module specification

Together with their Major Project Realisation module, this module is intended to prepare Theatre and Film Production Design students for independent practice, entry into the professional workplace, or for higher studies.

Through a synthesis of processes and principles, using an appropriate range of intellectual, creative and practical skills, students will design and develop a self-directed project. This will require in-depth research, a well-constructed design process, and the exercise of practical and thinking skills, resulting in a significant body of creative work for public exhibition. A negotiated and approved proposal will confirm the individual project. Using creative exploration and experimentation, students will develop research, concept development, material investigation, modelling or prototyping and visualisation. The final outcome will be produced in the module ‘Major Project Realisation Theatre and Film Production Design’.

The module will ensure that students critique and reflect upon their own work and their position in their own theatre or film creative sector. The module emphasises self-direction and personal focus whilst acknowledging external and professional expectations and constraints. Students will select or devise and conduct a comprehensive design project resulting in a significant body of work displaying the synthesis of their conceptual and technical skills within the final presentation and demonstrate their ability to determine the required research and construct a research and development process suitable for successful completion of the project. Students will be asked to evidence self-management of the project in respect of planning, monitoring, recording and evaluation.

The module will affirm students’ creative identity as they enter their professional field and indicate their sense of their future direction and position including in the context of ethical issues

Pass & Completion (120 credits) of Prior Level

The module will provide opportunities to learn:
• problem exploration and definition;
• construction and conduct of research programmes;
• project research and development in professional contexts;
• presentation and defence of proposals to a professional standard;
• refinement and presentation of personal professional creative identity;
• articulation of position in discipline context.

LO: 1,2,3,4

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to, and have the opportunity to, continue with their studies outside of scheduled classes. There will be a range of learning strategies deployed and individual learning styles will be accommodated. The module’s learning outcomes, its contents and delivery, have been scrutinised and will be regularly reviewed to ensure an inclusive approach to pedagogic practice.

The module and course utilise the University’s blended learning platform to support and reinforce learning, to foster peer-to-peer communication and to facilitate tutorial support for students. Reflective learning is promoted through assessment items and interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding
LO1 present and convincingly defend their process and outcomes, demonstrating critical self-reflection and clear understanding of the professional and ethical context and presentation requirements for their work;

Cognitive Intellectual Skills
LO2 manage and continuously evaluate the project development process in the context of complex and changing problems;

Transferable Skills
LO3 identify a design problem or situation requiring analysis and resolution, providing a rationale for the choice and decisions and construct a viable project proposal;

Subject Specific Practical Skills
LO4 design and undertake a sustained design development process using an appropriate range of resources, techniques, materials, media and discipline-specific knowledge, developing a personal design identity and articulating a creative direction within Theatre and Film Production Design.

At regular critiques or tutorials, students are expected to produce a coherent account of their project in progress, together with critical evaluation of successes and issues for further research, development or revision. Formative feedback will be given in response to the project plan.

All students are required to undertake formal interim presentations with evidence of continuous reflective journals responding to studio critique and tutorial guidance. Work presented will be subject to formal studio feedback from a panel of disciplinary specialists. This will inform final assessment marks and must be considered and acted upon by the student.

The final mark is given at the end of the module, following assessment of a comprehensive portfolio of all relevant developmental and presentation work and the final proposal itself.

Work must be carefully organised and presented to indicate the development of work and the content must be clearly labelled. Students are required to attend timetabled studio and workshop sessions

Baugh, C., (2013) Theatre, performance and technology: the development and transformation of scenography, Palgrave
Chapple F., and Kattenbelt C. (ed), (2014) Intermediality in Theatre and Performance (Themes in Theatre), Rodopi
Collins J. and Nisbet, A., (2010)  Theatre and Performance Design: A Reader in Scenography, Routledge
Howard P., (2009) What is Scenography?, Routledge
EBook
Howard, P, and Howard, P., (2009) What is Scenography?, Taylor & Francis Group
Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [6 April 2018]
Ingham, M., (2016) Stage-Play and Screen-Play: The intermediality of theatre and cinema, Routledge
EBook
Ingham, M., (2017) Stage-play and screen-play: the intermediality of theatre and cinema
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1435623
McIver, G., (2016) Art History for Filmmakers, Bloomsbury
McKinney, J., (2011) The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography, Cambridge UP
Payne R. D., (1981) The Scenographic Imagination, Southern Illinois University Press
Thorne G., (1999) Stage Design – a practical guide, Crowood Press
Todd A. and Lecat J.-G., (2003) The Open Circle: Peter Brook's Theatre Environments, Faber and Faber

Additionally texts and other reference materials will be identified by studio tutors annually that support aspecific studio theme