MA Directing
- London, United Kingdom
- Berlin, Germany
MA
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* we accept applications and offer places on a rolling basis throughout the year
Key Summary
About: The MA Directing trains you to work as a director across film, television and digital platforms. It builds industry knowledge, entrepreneurial skills, and understanding of story, visual storytelling, and performance. You’ll practice directing actors and non-professionals, leading creative teams, delivering client briefs, and using diverse working practices. Practical work includes workshops, masterclasses, industry projects, collaborative crew experience, and a final directing portfolio.
Career Outcomes: From day one you’ll learn to network and pitch. Graduates work as Directors, VFX Artists, TV producers, Script editors, On-air producers, Campaign managers, and other screen professionals; you could pursue roles including commercial director.
The MA Directing programme is designed for you to develop the skills and understanding needed to work as a director in today's multi-faceted screen industries. Today's director must be knowledgeable about industry, entrepreneurial, multi-skilled, and able to bring a deep understanding of story and performance in different contexts.
Through the programme, you will acquire advanced insight into the interpretation of scripts, visual storytelling, and working across a variety of screen platforms and industry contexts.
You will develop skills in directing actors and non-professional contributors. You will learn about the director's role as a leader and collaborator, working to realise client briefs and audiences' expectations. You will learn to recognise the importance of diversity and progressive working practices in your approaches to content making.
- Practical: Through hands-on exercises, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and screenings, students will gain the practical skills and knowledge required to work as a director.
- Industry-facing: Work collaboratively with students on other MA pathways as a part of a creative crew to mirror industry practice. Experience what it takes to deliver a project, and develop communication, negotiation, and project management skills.
- Real-life Experience: Learn the importance of working on a creative brief as a director while completing a project for an external company. Our students have previously worked with companies including Nespresso, Stonewall, Time out, DHL, HM Treasury, and Fender Guitars.
- Portfolio: Students have the opportunity to undertake a number of directing exercises, including a short-form project for an external industry client, and a final project.
The overview below is not a complete list of MA Directing modules. For the complete list, please download the full Course Specification on our website.
Directing Craft and Industry
The key roles and responsibilities of the contemporary director are explored through the perspective of story development and creative collaboration in the production of screen content. During the early weeks of the module you will work with students from other pathways to make a short video using a camera phone, based on something that you want to say.
Using the video idea as a starting point, you will evidence your developing understanding of content, industry, and audiences to pitch a feature film or television project to an industry panel.
Directing for Film
You will focus on the practical challenges of creating a self-contained, narrative film. You will cover a range of skills appropriate to the role of the director, including project planning, rehearsing and shooting with actors, visualising the story and on-set protocols. In addition, you will look at creative troubleshooting and working in a collaborative environment.
Professional Profile
You will develop authentic and detailed career paperwork and supporting materials including a CV and personal profile. As part of the module, you will be offered Elective Upskilling sessions – opportunities to develop screen industry skills outside of your chosen discipline or as part of your multi-skilling profile.
Client-driven Cinematography
Working with production teams drawn from other pathways, you will work as a DOP on a number of videos for external clients. Sessions on key elements of location filming, green screen compositing, and shooting table-top for commercials will support you in your work.
Directing to a Client Brief
Working with production teams drawn from the other pathways, you will work as a director and in other roles on a number of videos for external clients. You will develop ideas, engage in appropriate preparatory work and direction, alongside gaining insight into a range of production roles and responsibilities.
Directing Television
You will understand the hierarchical relationships between director, writer, and producer in the creation and delivery of serialised narrative content. You will learn to work to an existing brief and/or house style alongside initiating a series 'look' or vision. You will work with screenwriters in the realisation of a scene or sequence of content for a television audience.
Practice-based Research
Building on the work of previous and concurrent modules, you will gain a deeper insight into current theories, principles, and discussions relating to issues of diversity, sustainability, and ethics within the screen industries, and continue to engage with content about/from diverse cultural/social/gender groups of contributors in the UK and across the world.
Final Project and Career Plan
Your third collaborative project gives you the opportunity to work independently to create work that demonstrates your development as a director. Your project is an opportunity to deliver work that is distinctive, industry-facing, based in research, and reflects awareness of a diverse and inclusive world. You will also present your career plan, including evidence of new skills to be assessed by industry employers as you prepare to enter or re-enter the screen industries on graduation.
Your success is our priority
From the very first day at Met Film School, we teach our students to network and pitch to the industry. Our team helps our talented and bright graduates to secure creative jobs in leading companies across the globe.
Our graduates work in the industry as VFX Artists, Directors, TV Assistant Producers, Script Editors, On-Air Producers, Campaign Managers and other screen professionals. These are just some of the companies they’ve gone on to work for:
