Bath Spa University

BA (Hons) in Creative Media

Year one (Level 4) modules

• Short Film Production: Drama
• Short Film Production: Documentary
• Digital Content Creation
• Digital Practice
• Storytelling for Content Creation
• Creative Photography

Year two (Level 5) modules

• Everyday Media Making
• Advanced Digital Practice
• The Independent Magazine
• Promotional Media
• Participatory Media
• Creative Industry Challenge
• Visual Effects I
• Commissioning Content Creation
• Visual Effects II
• Professional Placement Year

Year three (Level 6) modules

• Creative Media Enterprise
• Creative Incubator
• Professional Practice
• Digital Innovation and Enterprise
• Personal Project

What you'll learn

Overview

Throughout the course, you’ll work with a range of digital and interactive media tools and platforms in our purpose-built production facilities at our Newton Park campus in Bath and at our Artswork Media site in Bristol’s creative enterprise area, Paintworks.

You’ll nurture and extend your creative thinking and digital-making skills, to learn techniques such as image manipulation, sound and video production, non-linear audiovisual editing, digital storytelling, graphic design, social media content production, and interaction design.

You’ll bring together your skills through a variety of projects, which include producing:

• documentary and fiction-based video and sound
• experimental and socially engaged media
• social media content
• site-specific media.

By the final year, you’ll be leaving with technical prowess, a wider understanding of why we make media, industry experience, and a bold, expressive portfolio to help you launch your career in media.

Course structure

Year one

Develop your skills, discover ways of evolving your creative practice, and build your production and problem-solving abilities individually and in teams.

You’ll be exposed to critical media practices that engage with key social, political, and environmental issues. You’ll develop skills in digital storytelling, digital content production, image manipulation, and moving image production.

You’ll begin to develop your industry-standard production skills by working on a series of live client briefs for multi-platform content projects. You'll also learn independent project production skills by creating personal work supported by staff and led by your medium of choice and personal passions.

Year two

Begin to specialize. Hone your skills on larger-scale creative content projects, learn post-production and animation skills, work on experimental, socially engaged, and critical media-making projects, and build your contextual skills.

You’ll produce a range of creative projects including:

• multi-platform digital experiences
• podcasts
• animations
• short films
• interactive documentaries
• remixed media and digital campaigns.

Your responsibility will also grow, as you’ll be tasked with creating real-world media works for local activist groups, allowing you to synthesize your thematic knowledge with the practical enterprise.

Year three

Join Artswork Media, a student-led production house supported by tutors, media practitioners, alumni, and industry mentors.

You’ll work on a variety of live client briefs, hone your creative practice, and develop your professional identity and portfolio.

Artswork Media provides a unique opportunity to transition from being a Creative Media student to becoming an industry professional.

You’ll also be free to follow your passions in a personal project, allowing you to synthesize all you’ve learned in the past three years into one “calling card” piece of work that fully expresses your style, skills, and employability.

How will I be assessed?

Creative Media assessments are all based on coursework. Throughout your time studying with us, you’ll work on a variety of independent and brief-led projects across different media.

You’ll produce digital and moving image artifacts, digital portfolios, and supporting documentation such as reflective reports and research journals that explain your process.

Bath Spa's Creative Media course is designed to help you bridge the gap and evolve from Media student to media professional.

Our graduates are employed in a range of roles including Digital Content Creator, Marketing Executive, Digital Agency Assistant, Social Media Manager, Editor, Director, Producer, and Director of Photography.

Alumni have also gone to secure agents and have their work screened on broadcast channels such as Sky Arts and the big screen at the Cannes Film Festival. They have also secured work on feature films including Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Creative Media graduates have gained employment in companies including Aardman Animations, BBC, and Warner Bros. Some of our Creative Media graduates have gone on to further postgraduate studies in creative media, filmmaking, and fine art.

How will I be taught?

Your learning is supported in a variety of ways. You’ll take part in media production sessions making use of the purpose-built media facilities at Bath Spa.

You’ll plan and discuss work and reference points in seminars and workshops, and stage exhibitions and showcases of your work.

You’ll be supported by an experienced team of media professionals and technical support staff. Visiting speakers and mentors from the media industries enriches your experience and connects you with contemporary production and the landscape of the creative sector.

Course length

Three years full-time, or four years full-time with a professional placement year. Part-time available.