Program Overview

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Explore the relationship between literature and film in an exceptionally broad array of contemporary and historical contexts, and from a variety of different perspectives. You discover cutting-edge approaches to cinematic and literary aesthetics, adaptation, and relationships between different media, reception contexts, ethics, and interfaces between theory and practice. On our course you gain a deep understanding of the theoretical and practical interactions between literature and film, choosing specific areas of literary and cinema studies to complement your preparation for a creative practice or theoretical dissertation project of your choice. You will forge and develop connections between audio-visual and textual media. Focusing a variety of cultural productions and diverse forms of enlightenment, and entertainment, you will encounter parallel and sometimes more densely intertwined media histories, discovering the complex ways in which media anticipate, interfere with, and draw on one other. Through weekly seminars, screenings and discussions of key cinematic and literary texts, you consider different ways that texts create their meanings. You study topics including:

• Areas such as modernism, poetic practice, American prose, Caribbean literature, and African American literature
• Documentary and fiction film production including screenwriting, pre-production, camera, lighting, sound, storyboarding and editing
• Landmark directors and movements such as Expressionism and the avant-garde
• Film theory including feminism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, haptic cinema
• Adaptation and comparative media

You also benefit from a series of masterclasses conducted by invited industry professionals which focus on the craft of filmmaking: developing your technical understanding of cinematography, directing and editing/postproduction. These also introduce you to potential employment routes and industry career pathways, from setting up your own production company, to identifying and tapping into distribution networks and preparing and marketing your completed films. We're ranked top 20 for dance, drama and cinematics in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. This course is also available on a part-time basis. Why we're great.

• Benefit from a series of masterclasses led by industry professionals
• Collaborate with professionals in our Research Laboratory – network with creatives who nurture original works
• View classic films weekly in Cine10 – our dedicated 120-seat cinema in the heart of campus

Our expert staff

Our intensive modules are taught in small groups by expert academic film specialists and professional filmmakers . The Centre for Film and Screen Media at Essex is part of a vital departmental unit that offers talented students the support and confidence to respond both critically and artistically to the study of film. This distinctive environment is possible because we are a community of award-winning film-makers, scholars, and media specialists; our staff over the years have included Oscar winners and BAFTA winners. Our academic staff specialise in a wide range of production and critical areas including producing, screenwriting, documentary, , film theory, Soviet cinema, US cinema, films of Asia and Pacific regions, modernism and the avant-garde, adaptation, and silent cinema. Our Department has a distinguished history of combining critical and creative work, and we have long been home to poets, novelists, translators, dramatists and actors, alongside literary critics, drama scholars, filmmakers and film theorists.

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Specialist facilities

For your film production modules, you have priority use of industry-standard editing facilities, two state-of-the-art studios, and a range of cameras and other filmmaking equipment. You also gain experience using professional film production software including Avid and Final Cut ; everything you will need to produce films to an expert standard. You also have access to our other departmental facilities:

• Show off your work on our Vimeo channel
• View classic films at weekly film screenings in our dedicated 120-seat film theatre, equipped with digital HD projection facilities and surround sound
• Borrow DVDs from our substantial departmental collection
• Join student film societies and the Centre for Film and Screen Media film series, which screen and discuss both recent blockbusters and less mainstream arthouse films
• Hear writers talk about their craft and learn from leading specialists at weekly research seminars
• Our on-campus Lakeside Theatre has been established as a major venue for good drama, staging both productions by professional touring companies and a wealth of new work written, produced and directed by our own staff and students
• Improve your playwriting skills at our Lakeside Theatre Writers workshops
• Our Research Laboratory allows you to collaborate with professionals, improvising and experimenting with new work which is being tried and tested
• Write for our student magazine Albert or host a Red Radio show

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Your future

We actively encourage and assist you to find appropriate internship and work placement opportunities during your studies, allowing you to practice and develop your skills and experience as well as enhancing your graduate employment prospects. A number of our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies graduates have gone on to undertake successful careers as scholars, university lecturers, teachers, publishers, journalists, arts administrators, theatre artistic directors, drama advisers, filmmakers, film editors, and translators. We also offer supervision for PhD, MPhil and MA by Dissertation in different literatures and various approaches to literature, covering most aspects of early modern and modern writing in English, plus a number of other languages. Our University is one of only 11 AHRC-accredited Doctoral Training Centres in the UK. This means that we offer funded PhD studentships which also provide a range of research and training opportunities. We also work with the university’s Careers Services to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.