MA Film and Screen Production

This is a new MA for September 2021, but it builds on the success of Film Production at Derby and our previous MA in Writing for Performance, all of which have been highly rated. In fact, the latest Guardian league table placed us in the top 20 universities for Film Production and Photography (The Guardian University Guide 2021).

You can choose to specialise in film-making, documentary-making or scriptwriting, and under the mentorship of your tutors, you will gradually build the practical, aesthetic and technical skills needed to develop an original creative project. This could be a short film or documentary, or a script for a full-length film, television series, or play.

This MA also ensures you build up the commercial awareness and interpersonal skills you will need to succeed in the industry. For instance, we’ll cover pitching technique and how to articulate and sell your ideas.

You will explore the wider, more complex problems posed by content production as well, and develop theoretical understanding so you can appreciate the context (historical, social, commercial, environmental, international) of your own and others’ creative work.

A professional approach

During the Creative Project module in the final trimester, you will work through all the same stages that professional film-makers or scriptwriters do, to create your original film, documentary or script. On the Film and Documentary pathways, this process starts with pitching and progresses on to pre-production and filming, editing and finally sound design. Where possible, we encourage collaborative projects so that film-makers experience working together. 

On the Scriptwriting pathway, you will be supported to develop your story from initial short synopsis, through treatment, step outline and to first draft in the summer. Following a rehearsed reading with a professional cast, you will then continue with further drafting to complete the final full-length script.

The highlight of this professional approach, is that Film and Documentary students will be able to showcase and present their completed work to an academic and industry panel, while scriptwriters will get the opportunity to experience a professional read-through facilitated by Derby Theatre. These valuable opportunities enable you to get feedback from professionals and reflect on your work, so you can make changes and improvements and find your audience.