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UCT Bachelor of Arts in Film & Media Production Requirements

The requirements for undertaking the University of Cape Town (UCT) Bachelor of Arts in Film & Media Production.

NOTES:

  • Students wishing to register for a general BA or BSocSc degree should refer to Rule FB6 and to the section Guidelines for General BA and BSocSc Degree Programmes.
  • Not all courses are offered every year. Check the relevant departmental entries to see which are on offer.
  • Students must make sure that they meet the entrance requirements for all courses in their programmes.

FILM AND MEDIA PRODUCTION: SCREEN [Bachelor of Arts] HB054

Notes for intending Film and Media Production students:

1. Applicants will not be admitted into the Film and Media Production specialisation in their first year. All intending F&MP students will register for the first year of a general Bachelor of Arts degree with double majors in Film and Television Studies and Media and Writing.
NOTE: If they wish to be admitted to the stream for Digital Media and Informatics, students should also register for one of the introductory Information Systems or Computer Science courses INF1002F/S OR CSC1015F in their first year.
Intending F&MP students must thus make sure that they are registered for FAM1001F and FAM1000S and, if they wish to apply for the Digital Media and Informatics stream, either INF1002F/S or CSC1015F in their first year. They are also advised to select courses towards additional majors

2. Final selection for this programme is made by a panel and only occurs in the second semester of the second year. Only students selected for the production stage of the programme will be admitted to one of the Foundation Production Skills courses [see Second year (b)]. Entry is competitive and applicants will be judged on the basis of their academic records and portfolios. Candidates may also be interviewed. (Further details about the selection process are available from the Centre for Film and Media Studies.) Students who are not selected for admission to one of these courses will remain registered in the general bachelor’s degree and, providing they have passed the relevant first- and second-year courses, are eligible to continue in the Film and Television Studies and/or Media and Writing majors. Students whose applications for the Production programme are successful will move into the Production programme, and their registration will be updated.

3. Students who wish to be considered for selection for the production stage of the programme must apply to the Centre for Film and Media Studies by the stipulated date in May of their second year. To be considered for admission, students are required to submit an approved portfolio containing:

(a) The applicant’s academic transcript indicating an average of at least 65% for the courses completed during the first year of study. Students must have passed at least six 1000-level semester courses in the immediate previous year of study, including:

AND, if they wish to be considered for the Digital Media and Informatics Stream:

• INF1002F/S Information Systems I OR

• CSC1015F Computer Science 1015

(b) A letter of motivation

(c) Examples of creative work

They must also have successfully completed:

  • FAM2000F Writing and Editing in the Media, if applying to Multimedia Production, OR
  • FAM2013F Introduction to Screen Genres, if applying to Screen Production
  •  And if in Digital Media and Informatics stream: INF1002F/S Information Systems I OR Computer Science 1015

Any concessions regarding these stream-specific pre-requisites must be negotiated with the relevant stream convener.

A workshop is held in the first semester of the second year of study to give students guidance in the submission of their application.

4. The programme must include at least 10 senior semester courses.

 


Note: Students wishing to do an additional major may have to take an appropriate extra semester course in second year.

First year: 8 semester courses
(144 NQF credits)

NQF credits           HEQSF level
(a) FAM1000S Analysing Film and TV 18 5
(b) FAM1001F Media and Society 18 5
(c) Six 1000-level semester courses 6 x 18 5

Note: Only students selected for the production stage of the programme will be admitted to the production courses – see notes above regarding the selection process.

Second year: 6 semester courses
(126 to 144 NQF credits)

NQF credits            HEQSF level
(a) At least one of the following:    
  FAM2000F Writing and Editing in the Media 24 6
  FAM2004S World Cinema: Histories and Movements 24 6
(b) One of the following:    
  FAM2014S Screen Production I 24 6
FAM2017S Multimedia Production I (Not offered in 2021) 24 6
(c) At least one of the following:    
  FAM2003S Media, Power and Culture 24 6
  FAM2013F Introduction to Screen Genres 24 6
(d) Any other semester course or courses as required (3 x 18 NQF or 3 x 24 NQF credits). Inclusion of an approved senior ELL or SLL language or literature course is recommended.

Note: Only students selected for the production stage of the programme will be admitted to the production courses – see notes above regarding the selection process.

Third year: 6 semester courses
(156 to 180 NQF credits)

NQF credits          HEQSF level
(a) One of the following:  
  FAM3016F Screen Production II 30 7
FAM3018F Multimedia Production II 30 7
(b) One of the following Senior Research Projects:  
  FAM3017S Senior Research Project: Screen Production 30 7
FAM3019S Multimedia Production III 30 7
(c) At least two of the following:    
  FAM3000F The Media in South Africa 30 7
  FAM3001S Advanced Media Studies 30 7
  FAM3003S Advanced Film Studies 30 7
  FAM3005F Film in Africa 30 7
  FIN3029S Critical Studies in Art History and Visual Culture
(Michaelis School of Fine Art)
30 7
(d) Any other semester course or courses as required to total six for the year, at least one of which must be a senior course if an elective course taken in second year is a 1000-level course.
Total NQF credits for degree – 426 to 468

The Centre for Film & Media Studies (CFMS) is the newest department in the Faculty of Humanities and is fast becoming one of the largest. The CFMS offers two majors and programmes in Film and Media Production:

  • The major in Film and Television Studies: this major offers a thorough grounding in the history, theory and analysis of film, especially narrative film. We also encourage creativity through storyboarding and scriptwriting.
  • The major in Media & Writing: this major weaves together theory and analysis of broadcast and print media with extensive creative practice.

The Centre for Film & Media Studies (CFMS) offers a variety of postgraduate possibilities. We particularly encourage those interested in part-time studies and people with a strong working background in film or media to think of doing an advanced degree, regardless of whether they have studied these subjects at an undergraduate level. Postgraduate work in Film and Media is either programme based or by dissertation. Programmes typically include four courses and a short dissertation or, in some cases, a creative project. We also offer the MA and PhD by research dissertation.

Students may in future be permitted to produce a creative piece as part of their senior dissertations and we already have one PhD student who is doing a film script and short film as a complement to her full-length dissertation. We encourage postgraduate students to apply for posts as tutors in the centre. Typically, this would involve tutoring in one of the large first year introductory courses in film or media, but in some cases we ask postgraduate students to take more senior courses if they have the right experience or qualifications. Some of our most exciting senior undergraduate seminars (for example, on Food Media, or Advertising, or the Business of Media, or Masculinity in Magazines, or Animation) have involved postgraduate students.

Visit the Centre for Film & Media Studies website.

 

Your next move

UCT offers many programmes. If you do not meet up to the requirements of this programme you can consider another programme on the list. Go to >> University of Cape Town Faculties/Programmes.

However, if you meet the requirements and wish to apply to study this course. You can simply check the application processes.

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