Bachelor of Creative Writing

Purpose

The purpose of the qualification is to equip learners to enter the industry as creative media writers. The qualification equips learners with the capacity to create a variety of media texts, according to a brief, and geared towards a market place. Also, provides specialised knowledge in at least two of the eight discipline majors on offer and the capacity to critically and academically engage with a wide variety of theoretical domains of knowledge. The qualification is designed to train the learner, with an in-depth vertical knowledge of the humanities, narrative theories and the business of writing, and broad horizontal knowledge of media formats.

Rationale

Writing courses have existed in both Film and Television, but the creative industries are undergoing massive growth and diversification. There is a need to advance the core business of Creative Writing, new emerging platforms and media technologies will have highly trained content providers. At the heart of all, work in this industry is Story. This new qualification is conceived to provide a high-level intervention in the entertainment industry as it exists but will be structured to be responsive to the rapidly changing landscape. Digital Convergence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is affecting the way the new audiences across the whole African continent consume entertainment product. South Africa has a vital role to play in this burgeoning creative arts industry.

With the submission of this qualification, along with a forthcoming submission of a Bachelor of Art in Media Art and Design, the institution envisages developing an ecosystem of all the salient disciplines in the creative industries. Traditionally education took place in strictly segmented channels of knowledge, but with the rapid advancement of technology, different fields of knowledge such and the Arts and Humanities, Science and Commerce are becoming increasingly integrated. The qualifications will result in groups of talented alumni, including entrepreneurs, television and filmmakers, and performing artists. Also, collaborating in the creation of creative industries with innovative and sustainable projects, and by doing so, develop South Africa's creative economy.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Learners who are eligible for RPL need to comply with the following

• Must have at least five years of vocational experience as writers or script editors in the entertainment or media communication industries.
• Must present a portfolio of evidence demonstrating the required entry-level skills for NQF Level 5 (RPL for Access) and NQF level 6 (RPL for Credits) as per the Level Descriptors for the National Qualifications Framework.

The RPL process starts with an interview with the learner to ascertain the most appropriate RPL pathway. There are two pathways available for this qualification, namely RPL for Access, and RPL for Credits. Both of these pathways require an initial measurement of previous learning.

Measurement of non-formal, informal and experiential learning

• Appropriate staff members will assess a portfolio of practical and academic evidence with relevant assessment instruments, against the entry requirements appropriate for NQF level 5 (RPL for Access) and NQF level 6 (RPL for Credits).
• Additional customised tests, based on the findings above, can be used and evaluated in cases where portfolios lack the required evidence for entry-level skills. Where required, the recommendation of the appropriate remedial action during the study.

Certification for RPL for Access

• If learners demonstrate the required competencies, they will be granted RPL for Access.

Certification for RPL for Credit

- RPL for credits will be awarded for entry into 2nd year and is obtainable in the following ways

> Presentation of a portfolio of written work equivalent to the project outcomes of Year 1. Determination of the authenticity of the work is through an interview regarding the writing processes that resulted in the work.

> An entrance exam generates the equivalence of the project outcomes of Year 1.

> The above will be assessed using the standard assessment instruments and should learners pass; they will be awarded credits for.

The following mechanisms to support of RPL learners are in place

• Profiling and monitoring of the learner through the Registry.
• Additional opportunities for formative assessment and feedback.
• Additional staff support where additional tasks or consultations to support remedial requirements.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirement for this qualification is

• National Senior Certificate, NQF Level 4 (granting access to Bachelor studies).

Or

• National Certificate (Vocational), NQF Level 4 (granting access to Bachelor studies).

This qualification comprises of compulsory and elective modules at NQF Levels 5, 6 and 7 totalling 360 Credits.

