With BA Art and Film discover film from the late nineteenth century to the modern day while developing your professional practice under the guidance of internationally renowned artists and curators at Reading School of Art.
Explore both the practical and theoretical sides of art and film and investigate how each discipline has influenced the other.
You will join a lively and creative community, explore a vast range of media, experiment with emerging art forms and develop as an artist. Your art will be complemented with modules in contemporary art theory and the history of art. You will have your own dedicated space, accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and a studio tutor who will help you develop your individual and professional practice. The studios are a busy place with events, screenings, performances and exhibitions happening regularly.
There are regular trips to museums and art galleries to prompt thoughts on how art is displayed and received. You will gain professional experience throughout your degree by taking part in your own exhibitions, public art commissions and events.
In Film, you will choose from a range of modules covering world cinema, new forms of digital entertainment and video art, and the cinema of classical and contemporary Hollywood, such as musicals, melodrama, action cinema and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Practical work complements your critical and theoretical study allowing you to apply what you learn through practice, drawing on the market-leading facilities of the £11.4-million Minghella building, including a film and television studio, cutting rooms and audio post-production facilities, three theatre spaces, and a digital cinema.
Placements and collaborations are actively encouraged and there is also the chance to experience life in another country by studying abroad. Opportunities for work-based learning and personal development complement your core learning.
All students are encouraged to work with different artists and designers in hosting events and exhibitions. Past students have enjoyed internships at Studio Voltaire and the Frieze Art Fair. Others have performed at the ICA, taken part in an Arts Council-supported film project at the Museum of Rural Life and participated in an international exhibition at the Seoul Institute of Arts in South Korea.
Regular field trips to national and international museums, art institutions and galleries allow you to consider the diverse conditions in which art is displayed and received. There are also many opportunities for you to apply to study abroad: Reading School of Art has links with universities in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, France, Switzerland and Finland.
Our BA Theatre & Performance course is designed to inspire your theatrical creativity and provide you with outlets to express it.
You will begin by studying theatre from a range of cultures and historical periods, then focus more intensively on theatre of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the work of international and British playwrights and performance makers such as Samuel Beckett, Sarah Kane, Complicité, Caryl Churchill and Katie Mitchell.
The course investigates a range of contemporary global practices from verbatim to immersive, from site-specific work to examples of digital technologies in live performance. You will see performances ranging from west end theatre to the latest practitioners of 'intermedial' theatre and performance art. Throughout your degree, you will explore how directors, designers, writers and other theatre artists respond to and shape our rapidly changing world. You will learn practical skills from the first year, with opportunities to create performances in the final two years. You will also have the option of following a critical-only route.
You will explore histories and techniques of devising, producing, designing and directing, and learn how theatre works as an expression of real-world issues. Students studying BA Theatre & Performance at the University of Reading enjoy the best of both worlds, developing critical and creative skills in a dynamic environment.
Study BA Film and Theatre and pursue your passion for film and theatre in a course that combines critical approaches and the opportunity to create films and performances.
Drawing from the same varied and creative options offered on BA Film and BA Theatre, this course allows you to combine your study of theatre and film, and includes the opportunity to engage with television, enabling you to specialise in line with your developing expertise and interests. You will experience all three mediums through practice, and be given a variety of opportunities to collaborate in the production of films, television programmes or theatre performances. You will also have the option of following a critical-only route.
Develop and hone your writing skills, and explore the complex interplay between live performance and audience, with our BA Creative Writing and Theatre course.
Taught jointly by the Department of English Literature and the Department of Film, Theatre and Television, on this course you will:
- explore your creative writing in small peer groups
- examine theatre in its various contexts: as popular entertainment, theoretical discipline and art form
- have the opportunity to develop your practical theatre skills.
Creative writing and theatre complement each other perfectly. Exploring a breadth of dramatic work and analysing creative choices will support the development of your own creative writing. Optional practical work will enhance your ability to create compelling characters and narratives.
Develop and hone your writing skills, and explore the important relationships between film and theatre, in our BA Creative Writing and Film & Theatre course.
Taught jointly by the Department of English Literature and the Department of Film, Theatre and Television, this multi-faceted course will:
- develop your creative writing in a small-group environment
- explore a variety of literary, dramatic and film texts
- provide practical and theoretical approaches to film and theatre.
