Program Overview

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MA Film

Postgraduate, Full-time

Overview

This course has been designed to help you embark on a career as a professional fiction filmmaker in one of the following disciplines:

• producing
• directing
• cinematography
• editing
• location sound recording and sound design (dual discipline)
• documentary

Teaching is through a combination of collaborative shared modules and modules that focus on individual disciplines. The two core practice-based modules, Creative Practice and Collaborative Techniques, complement each other, concentrating on professional practice within the framework of the industry crew structure.

Coursework consists of a large number of practical exercises, workshops and short film projects that allow students to deepen their own technical, creative and professional filmmaking skills. The course also includes academic research and reporting in your chosen discipline, and theoretical modules including critical film study. The course is approximately 60% practical and 40% theoretical.

The year's work and study culminates in a major project module in which students continue to work collaboratively, in their chosen disciplines, on one or more short scripted dramas.

This course is recognised by ScreenSkills, the industry-led skills body for the UK's screen-based industries and carries the ScreenSkills Select endorsement which indicates courses best suited to prepare students for a career in the screen industries.

Mode of Study:

Full-time

Duration:

1 year

Start date:

September

Course details

Screen Academy Scotland is an active filmmaking hub in the culturally vibrant city of Edinburgh. It offers great scope for collaboration, with some 350 or so students at undergraduate and postgraduate level engaged in diverse film activities. Students can also draw on support from tutors who themselves have significant experience in the industry.

The Screen Academy is a professionally-equipped facility and we expect student work to aspire to a level that is close to industry standard. As it's one of only three film academies in the UK accredited by ScreenSkills, the film industry’s skills body, it gives our graduates significant credibility in the industry.

This course will advance your knowledge of your chosen specialist area as well as giving you a rounded understanding of other film making disciplines. The emphasis on professional skills will help maximise your chance of success.

Previous graduates have had their films screened at festivals around the world, including Glasgow, London, USA, Venice, Beijing, Kolkata and Edinburgh. Many have gone on to win awards and commissions for TV and feature film projects.

Subjects include:

• Trimester 1:
  • Creative Practice for Film and TV
  • Collaborative Techniques for Film 1
  • The Business of Screen Project Development (optional)
  • Script Workshop 1 (optional)
  • Writing and Screen Project Development (optional)
  • Moving Image Design (editors and cinematographers only) (optional)
• Trimester 2:
  • Creative Practice for Cinema
  • Collaborative Techniques for Film 2
  • Critical Film Study
• Trimester 3:
  • Masters Film Project

Lead academics

MA Film is taught by a range of professionals from a number of specialisms.

• Ita Jansen is an award-winning Writer & Director. She participated in development programmes such as Berlinale Talents and Torino Film Lab. Her films have screened among others at Slamdance, Zinebi, The London Short Film Festival, Washington DC shorts, and many others. Her feature drama In Times of Rain had a theatrical release in Mexico and was broadcasted multiple times by the Mexican National broadcaster Canal 22.
• David Lumsden is an award-winning fiction & commercials Director based in Scotland. His work has been screened to audiences at film festivals around the world. Alongside his fiction and commercial projects he has also directed broadcast documentaries, made for TV films, and behind the scenes content for feature films. His work has received awards from Scottish BAFTA New Talent, Roses Creative Awards & The Christopher Johnson Movie Viral Award.
• David Byrne has over 30 years experience in the TV and film industry in every role in the camera department; on feature films, HETV drama, commercials, documentaries and industrial / corporate projects for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky and other non-UK channels. Previous teaching includes courses for Kodak and Technicolor staff.
• Susan Brand is Head of Editing at Edinburgh Napier University. She works with undergraduates and postgraduates including specialist teaching in advanced editing. Susan has over 20 years of international industry experience as an Editor and Edit Consultant. She has lived and worked in the UK, US, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary and Southeast Asia and was hugely inspired as a storyteller by this international experience. She has taught film editing at numerous universities and film schools around the world including as Visiting Professor at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has been a frequent guest speaker at industry events in the UK and abroad like the Scottish Documentary Institute, The Grierson Trust, Women in Film and Television and she has run her own 2-day course entitled Storytelling in the Edit funded by Skillset, the UK’s premiere film and television production training body.

We also engage a range of professional practitioners as visiting lecturers on the programme.

How you’ll be taught

This is a one-year full-time course starting in September and is split into three trimesters. Coursework consists of a large number of practical exercises, production of short scripted drama films, lectures, workshops and seminars.

Delivery of practical film-making skills is undertaken with an industry focus, and by academics and visiting lecturers who specialise in relevant professional practices.

Assessments

Assessment is continuous throughout the year and is predominantly based upon submission of creative practical work, documentation of research and critical reflection, essay assignments, and oral presentations. Students being assessed as heads of department on the creative practice module films are expected to share production costs.

Facilities

Students at the Screen Academy have access to a complete range of professional production and post-production equipment and industry software including Arri Alexa Mini LF; Arri Alexa Classic; Black Magic cameras; Super 16 mm; 35 Avid Media Composer suites; Avid Symphony Online and Black Magic Resolve Online; Pro-Tools, a fully equipped dubbing facility with Atmos, along with Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting, and Final Draft.

We are an Avid Learning Partner and have staff trained as ACIs (Avid Certified Instructor).

Modules

Modules that you will study* as part of this course

• Collaborative Techniques in Film 1 (SCA11118)
• Collaborative Techniques in Film 2 (SCA11122)
• Creative Practice for Cinema (SCA11129)
• Creative Practice for Film and TV (SCA11130)
• Critical Film Study (SCA11123)
• Masters Film Project (SCA11127)

*These are indicative only and reflect the course structure in the current academic year. Some changes may occur between now and the time that you study.

Entry requirements

• The entry requirement for this course is a Bachelor (Honours) Degree at 2:2 or above in any discipline. Applicants are required to submit a portfolio alongside their application.
• Please make it clear in your application which of the five specialisms you are applying for: directing, producing, cinematography, editing, location sound recording and design or documentary. There are limited spaces for each pathway to ensure a balance of technical disciplines within the course.

English language

If your first language isn't English, you'll normally need to undertake an approved English language test. The English Language requirements for this programme are IELTS (Academic) with 6.0 with no individual component score less than 6.0.

International students

We welcome applications from students studying a wide range of international qualifications.

Admissions policies

We’re committed to admitting students who have the potential to succeed and benefit from our programmes of study.

Fees & funding

The course fees you'll pay and the funding available to you will depend on a number of factors including your nationality, location, personal circumstances and the course you are studying.

• Tuition fees for students from Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland: £7,280 (2024/25), £7,650 (2025/26)
• Tuition fees for overseas and EU students: £18,800 (2024/25), £19,750 (2025/26)

Careers

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Producer/Production Management
• Location Manager
• Cinematographer
• Editor
• Assistant Editor
• Location Sound Mixer
• Sound designer