Program Overview

The Bachelor of Film Production at UC encourages students to foster their interests in filmmaking, expand their creative thinking, explore the craft of audiovisual storytelling and collaborate closely with others. The course promotes students to become thoughtful and ethically minded practitioners, to consider both the stories we tell and, in relation to ecologically sustainable practices, how we choose to tell them by asking the question: “What does it mean to be a filmmaker today?” You will gain knowledge and skills in live action film making, film and story theory and analysis, collaborative practice, and leadership within a complex creative environment. Students apply theoretical knowledge to their practice through the development of film projects from conceptualisation to production, post-production and final delivery by following established digital workflows. The course introduces students to film cameras and lenses, tripods, dollies and jibs, lighting equipment, location sound recording mixers, microphones and booms, studio and set construction facilities, green screen studio, compositing, editing, sound and colour grading software and facilities.

Study a Bachelor of Film Production at UC and you will:

• Explore the question: what does it mean to be a filmmaker today?
• Be involved in creative collaboration that helps develop your interpersonal skills as well as a sense of collective responsibility.
• Work to creative parameters to develop adaptability and flexibility – highly transferable skills in a fast-changing world.
• Analyse and evaluate a screenplay for story, narrative, theme, and character.
• Cast actors and rehearse and direct them in a variety of genres.
• Research your subject and consider the ethical aspects of working within a documentary mode.
• Develop your creative practice in filmmaking and specialise in a technical craft role.
• Learn established filmmaking language, methods and techniques.
• Choose electives to tailor your degree to more specific future pathways.
• Engage with Work Integrated Learning (WIL) that enables you to form industry relationships and engage with the social and professional world of film production.
• Deploy industry-standard procedures for managing hazards and safety in film production.

Work Integrated Learning
Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is at the very centre of the Bachelor of Film Production, with the course content and structure developed with ongoing input and feedback from the Australian film production industry. You’ll learn from industry-active professionals and world-class scholars and will work and study in real-world situations through project work, internships, professional experience, mentorships, and international study opportunities.

Students are required to undertake 100 WIL hours, which can be mixed across multiple sources, including editing experience with a production company, marketing with a film festival, or a camera traineeship with a television station. Past student placements have included Wildbear, Channel 9, Canberra Short Film Festival, Stronger Than Fiction, National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra International Film Festival, By George!, Screen Canberra, and the ABC TV/Playmaker Media drama series ‘The Code’.

Core Major: Film Production
On the one hand, The Film Production Core Major draws on units from the allied disciplines of Design, Writing and Digital Media Arts to broaden a student's film production skills, whilst on the other hand the Professional and WIL units position students within an industrial context.