Creative writing, film and theatre complement each other perfectly. Developing characters and narratives in your creative writing, and working to improve and refine them, will make you a better writer. This will enhance your ability to create compelling characters and narratives in your filmmaking and theatre work.
Marketing lies at the heart of every successful business. By engaging with and understanding the customer’s needs, marketing managers influence the development of products and services, providing advice on the best point of sale and recommending the most competitive price. They identify and make sure the target market knows what’s on offer – in increasingly more creative and dynamic ways.
Designed to meet the needs of industry, this course will prepare you for a career in a broad range of marketing disciplines, combining marketing strategy, marketing communications, data and analytics and market research. With work-based learning embedded in the course, you’ll graduate work ready with the skills, knowledge and expertise required to move confidently into the world of marketing.
Are you curious about how the media influences the world we live in? Our BA (Hons) Media Studies course is distinguished by its innovative mix of options and will give you a fascinating way to gain a deeper academic understanding of this prime form of communication.
You'll learn how global media reflects, shapes and affects societies and cultures, from news and television, to social networks. You’ll also consider how identity is formed through the media, and its representations in contemporary formats and genres, such as TV talk shows, the comic book industries, and science. As you progress in your degree, you can create your own learning plan by choosing optional modules, including film production.
You’ll graduate ready to begin your media career in many communicational fields, but you’ll also have creative and transferable skills you can use in any sector.
Course highlights:
- Gain expert insight into popular culture, fan communities, and the latest media tech developments by attending the annual Portsmouth Comic Con – where course lecturers and previous students have been panellists
- Enhance your studies by learning from a teaching team of widely published media experts and research-active academics
- Cultivate a well-rounded, futuristic understanding of media from staff expertise in contemporary popular culture genres (including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and animation)
- Tailor your degree by choosing modules to suit your specialisation
- Develop filmmaking skills with optional practical film modules from second year
- Build valuable professional experience and knowledge by taking an optional placement year – either with a company or self-employed
- Broaden your expertise with the chance to gain industry-recognised accreditations such as ScreenSkills safety training and Adobe Certified Professional (ACP)
The expansion of new media technologies and sophisticated customer profiling – covering everything from media consumption to recreational preferences – have increased the choice and importance of creative decisions in marketing strategy. Developed with input from current ‘marcomms’ practitioners, our professionally-focused degree will equip you with the creative and specialist knowledge, skills and capabilities to select the right media channels and craft the most effective messages.
Designed to create work-ready graduates who meet the needs of industry, this course will prepare you for a career in a broad range of marketing disciplines, combining branding, marketing communications, data and analytics, consumer decision-making and media planning fro both traditional and digital channels. With work-based learning embedded in the course, you’ll graduate work ready with the skills, knowledge and expertise required to move confidently into the world of marketing communications.
Marketing is about so much more than advertising. Through this broad degree you'll understand what makes a brand, you'll develop a new product, learn how to understand consumer psychology and improve your ability to make a sale.
Marketing is a key part of every business and this degree looks closely at how marketing works with other specialisms such as finance, operations and public relations. When you finish this degree you'll have a deep understanding of how marketing interacts with all the working parts of a business and you'll be able to apply your skills as a marketing specialist in any sector that interests you.
Course highlights:
- Explore all the key concepts of marketing, sales, digital marketing, brand and advertising and then focus on the areas that really interest you as the course progresses
- Apply your learning in a 1-year paid work placement, or through working with a real client in our marketing consultancy module
- Get additional certifications in tools, software and specific skills like SEO, Google Ads and Google Analytics as part of your degree
- Learn to interpret data to inform your decisions and present that data to a variety of different audiences
- Benefit from expert industry speakers, from companies such as O2, TK Maxx and Gartner
- Learn from teaching staff who have worked in the industry and are actively researching the rapidly changing world of marketing
Our degree courses with Foundation year offer the opportunity to prepare you for advanced study before you progress onto a full honours degree at the University of Westminster.
Each year you’ll study a mix of core and collaborative modules complementing these with choices from a wide and varied range of optional modules. You’ll learn through a dynamic mix of formats including workshops, lectures, seminars, critiques and technical sessions. In project work you’ll collaborate with students from your course and other disciplines, helping you to build your team-working and communication skills.
You’ll also get to hear talks from visiting industry speakers, take part in workshops, and go on trips into central London to museums, galleries and design fairs.