Acting and Film & Visual Culture

Acting alongside the study of film and visual culture is a combination that equips you to work as a performer while also developing a sophisticated critical understanding of the screen and visual arts contexts in which so much contemporary performance takes place. Acting training develops vocal and physical technique, character work, text analysis and the ability to perform truthfully under professional conditions. Film and visual culture adds the analytical and historical knowledge to understand how moving images work, how visual media shape cultural experience, and how acting is differently mediated in film, television and digital contexts compared to live theatre.

At Liverpool Hope University, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, a sandwich year, a year abroad and integrated work placement opportunities, making it one of the more structurally rich acting degrees available. The foundation year provides an additional preparatory stage for students coming from non-traditional backgrounds or those who want more time to develop their skills before the main degree begins. The sandwich, placement and year abroad elements give you practical professional experience and international exposure that many acting programmes cannot offer.

The typical entry tariff is 104 points.

You will develop the craft of acting across stage and screen, building skills in physical performance, voice, improvisation, and the specific demands of acting in front of a camera. The film and visual culture strand develops your understanding of cinema history, genre, theory and the visual languages through which meaning is made on screen. Together the two dimensions give you both the practice and the critical framework to engage with the performing arts industry intelligently.

Graduates pursue careers in acting for stage, screen and digital media, theatre-making, community and applied theatre, arts education and the broader creative industries. The critical and analytical skills developed through film and visual culture also transfer into roles in arts journalism, cultural programming and media production.