Filmmaking (Screen Documentary) (Taught)

This MA will develop your skills and creative vision in documentary production. It enhances your understanding of the historical context and contemporary modes of documentary production against a backdrop of the wider issues in media production.

This Masters, a pathway of the MA Filmmaking, will encourage your understanding of the politics, aesthetics and ethics of documentary production, and the nature and diversity of documentary practice in contemporary society.

The Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies has been ranked 2nd in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 12th in the world (2nd in the UK) in the 2022 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.

What we offer
The programme is housed in a new purpose-built media facility equipped with state-of-the art teaching spaces including a range of digital cameras, Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Film Editing suites, Animation, Digital Special Effects, Pro Tools Audio Postproduction suites.

You will be able to make your own documentaries, learning and refining research, interviewing, self-shooting and editing techniques – but also have the unique opportunity to be part of a programme that includes specialised producers, cinematographers, editors, sound recordists and sound designers, so that you can develop the scope and range of your filmmaking by collaborating with them.

You work on at least two films during the year, culminating in a major production towards the end of the degree. In addition you can attend classes in related disciplines such as Cinematography and Editing and may collaborate with students across other specialisations on film projects. This framework is designed to provide you with a breadth of filmmaking knowledge combined with a high level of expertise in your chosen filmmaking discipline.

The MA encourages you to develop:

• an awareness of documentary production techniques, ethics and aesthetics

• specific filmmaking and production management skills

• technical skills (including camera, lighting and sound editing)

• an understanding of the workings of the media and their broad cultural and social impacts

Our former students have gone on to win awards including:

• Best Documentary at the Exposures Film Festival
• Postgraduate Factual Prize at the Royal Television Society Student Awards
• Student Award at the One World Media Awards

They've also launched their own film festivals, worked on critically acclaimed films and documentaries, and have had their work screened at the London International Documentary Festival, National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival and Open City, the London Documentary Festival.

This course is accredited by Creative Skillset.

You will be taught the skills to be able to self-shoot and edit, but will also have the chance to work with specialised camera-people, editors and producers. You complete several short films and exercises, then make your own 15-25 minute documentary, during which you will fully explore research methods, visual and thematic storytelling, experimental and multi-platform formats and much more.

For two terms you will spend a full day a week in specialised contact with your specific programme convenor, plus a further day in Screen Lab working with colleagues across the programme in a Talent Campus-style project-led learning structure with:

Masterclasses
Pitches
Role-plays
Exercises aimed at using your skills specialism in a variety of live shoot situations

You will also have a variety of research projects to undertake, as well as other module options.

Compulsory modules
You will take the following modules:
Documentary: Specialist Skills 45 credits
Representing Reality 15 credits

You will also complete a Final Project (90 credits), assessed by a portfolio of work and a viva that reflects your practice.

Screen School options
As well as your Screen Documentary specialism, you will choose option modules to the value of 30 credits to enhance your other skills and critical approaches.
Examples of the modules available include:
Social Activist Film 15 credits
Adaptation and Script Editing 30 credits
Archaeology of the Moving Image 15 credits
Camera Fundamentals 15 credits
Contemporary Screen Narratives in Practice and Theory 15 credits
Experimental Media 30 credits or 15 credits
Filmmakers Make Theory 15 credits
Film Producing Fundamentals 15 credits
Sound Design Fundamentals 15 credits
The Ascent of the Image 15 credits
Visual Storytelling 15 credits
Doctor Holby: Writing for Existing Continuing TV Drama Series 15 credits
Media Law and Ethics 15 credits
Practical Law for Film-makers 15 credits

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.