Modules, teaching and learning
What you'll learn
Through a series of lectures and practical workshops, you’ll explore the key principles of small-scale creative production, camera, and audio skills. You’ll develop your practical and creative skills in storyboarding, planning, direction, lighting, camera control, and post-production techniques like video and audio editing. You’ll also gain an appreciation for the importance narrative plays when creating content. We’ll teach you how to take ideas from pre-production planning and storyboarding to final product as you learn to execute your plans using a range of video and audio equipment. Throughout the module, you’ll build the skills required to work as a team to deliver materials on time and to the brief specification.
This module introduces you to the terminology, theories and techniques related to graphics and illustration, promoting your understanding of visual design and aesthetics. You’ll learn to use problem-solving methods as well as creative techniques to explore the requirements of design briefs. We’ll introduce you to relevant industry-standard software, and theories relating to composition, typography and graphic representation. This module also provides a grounding to positively impact every visually orientated module you’ll study on the course. You’ll take part in practical workshops, ultimately building up a portfolio of design solutions. You’ll be expected to experiment with new techniques learnt in these sessions, ranging from mood boards to logo design to presentation materials, producing visual content to specified briefs.
Learn the basics of designing interactive and user-friendly websites. You’ll study important aspects of web design, including user experience (UX) design, visual aesthetics, responsive design, and the essentials of coding. Combining theory with practice, you’ll develop the skills and expertise needed to create successfully engaging websites that meet modern design standards. We’ll evaluate case studies to provide insight into effective design strategies, usability considerations, and user experience design. Many challenges exist in authoring content for different devices and formats, and you’ll gain the knowledge to begin to navigate and solve these issues. By the end of the module, you’ll have developed skills in creative thinking, problem solving, innovative concept development and the ability to present creative ideas effectively.
Study fundamental podcasting and radio techniques and gain skills in recording and broadcasting audio. You'll gain an understanding of writing and creating programme content for radio. This practical module develops your ability to record, manage, edit, and produce audio content for radio or podcast. You'll be introduced to the recording, editing and production processes, as well as identifying your own ideas and refining them into audio content. Additionally, you'll learn about the industry, producing content in a classroom environment and using radio equipment in a dedicated radio room/studio.
Gain a practical insight into the production processes and potential consequences of publishing content online. We’ll start by examining the history and present-day status of various social media platforms, considering the benefits of these platforms. You’ll then start to produce and post appropriate content, both in terms of format and style. Once you’re familiar with this, you’ll begin to enhance aspects including the metadata, branding and tagging, to reach wider audiences. Upon completion, you’ll have built a significant online portfolio and toolkit, showcasing your ability to successfully produce content across various time scales. This will include researching and evaluating trends to create suitable content, experiencing how to plan and execute a live broadcast, and managing a short promotional campaign.
This module provides a broad foundation to creating 3D content. You’ll study a range of modelling, texturing, lighting, and animation techniques, applying your understanding to practice to create and display realistic 3D content. We’ll introduce you to industry standard 3D modelling software via a series of short exercises to enhance your technical skills. The main project brief will see you produce a short, animated advertisement for a specified product, platform and format. This, along with hands-on workshops throughout, will help you develop your skills in creative thinking, problem solving, innovative concept development, and presenting creative ideas effectively.
What you'll learn
Investigate the creative possibilities of video production to understand the processes involved in content creation, from pre- to post-production, all the way to final delivery. Theory will lay the foundation for your practice – we’ll ensure you have a solid understanding of the principles, technology and techniques used to craft professional video content. You’ll have many opportunities to get hands-on and experiment with various production and post-production equipment and software. Practical sessions will teach you vital skills required for small scale promotional video shooting, from camera use to editing and post-production skills like colour correction and colour grading. At the core, you’ll learn the valuable skills needed to respond to the requirements of an audience or client when designing a production.
Gain a detailed understanding of the basic principles of animation through lectures and workshops, taking in a wide range of animation content practice. To begin, we’ll introduce you to the well-established ‘12 principles of animation’, through historical context and practical demonstration. As you progress through the module, you’ll explore more challenging and provocative hybrid techniques and concepts. This, coupled with the challenge to hone your unique animation practice, allows you to develop your showreel and portfolio of skills. Finally, you’ll apply these skills to a client brief, demonstrating your understanding of theoretical and experimental concepts in a real-world outcome.
