| CODE | MCS2130 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Dissertation Proposal Development - Film and Screen Arts | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Media and Communications | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Students will be guided through different types of research within the Film and Screen Arts stream, encompassing both academic or critical as well as practical projects. To this end, it will guide students on: - The field's diverse methodologies and their application; - How to formulate a hypothesis and research questions; - Essential elements that need to be addressed when formulating a proposal; - Different approaches to writing a literature review; - How to substantiate proposed research design. Moreover, and specific to practical projects, students will be guided on: - The development of an idea specific to their practical project; - The diverse audio-visual formats at the students' disposal; - Practical elements (such as equipment and other resources) to help bring the students' project to fruition; - How to prepare a realistic plan for the development, prep, shoot and/or edit of their project. The study-unit will also cover issues surrounding the access of relilable data, how to make use of online tools and referencing software, as well as the ethical use of AI in research, and ethical principles in general, in relation to research. Students will also be walked through the Research Ethics submission process. Study-Unit Aims: The objectives of the study-unit are to give students a solid understanding of: - What constitutes valid research questions; - Different methodologies and how they suit relevant inquiries; - The elements that make up a sound research proposal; - Different types of literature reviews; - Ethical frameworks; - The script development process; - The development, pre-production, production and editing stages of a film or screen arts practical project. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Have a clearly articulated dissertation proposal; - Have an achievable work plan to serve as a basis for their dissertation journey; - Have the required skills to approach their chosen area of inquiry with confidence; - Be assured that any queries or insecurities that they might have will be addressed. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify and articulate clearly valid research questions; - Identify a relevant methodology/ies that would best suit their dissertation research proposal; - Formulate their dissertation proposal through clearly structured and substantiated arguments; - Source valid literature and data; - Reference sources accurately and clearly; - Have a clear understanding on types of literature reviews; - Identify the potential of an idea and how to develop into into a screenplay; - Implement the planning of a practical project, from a technical, aesthetic and logistical viewpoint. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Greetham, B. (2019). How to Write your Undergraduate Dissertation (3rd ed.). London: Red Globe Press. - Mackendrick, A. (2019). On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director. Bloomsbury Publishing. Supplementary Readings: - Denscombe, M. (2014). The good research guide (5th ed.). Open University Press, McGraw Hill Education. - Jegede, F., Hargrreaves, C., Smith, K., Hodgson, P., Todd, M. J., & Waldman J. (2020). Writing Successful Undergraduate Dissertation in Social Sciences. [online access through Hydi] - Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2019) Qualitative communication research methods (4th ed.). Sage Publications Inc. - Ryan, M. A. (2017). Producer to Producer: a Step-by-Step Guide to Low-Budget Independent Film Producing. Michael Wiese Productions. - Bondebjerg, I., Redvall, E. N., Helles, R., Lai, S. S., Søndergaard, H., & Astrupgaard, C. (2017). Transnational European Television Drama: Production, Genres and Audiences. Springer. [online access through Hydi] |
|||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Seminar and Tutorial | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
|||||||||
| LECTURER/S | ||||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
||||||||||