About this course

Learn media production skills and develop your knowledge of the film, TV and digital media industries.

On this course, you'll become a knowledgeable and independent student of screen media.

You'll learn about:

film, TV and digital media across different social, historical and cultural contexts, and from significant theoretical perspectives
how digital media have affected our relationship with the environment and each other
how digital platforms have transformed the way audiences produce and consume film, TV and other media

You'll be taught by leading scholars and explore a wide range of films, directors and movements. You'll also study modern TV shows and genres.

In addition, you'll:

identify and explore key issues in digital culture
examine the development of film and TV, and changing professional practice
learn how the screen industries work through practical and creative tasks such as video essays and visualising data

An extensive catalogue of films will be available to support your learning.

You'll be part of a thriving student film culture, including a student film society and TV channel, and have the chance to show your own work as part of the annual Southampton Student Film Festival.

Course location

This course is based at Avenue.

Awarding body

This qualification is awarded by the University of Southampton.

Download the Course Description Document

The Course Description Document details your course overview, your course structure and how your course is taught and assessed.

Changes due to COVID-19

Although the COVID-19 situation is improving, any future restrictions could mean we might have to change the way parts of our teaching and learning take place in 2022 to 2023. This means that some of the information on this course page may be subject to change.

Find out more on our COVID advice page.

ODT

Download 2022-23 Course Description Document

Entry requirements

A-levels

ABB including an essay writing subject

A-levels additional information

Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Geography, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies, Criminology, Psychology, Sociology, Modern European Foreign Languages.

More information about A-levels

A-levels with Extended Project Qualification

If you are taking an EPQ in addition to 3 A levels, you will receive the following offer in addition to the standard A level offer: BBB including an essay writing subject and grade A in the EPQ

A-levels contextual offer

We are committed to ensuring that all applicants with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise an applicant's potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme, as follows: BBB including an essay writing subject.

International Baccalaureate Diploma

Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level

International Baccalaureate Diploma additional information

*Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Geography, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies, Criminology, Psychology, Sociology, Modern European Foreign Languages.

More information about International Baccalaureate Diploma

International Baccalaureate contextual offer

We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.

International Baccalaureate Career Programme (IBCP) statement

Offers will be made on the individual Diploma Course subject(s) and the career-related study qualification. The CP core will not form part of the offer. Where there is a subject pre-requisite(s), applicants will be required to study the subject(s) at Higher Level in the Diploma course subject and/or take a specified unit in the career-related study qualification. Applicants may also be asked to achieve a specific grade in those elements. Please see the University of Southampton International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme (IBCP) Statement for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.

BTEC

Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC National Extended Diploma plus B in an A level essay writing subject. Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC National Diploma plus B in an A level essay writing subject Distinction in the BTEC National Extended Certificate plus AB to include an A level essay writing subject

RQF BTEC

Additional information

More information about BTEC

QCF BTEC

Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC Extended Diploma plus B in an A level essay writing subject. or Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC Diploma plus B in an A level essay writing subject. or Distinction in the BTEC Subsidiary Diploma plus AB to include an A level essay writing subject.

Entry requirements filter options

Other requirements

GCSE requirements

Applicants must hold GCSE English language (or GCSE English) (minimum grade 4/C) and mathematics (minimum grade 4/C)

Got a question?

Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.

Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000

Modules

For entry in Academic Year 2023-24

You must study the following modules in year 1:

Digital Media: Contexts and Histories

Digital media shape the world around us, but they emerge from longer histories rooted in specific social, cultural, industrial, and technological contexts. This module will introduce students to these contexts and histories, and provide a critical underst...

Digital Media: Culture and Identity

Introduction to Film 1: Style and Analysis

This module is primarily concerned with familiarising you with the basic principles of film form, narrative and style, as well as key methodologies of film analysis. The module introduces different stylistic elements and varied modes of filmmaking, includ...

Introduction to Film II: European Cinema

The module covers the history of European film from silent cinema to the present day, placing particular emphasis on the inter-war years, the post-war period and the contemporary moment. It examines national film cultures as well as the transnational elem...

