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 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, and Adobe Premiere Film Editing suites, 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. The programme encourages you to develop your own distinctive authorial voice and gain a range of skills that will make you highly employable.

• 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. 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

• The Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies has been ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 16th in the world (third in the UK) in the 2024 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.

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 working with colleagues across the programme with:

Masterclasses
Pitches
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
Representing Reality

You will also complete a Final Project, a 20-minute film with a subject and style of your own choice, assessed alongside a portfolio of development work.

Screen School options
As well as your screen documentary specialism, you will choose 1 or 2 option modules to enhance your other skills and critical approaches.

Examples of the modules available include:
Social Activist Film
Adaptation and Script Editing
Archaeology of the Moving Image
Camera Fundamentals
Contemporary Screen Narratives
Experimental Media
Film Producing Fundamentals
Sound Design Fundamentals
The Ascent of the Image
Visual Storytelling
Practical Law for Film-makers

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