Available in Clearing

Composition for Screen at UCA

Study and create music surrounded by like-minded peers, from animators and actors to filmmakers and game designers, and collaborate on exciting projects, on our BMus (Hons) Composition for Screen degree course at UCA Farnham. 

On this course, you’ll enjoy a wealth of interdisciplinary opportunities, become skilled in using the latest technologies, and enjoy building industry connections through live briefs and a work placement. 

This course has contemporary practice embedded throughout, and you’ll also be encouraged to consider your work in the context of global audiences, exploring artistic practices from different cultures and countries. 

Through lively and exploratory lectures, small group seminars, and one-to-one tutorials, you will be supported to develop your work and produce it professionally, and you’ll have the opportunity for it to be performed by professional musicians.  

 

Apply through Clearing

Speak to our Admissions Team today to secure your place.

Call: 01252 918 240 Apply Online

Course entry options

Select from the following options to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W300
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
3 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points

International equivalent qualifications

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W30A
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

32 UCAS points

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W30C
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

12 years of schooling (with good grades)

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W301
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points

International equivalent qualifications

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W30B
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

32 UCAS points

Close
Institution code
C93
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

12 years of schooling (with good grades)

Accreditations, partners and industry connections

Steinberg Certified Training logo

Steinberg Certified Training

Steinberg is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of audio software and hardware. UCA is certified to deliver training in using its products.

AVID (Learning Partner) logo

AVID (Learning Partner)

UCA is officially certified as an AVID learning partner, meaning it can train students across our film and media courses to use AVID’s range of products, including Pro Tools, and Media Composer.

British Film Institute (BFI) logo

British Film Institute (BFI)

The BFI is a charity and the UK’s leading organisation for film and moving image. It promotes and supports British film from newcomers to established makers, and cares for the BFI National Archive, the world’s largest film and television archive.

ARRI logo

ARRI

ARRI is a leading designer and manufacturer of camera and lighting systems for the film, broadcast, and media industries. The ARRI Certified Film School accreditation is awarded to institutions that meet rigorous standards of technical excellence, creative education, and professional development.

National Theatre logo

National Theatre

The National Theatre has been sharing unforgettable stories for more than 50 years. In its role as the leader of theatre in the UK, it works tirelessly to bring theatre to audiences around the world and encourages the art of theatre through commissioned work, learning programmes and strategic partnerships.

What you'll study

What you'll
study

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

UCA’s Integrated Foundation Year is designed to give you the skills you’ll need to start your degree in the best possible way – with confidence, solid knowledge of creative practice, study skills and more.

You’ll explore a range of creative techniques and develop your portfolio, with your chosen subject in mind. We’ll work with you throughout the year to ensure you’re on the right track and give you the tools to achieve your highest potential on your degree.

Find out more about the Integrated Foundation Year

For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Foundation Year, based at UCA Farnham to bring students from around the world to one hub of creativity.

This year of preparatory study is designed to give you the skills you’ll need to start your degree in the best possible way – with confidence, solid knowledge of creative practice, study skills and the English speaking and writing skills you’ll need to succeed.

You’ll explore a range of creative techniques and develop your portfolio, with your chosen subject in mind. We’ll work with you throughout the year to ensure you’re on the right track and give you the tools to achieve your highest potential on your degree.

Find out more about the Integrated International Foundation Year

Launch 
Your Launch week is a chance to get to know students from other year groups through a series of activities.

Composition and Music Theory 1: Fundamentals Across Cultures
This opening unit introduces you to the fundamental concepts in music theory, composition, music for screen, and studio recording. You’ll gain a practical understanding of scoring for traditional Western music instrumentation as well as an introduction to non-Western traditional and classical music theory. You’ll also explore the historical repertoire of orchestral music inside and outside of film and consider the roles of narrative and storytelling through music. Finally, you’ll be introduced to fundamental recording and mixing techniques in a studio environment and begin to develop your skills in the combined role of composer and producer.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion
This unit aims to develop an awareness and understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and promote progressive values and attitudes in creative practice.

Graphic Notation
This short unit introduces you to the use of extended scores, graphic notation, and indeterminacy in composition. You’ll explore the historical context and seminal works of composers working with extended and visual scoring techniques, with an introduction to algorithmic approaches to composition. And you’ll begin to develop your own graphic scoring language.  

Opportunity
Opportunity Week features a series of talks, masterclasses and workshops from industry professionals for all year groups.

