MA Screen - Directing

Course summary:

A Drama Centre course at Central Saint Martins. This intensive course gives you a unique insight into an actors conservatoire training, giving the director the intellectual and artistic tools to better communicate and stimulate a creative performance from actors on film.

Directing means working with performers and developing a methodology that balances the needs of the actor against the grinding pressure of the shooting process.

This course equips and enables the director to find their own voice whilst developing the skills needed to balancing these difficult demands. During the course you will work closely with the acting cohort developing your directors voice and vision to tell story through narrative drama, focusing on an understanding on the importance of genre, casting and story telling with the actor.

This course is part of the Drama and Performance Programme.

Great reasons to apply:

• This course has produced many successful alumni including a Welsh Bafta winner and a number of feature film leads
• You'll engage with industry professionals. Our Visiting Professor is Stephen Frears, the internationally acclaimed screen director, and Visiting practitioners have included the experienced screen directors Moira Armstrong and Richard Standeven, the producers Bernard Krichefski, Tony Dennis, David Collier and Greg Boardman, cinematographers Paul Bond and Zillah Bowes, Anne Henderson, Casting Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, screenwriters John Wilsher and Danny Stack and many others
• With good time-management, a number of students also carry out extra-curricular activities. Current student Mirin Barr won Best Actress at the Campus Moviefest Awards for her part in 'One Beautiful Day', directed by fellow student Rudina Hatipi. One Beautiful Day has also been selected for the Campus Movie Fest Wildcard Challenge
• You'll collaborate closely with MA Screen - Acting students on numerous camera based projects throughout the course. Other recent collaborations include working with London College of Fashion, Wimbledon and Trinity Laban
• MA Screen, Directing, is built upon Stanislavski's approach to the text and the actor. Working closely together this approach enables both to grow creatively as artists
• MA Screen Directing is one of the courses in the Programme that originates from the unique approach and techniques that were developed by Drama Centre London.

Anyone Interested.

Course details:

This postgraduate course prepares you for work in film and television and related fields by bringing together the key artistic disciplines and skills needed to make high quality filmed drama. You will explore in detail Stanilavisky's unique scene study methodology. From storyboard to working on the subtext with the actors on set you will be enabled to develop your own distinct artistic voice.

At the heart of MA Screen:

Directing is the growth of individual creativity, achieved through constant opportunities for working on camera-based projects with colleagues from other pathways. You will work on two filmed productions, in our film studio and on location. Supported by a professional producer, director of photography and editor. You will take an active part in a Mike Leigh type devising project where you will help shape the story's stimulated by the characters that the actors develop over nine weeks of intense rehearsal. You will understand the rhythm of a working film set and develop the confidence to use your own voice on future projects, confident in the knowledge that you know how to work creatively with actors. You will be given in depth preparation for the profession including interview technics and wide range of lectures from visiting professionals, such as agents, casting directors, working producers and directors.

Distinctive features of MA Screen - Directing are:

An insight into actors' conservatoire training. A performance-led approach to recorded drama A company operating model The acquisition of a deep understanding of the processes leading to the creation of high quality films A quasi-professional learning model that prepares you for direct entry to the world of work The realisation of new writing or adaptations through performance-led models A focus on the technical aspects of production A mentoring scheme connecting students with experienced professionals.

Course outline:

MA Screen:

Directing lasts 45 weeks over 12 months and is structured as units - class-based to begin with, but increasingly project-geared over time. This postgraduate course is intensive. You'll be expected to commit 35 hours per week to classes, rehearsals and shoots, and to your own independent preparation and learning. Students who come to MA Screen: Directing expect a focused experience with a high level of autonomous learning. The MA course's practical elements contribute to the intensity of the experience, sharpening your professional ability to deliver on time, on budget and at an appropriate level.

MA Screen:

Directing has a small intake. It collaborates closely with MA Screen - Acting to give you a broader understanding of the needs of the actor. Because we believe empathy with acting and actors is an integral part of directing, the early part of the MA course in particular engages with the discipline of acting.

Traditionally, screen director training fails to address the challenges of working with performers. Our Directing Pathway confronts that challenge while developing your individual approach and creative voice. The pathway features a programme of acting skills, an extended programme of directing skills, two filmed drama projects, a devised project, and an extended programme of professional preparation.

The MA course culminates in a series of short film projects produced in collaboration with the student actors. Projects are screened for an invited industry audience that includes agents and casting directors.

Fees & Funding:

Home/EU fee:

To be confirmed (for guidance, tuition fees for the course that started in January 2019 were

University of the Arts London (UAL) is Europe’s largest specialist art and design university. Its unique creative community is made up of six renowned Colleges, each with its own world-class reputation: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts.

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