Film season

Looking for an opportunity to build on your previous film making and editing experiences? Want to develop your leaning further, make more effective films with more professional decisions at each stage of production or simply have some further guidance? Then this class is for you.

This course will develop your critical appreciation of the cinema by teaching you how to read and understand film texts. We will look at the elements that underpin film form – narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound – alongside its historical development. We will consider film style by exploring classical, post-classical and art cinema and we will examine influential critical modes of analysis, such as genre, authorship and spectatorship.

This comprehensive introductory course provides an overview of the main historical, technical and theoretical aspects of filmmaking and film analysis. In its exploration of aspects of film theory as it relates to film aesthetics and film history, the course develops certain ideas with rigour and depth.

Would you like to write a script for a short film? This short course offers an insight into the fundamentals of screenwriting through tutor input, writing exercises, group work and discussion.

This advanced level film studies course will introduce you to a range of theoretical approaches to the study of film. It will consider some of the earliest attempts to think about film, studies that borrowed methodologies from other disciplines. As early as 1915, for example, writers were applying psychology to film analysis, exploring the emotional responses of audiences to this still new medium. Early theorists argued for film as a distinct art form, and we will examine a number of their key texts. In the 1960s, film studies began to develop as a specific subject of study in universities in the US and the UK, once again deploying perspectives from other subject areas. We will examine a number of these theories and consider their continued importance for the analysis and understanding of film today.

On this fast track practical experimental film making course you will be encouraged to push boundaries exploring experimental digital film making. Explore ideas, develop skills and create your own personal project using professional equipment and software. Invaluable for film makers and artists who wish to enhance their moving image practice.explore visual and conceptual ideas,.

Explore a selection of European films that draw on cinematic traditions of fantasy, horror and surrealism, but which have also acquired significant critical reputations, with their striking visual styles, dreamlike narratives and dark themes lending them an enduring place in both film and popular culture in general. Strange tales and dark dreams to fascinate, horrify and astound you.

You've worked hard on a screenplay but how do you sell it? This short intensive course identifies tools you can select to create a compelling Pitch Treatment.

Telling a story on film comes with its own challenges. This practical course demystifies what it takes to do this successfully.

Have you ever wondered what goes into writing a screenplay? How is it different from theatre, radio or prose? Learn the basics of the craft and develop a script of your own in this creative and analytical workshop.

Learn how to evaluate and discuss films while enjoying a working example of a City Lit Film Studies class. In this class we will view and explore clips from a number of films, including popular remakes, enabling us to consider and compare themes and techniques from differing filmmaking countries. There will be a chance to review – in brief – film courses at City Lit (September - December 2025).

Learn to write for the screen on this practical, introductory course. Writing exercises, presentations and screenings will teach you key skills, and you’ll begin to produce work and an outline for a full-length project.