Name: MA Directing - Courses - London - Berlin - Leeds - MetFilm School
Author: Giuseppe Bruni

Overview

The MA Directing programme is designed for you to develop the skills and understanding needed to work as a director in today’s multi-faceted screen industries. Today’s director must be knowledgeable about industry, entrepreneurial, multi-skilled, and able to bring a deep understanding of story and performance in different contexts.

Through the programme, you will acquire advanced insight into the interpretation of scripts, visual storytelling, and working across a variety of screen platforms and industry contexts.

You will develop skills in directing actors and non-professional contributors. You will learn about the director’s role as a leader and collaborator, working to realise client briefs and audiences’ expectations. You will learn to recognise the importance of diversity and progressive working practices in your approaches to content making.

Why Take the Course?

Practical: Through hands-on exercises, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and screenings, students will gain the practical skills and knowledge required to work as a director.
Industry-facing: Work collaboratively with students on other MA pathways as a part of a creative crew to mirror industry practice. Experience what it takes to deliver a project, and develop communication, negotiation, and project management skills.
Real-life Experience: Learn the importance of working on a creative brief as a director while completing a project for an external company. Our students have previously worked with companies including Nespresso, Stonewall, Time out, DHL, HM Treasury, and Fender Guitars.
Portfolio: Students have the opportunity to undertake a number of directing exercises, including a short-form project for an external industry client, and a final project.
Professional tutors: Many of our teaching staff are currently working in the industry as: TV and film directors, broadcast journalists, producers, writers, and more*.

*Due to the nature of their work patterns, named staff on programmes are subject to change, and are also dependent on the programme and modules selected for study by the student. For a selection of the tutors who teach across our campuses, please see Our People.

Our outstanding academic credentials are recognised by leading higher education bodies. This course is industry recognised by ScreenSkills, the industry-led skills body for the UK’s screen-based industries and carries the ScreenSkills Select quality mark which indicates courses best suited to prepare students for a career in the screen industries.

Programme Aims

Deep understanding of the roles and responsibilities relating to being a director for a range of screen platforms.

The ability to produce work of increasing ambition and quality including experimentation with content and form.

The ability to develop and realise creative projects suitable for industry and audiences.

The language and understanding to articulate the role screen storytelling plays in an increasingly globalised and inclusive world.

Advanced techniques in working with actors in the realisation of compelling and meaningful content.

A detailed, structured, and ethical approach to content production including sensitivity to a range of abilities and qualities of collaborators to enable them to deliver their best work.

The ability to understand the work of colleagues and to articulate why screen practice requires true collaboration.

Gained insight that will enable you to enter the screen industries as an enlightened and contemporary screen industry professional.

What You Will Study

Over three trimesters you will gain advanced insight into the craft of a director and the implications of creating and delivering screen content to a wide variety of audiences and contexts.

Trimester 1 focuses on the essence of screen storytelling and the role the director plays in realisation of stories through the creation of a short film. Alongside this you will explore your own qualities as you build a career profile that will develop as the course – and your understanding – increases.

In Trimester 2, you will enrich your understanding through a client-facing directing assignment. You will also work with material generated by screenwriting students in the realisation of content for television. In addition, you will develop the research and analytical skills expected in both your academic and professional practice.

In Trimester 3, you will draw together your practical, theoretical, and industry understanding into the creation and delivery of a filmed artefact and complete your career plan as part of your progression into real world employment.

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Module Overview

The overview below is not a complete list of MA Directing modules. For the complete list, please download the full Course Specification below.

The key roles and responsibilities of the contemporary director are explored through the perspective of story development and creative collaboration in the production of screen content. During the early weeks of the module you will work with students from other pathways to make a short video using a camera phone, based on something that you want to say.

Using the video idea as a starting point, you will evidence your developing understanding of content, industry, and audiences to pitch a feature film or television project to an industry panel.

You will focus on the practical challenges of creating a self-contained, narrative film. You will cover a range of skills appropriate to the role of the director, including project planning, rehearsing and shooting with actors, visualising the story and on-set protocols. In addition, you will look at creative troubleshooting and working in a collaborative environment.

You will develop authentic and detailed career paperwork and supporting materials including a CV and personal profile. As part of the module you will be offered Elective Upskilling sessions – opportunities to develop screen industry skills outside of your chosen discipline or as part of your multi-skilling profile.

Working with production teams drawn from the other pathways, you will work as a director and in other roles on a number of videos for external clients. You will develop ideas, engage in appropriate preparatory work and direction, alongside gaining insight into a range of production roles and responsibilities.

You will understand the hierarchical relationships between director, writer, and producer in the creation and delivery of serialised narrative content. You will learn to work to an existing brief and/or house style alongside initiating a series ‘look’ or vision. You will work with screenwriters in the realisation of a scene or sequence of content for a television audience.

Building on the work of previous and concurrent modules, you will gain a deeper insight into current theories, principles, and discussions relating to issues of diversity, sustainability, and ethics within the screen industries, and continue to engage with content about/from diverse cultural/social/gender groups of contributors in the UK and across the world.

Your third collaborative project gives you the opportunity to work independently to create work that demonstrates your development as a director. Your project is an opportunity to deliver work that is distinctive, industry-facing, based in research, and reflects awareness of a diverse and inclusive world. You will also present your career plan, including evidence of new skills to be assessed by industry employers as you prepare to enter or re-enter the screen industries on graduation.

We include a diverse range of teaching methods which include:

seminars in smaller groups;
small group tutorials;
practical group work;
formative feedback through critiques/screening and reflective sessions;
skills Labs – a reflection of ‘real world’ experiences; and
enhancement activities.

We use a wide range of assessment which include portfolios, performances, research, presentations, and reflective work. Please download the Course Specification below for more information.

Download Full Programme Specification

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Entry Requirements

Standard Entry Requirements

Age: All applicants must be 18 years or older at the time the programme begins.
Education: A 2:1 honours degree from a UK university or overseas equivalent.

Applicants must also submit:

A personal statement of at least 500 words. The MetFilm School online application form details the information that your personal statement must include.

Students Not Meeting Academic Requirements

Students without a degree, but who can demonstrate relevant industry experience or a degree below a 2:1 equivalent are still able to apply. They will need to submit the following:

A professional industry reference.
A professional CV.
A 750 word statement of why you wish to enter the screen industries, indicating the ways in which you think they are changing.

Students receive the Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud License for the duration of their course. For more information, please check Equipment in the Study with Us section for your chosen course, and the Location sections for the range of equipment and learning resources available on each of our campuses.

For more information on MA Directing entry requirements, language requirements, funding, and the application process please visit: