of fields, such as PR and communications, digital marketing, publishing, film production, or journalism.
Alternative career options
Graduates can also use the qualification as a stepping stone into a range of other careers. Some of these roles, may require relevant experience or postgraduate study. Possible roles include:
- Arts administration
- Event organisation
- Teaching
- Local government
- Advertising and marketing
- Journalism
- PR consultancy
- Communications
- Publishing
Fees & Funding
Home/EU Fees
| Year of study | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry Year | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | |
| 2024-25 | £9,250 | £9,250 | £9,250 | - | £27,750 |
| 2025-26 | - | ||||
International Fees
| Year of study | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry Year | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | |
| 2024-25 | £15,950 | £15,950 | £15,950 | - | £47,850 |
| 2025-26 | - | ||||
Bursaries
Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2024-25 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
How to apply
Home Applicants
If you wish to apply to multiple institutions or courses for September, then apply through UCAS
You can apply for up to 5 courses through UCAS (at the same or different institutions) for a fee of £27. Alternatively, if you only wish to apply for a single course at a single institution then a reduced applicant's fee of £22.50 is applicable.
The online application form and guidance notes are available on the UCAS website.
You will need the following information to complete your UCAS application form:
Institution Code Name: BOLTN
Institution Code Number: B44
Tel: 0870 1122211
Web: www.ucas.com
International Applicants
The University welcomes applications from international students from all over the world. We try to make the application process as simple and as fast as possible for our international applicants.
This course is not currently accepting international online applications.
Please contact Admissions by telephone on 01204 903903 or email enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Admissions
University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton, BL3 5AB
United Kingdom
Tel: 01204 903903
Email: enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Partner Organisation Applicants
Please contact Admissions by telephone on 01204 903903 or email enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Admissions
University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton, BL3 5AB
United Kingdom
Tel: 01204 903903
Email: enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Teaching & Assessment
Much of the work involved in this course is based around practical projects. You’ll be expected to create different types of content as well as write essays, presentations and pitches. Some online course activities are student-generated and controlled to resemble the practices you’re likely to encounter in the media industries.
We emphasise group work, activity-based assignments, workshops, demonstrations, projects, and guided independent study. Some of the modules will be delivered more conventionally through classes, lectures, and presentations. You’ll be taught by tutors with extensive industry experience and specialist guest lecturers.
You’ll also be expected to devote a significant amount of time to independent study, and our online resources will assist you with this. Assignments will require time outside of lessons to complete. Work-based learning is a key element of the course, and the completion of industry briefs and professional quality work is designed to ensure you are ready for employment when you graduate.
There are no examinations. All assessment is through coursework. You can expect formative assessment to help you learn and develop your knowledge and skills and summative assessment on which you’ll be graded. Your summative assessment briefs will contain tasks such as making films, writing essays and reports, writing scripts and outlines, giving presentations and pitches, and carrying out practical exercises and work placements.
We adopt a blended learning and teaching style, including online delivery and engagement where appropriate.
Modules
The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.
- Film and Television Contexts
- Production Skills
- Story to Screen
- Collaborative Production
- The Production Company
- Client Commission
- From Set to Screen
- Non-Fiction
- Screen Industries: Employment and Progression
- Creative Research
- Emerging Trends
- Major Project
Assessment methods
| Level | Assessment method |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Coursework 80% Practical exams 20% |
| Level 2 | Coursework 72% Practical exams 28% |
| Level 3 | Coursework 63% Practical exams 37% |
Learning Activities
| Level | Activity |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Guided independent study 66% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 34% |
| Level 2 | Guided independent study 66% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 34% |
| Level 3 | Guided independent study 74% Placement/study abroad 4% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 22% |
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
