The BA Technical Effects for Performance course is situated in the School of Media and Communication, and is for students who want to be designers and makers of technical effects for performance. This includes the broad categories of theatre, film, music and television, as well as more specialised or multi-disciplinary performances, such as circus and carnival, where several elements are combined. The course integrates the intellectual demands of interpretation of the text or other written element within the performance context, with the specialised design and craft skills required for the realisation of original technical effects. The cultural and historical context of the subject is explored, to enhance the design and realisation of the practical work. Working in performance is always a collaborative venture, where the success of the production depends upon the joint efforts of a number of creative and specialised designers and makers, who work together with the director and performers. Students on this course have the advantage of being able to work with students from the related disciplines of costume and make-up and prosthetics. Students have the opportunity to do a short work placement in the industry, and there are several industry-facing projects within the course. All the subject tutors teaching on the course are practitioners with extensive experience of the industry. 

BA Technical Effects for Performance is based is based at Lime Grove in Shepherd’s Bush, just west of Holland Park and Notting Hill. The area, which is rich in cultural influences from across the world, is home to Shepherd’s Bush Market and the many fabric shops lining the Goldhawk Road. There are numerous restaurants, cafes, delis and food stores, as well as the market, which reflect the many cultures of the people living there. Nearby is the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, an excellent venue for live bands, and the Westfield Shopping Centre, one of the largest retail complexes in Europe that caters for the luxury market as well as the high street. Holland Park with its Orangery and Leighton House Museum are both worth visiting.

Course Units

Year One     Stage One     Level 4     120 credits

Term One: Introduction to Study in Higher Education (20 credits); Introduction to 3D and Technical Effects (20 credits);

Term Two: Introduction to Cultural and Historical Studies (20 credits); Modified Human Forms (20 credits);

Term Three: Consolidation and Collaboration (40 credits);

Year Two     Stage Two     Level 5     120 credits

Term One: Cultural and Historical Studies (20 credits); Design and Development (20 credits);

Term Two: Industry Links (40 credits);

Term Three: Research Methods for Performance (20 credits); Film Unit (20 credits);

Third Year     Stage Three     Level 6     120 credits

Term One: Concept Development (20 credits);

Terms One and Two: Cultural and Historical Studies Dissertation (40 credits);

Term Two and Three: Final Major Project (60 credits);

Course Outline 

Year One

In the first term you will study two units.

Introduction to Study in Higher Education gives you an understanding of your personal and professional development at university, with three core purposes: to introduce you to the necessary learning skills for undergraduate study; to show you where you are situated within the College and the University; and to help you understand what you will learn on your course and how you will develop your skills. The unit introduces you to script breakdown, character analysis and how to design for performance.

Introduction to 3D and Technical Effects introduces you to the fundamental principles and techniques required by the technical effects practitioner to create technical effects and character. You will research and explore a number of techniques and approaches, and record this in a visually appropriate and informative way. You will develop your understanding of the principles of sculpting and three dimensional approaches to realising form for the performing body. You will develop an understanding of how basic techniques can be used creatively, and will be encouraged to work in an enquiring and innovative way.

In the second term you will study two units.

Introduction to Cultural and Historical Studies introduces you to key concepts and ways of thinking about fashion and its context in society and culture. You will attend lectures, seminars and workshops, and do a significant amount of reading of academic texts in order to complete a formal academic essay for assessment. Completion of this unit will allow you to make an informed choice of subject for study in the second year Cultural and Historical Studies unit.

Modified Human Forms gives you the opportunity to explore how the human body can be modified, adapted, extended and distorted through the use of additions to the body such as creature effects and human body extensions. You will learn how to translate 2D and 3D ideas, and you will extend your technical effects making techniques such as pattern drafting, body fabrications, castings and mouldings through a focussed design project. You will work with a set of characters from a given text, do research, develop design ideas and produce a set of final designs for a chosen performance context. You will develop characterisation principles, plan some aspects of the production, and develop ideas through experimentation, drawing, 2D exploration and storyboard creation.

In the third term you will do the Consolidation and Collaboration unit, which allows you to demonstrate your progress through a collaborative project with students from the other performance disciplines. You will undertake research, design development and presentation as part of a group, using 2D and 3D approaches to produce an innovative solution to the brief. You will use both experimental and traditional methods to realise your work in a contemporary live context, and the staging of the group work will be recorded. You will also undertake an individual project that extends your personal design approach and draws on what you have learnt from the group project. 

