module specification

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

Through synthesis of knowledge of processes and principles, using an appropriate range of intellectual, creative and practical skills, students will design a realised production. Students will evidence their research and construct a realisation plan and process suitable and effective for successful completion of the project. The module will ask students to confidently present their creative identity through their work to the professional field and indicate their sense of future direction and creative and professional position.

A negotiated and approved proposal will confirm the individual project. This could be an ‘in-house’ production in conjunction with performance students, an internal film studies project, a self-generated installation or performance or an external production.
The module asks students to evidence self-management of the project in respect of planning, monitoring, recording and evaluation. The module will ensure that students critique and reflect upon their own work and that they understand their position in the creative sector.

Pass and completion (120 credits) of prior level

The module will provide opportunities to test;

• problem exploration and definition LO1
• construction and conduct of production programmes LO1
• application of project research and development to realisation in a professional context LO2
• articulation of position in discipline context LO3
• presentation and defence of proposals to a professional standard LO4
• refinement and presentation of personal professional creative identity LO4

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.

Knowledge and Understanding
LO1 plan and carry out the entire process of performance design from inception through research, development of ideas up to and including realisation of designs and use in performance;

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

Transferable Skills
LO3 develop a personal design identity articulating their creative direction;

Subject Specific Skills
LO4 design and undertake a sustained design realisation process using an appropriate range of sector-specific resources, techniques, materials, media and discipline-specific knowledge.

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.

The final mark is given at the end of the module, following assessment of the design through performance and review of a comprehensive portfolio of all relevant developmental and presentation work.

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

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]
Baugh, C., (2013) Theatre, performance and technology: the development and transformation of scenography, Palgrave
Todd, A. and Lecat, J.-G., (2003) The Open Circle: Peter Brook's Theatre Environments, Faber and Faber
Thorne, G., (1999) Stage Design – a practical guide, Crowood Press
Reid Payne, D., (1981) The Scenographic Imagination, Southern Illinois University Press
McKinney, J., (2011) The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography (Cambridge Introductions to Literature), Cambridge University Press
EBook:
McKinney, J. and Butterworth, P., (2009) The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Introductions to Literature)
doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511816963
Collins, J. and Nisbet, A., (2010) Theatre and Performance Design: A Reader in Scenography, Routledge