Directing Fiction

Directing Fiction
This course provides an environment in which directors can find their individual style and their own distinctive voice. This is the UK’s premier directing MA course, where developing filmmakers can focus exclusively on directing drama for film and for television.

The essence of the course is the practical experience of filmmaking, combined with a wide-ranging series of workshops emphasising performance, mise-en-scène and an examination of how narrative works in cinema and in television. Engagement with students of other disciplines at the NFTS is a crucial aspect of the course. The curriculum of each specialisation is designed to link with the others throughout the course, so that students work together on projects of varying scale and complexity, increasing their understanding of the various specialist roles involved in film and television programme making.

The course includes weekly sessions on film and television culture, both contemporary and historical, and opportunities to learn from the work of more established directors through masterclasses and set visits. It also involves interaction with other disciplines, ranging from visual art, literature and architecture to installation and performance art.

Curriculum

During the first year there is a large number of workshops designed to expand students' practical experience of filmmaking. The emphasis is on interacting with the other specialisations within the School, to understand more about the collaborative nature of the filmmaking process. Other workshops focus on studio-based exercises with a full crew, aimed at developing students' story-telling skills.

Some films made in the first year emphasise the use of visual language to tell stories, while others focus on the interpretation of a text, or of inventing narratives. In the second year, further workshops continue to explore aspects of performance, interpretation of texts and mise-en-scène, and students make two further, more ambitious, films.

Entry Requirements

Students come from a wide range of backgrounds: you may be an independent filmmaker, you might have a first degree or you may have experience of working in the Industry.

Your application must include a copy of a short fiction piece - or an extract of a longer work - that you have directed recently, and a short treatment for another narrative-based project.

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