Why study BA Hons Film and Television transcript

00:00

So I picked Film and TV as a undergrad degree because I was really interested in those two worlds and it seemed like the perfect place to find that sort of starting point and from that sort of career perspective.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera. Upbeat music plays in background.

0:12:08

So the film and television industry is a great career to pursue for any students, particularly at the moment because we've seen a huge amount of investment in the UK, in terms of film, television production a huge amount of studios that have been set up in the UK, companies like Netflix and Amazon who have created studios and productions in the UK so it's a great path for students to pursue if they're interested in experimenting with the equipment, the cameras, the kit that we have here at Solent and it provides them with the training that they need then to go off into the real world and to actually make films as part of production companies or either as freelancers themselves.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

0:52:14

The most important thing I definitely felt like I got from being on Film and Television, was those personable skills. I found that being able to be better at organising, being able to deal with people better, be able to work in smaller teams with smaller budgets, is something that has been really beneficial to me because going into the film and television world is a really scary entity and being able to have confidence in talking to people, working with people and working in those environments is a really key thing and the lecturers were amazing in making me feel more comfortable and more confident in achieving those skills.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

2:05:20

So the Film, Television degree covers all aspects of production, so from pre-production all the way through to post, so in terms of pre-production we'll take a look at things like the financial side of how do you actually get a film made and then we start to look at the production side of things in terms of the kit and equipment that you need to shoot and how to go about doing that and then obviously we shift over to post-production in terms of editing and also post-production sound, although there's an overlap there with some of the production. We also think about the elements outside of the production in terms of distribution and exhibition - so not only how do you get your film made, but how do you get it seen by audiences and how do you get it into not only cinemas but also online platforms and festivals as well.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

2:53:05

The thing I really found interesting about Film and TV is that because it is looking at both worlds you do have really good opportunities to delve into anything there where you want to in film but also anything you want to in TV. When it got to the point of my dissertation and because I had, had that such sort of broad spectrum of things to learn and study, it meant it was really interesting so I looked into cult film in more detail and that was something that really interested me.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

3:17:03

So there's a huge range of opportunities available for students to get involved, in terms of actual filmmaking as part of the degree. Most of the modules that the students actually study will either have a filmmaking or editing component as part of the assessment. Beyond that though there's a huge range of work placement opportunities with people like Solent Creative's, Solent Productions. We've also got our in-house Solent TV, television network. So there's a huge amount of opportunities for students to gain work experience as part of their degree, but also outside of that degree as well as part of the extracurricular activities that we have here at Solent.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

3:54:24

The most interesting thing I did on the course, I think had to be the TV studio module we did in first year. I think to be in a position where you're very new to the world of university and your university experience and you get put into a studio with the equipment, that you do and sort of new people around you that you don't necessarily know and to sort of, be thrown in there and get the opportunity to work together and create a fun exciting game show project that could you know, make everyone laugh when you're filming it, and coming up with it, I think that was something that I'm going to really treasure for for a long time.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

4:28:16

So one of the great things about Solent is the access to the kit and equipment that we have here. Not only do we have a full range of four full studios that the students can use, including green screen spaces such as this one here, we've got a huge amount of cameras that students can be trained on in their first year all the way up to their final year and by that final year they're working on kit and equipment that are industry standard that hollywood film directors and independent film directors are using.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

4:57:03

The facilities at Solent University are unbelievable, I mean, we get new cameras every year that we get to learn on and we can get them out whenever we need, and the studios are phenomenal in terms of what we can use as a university and I felt incredibly lucky and I know a lot of my peers felt incredibly lucky.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

5:14:24

So not only do they get full access to a wide range of studios but also in terms of the kit and equipment that they use, which are fundamentally industry standard. And what this does is, it makes the segway between university and industry as seamless as possible.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

5:30:22

There were lots of really interesting opportunities for guest lectures and workshops. I attended the editing film week stuff, where editors from the world of film came in to talk about their experiences editing big major films, but we also got really lucky to have people like Maisie Williams and Mark Gatiss come in to talk to us about their their careers and their projects.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

5:50:17

We're also really keen in that we invite local production companies in to speak to our students about what it's like in terms of a kind of boots on the ground approach whether it's you know, how to be a runner, how to work on a film set - so there's a huge amount of opportunities for students to meet and network with guest speakers that come in and that can teach them about real life experiences.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

6:12:10

And there were great opportunities to speak to local companies, work with Southampton Film Week for example, to do filming opportunities there and all those sort of extracurricular opportunities were really important for me and my peers to get better experience and even just being involved in things like societies at Solent was another sort of amazing thing that the university offered to give us that sort of more enriched experience.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

6:34:15

On top of that you can work as part of the festivals so we've got our outside broadcasting truck, so you can go to festivals such as Glastonbury and Bestival and work behind the scenes there and produce content which can then be used for the BBC and other networks as well.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

6:51:07

I was part of Radio Sonar which was the university student radio station and I ended up sort of running that by the time I finished my undergrad course and being part of that was really really useful in terms of actually on my film and television course because it was another thing that sort of helped me build up those personal skills that I could then take to a film shoot or a TV shoot and have a better experience as a result, because I knew how to manage people.

Student of BA Hons Film and Television, Danny Humby, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

7:16:04

So many of our students here at Solent go on to work within the film industry in a variety of different roles, whether it be Production Assistants, whether it be Runners, Camera Operators and so on and so forth. We've had alumni that work for broadcast companies such as Sky, BBC, Channel 4 but also work for independent production companies and also a number of our students go on to be freelancers working for themselves.

Course Leader for Film and Television, Dr Stuart Joy, is stood in a greenscreen studio talking to camera.

7:39:03

Upbeat music plays, then fades out. Cuts to graphic that says, 'Get ready for university', www.solent.ac.uk, fades down, and fades up Solent University logo. [Video ends]