Build on the skills you developed in the Web Interaction module during your first year, exploring the use of frameworks, third party tools and libraries to author content. We’ll teach you about new workflows, capable of creating richer online experiences, streamlining processes, and enhancing page and content functionality. You’ll then apply your learning by creating a website or web application integrating these new workflows. This project will boost your skills, as you explore how to prototype, animate web content, integrate sound and video, and create simple interaction with scripting. Workshops throughout the module will look at case studies of successful websites to provide insight into effective design strategies, usability considerations, and user experience design.
Get hands-on experience in collaborative content creation by translating a real industry brief into innovative solutions for a final product. Working in teams, you’ll apply the creative and professional skills you’ve learnt so far by taking on specialised production roles that align with your career aspirations. You’ll learn how professionals work on project briefs in live industry environments, covering concept development, audience-focused content creation, and effective team collaboration. The project ultimately allows you to gain an appreciation and breakdown of the various roles and stages required in the planning, production and presentation of creating content to professional standards. Industry professionals will deliver guest lectures and provide project feedback, meaning you’ll get a real insight into how producing content works in industry.
Discover how to design XR (extended reality) content for cutting-edge technology. On this module, you’ll study the exciting world of immersive technology, such as VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality). We’ll look at real-world examples of how different industries implement these technologies, covering some of the diverse applications of XR content. You’ll begin by exploring XR design principles, interactive storytelling, and user experience (UX) design. This module builds on your previous learning, integrating the various skills you’ve developed to help you create engaging immersive experiences. Upon completion, you’ll have learnt how to interact with and create immersive experiences for optimal user engagement.
What you'll learn
This module draws on everything you’ve learnt so far and the skills you’ve gained throughout your degree. You’ll manage a substantial creative content project of your choosing, demonstrating mastery of relevant methodologies, professional standards and technical skills. This project bridges academic study and professional practice, showcasing your creative capabilities. You’ll begin by planning your project, conducting both academic and practical research to ensure you’re producing appropriate content for your target audience, formats and platforms. You’ll then move onto the production element of the module, using your skills and knowledge to design, build and test your content. Once completed, you’ll analyse your work and present it professionally in portfolio materials aligned with your intended career path.
Experiment with a range of software and hardware options to create original content. We’ll introduce you to existing experimental works and practices that you’ll analyse to form your understanding of contemporary content creation. Alongside this, we’ll encourage you to find new ways of creating content through innovation and iterative development cycles (repetitive and reflective practices to enhance and evolve your ideas). Initially, you’ll experiment freely across a range of media, conducting research into multiple fields of content creation. You’ll then learn about iterative creative processes and how these can help to continuously develop and refine the content you produce. By the final assessment, you’ll have learnt how to identify a purpose for your experiments and position them within an existing field.
Refresh and build on your knowledge and technical skills from the Podcasting & Radio module in your first year, to confidently master working with audio. Practical workshops and supervised studio sessions will boost your competence in content creation. You'll practise working in a live environment and maximising listener satisfaction and retention. Your study will culminate with the production of a live radio broadcast or full-length podcast production using ideas, concepts, and pre-recorded and edited audio prepared during this module.
Engage with emerging technologies relating to the creative industries. This module will increase your understanding of the rapidly changing field of creative technology and how it relates to the development of innovation in creative content. By experimenting with new forms of technology, you’ll boost your portfolio and expertise by studying the most up-to-date trends, developments, technologies and practices. To begin, you’ll learn a new set of software skills and techniques that represent an emerging form of cutting-edge creative technology. You’ll then apply your knowledge to the real world by using your new skills to address a commercial brief of your choice. To keep this module fresh and relevant, the featured creative technology is expected to change over time in line with software developments and industry practice.
Learn the key techniques of captivating your audiences with your storytelling. This module establishes the importance of communicating effectively to your audience. Having harnessed the skills throughout your course, you’ll create original content through traditional, contemporary, and experimental storytelling techniques. The main assessment will provide you with an open brief with minimal constraints. To help you address this, we’ll teach you about the pre-production concepts and methods of generating original and successful ideas. You’ll identify a specific audience of your choice, exploring the importance of conducting research to establish, understand and effectively orientate your work towards your chosen market. This module provides an opportunity for you to specifically tailor your portfolio towards career aspirations or a final flourish of creative freedom before completing your studies.
This course offers the opportunity to take a ‘placement’ year – a year of paid employment in industry which will build your skills and experience. This is usually taken between the second and third year of your degree and will extend the length of your course by an additional year.
Students who choose the placement route find it helps with both their studies and getting a job after graduation. It can build your confidence, contacts, and of course your CV. Leeds Beckett advertise lots of placement opportunities and provide support in helping you find the right placement for you.