Self-funded Undergraduate Programmes

This course aims to equip students with the practical skills for writing scripts, especially for E-books, E-magazine, mobile phone films/video, and digital radio broadcasting. The general principle in creative writing for new media will be introduced from week 1 to 5. The second part will focus on writing scripts for mobile phone film/video, and digital radio broadcasting. A new way of interactive storytelling, creative mindset, and grammar are highly emphasized.

This course introduces the fundamentals of film and new media as modern media forms and meaning-making entities in the era of media convergence. The course consists of two modules. The first module considers film as an art and cinematic practices by which viewers make sense of images and stories on screen. It provides a critical introduction to the basic film elements and critical approaches of film. The second module will engage students with an understanding of new media with a range of phenomena that underpin the critical discussions in the new media age. It will examine an array of key themes that preoccupied new media scholars, for example, identity, intelligence, ownership, surveillance, and digital narrative by stressing Web-based entities such as blogs, online social networks, video-sharing sites, etc. Students will learn how new media serve as a tool for creative expression and cultural production that mediate everyday interactions.

This course will train students in professional scriptwriting for different TV programs like Talk Show, Sit-com, Talk Show, Late Night Show, TV News Magazine Show, and Reality TV entertainment as the main focus. At the end of the course students will be able to write and produce a TV show in TV studio.

This course will train students in professional scriptwriting for TV drama series and Made-for-TV movies. At the end of the course students will be able to write scripts for TV dramas.

This course introduces the craft of screenwriting, establishing a foundation for all future writing. Screenplay formatting will be a major focus, and students will learn how to write scene description, to describe characters and locations, and to develop dramatic conflict, climax, romance, and humour. The course will also include script-to-screen action sequences and script-to-screen analysis, comparing well-known films to their original screenplays.

This course introduces the craft of screenwriting, establishing a foundation for all future writing. Screenplay formatting will be a major focus, and students will learn how to write characters’ dialogue, monologue, voice-over, dramatic structure, and the ways of storytelling narrative. The course will also include script-to-screen action sequences as well as script-to-screen analysis, comparing well-known films to their original screenplays. This course is a continuation of The Art of Screenwriting I: Essentials and Alternatives.

This course is aimed to train students with the cinematic storytelling techniques aside from dialogues and voice over, etc. which includes how the shots language, frame, shape, colour, lighting, editing, music and sound effects tell the story. As film is a unique medium that does not solely depend on the verbal delivery of messages, film scriptwriters need to understand the fundamentals of film art as a narrative tool.

This course is a survey of world literature from the late 19th to the 20th century. It introduces short stories, poems and plays written by some of the world’s greatest authors from diverse periods and geographical locations. In this course, students will focus on appreciating and critiquing the storytelling techniques in terms of the structure, style and theme through textual and contextual analysis and various critical lens such as war and totalitarian power, oppression of modern life, and the concept of inner self. This course sets its foundation on theories in humanities and the dual perspectives of sensibility and rational analysis. Students will learn to analyse the artistic and imaginative use of language, and develop the ability to think creatively and critically. The course aims to deepen students’ understanding of people from other cultures and in different situations which helps establish knowledge for their creative works in the future.

This course introduces the creative process of various adaptations from literature into film, drama into film, and literature into drama. This seminar addresses many of the considerations associated with translating texts to film, and offers an in-depth analysis of the ways in which adaptation works successfully, using imagery and film-editing techniques to capture aspects of the original script that would have been impossible to show on stage. Literature provides filmmakers with a rich source of material for films. The students compare concrete examples of adapted films to the original works, and discuss adaptation strategies of selected works.

The course will feature creative and critical uses of media, and students will discover new tools and new forms of communication useful through-out their studies. Students will have the opportunity to begin working with still images, video, and interactive media like Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Web2.0, Interactive Television, Games, and mobile phone film/video to create a range of interactive projects. The expressive range of screen languages in cultural, historical, and technological contexts will also be introduced. Discussions will focus on specific topics in digital culture, with attention to visual communication, hyper-textuality, interactivity, and visual identity.

