Film & Visual Culture and Music Production

Film and visual culture alongside music production is an unusual pairing that reflects the reality of how contemporary media actually works. Film has always been a sonic as much as a visual medium, and the production of music for screen, whether as a composer, music supervisor, sound designer, or producer, is one of the most significant areas of work in the contemporary creative industries. Studying the two sides of this relationship, one critical and analytical, the other practical and technical, gives you both the conceptual tools to understand what media does and the production skills to make it.

At Liverpool Hope University this three-year programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placement experience, giving your studies a strong professional and international dimension. In film and visual culture you will explore how film and media shape society, moving between critical theory and practical work in film, photography, and animation. In music production you will develop technical skills in recording, mixing, sound design, and the use of digital audio workstations, alongside an understanding of the music industry and its relationship to visual media.

The combination trains you to work creatively across the boundary between image and sound, which is precisely where much of the most interesting work in the creative industries now takes place.

Graduates from this kind of combined programme work as music producers, composers for screen, sound designers, music supervisors, film editors, video directors, content creators, and in arts journalism and criticism. The placement experience built into the course connects you to professional networks before you graduate. The creative industries more broadly, including advertising, television, games, and digital content, all value practitioners who understand both visual storytelling and audio production.

Further study at postgraduate level in film, music technology, or audio-visual production is also available for those who wish to specialise further.