Design for Stage and Screen: UBC Theatre and Film Mini School

This mini school is part of the UBC Future Global Leaders on-campus program for high school students ages 15–18. With 45 hours of class time, mini schools provide a comprehensive introduction to a program area and include information on learning pathways and career opportunities.

From stage and screen to social media, design is an important tool in telling a story, communicating character and relationships, building an imagined world, reflecting themes of a text or performance piece, or developing a brand.

Through a series of hands-on projects, discussions, and presentations, develop your design skills while learning how designers working in sets, costumes, lights and sound respond to a script or project idea and develop a visual and audio language for live or recorded media.

The process of designing for stage and screen incorporates text analysis; research compilation; identifying and refining storytelling goals; and understanding how sets, costumes, lights, and sound work together to establish a world, create a mood, and emphasize the themes and ideas a production team identifies as most central for the audience’s experience. All of these and more are touched upon in this UBC Theatre and Film Mini School.

Whether you’re new to design or have previous experience with sketching, model-building, and cue-setting, building and refining your design skills will strengthen the quality of your work, improve your ability to focus and prioritize your ideas, and help you understand the role design plays in various forms of live and recorded media.

This highly immersive two-week mini school is an excellent choice if you are interested in design for stage, screen and social media or are thinking about attending a university program in theatre and film. It is also a great choice for anyone wanting to learn about various design roles and careers in the entertainment industry.

UBC Theatre and Film is a renowned department that has produced some of Canada’s most innovative artists and scholars for over 50 years.

Course format

This mini-school is held on the UBC Vancouver campus. You attend class in-person 9am–12noon and 1:30-3pm, Monday through Friday. Bring your own laptop or tablet. 

Choose to live in a student residence on campus or commute daily to UBC Vancouver:

Commuter Option includes lunch in residence dining hall, Monday through Friday, and UBC Recreation Card.

Residence Option includes private room and full board, airport pick-up and drop-off, local medical insurance for all international students (and custodianship if required for visa), weeknight and weekend social activities (e.g., trips to Grouse Mountain, Granville Island and Robson Street) and UBC Recreation Card.

Cost details

Fees per two-week mini schools* 

Residence option 

Commuter option 

International students 

$5,505 CAD 

$2,855 CAD

Canadian students (including Permanent Residents) 

$4,760 CAD

$2,110 CAD

*All fees are subject to change

To register

A Family Account in UBC’s Lifelong Learning registration system is required to register for UBC Future Global Leaders on-campus.

After you add the course to your cart and go to check out, you’re asked to create a new Family Account or log in if you already have a Family Account.

A parent or guardian needs to set up the Family Account with their primary email address. After the account is created, the parent/guardian adds the student as a family member to their Family Account using the student’s primary email address (the student’s email address cannot be the same as the parent/guardian email address).

Add the student to the course session in your cart and complete the checkout process.

After completing the checkout process, and while logged into your Family Account, select New Application to access the FGL information package. Your registration is not final until the information package has been completed and submitted. You may partially complete the information package and return to it at any time within your Family Account.

If you are located in Russia, you will need a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to create a Family Account, register for a course, fill out the information package and complete payment. If you do not have a VPN or need assistance, please contact us.

Available sessions

There are no upcoming sessions currently scheduled for this course.

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