Best place to study film production in UK?

[tizalinatuna]

As title says, but also open to hear non UK places. I know it is an overfilled industry and DS is realistic. However, having quite a bit of well regarded direction and editing under his belt, he is keen to give it a go. Am wondering if anyone has thoughts. Something irks me about Ravensbourne. I think he should go to art college, but he is more mainstream focussed. Of course, some might say go straight into industry. DS is very academic too. Should he actually do something else?!

National Film and Television school in Beaconsfield? Or Bournemouth?

A friend's daughter is a finalist at Bath Spa. She turned down Bournemouth after they made lots of promises at their open day, then offered a foundation year with the possibility of a place on their degree course the following year. It sounded like an excuse to get an extra year of fees.

@tizalinatuna
Its a difficult one. The Complete university guide shows there are lots of options. Surrey comes out top. Followed by UEA, Royal Holloway, UAL and Newcastle. There are then loads more including Salford - which must be worth a look! Someone gets the jobs! However there do seem to be a lot of courses. Do ant have a placement year? I might look for that. There’s also University of the Creative Arts. Lots of their courses have a compulsory foundation year. I would not dismiss Ravensbourne. You don’t necessarily need an arts college but you do need one where grads get work!

The CUG needs pulling sapart as that league tables includes other subjects. I woukd not say that all if those are known for, or do, film production, so check websites.

This is quite a niche field. Is he sure he wants to do a practical course?

This is well regarded

https://screenfilmschool.ac.uk/

OP, are you on the WIWIKAU group on Facebook? I'm sure the topic of film production degrees has been discussed on there, so worth going on and searching past posts.

Yes, it was... it was me who gave a few of the answers 😉

Bournemouth. Fantastic.

There's an accreditation for the TV/film industry called ScreenSkills, which might help?
https://www.screenskills.com/select-courses/

I teach film production. I think my course is great (I would say that) but I moved to my current uni for specific reasons. These were: having the majority of staff from the film industry rather than PhD holders who don't know how the industry works; having Screenskills accreditation and being in a city with loads of film production going on. (I moved from Bournemouth to my new uni.) The course is very practical but with lots of space for thinking about impact and ethics. We teach our student's collaboration- I'd be wary of too much art school auteurism because you need to be a team player to get a job.

And now I want to know where! But is outing I guess!

Can you message me please
Son has offers at UEA York and Bristol
And struggling to choose - would be so helpful if you don't mind us asking some specific questions

@Piggywaspushed
I checked the category was film production. Not film studies. I clicked on the courses that came up to double check. I did not post universities that did not meet the brief.

Reading do a BA Film & Television and other options that include film. Might be worth considering as you say he's academic.
I used to work there and the Dept of fim, theatre and television have great facilities. https://www.reading.ac.uk/ready-to-study/study/2023/film-and-television-ug

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4773914-film-or-film-production-degree?reply=125123419

This was the thread I started on the same degree subject last month, I got some useful information and advice if you want to take a look. I'm thinking about sending my dc to a film production summer course so they can get an idea whether this is something they want to do for three years.

University of Salford - much of it based in mediaCity, ITV studios, BBC studios right next store to the uni. Well kitted out for film and tv production and obviously having BBC and ITV on the doorstep is advantageous for students wanting work experience/placements and making good contacts! 😊

We’re outside the uk but a friend’s daughter did this after art college and said it was great and she’s been working in tv production since.. https://kerrycollege.ie/full-time-courses/broadcast-production-film-tv-tralee/

Surrey's degree for example is a film engineering degree. It's a BEng. It's great but it's not film production in its usual sense, requiring A level maths. Newcastle is specifically film and TV with production in it but specialises in documentary. As far as I can see, the CUG's category is 'communication and media studies' or 'drama , dance and cinematics'. The Guardian does do a more specific one.

On this occasion, could you please accept I know what I am talking about?

Looking at a league table is even less helpful than usual for subjects like film production as lots of places aren't featured so insider knowledge nd/or experiences of where students have been happy is helpful

OP, can you give more details about your DS. Is he doing A levels? What in? If he did do a more 'academic' degree, what would he choose to study? My most academic students who have trodden this path have gone to Edinburgh Napier, Brighton Film School, Surrey for aforementioned engineering degree, and Middlesex.

It sounds like he already has a portfolio which he will definitely need to apply to lots of the more practical degree courses.

DS is doing Filmmaking. It’s really worth looking at each course in detail alongside exactly what your DS wants to do. eg

Is the course screenskills accredited
What type of modules do they do? (does your son prefer more practical elements or theory?)
Does the course appear to have good industry links?

DS wanted pure film production (rather than TV and film) which narrowed down the options quite a bit.

On this occasion, could you please accept I know what I am talking about?

Crikey, good luck with that

For those of you who've asked me for specifics, I will message you, but I am having a rare day off today so if it's ok it won't be til later.

Overall there is a stills shortage in drama for tech roles and in many parts of unscripted too, so it’s a good rather than dreamy career choice. I know Ravensbourne as good for gfx - does your son have a sense of what he wants to do OP - direct or edit, and in drama or unscripted??

If he wants to do something tech based like editing, a practical degree is a decent idea. There’s a big shortage of editors in unscripted right now.

If he wants to direct drama I think either art school or a combined film studies degree is best, if he wants to be a producer/director in docs then I’d do then either just do whatever degree but pick up camera skills or do a film and TV course combined with something else.

I work in factual TV so if that areas of interest to him feel free to PM

Here is a pix of the CUG front page. Yes Surrey is more engineering but maybe that’s why it’s at no 1? However worth it for comparison. Others are absolutely making films and all are worth consideration.

But that's not the league table. That's a list of courses ranked by league table for overall university position. So, on the right hand side of that page , it shows the rank order in the communication and media studies league table, where Surrey is , for whatever reasons, 30th.

Surrey isn't 'more engineering' - it's a BEng.

I'll leave you to it tizer. The OP wants specific advice : she can look up the various league tables herself.