This course aims to provide students with the practical skills for writing scripts, especially for interactive web TV, videogames, and 3-D animated feature film. The general principle in creative writing for new media will be introduced from week 1 to 6. The second part will focus on writing scripts for web TV, 3-D animation, and videogames. A new way of interactive storytelling, creative mindset, and grammar are highly emphasized.

This subject is the first section of the Graduation Project. A Graduation Project is proposed and designed by the students, with the approval of a supervising faculty member. The Graduation Project involves the individual students in a creative pursuit and represents the peak of the student’s innovative achievements in the course. They receive regular reviews of their progress from supervisors. This course will adopt a step-by-step approach, helping students develop a film script from generating and developing ideas, researching, formatting, to writing up high concepts and story outlines in preparation for Graduation Project II. Students will explore and learn the basic components and techniques of screenwriting including premise, character, structure, plot, dialogue, visuals, point(s) of view, and scene breakdown, etc. Prior to the approval of the project, students will have to construct a screenplay proposal outlining how these components work in their project. The final project must be presented in written format and will be assessed by a panel of teaching staff and/or external examiners at the end of Term 2.

This subject is the second section of the Graduation Project. Building on the effort produced in Graduation Project I, students will continue to develop their work into a full feature-length script as the final fulfilment for the course. The final project must be presented in written format and will be assessed by a panel of teaching staff and/or external examiners.

This course is designed to enhance students’ understanding towards the influence of new media studies in greater China (HK, Taiwan, and mainland China). Several aspects will be covered: The relationship of New Media & elections, marketing, integration with TV stations, advertising, and the media ecology.

Referring to what screenwriter William Goldman says, “screenplays are structure,” the course will adopt a structural approach as the key frameworks to analyse a number of screenplays of the notable Hollywood and Chinese-language movies from 1970s to 2010s. The analysis will pivot on the screenwriting theories and ideas such as the three-act structure, Syd Field’s Paradigm, Frank Daniel’s sequence approach, and non-linear narrative. Considering screenplay as a unique literary form, this course will investigate how a screenplay stresses on the literal and visual dimensions of a story whereas thoughts and emotions of characters are evoked through subtext, action, and symbolism. In addition, it will explore how components like technical jargon and tight prose are used in describing stage directions. By examining the screenplay texts from various cinemas, the course will also provide a brief scrutiny on how the screenwriters may systematize the goals, structure, and techniques of writing a script in different cinematic systems.

This course will introduce the basic concept and comprehensive historical development of non-fiction films (in this course, we focus on documentary films only, although non-fiction films include avant-garde films, educational films and industrial films, etc.). It introduces students to the fascinating world of documentaries and the intriguing but inspiring relationship between reality and its representation. The aesthetics of realism and documentary as political propaganda will also be discussed and explored.

Creative Thinking is the essential course of training students how to think creatively by knowing the mechanism of our mind. To cultivate creativity, students are required to think inclusively with different sectors and members of the society. In this course, students will explore issues of social inclusion of the disadvantaged social groups in Hong Kong from various angles and perspectives so as to develop the idea of community artistic and creative work. This course takes a community artistic collaboration among students and community members that examines challenges of social inclusion in the world of the arts. The course will start with an overview of the nature of creative thinking and its relation to community arts as well as the development of community arts from the disciplines of philosophy, politics, cultural studies and social sciences so as to equip students with essential concepts and theories related to social engagement, grass-root culture, social inclusion and disability. In collaboration with NGOs and community members, students will team up with disadvantaged groups to work on an innovative project that will enhance social inclusion by exploring the impact of creativity on the affection and cultural formation of these social members. This creative project in the form of multi-media theatrical performance will serve as a reflective and communicative medium for both the students and service users to explore collaboratively on community arts and their social impact and to design innovative ways to enhance their adaptability. The direct engagement and self-reflection will allow students to integrate academic content with community-engaged experiences, to involve in creative thinking and artistic works to advocate for social awareness and inclusion, and to perform their empathy and caring for others during preparing and on the stage. Members from disadvantaged groups can experience creative processes which will be useful for their everyday life articulation of affections and emotion.