Overview
What is Film?
Why do films affect us the way they do? How did filmmakers and film theorists respond to the introduction of sound? What is a digital story world? These are just some of the many questions that Film asks students to consider in lectures and small-group seminars. Over the course of your degree, you will encounter a wide range of film styles and movements from the beginning of film up to the present day. You will engage with diverse critical perspectives and explore the social, cultural, and ideological implications of film as art and popular culture. In addition to academic assignments, you will be encouraged to respond creatively to critical issues via projects, presentations, practical exercises, and video essays, as well as to develop your screenwriting skills.
Do you enjoy:
- Watching and analysing a wide range of films from around the world?
- Formulating opinions and arguments about film and media culture?
- Expressing your ideas critically and creatively in words and images?
Film: The course for you?
Film at Trinity is not a practical or professional training programme. Instead, the course is built on strong academic and intellectual foundations. Areas of study in the first two years include film analysis, the history of Hollywood cinema, introduction to Non-Western cinemas, aspects of European cinemas, cinema and Ireland, and theories of the digital image. You will be introduced to basic screenwriting using the format of the writers’ room, and will explore the potential of the smartphone to create mini-dramas. You will study documentary theory and put this into practice by making a short documentary film. In third and fourth years, you will build on what you have learned with more advanced options that provide a range of opportunities for critical and experiential learning.
Film at Trinity
Trinity is ranked top 40 for Performing Arts QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024. Film students are encouraged to collaborate with other students in the School through shared learning modules and facilities. Film students are very engaged with DU Film Society and with Trinity Film Review, the student-run film journal. Our students regularly attend film festivals and organise screenings and film events.
Our ‘In Conversation’ series of public talks offers students the opportunity to attend talks by leading practitioners. Participants to date include: Lenny Abrahamson, John Butler, Emer Reynolds, and Ed Guiney.
Pathways
The pathways available are Single Honours, Major with Minor and Joint Honours. There may also be an opportunity to take this subject up as a New Minor Subject from second year.
Graduate skills and career opportunities
Film formed an Industry Advisory Panel in 2019. The members of this panel are: Lenny Abrahamson, Aoife Duffin, Gavin Fitzgerald, Paddy Breathnach, Alan Gilsenan, Ed Guiney, Neasa Hardiman, Katie Holly, Lucy Kennedy, Helena Korner, Claire McGirr, Niall McKay, Maeve O’Boyle, Marian Quinn, and Ken Wardrop. While many of our graduates enter the film industry in a variety of roles, further training may be necessary to be industry ready.
Your degree and what you’ll study
First and second years
In the first and second years, core modules include: Introduction to Film Analysis, American Cinema from the Silent Era to the 1930s, American Cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s, Introduction to European Cinemas, Introduction to Non-Western Cinemas, Introduction to Digital Media, Ireland and the Cinema, Introduction to Film Production, Introduction to Screenwriting, Introduction to Editing, Video Essays, and Documentary Theory and Practice. Core modules are subject to change from year to year.
Third and fourth years
In the third and fourth years, students choose from a wide range of electives. Recent electives include: Digital Storyworlds, Writing for the Big Screen, Writing for the Small Screen, Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema, Punk Cinema, Film Authorship, Sound and Cinematography, Women and Film, Melodrama, Film Style and Performance, Anime, Video Games: Theory and Practice, Experimental Film, Practical Documentary, The Film Soundtrack, Contemporary Non-Western Cinemas, TV: Theory and Criticism, and Writing for Games. Electives are subject to change from year to year.
Film students are assessed by a combination of essay, assignment, project, class participation and presentation. In their final year, students will students will create a screenplay or video essay with an accompanying theoretical rationale of 4,000 words.
There are QQI/FET routes available for this course. Please see www.cao.ie for details.
Study abroad
Film has Erasmus exchanges with a number of universities. Students regularly participate in non-EU exchanges (at UCLA, USC, University of British Columbia and others). For more information on study abroad destinations and requirements visit: www.tcd.ie/study/study-abroad
Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University Dual B.A. Programme
Film is also available within the Dual B.A. Programme between Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University. Please note: The Dual B.A. is only open to Single Honours students. Joint Honours students cannot apply to the Dual B.A.. For more details, see www.tcd.gs.columbia.edu.