Compulsory Modules, Level 5, 120 Credits

• Concept Creation Studies: Narrative Studies, 12 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: The writer and the world of thought and society, 12 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: Language Use, 8 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: Media Literacies, 8 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: The world of work, 8 Credits.
• Discipline: Playwriting, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Screenplay, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Series Writing, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Copywriting for advertising and social media, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Documentary, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Entertainment Formats, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Factual Writing for Media, 9 Credits.
• Discipline: Short Story, 9 Credits.

Compulsory Modules, Level 6, 48 Credits

• Concept Creation Studies: Narrative Studies, 12 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: The writer and the World of Thought and Society, 12 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: Language Use, 8 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: Media Literacies, 8 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: The World of Work, 8 Credits.

Elective Modules, Level 6, 72 Credits (Choose four)

• Discipline: Playwriting, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Screenplay, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Series Writing, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Copywriting for advertising and social media, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Documentary, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Entertainment Formats, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Factual Writing for Media, 18 Credits.
• Discipline: Short Story, 18 Credits.

Compulsory Modules, Level 7, 84 Credits

• Concept Creation Studies: Narrative Studies, 12 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: The writer and the world of thought and society, 12 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: Language Use, 8 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: Media Literacies, 8 Credits.
• Concept Creation Studies: The world of work, 8 Credits.
• Discipline: Playwriting, 36 Credits.

Elective Modules, Level 7, 36 Credits (Choose one)

• Discipline: Screenplay, 36 Credits.
• Discipline: Series Writing, 36 Credits.
• Discipline: Copywriting for advertising and social media, 36 Credits.
• Discipline: Documentary, 36 Credits.
• Discipline: Entertainment Formats, 36 Credits.
• Discipline: Factual Writing for Media, 36 Credits.
• Discipline: Short Story, 36 Credits.

1. Apply relevant theories and concepts from the relevant knowledge fields to inform the development of the project outcomes.

