This course gives you the specialist knowledge and skills you need to work and succeed the fast-evolving field of digital film production. You explore areas such as cross-media approaches to storytelling scriptwriting production planning and development digital film production editing and post-production techniques and film history and theory. All students work with an external client on a real project for industry. The Creative Enterprises unit prepares you for the world of work by helping you prepare your portfolio and CV introducing you to industry professionals and looking at opportunities for working freelance and within larger production houses.

What will you study?

Studying our Creative Digital Film Production MA course gives you hands-on experience of filmmaking to a professional standard, with the specialist knowledge and skills you need to work and succeed in the fast-evolving field of digital film production. You will explore areas such as cross-media approaches to storytelling, production planning and development, digital film production, editing and post-production techniques and film history and theory. Building on experience, filmmakers will further develop their understanding of both fiction and non-fiction film making through an advanced study of film theory, coupled with a practical application designed to build and develop creativity and personal style. At the heart of this course is your employability. Through our Creative Enterprises unit, you will have the opportunity to work on a live brief as well as explore employment opportunities within the film and television industry.

Building on the foundations of your study, Film Analysis will enable you to adopt an informed and sophisticated approach to film theory. You will critically analyse various cinema forms and institutions ranging from contemporary to historical cinema and enhance your awareness of the specificity of meaning within films. To develop your skills in film production, you will engage with a range of workshops and practical exercises in our Fiction Film Production unit. You will practice the standard rules of film production, from sequencing shots to the continuity system, and learn to realise your ideas on the screen while working as part of a production team with performers. Overall, you will have the opportunity to make creative and technical decisions in fiction filmmaking.

You will also get the opportunity to produce a short factual film in our Truth and Telling unit that will expose you to the creative issues and decisions at the heart of storytelling through documentaries or other experimental forms. On a deeper level, you will consider different modes of production and how filmmakers make meaning in their work based on cultural influences or technology. Finally, you will have the opportunity to complete a Digital Film Project where you can produce your own work of film in a documentary, fiction or hybrid style that is accompanied by a critical contextual study. Alternatively, you will complete a 12,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice related to film practice or studies.

Careers

This course is ideal for you if you are seeking a job in film-related fields such as production programming marketing and film administration. It provides an understanding of filmmaking in relation to commercial and cultural industries both global and in the UK.

Students graduating from this degree have entered the film industry as editors filmmakers and production crew as well as setting up their own production companies. Graduates will also be qualified to apply for MPhil and PhD research degrees.

Mode(s) and length of study Full time over 15 months Part time pathway typically over 30 months