MA Documentary By Practice – (M.A.)

Contents

You will study four core units during the year.

Core course units:

From Idea to Screen- This unit focuses on the development of your ideas and creativity. Documentaries are deconstructed and discussed to analyse point of view, authorship, balance, creativity, narrative, and storytelling. At the same time you will develop your own ideas. Exercises and discussion aid the development of those ideas, nurturing and testing them, encouraging analysis and interrogation of all forms and boundaries of the genre. You will receive instruction in the principles of documentary research – primarily archive, interview, internet research and location needs. Throughout the unit you will keep and a working record on video which will form the basis of the unit’s assessment – a video essay.
The Documentary Short- You will make a short film during the course of this unit and then write an academic paper reflecting on your work. There is a high emphasis on team work, regularly shooting in teams of three and also pitching ideas in groups. You are encouraged to see documentary as a dynamic process between yourself as a maker, the subject matter, the participants and the commissioning/viewing context. The course tutors use their own work which is deconstructed across all its constituent parts idea, conception, pre-production planning, and research, shooting and post-production.
Foundations of Production- Contemporary documentary production requires managerial and business skills as well as creative ones. This unit will instruct you in the industrial skills required for the production of video, television and multimedia documentary. These include researching the market, writing proposals, acquiring funding for development and production, drafting contracts, drawing up budgets, copyright clearance, and marketing.
Major Documentary Production – Dissertation- Developing out of study, research and practice from previous units, you will direct and produce a substantial documentary production. This is the largest assignment in the course and is appropriately weighted. The unit is tutorial based.

On completion of the course graduates will have:

* gained invaluable experience of both authored and commercial documentary production
* the ability to develop their own ideas, preparing them for the documentary industry but also finding ways to reinvent it
* an understanding of documentary film genre and its changing boundaries as well as the changing technologies and their impact on the genre
* an advanced understanding of the processes of making a documentary film from initial concept to final form and the various stages of production.
* an awareness of the institutions and mechanisms of the UK film and television industry
* a critical knowledge of the current and changing platforms for documentary film, from cinema to television and the internet.