Download MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Film

PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION
PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION
Programme title:
MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Film
Final award (BSc, MA etc):
MA
(where stopping off points exist they should be
detailed here and defined later in the document)
UCAS code:
(where applicable)
Cohort(s) to which this programme
specification is applicable:
2014 Onwards
(e.g. from 2008 intake onwards)
Awarding institution/body:
University College London
Teaching institution:
University College London
Faculty:
SHS
Parent Department:
Anthropology
(the department responsible for the administration of
the programme)
Departmental web page address:
www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/
(if applicable)
Method of study:
F-T and P-T (2 years)
Full-time/Part-time/Other
Criteria for admission to the
programme:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospectivestudents/graduate/taught/degrees/ethnographic-documentary-filmpractical-ma
Length of the programme:
One Year
(please note any periods spent away from UCL, such
as study abroad or placements in industry)
Level on Framework for Higher
Education Qualifications (FHEQ)
(see Guidance notes)
Relevant subject benchmark statement
(SBS)
(see Guidance notes)
M level
PGT subject benchmark statement for anthropology not yet
published
Brief outline of the structure of the
programme
and
its
assessment
methods:
(see guidance notes)
Course Description
The programme of teaching
(a) provides students with professional level skills in the production of
ethnographic and documentary film; and
(b) gives them an intellectual grounding in social and historical research to
use these practical skills to further research and understanding of the social
world.
Sessions are designed to provide students with the skills necessary to think
through and interact with issues around film practice in a concrete, practical
way as well as to think about the ‘why’ of film production – what does a film
do? As proven by existing practice, this approach enables students to
develop their own ideas and questions in using moving image to investigate
the world around them.
The MA programme is structured into three elements.

A core course provides practical training including screenings,
masterclasses, and seminars on the history of documentary film.

Options allow students to do further courses in film theory and
history.

