PhD Placements at the Derek Jarman Lab

From September 2021, the Derek Jarman Lab will be offering short placement opportunities to PhD students. The placement will allow students to develop new practical and research skills, and facilitate new means of furthering public engagement with their academic research. By the end of the course, students will have created their own research-based film, communicating their scholarship. This placement is open to PhD students at Birkbeck, as well as those funded by CHASE and LAHP.

The placements will last from September to December 2021 (semester one of the forthcoming academic year). In-person training will take place over five consecutive Saturdays, from 11 September to 9 October. This initial part of the placement introduces the genres of filmmaking that lend themselves to a research-led approach, such as the essay film, documentary, video essay, video art, ethnographic film, and digital anthropology forms. We then move on to a series of practical exercises in working with audio-visual ideas, including writing treatments, camera training, sound recording, and editing digital footage (using DaVinci Resolve).

Following the training, students will have 10 weeks (until the end of the term, Friday 17 December) to produce their films, during which time they will receive fortnightly monitoring and feedback sessions with the Jarman Lab’s director, Dr Bartek Dziadosz, an experienced filmmaker and editor. Students will also have free access to the Jarman Lab’s professional cameras, sound recording equipment, and excellent editing facilities to complete their films.

The cost of the placement is £500. All students can apply to have these costs covered by their department or funding institution.

For further information, and to register for the course, please get in touch with Dr Dziadosz.