Year Two

In the first term you will be able to study a Cultural and Historical Studies unit of your choice that will broaden or deepen your learning of areas relating to your interests in your chosen field. You will have the opportunity to participate in lectures, seminars and workshops with students from other courses within your School, and will read relevant academic texts and complete a formal academic essay for assessment.

Also studied in the first term, the Design and Development unit allows you to develop knowledge and skills for fibreglass mould making and the use of silicone. You will gain further understanding of the importance of research and design development to the construction of technical effects. Your knowledge of how basic techniques can be used creatively in the development of technical effects will be increased.

In the second term the Industry Links unit gives you the opportunity to apply the skills you have learnt in a live professional environment and to undertake an industry-facing project. You will gain first hand experience of how professionals work together in the context of performance. This will develop your awareness of the realities of the profession and will provide you with a network of contacts for your future career. You will be expected to write an analytical and reflective report of your experience, and compile a presentation for staff and fellow students. Recent placements for students have included Millenium FX, Artem, Robert Allsopp & Associates, Madame Tussauds, the National Theatre, Harry Potter, Fantastic Mr Fox and War Horse. 

In the third term you will do two units.

Research Methods for Performance introduces the research methods that you will employ for both your Cultural and Historical Studies Dissertation and your Final Major Project that you will undertake in the third year. You will start to consider the proposal for your dissertation, and you will learn about two key stages, the literature review and the research, how they relate to each other and how they relate in the wider context of Cultural and Historical Studies. You will look at the relationship between primary and secondary sources, ways of developing and originating research, and ways of realising the research appropriate to Cultural and Historical Studies. In parallel with this you will be starting to prepare for your Final Major Project by analysing your career direction and identifying an area of research and practice that you would like to pursue. 

The Film Unit gives you the opportunity to experience the design and realisation of costume, make-up and technical effects for film. Working with students from the other performance disciplines, you will be able to appreciate that there is an overall design concept for film that encompasses all the practical specialist areas throughout the film making process. This project will encourage you to explore the various relationships and to analyse the different components of the visual dimension of film making. You will investigate how these vary according to genre, and your research and analysis will enrich your understanding of designing for film.

Year Three                                            

In the first term you will do the Concept Development unit. This develops the work done in Research Methods for Performance. You will be encouraged to prepare for your Final Major Project by exploring and considering the theoretical and professional contexts of your work through in-depth research, development and experimentation. You may work to a narrative and selected performance context and will develop an appropriate methodology, paying attention to narrative, audience and production values. You may explore several research avenues and methods, or produce a series of small test projects, or focus on a single line of enquiry.

In the first and second terms you will complete a major piece of written work for the Cultural and Historical Studies Dissertation unit. This allows you to demonstrate your understanding of the critical and analytical perspectives developed within cultural and historical theory, and how you can apply these theoretical perspectives in a specific study, which you will have already identified in the third term of the second year. The dissertation gives you the opportunity to undertake primary and secondary research that examines in depth cultural issues relating to a particular aspect of fashion, lifestyle, the body, performance or the media, and to produce a written piece of work that reflects the critical debates around your chosen topic.

The Final Major Project, undertaken in the second and third term, gives you the opportunity to produce a coherent body of original, creative and fully resolved work that will support your entry into the industry. Through your research, design development and project proposal you will produce work that demonstrates innovation, design development, the application of advanced technical skills and a high level of understanding of design for performance through technical effects.

Future Careers and Graduate Prospects

Graduates who wish to continue their education at postgraduate level are encouraged to progress to suitable courses within the College, the University or elsewhere.

Many graduates prefer to seek employment as soon as they have completed their undergraduate studies. Recent graduates from this course have found employment with the National Theatre costume props department, with Madame Tussauds and the Tussaud’s studio, and on many film productions, including the Harry Potter films, Hellboy and Hellboy II, Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Corpse Bride, the new Tim Burton film Dark Shadows and the latest Ridley Scott Alien film. Graduates have also worked with the artists Ron Mueck and Damien Hirst and the fashion designer Hussein Chalayan.

Developing your skills

All our undergraduate courses are concerned with the development of your personal and professional skills. On your course you will evolve from learning basic skills in your discipline through to a position where you are an independent creative thinker capable of making an effective contribution to the relevant sector of the fashion industry. PPD (Personal and Professional Development) skills are embedded in all units on every course. Speaker programmes with contributions from alumni, members of industry and others are a part of many courses, as are work placement opportunities in industry. Where relevant, students have the chance to attend trade fairs, enter industry competitions, visit exhibitions and go on field trips and visits. The central position of our John Prince’s Street site in the West End affords students easy access to all sectors of the fashion retail market. In addition, our position as a constituent College in the University of the Arts London means that our students have access to the wide range of activities and events that occur in all the Colleges and at the University’s centre. Last but not least, being in London gives every student opportunities to explore and be inspired by the cultural, intellectual and social life of one of the great capital cities of the world.