Composition and Music Theory 2: DAW and Writing for Moving Image
This unit introduces you to scoring and producing soundtracks in the DAW environment. You’ll expand on your practical knowledge of traditional and non-traditional music theory and scoring techniques and produce and score a soundtrack for moving image.

Professional Development
This unit introduces you to the current working structures and operations of the UK and global music and media industries, giving insights into how music producers, film/media producers and businesses interact with each other on a creative and commercial basis. 

You’ll reflect on employment opportunities for yourself and develop a list of 30 opportunities for work when you graduate.

Atonal Music
This short unit is an in-depth practical exploration of determinacy in atonal music. Whereas the Graphic Notation unit considered the practical implications of graphic scores and the often-necessary role of aleatory in their realisation, this unit investigates the degree to which the fine details of musical order and performance can be predetermined.

ATOM Activities
ATOM activities are small pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across UCA, and offer a flexible, impactful learning experience. They expand your creative horizon by accessing learning topics that would not otherwise be scheduled on your course specific timetable.

PLE Digital Outcomes
The PLE Digital Outcome is a purposefully edited, self-directed record of your constructive, engagement with and presence on, digital media platforms across the year.

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Launch
Your Launch Week for Year 2 is an intensive course on narrative composition.

Composition and Sound Design 1: Composing in Time
This unit advances your practical understanding of music theory and composition and introduces you to the field of sound design and Foley. You’ll study advanced musical concepts pertaining to the composition, organisation, and perception of music in time.

You’ll also reconsider the recording studio as environment for capturing non-instrumental sounds to augment Foley and sound design in a post-production environment.

The Conscious Practitioner
This unit aims to promote progressive values and attitudes to diversity and inclusion in creative practice.

Opportunity
A series of talks, masterclasses and workshops from industry professionals; All year groups.

Composition and Sound Design 2: Composing in Space
This collaborative unit is intended to bring together your combined skills in music theory, composition, recording, and sound design in a group project. You’ll work to a brief to produce an original soundtrack for moving image. As a collaborative team, you will be expected to organise your time and plan efficient use of recording spaces and technical resources.

Placement / Live Brief
For this unit you will be required to research, negotiate and undertake a self-initiated work experience placement opportunity or other professional interactions within a business appropriate to the music, sound or media industries such as a “live brief” or collaboration with a student from another course. This placement or “live brief” should be designed to meet your own aspirational and identified developmental needs.

ATOM Activities
ATOM activities are small pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across UCA, and offer a flexible, impactful learning experience. They expand your creative horizon by accessing learning topics that would not otherwise be scheduled on your course specific timetable.

PLE Digital Outcomes
The PLE Digital Outcome is a purposefully edited, self-directed record of your constructive, engagement with and presence on, digital media platforms across the year.

Elective units

You will study two of the following elective units across the year.

Farnham

The following electives are available at UCA Farnham:

