Filmmaking (Screen Documentary)

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.