COLLABORATIVE PROJECT(S) - 2025/6

Module Overview

Consolidating existing skills and knowledge in practical production, outputs will consist of one or more group projects requiring collaboration both inside and outside of the MA FADA cohort. Where possible, projects developed will make use of latest contemporary media production technologies, such as Virtual Production, Real-Time Rendering, Interactive Video, and/or Virtual Character Creation.

Teams will comprise groups of students from both within the MA cohort and in some case from other complementary MAs and final year UG programmes if and where appropriate. The skills applied to this module will be drawn both from students’ existing skills-base and from those developed in Creative Media Practices modules. 

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

WEINBREN Jon (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): 20

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

• Creating a collective collaborative response to a brief


• Workshop sessions to aid ideas generation and collaboration.


• Collaborative and interdisciplinary working methods


• Engaging with different subject specialisms and practitioners


• Latest creative and practical media production tools and techniques


• Tools, technologies and techniques for teamwork and collaborative production


• Working towards the realisation of negotiated practical outcomes

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

This would very rarely come into play. However, if it is needed we will have a range of collaborative possibilities for students to be part of ongoing research and production activities involving extensive collaboration and teamwork, for which we can readily assess the student’s performance. These can be projects within the Centre for Creative Arts and Technologies based here at Surrey and part of our research and production portfolio; or undertaken with external partners if appropriate

Assessment Strategy

Students are given the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to:

1. generate ideas, concepts and proposals in response to a creative brief;


2. work towards a collaborative and interdisciplinary realisation of the proposal;


3. evidence the process behind this process;


4. manage the interaction of this process in relation to the means available.

Summative assessment for this module consists of:
Collaborative Project Portfolio 

Submission Components:

• Group Presentation


• Project Output (Audiovisual Artefact)


• Reflective Commentary


• Self/Group/Peer Appraisal

Assessment Criteria:

• Creative Execution (Group)     


• Clarity and Coherence (Group)            


• Collaboration and Professionalism (Group)


• Production Quality (Group)


• Collegiality and Teamwork (Individual)


• Engagement and Contribution (Individual)


• Research, Reflection, Insight and Understanding (Individual)

Formative assessment and feedback is provided at the proposal stage of the project, when each group submits a project proposal and group/peer/self-assessments as commentary on the progress of themselves and their team. Specific feedback is offered at this stage so that teams can incorporate this into their ongoing work. In addition, proposals are presented in class to solicit tutor and peer feedback.

Module aims

• establish sound methods of creative collaboration and practical teamwork.
• develop fluency in collaboration tools, techniques and technologies.
• develop successful techniques for collaborative project proposal development based on shared ideas and effective teamwork.
• develop successful techniques for joint creative project production and realisation
• develop constructive approaches to group critiques and appropriate reflective skills

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

In this module, students learn to apply technical skills and subject knowledge in ways that facilitate collaboration and excellence in developing artistic content. Teaching will focus around the development of practical skills necessary for professionally orientated collaborative and interdisciplinary work; and on the development of research skills necessary for creative practice.

Module content will be delivered through a combination of

• Short Screenings, Demos (‘Lectures’)


• Group Presentations, Critiques and Seminars (‘Seminars’)


• Creative Exercises and Software Workshops (‘Workshops’)


• Tutorials

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: DMAM003

Other information

Embedded alongside the specific knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences facilitated by this module are more general attributes which the university has identified as an ambition to develop in all students across all subjects and disciplines on offer. These are:-

• Employability
• Resourceful and Resilience
• Digital Capabilities
• Sustainability
• Global Cultural Awareness

The following is an account of how this module addresses these ‘pillars’.

Employability

In general the MA Film, Animation and Digital Arts programme takes on students who are already eminently employable within the creative media industries, as they have most often developed a range of skills, both through previous undergraduate qualifications and through professional practice. The FADA programme boosts employability, raises the level at which students can gain positions and roles within the industry on graduation, and addresses well documented industry skills gaps. This module is delivered by tutors and specialists with significant industry experience and contacts, and the notion of ‘professional practice’ within a creative studio environment is a core attribute of the whole course and its components. The module developed a range of proficiencies appropriate to live action film, animation, games, and other associated areas of the media industries, by providing up-to-the-minute knowledge and understanding of tools and techniques used everyday in these fields at professional level. Equally important for employability within these areas (and often overlooked) is the development of ‘personability’: so that employers, collaborators, funders and commissioners want to work with you. We develop this by enabling students to work collaboratively and collegiately, in a supportive ‘studio-like’ environment in which we all work together to realise creative goals. We also facilitate plenty of networking opportunities, so that students get to meet and interact with future potential employers, collaborators, funders and commissioners. We also assist students to enter events and festivals so that their work is promoted and ‘seen’, widening opportunities and providing valuable peer esteem.

Resourcefulness and Resilience

Like others on the MA FADA programme, this module provides students with a number of challenges which reflect the current state of the art. Students need to respond to these with inventiveness and flexibility, and are often required to research their own solutions to given problems. The greatest resource for students on a postgraduate programme such as FADA is each other, and we encourage students to pool their knowledge and work together to come up with innovative methods to achieve a particular creative or technical goal. The studio environment and unfettered access to facilities and software facilitates this.

Digital Capabilities

The FADA programme is built on the very latest techniques and technologies, thus ‘digital capabilities’ very much comes with the territory. Contemporary Media Production is an inherently ‘digital’ affair of course, although we include more traditional techniques such as drawn animation, and drawing practice, as part of the offering.

 

Sustainability

It is incumbent on us all to reduce carbon footprints, and the film, animation and digital arts sector is no different. On all FADA modules, students are made aware of sustainable production practices both on-set and behind the computer. Students are shown best practices such as LED-based lighting, virtual production technologies to minimise crew and talent travel, recycling of sets and other materials, better transport choices, minimising of waste, and awareness of environmental and social effects on local communities and landscapes. These are embedded in various current industry initiatives such as BAFTA Albert, the ‘Screen New Deal’ production sustainability plan, and others. Furthermore, from a content viewpoint, many of the creative projects developed by students on the programme address environment and sustainability issues as part of their subject matter. We also work closely with the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability to explore and promote the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Global Cutural Awareness

The FADA programme consists of a diverse community of practitioners reflected in both the student cohort and the associates and specialist tutors brought in to assist in the delivery of this and other modules. We promote a convivial atmosphere, and as highly internationalised group, awareness of global cultures and diversities is an inherent part of the offering.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.