School: Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Acting for Screen
  • Unit Code

    ACT3004
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    4
  • Credit Points

    30
  • Full Year Unit

    Y
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
  • Unit Coordinator

    Ms Alexandria STEFFENSEN

Description

This unit prepares the actor for the specialised acting techniques for camera and microphone. Camera confidence and versatility in performance on camera will be enhanced throughout the year as students engage with material from contemporary Australian, American and European scripts ranging from the comic through to the dramatic. Students will learn how to interpret film scripts, how film crews operate and how editing is conceived. Scenes and monologues will be filmed in a television studio as well as on location. Students learn to operate within a professional context by working in collaboration with colleagues from the West Australian Screen Academy (WASA) in the creation of original short films to a broadcast standard.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Research and prepare for screen acting roles.
  2. Interpret screen writing visually and structurally for rehearsal and performance.
  3. Perform confidently and professionally meeting the technical and creative demands of an actor on film or television.
  4. Operate multi camera and single camera production in film and television.
  5. Work effectively within the film crew hierarchy.

Unit Content

  1. Overview of film and TV production.
  2. Multi camera and single camera theory and practice.
  3. Performing for the camera on a variety of scripts and styles.
  4. Screen editing.
  5. Terminology in camera and film.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Full YearNot Offered13 x 3 hour studioNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, masterclasses, workshops, filming in a studio and on location.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
PerformancePerformance in a short film40%
PerformanceScreen test30%
PerformanceScenes on camera30%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

ACT3004|4|1