BA (Hons) Costume with Performance Design
Photo: Martin Coyne. Designers: L Davis, L Fisher, L Sargent, D Turner
COURSE OVERVIEW
You’ll discover how to create whole new worlds on this exciting and creative course. You’ll design and make costumes and sets for shows, films, plays and new performance disciplines.
This is a diverse and demanding subject - you need to be interested in art, design and all types of performance. As well as technical skill, you’ll realise great design depends on your ability to interpret ideas and we place a real emphasis on conceptual work.
You’ll work alongside students from the film, make-up, and acting courses on stage and film productions. While your eventual career may not be in both design and making, we believe that understanding the overall production process is what sets our students apart and gives them an edge.
RESOURCES
· Staff members have a range of industry backgrounds with diverse, specialist expertise.
· Visiting tutors and industry professionals bring real–life experiences to give a broader awareness of the performance industries.
· The creative industries work on a very high energy level and we recreate that in our exclusive studio space.
· All 3 years work in the same space. There might be a director on one side working on a script workshop and tailors and cutters creating complex costumes and patterns on the other.
YEAR 1
Year 1 gives you the technical and research skills to take charge of your own learning and explore the subject areas that interest you. You will learn both design and making skills before making a specialist pathway choice at the end of the year.
YEAR 2
Year 2 is all about learning advanced technical skills within your chosen specialism.
· You’ll test the boundaries of design and making through the study of complex and challenging themes.
· You’ll have the opportunity to experience the industry through a work placement.
· You’ll start to refine your ideas of the work you want to do and formulate your career plans.
YEAR 3
In Year 3 you’ll continue to expand your portfolio of skills and have the opportunity to work on film and theatre projects.
Our aim is to produce graduates with an excellent range of theoretical knowledge, practical experience and a truly industry-relevant, professional CV.

INTERVIEWS AND PORTFOLIOS
Interviews are an opportunity for you to demonstrate to us your
self-motivation and commitment to your area of study. Prospective
students will also need to have good life drawing skills. Students
entering the course are often recommended to possess a Foundation
Diploma in addition to their A-Level grades; this is because the
course requires a degree of skill, technical knowledge and
conceptual understanding that cannot always be demonstrated through
A-Level study alone.
WHAT WE LOOK FOR
First and foremost we look for a passion for the performance
industries. You will have to be very hardworking, committed to this
subject, really want to study costume and performance design and
want to study it here, at the Arts University College at
Bournemouth. As well as good drawing skills, you should be able to
show an understanding of costume and set within the context of
theatre and film, and you should be an avid theatre and cinema–goer
with a strong sense of your own creativity and confidence.
STUDY TIME
Study is divided across taught hours, studio and/or work environment time, and independent study. Excellent professional and technical support is available and students are encouraged to experiment and work collaboratively on self-initiated projects. We expect students to spend an average of 40 hours per week on their studies, although it is likely that these hours will vary throughout the academic year.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS COURSE
More student
work, together with a look at our studios, recent projects,
exhibitions, industry links and details of our course staff, can
all be viewed in the ‘Showcase’ for this
course.
COURSE LEADER
Rebecca Pride
CONTACT
Admissions
Tel: 01202 363228/363225
Email: admissions@aucb.ac.uk

Mel Woolven: Finalist, The Patterns of Fashion Award, The Costume Society
- Mode of Study: Full-time
- Course Duration: 3 years
- Institution Code: A66
- UCAS Code: W451
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- Entrance and Other Requirements
- Application and Interview
- Portfolio Guidelines
- Course FAQs
- Fees
- Open Days
- View Student Work
- Costume Showcase
- Costume on Screen Blog
- Costume on Facebook
- Battle of the Winds Collaboration
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