You must study the following modules in year 2:

Digital Media: Practices and Provocations

Digital media have come to influence and shape the ways we live and engage with others. In this module you will engage with the impact of social media on our lives in a number of ways, for example, to gain an understanding of how social media has assiste...

Professional Practice

In an evolving digital environment, it is important to understand the practical skills and processes that are used to develop, create, and exhibit digital content that is attractive to both users and advertisers in order to remain competitive and relevant...

Television Studies: Key Debates

This module offers an introduction to the scholarly study of television as an audio-visual medium and cultural practice. By the end of the module you will be familiar with a number of key themes, critical approaches and theoretical debates within televisi...

You must also choose from the following modules in year 2:

Animation: Technology, Culture and Industry

Animation has been a part of cinema from its inception and remains one of the most popular forms of moving image in the 21st century. Some theorists have even argued that animation has preceded, contained, or replaced cinema. Yet, animation has been lar...

Contemporary British Cinema

The module builds on the foundation established by your work during year 1 Film. Furthermore the view that film can be viewed as an artform, cultural and historical artefact, and an industry is central to its rationale will be examined.

Data Environmentalism

Data is material. It is produced by people, it is made possible by resource extraction, it needs power to survive, it inhabits and resculpts the landscape. The use of data, then, contributes to climate catastrophe, but that role can be hard to see, hidden...

Film Adaptation

Film Noir: Exile Filmmakers and 1940s Hollywood

Film Noir is one of Hollywood’s perennial cult genres, yet it is notoriously difficult to define, as it essentially amounts to a retrospective invention by critics. This module will attempt to place the main corpus of the genre’s classics within its origi...

Film, Realism and Reality: representing the world, from revolution to the everyday

Moving pictures are often thought of as having a unique ability to uncover reality, because their basis in photography offers a mechanical record of the world rather than a creation dependent on the hand of the artist. Indeed, the very first films were do...

From Black and White to Colour: A Screen History of Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-War Britain

This module presents a history of post-war multicultural Britain through the lens of British film and television, considering how our attitudes to 'race', sexuality and British identity more generally have been defined, challenged and changed by film and...

Global Cinemas

While other modules in the Film Studies programme focus primarily on Hollywood and European cinema, in this module, this module aims to familiarise you with cinemas from other parts of the world, with celebrated and lesser-known examples of cinema from Af...

Just Data Futures

The module conceives of data as the products of human labour, of historically-specific circumstances of production that both structure presents and shape futures. Data are then never neutral. And yet the contexts that produce data are all too easily obscu...

Women and Hollywood

Using ‘Women and Hollywood' as its starting point, this module offers three areas of investigation: Hollywood's representation of women; women who make films in Hollywood and outside it; and the female spectators who make up the audiences and fans of Holl...

You must study the following modules in year 3:

Film, TV and Digital Media Dissertation

The dissertation is an independent research project which is the result of an in-depth study of an area of Film, TV and Digital Media studies. A dissertation gives you the opportunity to study a subject in much greater depth than usual and, with guidance ...

Online Video Culture

This module will reflect on how online culture and digital distribution have changed our screen-media usage, viewing habits and engagement with moving images, while also enable you to understand the longer historical contexts of such shifts. We will addre...

You must also choose from the following modules in year 3:

American Cinema Since 1965

The module offers a history of American cinema since 1965, covering the decline of the Hollywood studio system and the moment, from 1968 to 1975, when a new wave of directors produced a number of key films sometimes known as constituting the Hollywood art...

Animation: Technology, culture, and industry

Cinema and the Environment

There is now an overwhelming scientific and political consensus that climate change is occurring as a result of human activity and that there is an urgent need for action to address the causes and effects of this. This module will consider the place of f...

Crime TV: Technologies of Detection

Crime detection is prolific on television; a topic discussed across news and current affairs programming, documentaries, reality TV and, not the least, numerous crime dramas. This module examines different type of crime investigation narratives on televis...

