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Studio Production - TFT00051I

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  • Department: Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
    • See module specification for other years: 2023-24

Module summary

This module will equip you with the core skills to work inside a broadcast TV studio: gallery directing, vision-mixing, camera operation and production assisting, among others. It will also acquaint you with some of the key forms of studio television from a combined storytelling, aesthetic and technical point-of-view. In this you will encounter panel shows, games shows, and magazine programmes alongside multi-camera studio drama production and live music presentation. The module's aim is to give you insight into - and experience of - what remains one of the dominant forms of television production, not least because of its capacity to capture and mediate exciting and important live events. At the same time, the discipline of working alongside fellow students in the team environment of the TV studio will equip you for group-working elsewhere, both on this degree, and in the creative professions more widely.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25
B Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

Over the course of this module, you can expect to:

  • Develop creative and technical confidence with TV studio operations, including vision-mixing, directing, camera and sound.
  • Develop strong team-working skills, including the ability to take command in creative situations
  • Explore the importance of liveness in mediating various forms of TV subject-matter, using the TV studio as a space to capture and present distinctive forms of screen storytelling.
  • Produce and create short programmes across a range of studio-based genres, including demonstrations, game-shows, discussions, multi-camera drama and live music performance
  • Acquire detailed logisitical and production skills in keeping with professional broadcast practice.
  • Be encouraged to innovate and explore new forms of live, multicamera storytelling.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be expected to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of pre-production planning for multicamera shooting, and an ability to prepare scripts that will communicate across studio departments to the audience beyond.
  • Demonstrate a practical understanding of the discipline of studio directing and floor management as a means of co-ordinating creative activity.
  • Demonstrate an ability to fulfil several technical roles in multicamera studio production, and an ability to understand how those roles contribute to a team creative production process
  • Demonstrate an informed insight into the aesthetic principles and the technical requirements of TV production in a live environment: how gallery direction combines with camera operation, lighting, design and sound to deliver comeplling screen stories.
  • Demonstrate a thorough understanding of health and safety issues during production.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the different aesthetic and technical requirements of producing varied forms of studio content, in particular: complex multi-item shows, game shows, studio drama and live music.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Groupwork 30
Practical 70

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Formative work is embedded in weekly practical feedback.

*Students will lose three marks per practical or workshop missed applied in weeks 1-7 to the first group assessment and then in weeks 8-11 to the individual assessment during the common assessment period.

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 30
Practical 70

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

MODULE READING LIST

Millerson, G. (1999). Television Production. London: Focal Press

Utterback, A. (2007). Studio Television Production and Directing. London: Focal Press

Fairweather, R. (1998). Basic Studio Direction. London: Focal Press

Thompson, R. and Bowen, C. (2009) Grammar of the Shot. London: Focal Press

Ward, P, Bermingham, A. and Wherry, C. (2000) Multiskilling for Television Production. London: Focal Press

Ward, P. (2001) Studio and Outside Broadcast Camerawork. London: Focal Press

Nisbett, A. (2003) The Sound Studio. Amsterdam: Elsevier

Singleton-Turner, Roger (2011), Cue & Cut, Manchester University Press


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.