Directing for Stage and Screen MA

This course is in clearing with spaces available

Overview

Course options

Select year

MA

  1. MA Directing for Stage and Screen

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 10200 Per year.
  2. MA Directing for Stage and Screen

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 2 years
    • 1700 Per 30 credit module.
  3. MA Directing for Stage and Screen

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 15420 Per year.

MFA

  1. MA Directing for Stage and Screen

    • Home Applicant
    • MFA, 2 years (full time)
    • 10200 Year 1 fees: £10,200 (180 credits). Year 2 fees: £6,800 (120 credits).
  2. MA Directing for Stage and Screen

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 4 years
    • 1700 Per 30 credit module.
  3. MA Directing for Stage and Screen

    • International Applicant
    • MFA, 2 years (full time)
    • 14700 Year 1 fees: £15,420 (180 credits). Year 2 fees: £10,280 (120 credits).

Course modules

Select year

Director and the Text

Narrative Cinema

MFA Professional Platform

Creative Practice

Performance Platform

Performance Lab

The Moving Image

Scriptwriting

Mental Wealth: Practitioners and Praxis

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Your future career

Your future career

This programme will equip you for a range of careers in the creative industries or as a platform for progression to PhD study. You will gain the skills, understanding and knowledge to develop an innovative practice as a film or theatre director, playwright, screenwriter or independent creative producer. You will also develop a pathway to PhD study which can incorporate your practice as a focus of study.  

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

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, 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.

See more details

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

The MFA / MA Directing for Stage and Screen course takes a practice-based approach as it explores different stage and film directing methodologies - Realism, Narrative Cinema, Moving Image, Contemporary Devising and Screenwriting. 

You will gain the skills needed to become a creative and innovative Director in Film and Theatre with the opportunity to experiment and learn your craft taking your ideas from concept to realisation on the stage or screen. 

The Director and the Text  module draws on the Stanislavskian approach to staging plays and gives you an in-depth understanding of how to work with actors. 

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 Devised Project  module works in collaboration with a major cultural organisation, at present the V&A Museum, to create an original performance work to be staged and hosted in the museum.

The Moving Image  module looks at a wide range of experimental approaches to moving image work and explores a range of film technologies, including16mm film, green-screen and multiscreen installation.

The Screenwriting  module will introduce you to the process of screenwriting. Through an analysis of the art of writing for screen, including developing story structure, characters and dialogue, as well as the mechanics of screenwriting such as format and structure, students will advance their own professional scriptwriting practice.  

Your Final Project will be your chance to realise an ambitious, high production value, festival-ready film or stage play which acts a 'showcase' for the innovative directorial practice you have developed on the course.

How you'll learn

You'll be taught by a range of staff, most of whom are active practitioners in the field  which ensures that the practice-led research which is disseminated in the studio, or actually takes place there, is relevant to industry and practice. It also means that the course is well placed to take advantage of the myriad of professional networks which staff bring with them. Within each module there is a practical component and support/contextual component with the intention that knowledge and skills are always introduced and developed in relation to studio projects.

When not attending timetabled lectures, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for exams. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, the library and Moodle.

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

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

The approximate percentages for this course are:

Year 1:

  • scheduled teaching - 300 hours
  • guided independent study - 900 hours

Your individualised timetable is normally available to students within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching will be a mix of both daytime and evening sessions, partly dependent on module choice. 

We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 15 working days of the submission deadlines.

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.

How you will be assessed

This is a practice-based and industry focused programme with a weighting of roughly:

  • 70% process, performance, production and
  • 30% critical reflective writing.

Campus and facilities

University Square Stratford