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Hair and Make-up for Film and Performance

Entry requirements


80 - 104

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Attend an interview

About this course


Course option

2years

Full-time (intensive) | 2024

Subject

Hair and make-up

Become part of the team behind films and theatre. Your role in hair and make-up will help bring to life the vision of entertainment. Our creative briefs and projects will help you develop a portfolio showing off your talent as an expert storyteller in the form of hair and make-up for film and performance.

**Why study Hair and Make-up for Film and Performance at BNU?**

**BNU’s teaching base at Pinewood Studios**
The University has a teaching base for our hair and make-up students at the iconic Pinewood Studios, which means there could be opportunities to engage with the community there. You’ll be able to put your learnt skills and craftmanship to practice, whilst being in the hustle and bustle of the world-renowned studio.

**Facilities**
Across our High Wycombe and BNU teaching base at Pinewood Studios, you’ll benefit from state-of-the-art facilities that will help you bring your ideas to life. Your classroom base offers bright lighting and dressing tables, where you’ll practice techniques and turn models into looks. We also have a range of photography facilities where you’ll have the opportunity to shoot your designs for your portfolio.

**Industry Connections**
Led by a dedicated and experienced course team, you’ll benefit from their industry knowledge and the industry links they bring to the course. You’ll get direct access to guest lectures, who are specialists in the sector, and can benefit from live project briefs, master classes, and networking opportunities.

Our High Wycombe Campus is only a short train ride away from London, meaning you are only a stones-throw away from the hustle and bustle, where you’ll also have the chance to visit outside bodies, such as makeup prep rooms, wig stores, museums and galleries. Here you’ll gain inspiration, insight and a feeling for how the industry works.

**Career-focused**
With a history of delivering expert craft, art and design education for more than 130 years, Buckinghamshire New University is the perfect place to start your creative career in hair and make-up. During your time on the course you’ll lend your hand to a range of styles, techniques and periods. Your modules and briefs allow you to develop the skills that employers are looking for, whilst ensuring you have a varied and desirable portfolio.

**What will I study?**
The practical elements of our hair and makeup course are designed with industry in mind. On the course you will explore pre-production and film set etiquette, which will help you understand the rules, roles and responsibilities of individuals in a production team, as well as explaining who you will report to and the expectations within a professional context.

It is key to master different makeup and hair techniques, so we’ll help you explore a range of period eras and how they form the basis for fashion designs. Alongside, your modules in prosthetics and special effect makeup will allow you to experiment with a range of materials to understand what it takes to bring characters to life.

It’s not just about crafting something that looks great, it will be your job to create character designs that fit a script. We'll teach you about various period hairstyles and show you how to recreate them. Most importantly you'll understand the history and theory that informs your designs and be able to reflect critically on your practice.

You'll get to grips with professional practice and we will help you to develop essential entrepreneurial skills. As many people in this area work as freelancers, we’ll teach you everything you need to know for success, from how to set up to paying taxes and creating a winning portfolio.

Modules

**Year one**
**Core Modules**
Editorial Hair and Make-up Design
Historical and Contextual Studies
Independent Project
Introduction to Sculpting and Clay Modelling Techniques
Period Hair and Make-up
Pre-production and Set Etiquette
Advanced Hair and Make-up 1
Body Painting
SFX Prosthetics Application

**Year two**
**Core Modules**
Advanced Hair and Make-up 2
Character Design and Making
Haircutting and Barbering Techniques
Contextual Studies for Hair and Make-up 2
Final Major Project Design Proposal
Industry Brief
Professional Skills and Portfolio Development
Final Major Project

Assessment methods

During this two-year long hair and makeup degree, you will benefit from a full schedule where you’ll learn everything you need to know to feel ready for the industry by the time you graduate. This intense degree will make sure you challenge yourself to produce the best looks for your portfolio, whilst gaining as much experience as possible.

Learn from experienced lecturers, guest speakers and industry workshops. Your main base will be at our High Wycombe campus, and from there you’ll spend a number of days visiting our BNU teaching base at Pinewood Studios. These will both inspire you and help you to understand what the industry of today is really up to.

Although majority of the course is workshop-based and practical, you’ll also learn through;

• Traditional lectures and seminars, led by professionals
• Masterclasses
• Wider reading and preparation for lectures and workshop-based classes
• Visualisation of proposed material
• Individual and small group tutorials led by industry professionals and business mentors
• Final Major Project

You will also experience visits to outside bodies, such as makeup prep rooms, wig stores, museums, among others, to better prepare yourself for the research activities proposed in the programme.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,000
per year
International
£15,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

Extra funding

Buckinghamshire New University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.bucks.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/financial-support-bursaries-and-scholarships

The Uni


Course location:

Buckinghamshire New University

Department:

School of Art, Design, and Performance

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

95%
Hair and make-up

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Others in creative arts and design

Teaching and learning

95%
Staff make the subject interesting
100%
Staff are good at explaining things
95%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
89%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

79%
Library resources
74%
IT resources
89%
Course specific equipment and facilities
63%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

100%
UK students
0%
International students
3%
Male students
97%
Female students
77%
2:1 or above
15%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
C
E

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Others in creative arts and design

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£18,000
med
Average annual salary
93%
low
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

16%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
14%
Design occupations
10%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Others in creative arts and design

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£17k

£17k

£21k

£21k

£24k

£24k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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Course location and department:

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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