Film Audiences: Theories, Methods and Contexts

Framing the Past:Stardom, History and Heritage in the Cinema

This module explores cinema’s relationship to the past, whether distant, as in that of ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt, or from a more recent history.

Horror on Film

Horror films have been one of the most consistent areas of cinema throughout its history. Despite horror quickly establishing itself in films, it was not until the 1930s and Hollywood's studio system that it became standardized as a genre with a repertoir...

International Film Industry: Issues and Debates

Film as industry plays out against the backdrop of a global economy, and at any given location witnesses high volumes of transnational flows of money, ideas and talent. At the intersections of these transnational flows we can detect influences of stakeho...

Music in Film and Television

In recent years, film culture has become increasingly aware of the film industry’s connections with the music industry. In some cases, critics have decried the use of films as vehicles for the sale of unconnected pop songs as if it were a new development,...

Video Games in Context

Careers

This course will prepare you for screen industry careers that demand creative thinking, communication skills and knowledge of digital media.

Our graduates have gone on to work for production companies such as Universal and Apple TV, and charitable film organisations like Rural Media.

Areas you could go into include:

production
distribution
exhibition
marketing
advertising
public relations
journalism

Some modules include industry guest speakers. This will help you learn from media professionals and build your networks.

You might also benefit from training sessions, workshops and internships with our partner Film Buddy, which connects industry with emerging talent.

Careers services at Southampton

We are a top 20 UK university for employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022). Our Careers and Employability Service will support you throughout your time as a student and for up to 5 years after graduation. This support includes:

work experience schemes
CV and interview skills and workshops
networking events
careers fairs attended by top employers
a wealth of volunteering opportunities
study abroad and summer school opportunities

We have a vibrant entrepreneurship culture and our dedicated start-up supporter, Futureworlds, is open to every student.

Work in industry

Between years 2 and 3 you can choose to take a year in employment. This will allow you to put your knowledge and skills into practice and build industry networks.

Placements and internships are another good way of boosting your employability. Our students have interned with the likes of:

Paramount Pictures
Disney
BBC
Girls on Film podcast
media marketing companies
social media campaign managers

Fees, costs and funding

Tuition fees

Fees for a year's study:

UK students pay £9,250.
EU and international students pay £20,340.

What your fees pay for

Your tuition fees pay for the full cost of tuition and all examinations.

Find out how to:

Accommodation and living costs, such as travel and food, are not included in your tuition fees. Explore:

Bursaries, scholarships and other funding

If you're a UK or EU student and your household income is under £25,000 a year, you may be able to get a University of Southampton bursary to help with your living costs. Find out about bursaries and other funding we offer at Southampton.

If you're a care leaver or estranged from your parents, you may be able to get a specific bursary.

Get in touch for advice about student money matters.

Scholarships and grants

You may be able to get a scholarship or grant to help fund your studies.

We award scholarships and grants for travel, academic excellence, or to students from under-represented backgrounds.

Support during your course

The Student Services Centre offers support and advice on money to students. You may be able to access our Student Support fund and other sources of financial support during your course.

Funding for EU and international students

Find out about funding you could get as an international student.

Film, TV and Digital Media (BA)

About this course

Course location

Awarding body

Download the Course Description Document

Changes due to COVID-19

Entry requirements

For Academic year 202324

A-levels

A-levels additional information

A-levels with Extended Project Qualification

A-levels contextual offer

International Baccalaureate Diploma

International Baccalaureate Diploma additional information

International Baccalaureate contextual offer

International Baccalaureate Career Programme (IBCP) statement

BTEC

RQF BTEC

Additional information

QCF BTEC

Access to HE Diploma

Access to HE additional information

Irish Leaving Certificate

Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2017)

Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2016)

Irish certificate additional information

Scottish Qualification

Cambridge Pre-U

Cambridge Pre-U additional information

Welsh Baccalaureate

Welsh Baccalaureate additional information

Welsh Baccalaureate contextual offer