Advanced Diploma in Film Production

Purpose

This qualification also seeks to educate students to be technologically adept, employable on the basis of solid disciplinary knowledge and the ability to apply this knowledge, socially responsive, innovative, and environmentally conscious.

Rationale

The need for such a qualification has been made evident by alumni of the Diploma qualification and by the industry, as voiced by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Media Department Industry Advisory Board (which represents a broad base of industry-specialisations in both film and photography, including corporate films, documentaries, commercials, feature films, and film and photographic servicing of foreign productions), as well as indicated by insight gained from the Associations of Commercial Producers, Screenwriters, Cinematographers and Editors. These sources indicate that, in a complex and growing services-based industry like media, there is a need for an advanced course focusing on the development of both cross-disciplinary skills (e.g journalists becoming film-makers), as well as more in-depth skills.

An advanced diploma addressing these concerns will add value to the national and regional growth patterns of the film industry, which in 2012 contributed R3.5 billion to gross domestic product (National Film and Video Foundation, South African Film Industry Economic Baseline Study, April 2013). The governmental focus on the film industry as a key economic driver, particularly in the Western Cape, provides the qualification with further impetus to address the skills shortage of people from disadvantaged communities in the knowledge economy, and to provide the film industry with graduates who have deeper technical, creative and entrepreneurial skills, thereby assisting the industry develop a local, homegrown film and television industry, as well as to serve the existing corporate, advertising and film-making service industries which drive the local film economy.

This qualification will serve as a follow-on from the Diploma in Film Production, which is based on the existing National Diploma in Film and Video Technology, which educates a student base with a demographic broadly reflective of the national and regional race and sex categories of the country.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

The qualification will, on a case-by-case basis, and based on the merits of applications, favourably consider candidates with prior qualifications in non-film-production disciplines (e.g journalism, photography etc) as well as candidates who have achieved a level 6 or 7 of a compatible Bachelor's Degree, and candidates with a sufficient level of industry experience to grant them an RPL.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirements are

• Diploma in Film Production.

Or

• Diploma in Media Studies.

This qualification consists of compulsory modules at Level 7 totalling 120 Credits.

Modules

• Media Theory, 20 Credits.
• Film Criticism, 20 Credits.
• Film Business, 20 Credits.
• Film Management, 20 Credits.
• Film Aesthetics, 20 Credits.

1. Source relevant and entertaining film content for the film industry, to a standard of advanced competency as per basic industry standards.
2. Perform appropriate roles within one of three streams of film production: Directing/Producing, Film Medium and Design, and Post-Production.
3. Engage with the film industry in a professional manner according to best practices, and in ways which engage self-direction, collaboration and innovation.

The following Associated Assessment Criteria will be assessed in an integrated manner across the Exit Level Outcomes

• Identify complex theoretical problems, applying theory-driven arguments, based on integrated knowledge of the main social and cultural theories and approaches to film and media studies.
• Analyse complex theoretical problems, applying theory-driven arguments, based on integrated knowledge of the main social and cultural theories and approaches to film and media studies.
• Critically reflect on theoretical problems, applying theory-driven arguments, based on integrated knowledge of the main social and cultural theories and approaches to film and media studies.
• Apply social science research methodologies in a professional (film industry) context following legitimate research design.
• Develop an integrated contextualised understanding of the representations of race, gender and sexuality in South African (SA) film.
• Identify, analyse, critically reflect on and address complex problems based on a contextualised understanding of how South African film relates to the local and global economic forces, and what local and international markets there are for SA films, applying evidence-based solutions and theory-driven arguments.
• Develop a working understanding of the theory and practice of film narratives as products in the local and international film and television industry.
• Demonstrate a contextualised understanding of how film businesses work through the application of business science research methodologies in a professional (film industry) context following legitimate research design.
• Show the ability to network and develop working relationships within the industry, so as to source and negotiate work as a freelance film practitioner, applying evidence-based solutions and theory-driven arguments.
• Identify, analyse, critically reflect on and address business problems based on a contextualised understanding of freelance business and entrepreneurial skills as a film practitioner.
• Engage business science research methodologies in a professional context, through identifying information sources, abstracting relevant material from sources, and describing the research succinctly in a professional written tone.

Integrated Assessment

The Exit Level Outcomes will be assessed through a combination of continuous assessment in each of the modules, plus a core integrated project, a film, that calls on the learning from all modules, and produced by all students together. The continuous assessment and integrated project will serve the purposes of integrated assessment and complex pedagogy.