Below is a summary of the Film and Media short courses available through the University of Edinburgh during 2024-2025. Click on the individual course links for further details.
Image: Toby Jones, Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
See the Film Media Short Courses homepage for a complete list of the courses available. For all general enquiries contact the Film, Media and Contemporary Cultures Short Courses Centre for Open Learning by email COL@ed.ac.uk. For further enquiries about the content of the courses, contact Course Organiser, Dr Malgorzata (Gosia) Bugaj by email: cw.fmcc.col@ed.ac.uk
The Edinburgh Film Guild has supported the University of Edinburgh’s Film and Media short courses for many years, hosting a large number of courses in our Guild Cinema prior to the closure of Filmhouse in 2022. We hope this course information proves useful.
SEPTEMBER 2024:
Classic and Modern European Cinema
Mondays from 23rd September 2024 • (10 classes)
6:30pm – 8:20pm • Holyrood Campus •
Tutor: David M. Wingrove AB (Magna) MA BFI Cert
Check website for fee (Concessions and discounts may be available)
Course Summary: At a time when political and ideological divisions across Europe are growing stronger, this course will examine the history and aesthetics of European cinema from the earliest years to the present. From Expressionism to Neo-Realism and from the New Wave to the New Europe, these major currents and trends will be explored and students will discover how they have formed the film culture of Europe today.
John Ford’s History of the USA
Tuesdays from 24th September 2024 • (10 classes)
1:30pm – 4:30pm • Dominion Cinema
Tutor: James Dunnigan MA
Check website for fee (Concessions and discounts may be available)
Course Summary: John Ford, one of America’s most honoured directors, was a great chronicler of American history. His films arguably explore the American experience better than any other film maker. This course will examine Ford’s films, not in the chronology in which he made them, but rearranged in historical order to present a coherent cinematic history of the USA.
Cinema of Fantasy and Imagination
Tuesdays from 24th September 2024 6:30pm – 8:20pm • (10 classes)
LG49 Paterson’s Land, Holyrood Campus •
Tutor: Rolland Man BA MA MSc
Check website for fee (Concessions and discounts may be available)
Course Summary: From the early history of cinema the partisans of realism opposed those who thought film opens doors to new realms of imagination. This is an expedition on the other side of the medium – the fantasy, the fantastic, the miraculous, the imagined, the invented.
Talking Pictures
Wednesdays from 25th September 2024 6:30pm – 8:20pm • (10 classes)
LG49 Paterson’s Land, Holyrood Campus •
Tutor: Anthony McKibbin BA
Check website for fee (Concessions and discounts may be available)
Course Summary: Each week we will focus on a particular contemporary film (post 2000s) and discuss it. The selection of films will usually be challenging works that demand ‘speculative probing’, are relatively little known, or well-known but where a new perspective can we hope be found. Join us as we discuss some of the most interesting films of the last twenty years.
Screenwriting 1: An Introduction to Writing for Film and Television (Non-credit)
Mondays from 23rd September 2024 6:30pm – 8:20pm • (10 classes)
LG47 Paterson’s Land, Holyrood Campus •
Tutor: Douglas Dougan MA MAIE
Course Summary: This lively and interactive course will explore the process of script development and writing, from idea to script. It will show how to generate ideas, write a logline and plot synopsis, flesh out characters, structure the story as a screen drama, create a compelling narrative for visual drama, and get it all down in professional script format.
OCTOBER 2024
Cinema and the Five Senses
Thursdays from 31st October 2024 6:30pm – 8:20pm • (5 classes)
Holyrood Campus •
Tutor: Malgorzata Bugaj MA MSc PhD
Check website for fee (Concessions and discounts may be available)
Course summary: Cinema is typically described as the art of sight and sound, but films frequently refer to touch, smell and taste. The course is an opportunity to discuss a range of films from different periods and geographies. Together we will examine their appeal to the five senses and analyse critical texts along with basic cinematic concepts (cinematography, editing, mise-en-scène, etc.).