PhD Film Studies (Creative Practice)

University of Essex

Our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies has a distinguished history of combining critical and creative work, and we have long been home to poets, novelists, translators, dramatists and actors, alongside literary critics, drama scholars and film theorists. Our PhD Film Studies (Creative Practice) draws on this unique tradition, offering supervision for students in all fields of our wide-ranging staff research expertise, including an exceptional variety of approaches to mainstream and experimental practice, global cinemas, and comparative media.This PhD offers you a choice of pathways for you to develop your creative practice. You will either work on a full length original screenplay or equivalent short screenplays (80-120 pages, equivalent to 80-100 minutes of screen time and roughly 30,000 words) accompanied by a critical commentary of 40,000 words. Alternatively, you may choose to work on a full-length film or equivalent short films (80-120 minutes screen time), a sample screenplay excerpt (10,000 words) and critical commentary (30,000-40,000 words).Our graduates have gone on to undertake successful careers in production and academia, as well as other careers. Other past students in the Department are now established as university lecturers, teachers, publishers, publishers’ editors, journalists, arts administrators, theatre artistic directors, and translators.

Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies