Your main project for the year will be to create an individual piece of research or product focused on a topic of your choice, which will be monitored by your project supervisor through regular meetings. Or, you have the option to undertake a self-directed major project in an area of film practice, which should draw on the strengths of your work throughout the year.

This year will give you to opportunity to extend your knowledge and understanding of a specific subject area that you may have encountered earlier in your studies. You will revisit special topics through a series of seminars and group discussions lead by a member of staff whose academic interests and/or research is reflected in that area.

In your final year you will also explore contemporary popular cinema and how styles of American cinema have responded to changing socio-political, economic and cultural circumstances. As well as this, you’ll have the option to explore Narrative structures in cinema, understanding film journalism and moving image from a critical and analytical perspective, and build a portfolio that demonstrates techniques of electronic publishing, draw from academic literature and study the cultural politics of celebrities, or explore video games as complex cultural objects.

Industry-standard equipment

As a student at ARU you’ll have use of facilities including:

• a fully-equipped HD multi-camera TV studio includes multi-purpose scenic backdrops, suitable for current affairs, drama and magazine programmes
• a film studio featuring overhead lighting, tracks, dollies, green screens, and flats
• a full range of HD cameras, as well as Super 8mm, 16mm and 35mm film cameras, and sound-recording equipment for location filming
• for editing and post-production, the complete Adobe Creative Cloud software suite, including Premiere Pro, Photoshop and After Effects.

Learn outside the classroom

Throughout the course you’ll benefit from extra-curricular events such as:

• Cambridge Film Festival and our Campus Cinema events
• regular field trips, such as to the BFI and Tate Modern
• guest lectures, with recent speakers including Margaret Salmon, Guy Sherwin, Jayne Parker, film editor and sound designer Larry Sider, and filmmaker William Raban
• events offered through our student-led film societies
• the chance to join Cam FM, a student-run radio station with studios on our campus and at Cambridge’s famous Fitzwilliam Museum.

Take a closer look

Our Creative Showcase shines a spotlight on what makes ARU creative and cultural – our spaces, places and people. Find out more about our community, the difference we make, the stories we tell, and the things that inspire us.

Meanwhile, Present is an exhibition that you curate for yourself. Explore the work of our graduating students in this eye-catching virtual degree show.

Careers

At ARU we work with employers to make sure you graduate with the knowledge, skills and abilities they need. They help us review what we teach and how we teach it and they offer hands-on, practical opportunities to learn through work-based projects, internships or placements.

Our BA (Hons) Film and Media degree will help you prepare for many film and media-related roles, including film and television production and post-production, film journalism, cinema and film festival management, film programming and curation, publishing, broadcasting, web design and public relations.

You might also decide to continue on to a Masters course, such as our MA Film and Television Production. Take advantage of our Alumni Scholarship and get 20% off your fees.