Credits taken within Anthropology or in other departments within
SLASH provide training in social theory and social research.
Those seeking to work in Ethnographic mode – and without previous
anthropology training - will take part of the Introduction to Social
Anthropology course (GS01a) as well as another option within Anthropology
– concentrating their training in appropriate areas.
The core course, GF01 taught over two terms, contains all the practical
training with formative assessment throughout as well as for grade
assessments on five pieces of work (four film exercises and one written text)
produced in the course of the two terms. The course is designed to teach
camera and editing skills in a context of critical enquiry about the social
world. Students will be encouraged to take at least one Optional course in
film theory and history either in the anthropology department or from other
programs at UCL.
The course uses UCL’s camera and computer-editing equipment, the
extensive collections in film and the visual anthropology laboratory. It will run
in the new SLASH media lab (macs) housed within UCL’s historic South
Wing.
All students are allocated a personal senior tutor – from our bank of leading
documentary film makers – who supervise the production of the final film
project and are involved from the beginning of the year in overseeing
preparation for that.
Optional courses
One of either ANTHGS17 or ANTHGC10 Anthropology of Photography or a
Film Studies Programme Course, but excluding the practice based courses in
that programme. These include (depending on staff availability year by year)
in 13-14:
GERMG048 - Weimar and Nazi Film; FRENGF01 - Theories and Practices
of Film; FRENGF03 - The French New Wave; ITALGF12 - Genre in Italian
Cinema; SEESGR61 - Russian Cinema: Epochs and Genres; HISTG079 Hollywood Genres; HISTGF02 - Public Nightmares: Screening Cold War
Anxieties; ENGLGF09 - Film Exhibition; FILMG001 - Cinema and the British
City; SPANGF02 - New Argentine Cinemas; CLASGR03 - Ancient Rome on
Film; HISTGC06 - Chinese Film and the Body.
Board of Examiners:
Students are recommended to take up to two elective courses
alongside with the core course, but they may choose to take two
optional courses and one elective.
We would expect the relevant courses to include:
ANTHGC09 Anthropology and Photography; ANTHGC12
Anthropology of the Built Environment; ANTHGC13 Anthropology of
Art and Design; ANTHGC14 The Anthropology of Consumption and
Media; ANTHGC15 Anthropology of Cultural Heritage and Museum
Anthropology; ANTH2001 Introduction to the Technology of a
Selected Region; ANTH3020 Social Construction of Landscapes;
Anthropology of Media and Consumption; Anthropology and
Psychiatry; Anthropology of Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity; Medical
Anthropology; Religious Symbolism and the Politics of Belief;
Gender, Language and Culture; Risk, Power and Uncertainty.
Name of Board of Examiners:
Ethnographic and Documentary Film
Professional body accreditation
(if applicable):
None
Date of next scheduled
accreditation visit:
EDUCATIONAL AIMS OF THE PROGRAMME:
This degree provides training in the use of digital media and teaches students to produce broadcast quality
ethnographic and documentary films. It enables students to use film in and as a means of research (rather
than simply as a means to document research). It thereby develops learners’ interest in and knowledge of a
broad based approach to Anthropology, through the study of humankind in the widest sense. We recruit
both students new to social science and those who have some training in general Anthropology and social
science but who want to specialise in the visual field. We encourage students to explore the boundaries of
documentary practice, engaging with anthropological and social science perspectives and drawing
inspiration from an engagement with these fields. The course develops students’ critical skills in film
analysis through work on the history of film, its connection with scholarship and the world in which it is
embedded and through practical application and experience of creating a series of short films, culminating
in a ‘full-length’ student film (20-35’). Students acquire full competence in manipulating and managing
digital recording devices, editing and publishing.
Throughout we use anthropological perspectives based on the comparative study of societies, historically
and culturally. We also have good partnerships with other parts of UCL (Slade, Film Studies, European
Studies, Computer Science and the Media Institute/Centre) whose activities impinge directly on our field of
training.
PROGRAMME OUTCOMES:
The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding,
qualities, skills and other attributes in the following areas:
Students will acquire the technical skills needed to complete a series of video projects to broadcast
standards using professional video cameras and professional editing suites.
Students will acquire practical, analytical and intellectual skills in using moving image and sound recording
equipment.
Student will learn to explore the relationship between changing technology and developing methodology in
exploration of the social world.
Student will obtain critical, informed insight into the representational capacity of moving image.
Students will obtain understanding of how film can be integrated into the process of social research.
The MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Film provides skills needed by those students wishing to
pursue careers in:
• Mass media including broadcast, cinematic and web-based moving image
• Film and TV industry as camera operators, producers, directors, editors, researchers
• Academia – ethnographic research, visual media and culture
• Marketing and research
• Communication and other media
• Archives as well as cultural heritage organisations
A: Knowledge and understanding
Knowledge and understanding of:
-broad based anthropology focusing
upon the production of factual moving
image
-core topics in visual and digital
anthropology, such as representation,
art, media, heritage
-specialist methods in visual
anthropology and documentary film
including filming, interviews, editing,
producing
Teaching/learning methods and strategies:
Lectures, seminars, small group presentations and
discussions, film-viewings, intensive laboratory and
practical film work. Teaching includes intensive
contact with and feedback from research active
staff. Non-assessed formative coursework during
the terms helps students gain confidence in dealing
with a range of complex technical, conceptual and
theoretical issues.
Assessment:
A wide variety of assessments are used in different
core and optional courses, including assessed
formative coursework, assessed summative
coursework, unseen (timed) exercise and a film with
film-maker’s diary.
B: Skills and other attributes
Intellectual (thinking) skills:
1• reason critically;
•2 devise a visual research project
3• Apply anthropological and social
science approaches to film work
4• Identify and solve problems
5• Demonstrate and exercise
independence of mind and thought
6• critically view and read, analyse and
interpret
7• evaluate and integrate conflicting
sources, evidence, theories and
interpretation
8• think critically about the relations
between form and content in
ethnographic/ documentary practice
Teaching/learning methods and strategies:
Intellectual skills are developed through the
teaching and learning programme outlined above.
Each course, whatever the format of the teaching,
involves discussion of key issues, practice in
applying concepts both orally and in writing,
production of visual material and individual
feedback session for students on work produced.
Assessment:
C: Skills and other attributes
Practical skills (able to):
Practically they will be able to:
1• handle different cameras to produce
broadcast quality image
2• handle different sound recording
equipment to produce broadcast quality
sound for film
3• Master the technical skills to use
professional editing programme/s
4• Produce different sorts of films, of
different lengths for varied audiences
5• Manage a film project carried out by
oneself
6• Manage small scale collaborative film
projects
7• Critically view and review film material
and produce argued justification for an
analysis of such
8• Devise collaborative film making
projects
Teaching/learning methods and strategies:
Seminars and tutorials with a combination of
teacher led instruction and appraisal of student’s
ongoing practical coursework, providing individual
feedback on the film work and projects. Students
will be expected to spend considerable amounts of
time – equivalent to the reading component of a
book based course – cultivating and practising the
practical camera and IT skills. Students will,
throughout the year, produce a series of film studies
culminating in a full-length film study.
Assessment:
D: Skills and other attributes
Transferable skills (able to):
1• make broadcast quality and more
broadly screenable documentary film
2• manage the production of such
3• produce professional camerawork
4• record sound for moving image to a
professional level
5• edit moving image to professional level
and under pressure of time
6 • write analytically well grounded and
persuasive analysis of film material
7• work on collaborative film projects in
terms of conception, management and
deliver
8• produce a budget and learn to ‘pitch’ a
film to funders
9• manage a range of IT programs and
their integration within a given project
Teaching/learning methods and strategies:
Effective communication of ideas is an important
criterion in assessing all areas of a student’s work,
and regular feedback as well as the final mark reflect
this. The product of skills, 4, 6 and 7 are assessed
by both the coursework and extended essays/diaries
and the films produced which, although supervised
are, nevertheless the results of independent thought
and work/research by the learner. Skill 5 is assessed
through the assembly of necessary information for
essays, films and their work on computers. Skills 2
and 3 are not formally assessed. Skill 1, in terms of
writing is formally assessed with the project diary.
Oral skills are not formally assessed. IT skills are
assessed through all the film assessments.
Assessment:
The following reference points were used in designing the programme:
 the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications:
(http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Framework-Higher-Education-Qualifications-08.pdf);
 the relevant Subject Benchmark Statements:
(http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements);
 the programme specifications for UCL degree programmes in relevant subjects (where applicable);
 UCL teaching and learning policies;
 staff research.
Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the
learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if he/she takes
full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided. More detailed information on the learning outcomes,
content and teaching, learning and assessment methods of each course unit/module can be found in the
departmental course handbook. The accuracy of the information contained in this document is reviewed annually
by UCL and may be checked by the Quality Assurance Agency.
Programme Organiser(s)
Michael Stewart
Name(s):
Date of Production*:
31 July 2015
Date of Review:
April 2015
Date approved by Head of
Department:
April 2015
Date approved by Chair of
Departmental Teaching
Committee:
Date approved by Faculty
Teaching Committee
April 2015
August 2015
* Note: this should be date the programme specification was first created. The dates of review and approval by
the Head of Department, DTC and FTC should be the most recent dates, as part of the Annual Monitoring
process (see the AM Guidelines). The latter two may be approved by Chair’s action.