Screenwriting

Our postgraduate screenwriting course offers you an integrated programme in the history, theory and practice of screenwriting. It will develop your practical screenwriting skills and techniques, and you will be able to develop outlines, treatments and scripts towards a portfolio of original projects. Projects may be for film or television, and the course will encourage you to write in different genres and expect you to rewrite draft scripts with feedback and tutor support.

One distinctive feature of the course is the fast-track core module which will allow all students enrolling on the course, including graduates in other fields, to gain detailed knowledge of screenwriting theories, conventions and formats, and develop the ability to apply these to writing practice. Subsequent modules will deepen your writing skills and knowledge of screenwriting with assignments of increasing length designed to meet industry requirements, such as feature film script and television series writing. You will also study the discourse and practices of screenwriting.

If you progress to the Master's degree, central to that course is examining how the industry works, and to this end there are six autumn industry talks with guest speakers, and a four-day summer school, which focuses on the writer working in the industry, and includes pitching and storytelling workshops.

We offer this course as a Master’s and a Postgraduate Certificate. For the Certificate you study fewer modules and do not complete a final project/portfolio.

Highlights

Graduates in other fields can achieve professional standards of practice and understanding of the industry.

We have state-of-the art cinema and exhibition spaces, all housed in a historic building that was a former home to key members of the Bloomsbury Group, including the author Virginia Woolf and the artist Vanessa Bell. Birkbeck has a number of institutes specifically designed to foster work across disciplines, such as the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image.

Located in central London, in the heart of historic Bloomsbury, Birkbeck is within easy reach of cinemas and galleries, as well as facilities such as the British Film Institute and the British Library.

We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.

Careers and employability

Graduates can pursue career paths in the creative industries, such as screenwriting, script editing and collaborating with readers/directors/producers/co-writers. Possible professions include:

screenwriter

script writer

creative writer

magazine or newspaper journalist

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher

higher education lecturer.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.