  • Acting Through Song: You’ll learn and develop skills relevant to character and narrative-driven musical performance, rehearsing and performing a sharing that may include selected sequences from a play or plays with music or musical theatre.
  • Applied Skills for a Sustainable Media Industry: UCA is a founder member of the albert Education Partnership from BAFTA, which brings together Film and TV course providers from across the country and empowers their students to consider and help alleviate the screen industry’s impact on the climate crisis. Upon successful completion of this unit, you will achieve certification as an ‘albert Grad’, signalling your achievement of highly employable skills for a sustainable industry.
  • Audio World Building: Sound design can have an enormous impact on any moving image project. This unit will encourage you to explore the way sound can be used to underpin action, describe the unseen, establish an environment, set a tone, depict a mood or even to directly elicit an emotional response from an audience. 
  • Cinematography: This unit is essential if you want to develop yuor skills in visual storytelling and creating compelling visuals for film and video. By taking this unit, you will learn the principles of cinematography and gain hands-on experience using industry-standard equipment to create professional quality visuals.
  • Consent, Intimacy and Stage Combat: This unit focuses on the fundamental skills and principles required for performing effective, believable, and safer intimacy and unarmed (hand to hand) combat for stage and screen.
  • Film Production: This unit is designed to provide learners with practical skills and knowledge in film production, with a focus on collaboration, professionalism, and self-reflection. The unit will culminate in a group film production project, where learners will have the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge.
  • Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Music and Theatre: This unit encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between Music, Acting & Performance, and Design for Theatre & Screen to plan, rehearse and deliver a live performance piece to an audience of peers and the public. This project puts music performance at the centre of the collaboration. 
  • Loops and Micro Format Films: You’ll discover the creativity and versatility of the simple animated (or live action) loop for use on your website as a showcase to promote your own work or engage your ‘brand’, and create three loops to upload to your websites or use in social media for self-promotion.
  • Motion Capture & Green Screen: Motion capture is a technique used to capture the movements of actors or objects in digital form. Green screen is a technique used to composite two or more images or video streams together by replacing a specific colour (usually green or blue) with another image or video stream. In this unit you’ll learn about how both these things can work in the VFX industry.
  • Physical Theatre: You’ll work together with students from a wide range of courses to make a live physical theatre production. This could be further augmented by animated material or filmed material. TV or film students may also be involved capturing or streaming the performance.
  • Postproduction Editing: This elective unit is essential if you want to become proficient in the art of post-production film editing. Using industry-standard software - Avid Media Composer (Davinci Resolve, and Premiere Pro) – you’ll create a professional quality scene and have analysed and evaluated professional editing and sound design workflows.
  • Screen Writing: You’ll be introduced to a range of creative writing skills and, in particular, the highly visual medium of writing for film and television. You will view and compare the work of some of the industry’s most accomplished contemporary screen writers, learn how to present and format a script and write your own story outline for a short film, series or screenplay.
  • Shakespeare Festival: In this unit you will stage an abridged version of a Shakespeare play in an outdoor festival setting at sites around UCA Farnham campus. A director will help you shape the play and actors, composers and designers will work together to rehearse and run the festival events. 
  • Verbatim: You will explore Verbatim texts and performance practices including ‘headphone’ theatre and documentary theatre practices. The unit will culminate in small group films/performances using the practical techniques studied.
  • Virtual Production: Virtual production has emerged as a cutting-edge technology that revolutionizes the way film and television productions are made. You’ll gain the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to use virtual production tools and techniques to create immersive and interactive digital content.

Maidstone

You can also choose from the following electives offered at Maidstone TV Studios:

  • Immersive Production: You will explore cutting edge and future focused technology to gain a broad comprehension of the expertise and skills required if you want to delve further into immersive media production. The unit will enable you to get a strong understanding of where the production industry is heading and allow you to pitch a concept using these technologies for a television production brief.
  • Prestige Television: Starting with the claim that television reaches more people than any other cultural form, this unit examines and articulates the meanings of ‘Quality’ and ‘Prestige’ as they relate to Television, and why these genres of ‘Prestige’ have become dominant.
  • TV in the Age of Digital Disruption: This unit examines and critically interrogates the changing dynamics of television production, distribution, textual analysis and audience engagement in an age of ‘digital disruption’, particularly following the rise of streaming services.

If you opt to complete a professional practice year, this will take place in year three. You will undertake a placement within the creative industries to further develop your skills and CV.

While on your Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee for that year. This fee will be determined using government funding regulations. Based on current regulations, we expect this to be a maximum of 20% of the tuition fee rate that you are charged for your second year of study. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during this year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this as you approach your Professional Practice Year.

Please note: If you are an international applicant, you will need to enrol onto the course ‘with Professional Practice Year’. It will not be possible to transfer onto the Professional Practice Year after enrolment

Launch
Your final Launch Week is about listening and sharing. Each day we will listen to an important and significant musical work in its entirety together. 

Dissertation
The Dissertation is documentation of a sustained academically rigorous argument. This is normally through a written and referenced piece of writing, as might appear in a peer reviewed journal. It may be possible to do a multimedia submission, depending on your area of focus. You will develop and research an area of enquiry from which your question and title are formed. You are responsible for the topic, but it will be discussed and negotiated with your course tutor. 

Music Business
The Music Business unit will enable you to develop strategies, plans and pragmatic information needed for your next steps in the music business. The unit combines general knowledge on contracts, fees and rights with bespoke mentoring.  Taken together, you will create a dossier, which evidences the steps taken to prepare yourself for the future

Opportunity
A series of talks, masterclasses and workshops from industry professionals for all year groups.

Final Major Project
The Final Major Project is a culmination of your skills, passions and creativity. You will develop, in coordination with the unit leader, a brief for your project.  If you are working as part of a wider collaborative team, then a defined role within the group will also be negotiated. The brief and role description set the parameters in which you your final major project will develop. It should be ambitious but achievable and framed within how you want to promote yourself as a composer, musician or music producer.  