2 Conceptualise and develop a creative work to industry standard and pitch this for commission or sale in a work-simulated market place.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Apply knowledge of narrative structure and design to selected project outcomes.
• Apply knowledge drawn from the Humanities to inform the content of the selected project outcomes.
• Apply knowledge of the language used to inform the writing style of the selected project outcomes.
• Apply knowledge of visual media literacies to create a visual aesthetic for the selected project outcomes.
• Use knowledge from the world of work to secure a commission or sale of creative work.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Use a live event script format correctly.
• Originate a live event broadcast concept appropriate to target audiences.
• Originate a presenter script for a live event actuality format.
• Apply knowledge of the narrative role of the presenters, personalities, celebrities, fans and audience.
• Apply knowledge of the particular challenges of outside broadcast at live events.
• Apply knowledge of how to compensate through narrative for a live, uncontrolled environment.
• Apply knowledge of how to use the technical possibilities of outside broadcasts units to enhance the narrative.
• Apply knowledge of budget and production implications and write within these limitations.
• Demonstrate the skills to pitch the creative work in a work-simulated environment to secure a sale or commission.
• Use a narrative structure to develop compelling characters.
• Use the narrative structure to manipulate time and space.
• Use 1st/2nd/3rd person narration and direct/ indirect speech.
• Apply tenses correctly.
• Use formal devices to withhold and release information.
• Use formal devices to create tension.
• Use literary devices such as subtext, irony, dramatic irony, point of view and punctuation.
• Understand the relationship between narrative form and content in the context of the intended audience.
• Demonstrate the skills to pitch the creative work in a work-simulated environment to secure a sale or commission.
• Apply knowledge of a variety of gamification strategies/techniques.
• Identify the most appropriate strategy and techniques for their particular brand marketing strategy and market appeal.
• Devise mechanisms to ensure audience engagement with the gaming strategy.
• Devise mechanisms to maintain audience engagement with the gaming strategy.
• Apply knowledge of how and why gamification strengthens the brand-consumer relationship.
• Develop a script for the above.
• Develop a full multimedia campaign.
• Develop a successful cross-platform campaign.
• Devise a schedule/running order for a live promotional event that increases consumer engagement.
• Use SEO and social media practices to create engagement before, during and after the event.
• Devise a strategy for sustained engagement.
• Analyse and understand how consumers engage with different content mediums.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the needs and desires of both the consumer and the client.
• Pitch a multimedia campaign in a professional setting.
• Apply knowledge of the context and principles of contemporary documentary making.
• Apply knowledge of trends in contemporary documentary making.
• Apply knowledge of how pacing and rhythm affect meaning and apply pacing and rhythm effectively.
• Apply narrative cause and effect.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how settings influence the audience.
• Predict audience expectations.
• Use voice-over effectively
• Apply knowledge of mechanisms for effective character portrayal.
• Identify the distribution mechanisms to find a selected audience.
• Gather information about the marketplace for appropriate pitching.
• Format a TV a full script correctly.
• Develop a step outline for act 1, 2 and 3 of a pilot episode.
• Identify and generate a story engine for a television/radio series.
• Develop a professional pitch for a drama series appropriate to a chosen target audience.
• Originate a mini bible for a drama series.
• Write within the parameters of budget and production implications.
• Project story seasons of a series.
• Develop the first draft of a full half-hour pilot episode of an original series from outline based on the mini bible.
• Present a ready-to-pitch television/radio series for either the SA TV/Radio industry or the international industry or both.
• Apply knowledge of different hybrid television formats, the use of multiple platforms and the adaptability of hybrid television shows.
• Apply knowledge of format mechanisms and their use
• Apply knowledge of format rights and format bibles.
• Apply knowledge of viewer participation and the use of multiple platforms
• Apply knowledge of budget and production implications and write within these limitations.
• Apply knowledge of characterisation for stage
• Apply knowledge of dramatic structure for time and space manipulation.
• Apply knowledge of the withholding and releasing of information through formal devices.
• Apply knowledge of the creation of tension through formal devices.
• Apply knowledge of subtext, irony and dramatic irony.
• Apply knowledge of writing to budget and production limitations.
• Apply dramaturgical skills to develop a protagonist and antagonist through dialogue.
• Create tension between the internal and external life of a character; develop points of view, core conflict and dramatic action to create an author's voice.
• Apply knowledge of the context for which writing takes place and the audience and market it is intended.
• Apply professional presentation and formatting skills to a 24-minute screenplay.
• Apply the Theory of Engagement narrative structure to a 24-minute screenplay.
• Prepare industrial, preparatory, ancillary creative documents like outlines and treatments.
• Apply genre codes and conventions effectively.
• Apply exposition devices beyond Dialogue (Montage, Flashbacks/Flash-forward, Voice-over Narration, Dream Sequences, and Memory Flashes, Breaking the 4th Wall, etc.) as appropriate.
• Apply knowledge of Poetic Amplification of the screen story through the use of Image Systems and Verbal or Visual motif.
• Demonstrate the capacity to write within budget and production limitations.
• Apply recommendations received from Script Coverage, to improve new drafts of the screenplay.
• Pitch short film screenplays in simulated work-environments to secure sales.

Integrated Assessment

Understanding of integrated assessment is necessary to provide an overview of a typical teaching cycle. A given teaching cycle consists of the following elements:

• The learner receives a brief on the simulation of the conditions of the industry. These are discipline-specific.
• Responding to the brief, the learner develops a media text, with a series of formative inputs from lecturers and peers.

Concept Creation Studies lectures run simultaneously. The learner is required to import appropriate material as they develop the media texts. An example would be theoretical accounts relating to the creation of a character. Further, the learner must engage with the theoretical and academic elements related to Concept Creation Studies tasks:

• At the end of a teaching and learning cycle, learner submits the following summative assignments.
• An academic essay on selected aspects of the Concept Creations Studies syllabus.
• Present a media text in a simulated market place environment, for instance, a table reading of a play, a screenplay pitch to a production company or a pitch of a television series to the Commissioning Editors of a broadcaster.

