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Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries
We are members of the British Fashion Council, The Association of Fashion and Textiles Courses, the Association of Illustrators and AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges), enhancing your graduate employment opportunities
Our Fashion Design graduates have entered many areas of the fashion industry and completed internships with Alexander McQueen, Mary Katrantzou, Sophia Webster and Amanda Wakeley
Our students work on live briefs for companies such as Bedford Creative Arts, London Luton Airport, Luton Town FC, Luton Culture Trust and Penguin Books and participate in collaborative projects with leading art and design practitioners
About the course
In today’s visual world it’s not just actors who perform on screen. Many other professionals are called on to present themselves in front of a camera. This course will build your screen performance skills to make sure you stand out from the competition.
Through a mixture of practical work-based learning and theory this postgraduate course develops your acting presenting and communication skills so you can perform confidently and to a professional standard before the camera.
It is intended for people who would like to act or may need to present at different media platforms in sectors such as performance journalism politics or business and who might have some previous experience in acting presenting and public speaking.
Why choose this course?
- Develop your individual performance skills based on up-to-date practices and techniques of working before the camera covering a range of situations from fictional drama to factual programming
- Gain the confidence to communicate your ideas with clarity and promote your screen performance skills within the media industry
- Participate in a range of masterclasses run by experts working within the media industry events that help you build professional contacts; take up work placements or employment within established casting and production companies; or audition for screen-based productions
- Showcase your work through Beds TV our student television station
- Learn how to operate recording and editing equipment and facilities to support the final presentation of your show reel
- Graduate with a professional-standard show reel which showcases your skills and personal approach to screen performance as well as being tailored to cover a gap in the screen-based media market
'Course Units which follow Professional Certifications'
What will you study?
Screen Performance Final Project
In this unit you will perform in a substantial on screen project, which you may also produce, building on the skills developed on earlier units. The unit will challenge you to critically evaluate your ideas and realise them through the use of appropriate forms and the advanced application of your on screen techniques.
This unit will give you an opportunity to demonstrate your advanced subject knowledge, skills, ideas and learning in an extended and challenging piece of work that is self-initiated.
This unit will:
Give you an opportunity to develop your research, development and performance skills on an extended project
Enable you to cultivate and apply independent critical thought, research and creativity
Encourage you to produce work of a high quality that demonstrates an advanced ability to perform on a screen-based project
Working Before The Camera
In this unit, working individually, or as a member of a cast and as part of a production team you will participate in a series of practical exercises in order to develop the necessary skills when performing for the camera. This unit is firmly rooted in various forms of screen performance pertinent to the genre for which you would like to produce material. It involves substantial and extensive creative input from your end, making a very strong link between theory and practice.
Practice-Based Research Methods For Performance To Camera
In this unit, you will learn to use different methods of documenting your practice as a performer and researching relevant forms of screen performance to inform your practice. You will be expected to identify your practice-based methodology and execute a plan of research relevant to your performance practice. You will learn how to use different methods of documenting and researching screen performances, including your own as well as those of others.
Industry Approaches And Practice
The unit will offer an opportunity to explore and expand your creative range appropriate to today’s media while acquiring essential collaborative skills. It will develop your ability to communicate ideas confidently and effectively, particularly with regard to on-screen and public presentations.
The general focus of the unit is to enable you to develop specialist industry knowledge and understanding of professional practice that will support your professional development. The pedagogic strategy of the unit is based on the principle of personalised and collaborative learning though which the unit aims to:
Encourage you to reflect on the changing role of the media and to position your own approach to presenting your-self and your work with reference to different theoretical models for understanding the media
Advance your understanding of your personal and collaborative experience required in order to engage professionally with the media industries
Support your development of a range of communication skills required to develop your professional profile both on-line and through public presentations and effective networking.
Provide opportunities for you to gain understanding of skills in leadership and team work
Professional Practices In The Workplace
This unit develops upon previous learning and is based on the principle of personalised learning that fosters your ability to stand out in a competitive environment where the ability to succeed is based upon sound knowledge and professional competence at all levels
Seminars, workshops, external visits and practical experience aim to:
Encourage you to take responsibility for exploring different facets of the media industries
Develop your confidence so that you can communicate ideas with clarity
Apply on-screen performance and presentation skills within the broader range of media industries.
Gain experience in real-work situations
How will you be assessed?
Throughout the course you will be encouraged to integrate assessment and the feedback from that assessment into your practice and critically evaluate your methodology and techniques be it through your seminars peer or self-assessed work to progress and develop your approach and value of your work. You will develop professional practice through the presentation of your work to camera working within tight schedules and having to deliver on time. Assessment is primarily performance based in addition you must submit a portfolio of work which will include a written diary/report to demonstrate your research inquiry plan video documentation of and ability to analyse your performance processes. For your assessment you will also produce an individual performance show-reel in a specified genre (i.e. interview acting or presenting) and a screen-based final project that will culminate your acquired performance skills from the course. The latter will be accompanied by a contextual study which will document your research-based insights.
At all stages you will receive detailed relevant feedback on your work both as an individual and on the role you perform within the group which enables you to incorporate the elements of this into your work as you progress through their course. This is crucial to your academic and professional progression. Lecturers offer the opportunity to discuss any feedback in more detail. As your skills and subject knowledge develop over the duration of the course it is expected that you will develop increasingly critical responses to assessment and employ increasingly effective methods of peer and self-review.
Careers
The course opens up numerous career opportunities for postgraduates pursuing a professional career in acting and presenting for television film or the Internet. It would also benefit those pursuing careers in journalism politics and business who in the course of their work are frequently called upon to appear and present themselves and their ideas before a camera.
Graduates from this course are working in media companies in education in film production companies and some of our alumni has been cast in TV programmes and feature films.
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £10,000 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees and living costs. Visit www.gov.uk/postgraduate-loan
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
International 2024/25
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £16,900
If you have any questions around fees and funding, please email international@beds.ac.uk
