Course summary

Want to turn movie stars into monsters? Our BDes (Hons) Special Make-up Effects for Film and TV with foundation year course focuses on helping you develop specialist skills and creative know-how. We offer fantastic facilities and industry-experienced staff dedicated to preparing you for a career in this ground-breaking creative industry. From superheroes to sci-fi, and horror to history, many TV shows and movies need special effects make-up to enhance their on-screen storytelling. Actors can be utterly transformed into aliens, zombies, pirates and vampires, while more subtle make-up effects convince us of injuries, scars, tattoos or wrinkles. All these special effects are created by dedicated and highly-skilled make-up artists. Our BDes (Hons) Special Make-up Effects for Film and TV with foundation year course focuses on preparing you for a career creating these illusions. The foundation year allows you to experience the various specialisms offered by the Centre for Film FX at the University of Bolton. It aims to build your academic and creative skills and confidence so that you can make the leap to degree-level study smoothly. We’ll guide you as you explore a wide range of technical and creative areas drawn from across the spectrum of special and visual effects, helping you make an informed decision about your future career direction. At the end of the year, you’ll be able to choose between progressing with our BDes (Hons) Special Make-up Effects for Film and TV or transferring to one of our other fantastic Film FX courses. With this preparation, you’ll be ready to begin our intensely practical education in special effects make-up. We’ll lead you in an exploration of prosthetics and changing physical appearances, including aspects such as life-casting, clay sculpting, creating silicone masks, applying prosthetics, adding hair and colouring techniques. We’ll encourage you to experiment with materials, tools and techniques, and discover how prosthetics and make-up can combine with 3D computer graphics to create even more spectacular on-screen transformations.