Resources

Our excellent resources for educating our students are two-fold: people and premises. People includes everyone at the College who contributes directly in some way to your education, whether as a subject tutor, a technician, an Open Access Officer, a librarian or a study support tutor. Premises include the buildings and the facilities contained in them, such as specialist machinery, design studios and workshops, lecture and seminar rooms, and the library.

The Performance courses share an excellent range of facilities across the programmes, including a suite of specialist rooms for casting and mould making, plaster, fibreglass, latex, silicones and other resins, a sculpting studio, several costume-making studios with pattern cutting tables, overlockers and industrial sewing machines, a wig-making and hair styling studio, and prosthetics and make-up studios with live ‘camera to TV’ link. Students also have access to a large VAC former, laser cutter, print and dye room, a large spray booth, and additional access on site to design studios and IT suites.

Caroline Gardener is the Course Leader for BA Technical Effects for Performance. After studying Theatre Design at Croydon College she freelanced as a costume prop maker. West End musical credits include Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Chess. Caroline has worked with many ballet companies, including the Royal Ballet, Festival Ballet and various American ballet companies. She has been involved with productions at the Royal Opera House and English National Opera, including working with the designer and cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. As a freelance maker she has worked on film at the Henson’s Creature Shop, and on numerous television programmes and advertisements.

Jessica Bugg has extensive research interests in conceptual and experimental fashion design, design for dance, and fashion communication. She is particularly engaged with interdisciplinary practice at the intersection of fashion with fine art and performance practice.

Natalie Brown is the Programme Director for the group of performance courses within the School of Media and Communication. She has worked extensively in fashion, accessories and textile design, with a special interest in digital technologies.

Tony Glenville is the Creative Director for the School of Media and Communication, and has done many jobs in fashion during his varied career. He has worked as a journalist on a number of publications, including Paris Vogue, the Financial Times, The Independent, the Evening Standard and Urban Junkies. He has styled Kate Winslet, is a familiar figure at the catwalk shows in the fashion capitals of the world, and has written Top to Toe: the Modern Man’s Guide to Grooming. His broadcast career has included the South Bank Show on John Galliano, and most recently was seen on television commenting on the fashions at the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton.

Showing your Work              

All final year students are given the opportunity to profile their work online using the Showtime section of the University and College websites. London College of Fashion can make no guarantee that your work (either in sum or in part) will be shown, exhibited or profiled in any way as part of your course. All student work appearing in College organised events, catwalk shows, exhibitions and other forms of showcase, is selected by a panel of senior staff and, in some instances, external industry judges.

Course Entry Requirements

This course requires portfolio evidence.

Opportunities for All

We are committed to making university education an achievable option for a wider range of people and seek to recruit students from diverse socio-economic, cultural and educational backgrounds. We are committed to supporting all our students in achieving their potential both during and after their courses.

Student Selection Criteria

Entry to this course is highly competitive: applicants are expected to achieve, or already have, the course entry requirements detailed below.

Two ‘A’ level passes at grade C or above (this course requires 240 UCAS tariff points) PLUS passes in three GCSE subjects at grade C or above

OR

Equivalent awards. For International qualifications see the International Qualifications Guide [PDF - 1.7mb]

Preferred subjects include Art, Design, English, Drama and Film Studies.

This course requires a minimum 240 UCAS tariff points.

Exceptionally, applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered if the course team judges the application demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by: related academic or work experience; the quality of the personal statement; a strong academic or other professional reference; or a combination of these factors.

English Language Requirements

All classes are conducted in English. The level required by the University for this course is IELTS 6.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in each skill.

For more information, read the University's English Language requirements page. 

What We Look For

The course team seeks to recruit students who can demonstrate:

• A strong interest in design and the performing arts
• The potential for creative problem solving
• An approach suited to the demands of the course and the projected career pathways in the chosen field of studies, i.e. Technical Effects.

This might, for example, be demonstrated by: related academic or work experience; the quality of the personal statement, a strong academic or other professional reference; or a combination of these factors.

Portfolio and Interview Advice

For this course your portfolio should show evidence of: drawing skills; life drawing; research skills; process; 3D; photography; and vocational skills.

Applicants will be expected to demonstrate the following at interview: an understanding of the performing arts; a cultural awareness; visual awareness evidenced through portfolio work; a motivation for working in the performing arts industry; a motivation to succeed on the course; and a vocational focus towards technical effects.