Scope and occurrence of assessments

Concept Creation Course

Year 1 to 3

• Each term has a written assignment. The learner explores and investigates a knowledge domain in the context of an applied project outcome.
• These assignments are scaffolder in length and depth of investigation over the three years (please see attached module outline for details).
• Formative assessment:
• Mid-term hand-in of draft assignment for feedback.

Summative assessment

Final hand-in of the completed assignment at the end of each term

• Learner complete four assignments per year.

Discipline majors

A discipline major has the following assignments per semester

• A discipline treatment (documenting the planning and preparation for the development of a text).
• A project outcome: the final draft of an appropriate text or texts as per the content of the chosen discipline major.

Discipline modules/majors have the following assessments per semester

Year 1

Formative assessments

• Weekly in-class assignments for peer review.
• Draft versions of texts in development for lecturer review.
• Formative hand-in in Week 6 of Term 1 of a semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 8.
• A formative hand-in in Week 3 of Term 2 of a semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 6.

Summative assessments

• The institution hands final drafts of a text per discipline and discipline treatment in Week 6 of Term 2 in a given semester. Also gives formal feedback in Week 8 of Term 2 of a given semester.
• As 1st-year modules are only one semester-long, learner closes off their assessments at the end of the 1st semester, and continue with four different modules in the following semester.

Year 2

Formative assessments

• Weekly in-class assignments for peer review.

Draft versions of texts in development for lecturer review

• A formative hand-in in Week 6 of Term 1 of a semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 8.
• A formative hand-in in Week 3 of Term 2 of a semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 6.

Summative assessments

• The institution hands final drafts of a text per discipline and discipline treatment in Week 6 of Term 2 in a given semester. Also gives formal feedback in Week 8 of Term 2 of a given semester.
• For some 2nd-year discipline modules/majors, the mid-year summative assessments also serve a formative assessment for the end-of-year work. In TV Drama, for example, the outcome of semester 1 - the outline of the first act of a text - becomes the point of departure for the final text to be delivered in Semester 2.

Year 3

• The learners devote the whole year to the development of a capstone project.
• During the mid-year summative assessment serving as a formative assessment for the end-of-year deliverables (see module outlines for details).

Formative assessments

Semester 1

Draft versions of texts in development for lecturer review

• A formative hand in Week 8 of Term 1 of the semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 1 of Term 2.
• A formative hand in Week 5 of Term 2 of the semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 7 of Term 2.

Semester 2

Draft versions of texts in development for lecturer review

• A formative hand in Week 8 of Term 1 of the semester, with formal lecturer feedback in Week 1 of Term 2 of the semester.

Summative assessments

Semester 1

• Final drafts of preparation documents for the capstone project and discipline treatment in Week 8 of Term 2. In-Play Writing, for example, the first draft of a one-act play is handed in at the end of Semester 1.
• Formal lecturer feedback will take place in Week 1 of Semester 2.

Semester 2

A final draft of the capstone project.

The final assessment moment is twofold

• Formal hand-in of text for external assessment in Week 5 of Semester 2, Term 2.
• Presentation at a pitching festival in Week 7 and 8 of Semester 2, Term 2.

Note: the pitching festival is a work-simulated environment, for instance: screenplay pitch to producer; shiny floor show pitch to a broadcaster based on a brief; transmedia campaign pitch to a client's brief; a play reading for theatre directors and producers, etcetera.

Integrated assessments: work-simulated environment

As noted, all assessments prepare learner to have the capacity to produce work regularly and take it to the appropriate marketplace:

• Concept Creation Studies assignments are intended to enrich the thinking of creative work, with intent to generate relevant narratives for the target market.
• Treatments provide motivations for creative choices made in project work.
• Project work, in turn, is assessed, in the context of components of Concept Creation Studies (see associated assessment criteria below).