Award in Photography – Advanced

The advanced photography course is dedicated to those students who already possess good knowledge and understanding of the photographic medium and its techniques and would like to develop their competencies to a more professional level. This unit will give students the opportunity to evolve a conceptual idea into a fully developed and produced project.

The rationale behind this course is to guide students through their creative thinking process, whilst instructing them as they produce a journal documenting their creative process from the initial research phase, through their production process, and finally reaching their work delivery.

Furthermore, this course will also explore the importance of ethical and legal considerations when working on a photographic project, including the documents required for location scouting and of course talent and location release forms.

Career Paths

The target audience for this course would be students who completed their introduction and intermediate course to photography and would like to further their understanding of contextual photography, other photographers who perhaps have mastered their photographic skills but would like to experiment with more conceptual photography, and potentially interested mature students as per maturity clause.

Structure and Assessment

Course delivery is blended, and includes on-line or face-to-face lessons along with practical assignments where applicable.

Duration – 13 weeks (2-hour lecture per week)

Lecturing Schedule

Part-Time Evenings or Saturday Morning – 1 Sessions of 2 Hours each Weekly Thursdays plus 18:00-20:00 hrs of lectures

Note: Additional hours as directed by the Lecturer need to be dedicated by way of Self-Study / Research / Assignments / Projects / Presentations / Group-Work or similar.

Assessments

These may be either Home-Based Assignments or Time-Constrained Assessments, on both an Individual Basis, as well as on a Group-Level Basis according to the Units being assessed, and may also include evaluation of hands-on practice.

Learning Outcomes

1. Apply practices of photographic equipment and techniques
2. Research a concept to gather inspiration
3. Compile a Production Folder with the required paperwork and documentation
4. Produce a conceptual series of photographs
5. Present and evaluate own work whilst giving critical feedback to others

Entry Requirements

– Participants should be able to communicate in Maltese and/or English

– Participants should have a basic understanding of photographic techniques including at least exposure values, lens uses and light concepts. and

– Participants should also have a basic understanding of different photographic genres and post-processing skills

– Participants should be in possession of an Award in Photography – Intermediate certificate and/or a Level 3 in Media Literacy studies

Students who do not have either a certification in Award in Photography – Intermediate or a Level 3 in Media Literacy Studies must present a portfolio.

Maturity Clause: 

Students who satisfy the following conditions may apply for consideration to join MCAST programmes as mature students:

• Be in possession of the School Leaving Certificate

Have, by the end of the current calendar year:

• Attained the age of 23 years for entry to programmes at MQF Level 5, Level 6 and Level 7 on the National Qualifications Framework.
• Attained the age of 21 years for entry to programmes at MQF Level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework.
• Attained the age of 19 years for entry to programmes at MQF Level 3 on the National Qualifications Framework.3
• Demonstrate that they stand to benefit and show that they are able to follow the programme through an interview held for the purpose. The Interview Board may require candidates to undertake additional studies as part of their acceptance. The Board may recommend an alternative programme where it considers it appropriate. The Board reserves the right to evaluate the prospective candidate’s competences through an assessment. Students are advised to contact the Office of Part-Time Courses to clarify any queries.

Certification:

Course participants may be awarded either an MCAST Certificate of Attendance or an MCAST Certificate of Achievement.

MCAST Certificate of Attendance

· An MCAST Certificate of Attendance will be awarded to those candidates who attend at least 70% of the lessons.

MCAST Certificate of Achievement

• An MCAST Certificate of Achievement will be awarded to those candidates who satisfy the 80% attendance criteria AND ALSO choose submit course assignments / or sit for assessments and achieves a Pass mark or higher.
• Students who opt not to submit assignments or sit for the assessments or fail to achieve a Pass mark will however be awarded an MCAST Certificate of Attendance provided that they fulfil the minimum attendance criteria as stated above.