What is Film Studies?

Why do films affect us they way they do? Why did the introduction of sound change film forever? What do we mean by ‘independent cinema’? What is a digital story world? These and many more are the questions that Film Studies asks students to consider in small-group lectures and seminars. In addition, over the course of your degree you’ll be encouraged to respond creatively to critical issues via projects, presentations, short films and video essays, as well as to develop your screenwriting skills to see if you have a fresh vision to share with the world around you.

Film Studies: The course for you?

If you enjoy watching a wide range of films from around the world and if you are interested in acquiring the critical and creative tools to analyse them in relation to questions of style, technology, society, and industry, then this may be the course for you.

Film Studies @ Trinity

Trinity launched its pioneering degree course in 2003 and has since become one of the leading undergraduate courses in the discipline, combining a cutting-edge intellectual environment with the opportunity to gain introductory skills in filmmaking and to explore different forms of screenwriting. You will work in small groups to debate the topics that arise in lectures and seminars and to make short creative pieces. Classes are taught by experts in their field, notably Irish cinema, film theory and criticism, digital storytelling and screenwriting. While you will learn some basic practical issues involved in digital video production, including how to write scripts and how short videos are made, the course as a whole is geared toward critical engagement with film and digital media. Our students are active in many different societies, including DU Film Society and the student-run film magazine, Trinity Film Review.

Graduate skills and career opportunities

A degree in Film Studies offers career opportunities in many areas such as the film industry; television; journalism; digital media; reviewing and criticism; arts administration; advertising; marketing. Recent graduates of Film Studies at Trinity have gone on to be involved in the film industry in a number of ways, from directing feature length films to editing, scriptwriting, production and administration. A number of our graduates have gone on to further study in film and associated areas. This degree also offers opportunities in the many general areas open to arts graduates, such as administration, teaching, civil and public service.

Your degree and what you’ll study

This course will examine film styles and movements from cinema’s beginnings at the end of the 19th century right up to the present day.

FIRST AND SECOND YEARS

In first and second year you will be introduced to film theory and criticism, digital media, and to a very broad range of American, European and non-western cinemas. In addition, you will be introduced to screenwriting and digital video production. There are six hours of classes and six hours of screenings per week.

THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS

In third and fourth year, students choose from a wide range of optional modules. Topics may include national cinemas, transnational cinemas, classical and contemporary Hollywood cinema, non-western cinemas, genre studies, digital media and culture, documentary theory and practice, avant-garde, experimental, and cult cinema, film style and performance, film theory and criticism, and editing.