In Cambridge School of Art there exists a vibrant and growing community of researchers at PhD level. In the area of film and TV production the topics for these PhD research programmes are linked to staff expertise together with student interests, and reflect the increasing potential of practice-based PhD studies. Informed by your particular discipline, you are asked to critically contextualise your work at a high level, clarify both the theoretical and practical research-based enquiries, and produce distinctive contributions to the research field.

Cambridge School of Art provides various forums that accentuate the discursive and interdisciplinary nature of research, including several research clusters which hold regular seminars and informal presentations for postgraduate and research students. Our Faculty also houses ARCMedia and the CoDE research institute.

We have close links with the Cambridgeshire Film Consortium, the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, Kettle's Yard, and the University of Cambridge's Centre for Research into Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH), amongst other partnerships.

Various exhibition and conference opportunities are available to PhD students studying in the area of film and TV production, and participation in such opportunities is strongly encouraged. These subject-specific aspects of the research programme are enhanced and augmented by the University-wide research and training sessions.

Supervision and support

You will be assigned two supervisors, with additional members of staff available if necessary.

Academic supervision is available in most areas of film and TV production with emphasis on: the management of media SMEs; the implications of digitisation for programme production and distribution; narrative in factual programming; drama; the implications of new technologies for the work of the director and director of photography; experimental film and video.

Facilities

We have a range of excellent facilities, including TV studios, multimedia studios, DVD, video, animation, and 16mm editing suites. Our research students also have access to our outstanding library resources, as well as to the Cambridge University Library and the British Film Institute.

Funding

There are a number of ways in which you can obtain external funding for doctoral research, from the full-time awards granted by the AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) to smaller grants available from a range of grant-awarding bodies. We periodically offer fully funded and fees-only fellowships and, from time to time, Departmental bursaries are awarded to candidates showing exceptional potential. In addition to these, our programme has a Postgraduate Fund to which students can apply for help with travelling expenses, conference fees, and other research needs. We offer advice on external and internal funding to any interested prospective candidates for our PhD degree.

Career development and training

We are committed to offering training and career development opportunities for all research students. You will be encouraged to get involved in external activities such as film projects, and conference organisation (participation and presenting papers). In conjunction with university research support, specific support is provided for writing up, conference papers, general research methods, etc. on a case-by-case basis.

We welcome proposals from students wishing to work in the fields of fine art practice. Below is a list of current staff within Film and TV Production and their research specialisms:

Shreepali Patel: narrative, and the uses of interactivity in factual programming.

Tim Sidell: all areas of DOP's work; experimental film and video. Video art.

Sophie Jackson: processes of storytelling across documentary and drama; representation of memory in cinema (including the use of archival and home-movie footage)

Dr Cathy Elliot

• MPhil: Candidates must hold a BA or equivalent in a related subject area.
• PhD: Candidates should normally hold an MA or equivalent in a related area subject area.
• For candidates whose first language is not English, a minimum IELTS score of 7 or equivalent is required with a minimum score of 6.5 achieved in each of the four language skills. We welcome applications from EU and international students.