PhD in Film Studies
This programme being offered by Film Studies in SALL is designed for students wishing to take their filmmaking practice beyond an MA and to integrate their technical and practical skills into a more advanced cultural, aesthetic and critical context.
Students electing to take the PhD in Film by Practice will be expected to have considerable experience in filmmaking already [at least one year at postgraduate level eg MA in Film Studies at Exeter and some experience at undergraduate level]. Students applying for this PhD will have to submit a portfolio of work [at least two short films and critical essays on that film work] in support of their application. They will therefore be skilled in digital camera and editing. The specialist research training we will be providing will be based in the critical and theoretical approaches to film practice [see below for further details of the programme]. Students will also get to meet film practitioners on a regular basis to test out their ideas and work in progress. The area of study for this degree is film practice in its broadest sense [documentary, fiction, video-art] and the variety of possible subjects of research through practice is large [eg scriptwriting and film; historical documentary; social documentary; film as an investigative essay on film practice; video-art and installation].
The research imperatives guiding this PhD programme are as follows. Increasingly, independent film practitioners feel the need to not only develop their skills and thinking beyond the received concepts of mainstream or, indeed, art cinema but also to bring greater critical, aesthetic and theoretical rigour into their practice. A new moral aesthetic is required if film is to move beyond its present parameters, one that acknowledges the historical imperatives of its culture but which seeks to explore how film can function as a challenge to our perceptions of reality and our expectations of culture as a primary ideological artefact.
More details on the PhD in Film Studies
Or Contact:
Postgraduate Administrator
Department of Modern Languages
Tel: +44 (0)1392 269306
Email: sml-pga@exeter.ac.uk