Alongside the project, you will be compiling a showreel of work to showcase your compositions thus far. The unit and year will finish with a “festival” which celebrates the compositions and projects completed for this unit. 

This course is designed to offer you (if eligible) the opportunity to study part of your degree aboard at a UCA partner university, while still earning credits towards your UCA degree.

For more information please visit the Study Abroad section

Industry placement
offer

Preparing graduates for successful careers underpins everything we do, and all students on this course may be offered support to identify and prepare for an industry placement according to their individual needs. We’ll draw on our wide range of contacts within the creative industries to help provide you with opportunities that align with your interests and future career aspirations.

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Explore our gradshow

Each year, we’re privileged to be able to share our graduates’ incredible work with the world. And now’s your chance to take a look.

Visit the online showcase
Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,250
  • BMus course: £9,250

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated International Foundation Year: £9,250 (see fee discount information)
  • BMus course: £9,250 (see fee discount information)

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated International Foundation Year: £16,950
  • BMus course: £17,500

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £3,390. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Please note: The fees listed on this webpage are correct for the stated academic year only, for details of previous years please see the full fee schedules.

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Financial support

There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources. Discover what support you might qualify for please see our financial support information.

Additional course costs

In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.

These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.

Facilities

Our teaching spaces have a mixture of analogue and digital equipment. We have sound editing, recording and mixing suites with software such as Avid Pro Tools, Steinberg Dorico and Cubase, Ableton Live, Max/MSP, Logic Pro and the Vienna Symphonic Library. The media store has a good supply of equipment to hire, specialist music equipment includes: Ableton push controllers, amplifiers, midi keyboards and high quality microphones such as the Neuman U87 and AKG 414. You'll also have access to the Grove Music dictionary and Naxos Music Library.

View 360 virtual tour

Sound editing suite, UCA Epsom

Recording studio, UCA Farnham

Pro-tools room, UCA Farnham

Foley studio, UCA Epsom

Career opportunities

Music is very much about collaborations and partnerships. The course has a wide and varied network of industry partners that provide us with performance opportunities, guest lectures, and work placements.

Some of our industry links include:

  • Audient - Mixing consoles and interfaces
  • ECME – Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble
  • The Gildas Quartet - String Quartet based in Manchester and London
  • Lamb Films – Video and film production company based in Belfast
  • We Are OCA - New Music Collective
  • The Sonic Lodge - Recording studio in Edinburgh
  • Steinberg – Digital audio workstations and music notation software
  • Surrey Music Hub
  • Adventure Camera - mountain film producer Keith Partridge
  • SoundVaultHQ – Podcast network

We are also an official Avid Learning Partner.

Working in sound and music often leads to a varied and interesting career, frequently moving from one field into another or using a wide range of skills on a single project. Careers directly applicable to this course include:

  • Composer for Moving Image
  • Non-linear Composer (Computer Games)
  • Sound Designer
  • Sound Artist
  • Orchestrator
  • Copyist
  • Music Producer
  • Musicologist
  • Music Educator
  • Sound Engineer
  • Sound Recordist.

You may also like to consider further study at postgraduate level.

We will help you find the correct course for you and support you in your application should further study be for you.

Arusik Nanyan

"I really enjoy the availability of being creative and making any of your crazy ideas become reality. Here at UCA you are provided any kind of assistance, equipment, time and space you need."

Arusik Nanyan

Entry & portfolio requirements

All applicants require an A-level in Music / Music Technology Grade B, or Grade 5 Music Theory, or a music portfolio at an equivalent standard.

We understand that not all applicants have the opportunity to formally study music. In place of an A2 Grade B in Music or Pass in Grade 5 Theory, we request to see an equivalent level of skill demonstrated through portfolio contents upon application. This would include wide-ranging portfolio contents suitable for the course applied for.

We also require a submission of a portfolio of musical work. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your review in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

We are not necessarily looking for a polished production but rather something that you feel demonstrates your musical and sonic interests. It could include a video of a performance, the music to a short film, a piece of sound design, a score, graphic score or lead sheet of original work. It could be a mix or remix in any style and might include a description of your technical or artistic process. In other words, it should represent you, your interests and your process. We recommend you keep your work to less than 5 minutes in total. 

International students will be asked to submit an online portfolio. No portfolio is required for the international foundation year.

Select your country to find the equivalent requirements

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