Filmmaking MA

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

Select year

MA

  • MA Filmmaking, home applicant, full time

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • Pound 10200 per year
  • MA Filmmaking, home applicant, part time

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 2 years
    • Pound 1700 per 30 credit module
  • MA Filmmaking, international applicant, full time

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • Pound 15420 per year
    International applications are closed for 2024

MFA

  • MA Filmmaking, home applicant, full time

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • Pound 10200 per year
  • MA Filmmaking, home applicant, part time

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 2 years
    • Pound 1700 per 30 credit module
  • MA Filmmaking, international applicant, full time

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • Pound 15420 per year
    International applications are closed for 2024

What makes this course different

Specialist equipment

Learn in our unique Moving Image Studio – a state-of-the-art platform for developing, presenting and examining the work of UK-based artists, filmmakers, scholars and organisations.

Industry experts

You will work with renowned filmmakers and artists in a studio environment and experience first-hand the full range of skills, techniques and procedures used in the film and creative industries.

Great resources

You will benefit from using our advanced production and post-production facilities in film (both 16mm and Super 16mm formats), HD video and sound, all delivered by expert technical instructors.

Course modules

Download course specification

Your future career

Your future career

Our graduates emerge well-prepared to thrive in the cultural and creative industries in areas such as film and TV production, contemporary art, new media platforms, teaching and doctoral research.

Some of our recent MA students have taken on key roles in the film industry, film journalism and film festivals. Others have progressed to practice-led PhD research or have found employment in London's vibrant production and post-production film and TV culture.

Among the success stories are Ahmer Naqvi, who has gone to Bollywood where he now works as an assistant director, and Elena Cojocaru, who has become a freelance video editor.

Elena believes the course's wide range of partner organisations and its productive collaborations with Film and Video Umbrella, Shooting People and the BFI benefited her career. 

"I've found that being part of an academic community of independent filmmakers and moving image artists, as well as having London as a cultural backdrop, has been creatively and professionally rewarding," she says. 

Other graduates have gone on to further academic success. Matthew Hawkins became a co-founder of London's Edge of the City Film Festival and is now a lecturer in film at Coventry University, while Sam Talefaird is pursuing a practice-led PhD with the London Film School and Exeter University.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

ba hons film hero banner students filming in a pub
The MA Filmmaking course has taught me how to fully deliver my creative vision in documentary and fiction by experimenting with cinematic and sound design techniques when approaching both. The course has provided a highly supportive environment in which I can make mistakes and learn from them, which is a testament to the dedicated teaching team."
Elena Carmen Cojocaru

MA Filmmaking student

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support 
  • We are ranked 6th for graduate start-ups 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment 
  • London on our doorstep

What you'll learn

A major strength of this course is its diversity. Unlike other MA film courses, this course enables you to look at the different ways of making films and learn a mix of craft skills.

Our course encourages you to experiment with how ideas are formed, how concepts are developed and how images are created. You will also interrogate how meanings are constructed in film.

You will complete five or more projects, gain skills in project management, learn to self-author and distribute and, as the culmination of your studies, produce a substantial thesis film.

The core and option modules include the following:

The Narrative Cinema module gives you a grounding in scripting, crew dynamics, production planning and practical filmmaking skills in the production of a short fiction film.

The Moving Image module looks at a wide range of experimental approaches to moving image work and explores a range of film technologies, including green-screen and multiscreen installation.

Documentary Cinema looks at both historical and contemporary approaches to documentary film practice and prepares you with the practical skills required to produce a documentary.

The Audiovision module seeks to develop a wide understanding of the role of sound in moving image work and to develop your skills in sound design.

Screenwriting engages with the specifics of writing for screen and professional Screenwriting practice. By the end of the module, you will have written and developed a feature film outline and short film script to
industry-standard for potential future development.

Your Final Project will be your chance to realise an ambitious, high-production value, festival-ready film.

How you'll learn

You'll be taught by a range of staff, all of whom are practitioners in the area they teach. The assessments are based on practice-led teaching relevant to various aspects of the film industry. Our staff are well placed to take advantage of a range of professional networks and industry contacts. Each module is designed with both a practical component and a written reflective component, with the intention that students develop an ability to comment on and justify their creative process.

Guided independent study

When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, and specialist facilities, such as edit suites, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.

Workload

For full-time time study, you will spend around 330 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities to complete the MA. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.

The approximate workload hours for this course are:

  • Full-time scheduled teaching - 332 hours
  • Guided independent study - 1768 hours

Academic support

Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas – including learning and disability support

Dedicated personal tutor

Each student will have an Academic Advisor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer. 

Workload

You will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities for each module. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.

Your timetable

Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.

Class sizes

The class size will vary depending on the modules selected.

How you will be assessed

Coursework will include individual or group-based films (75%) , and individual written assignment( 25%)

You'll receive written feedback, outlining your strengths and how you can improve. We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 15 working days.

Campus and facilities

Docklands Campus, London, E16 2RD