Subject overview

Programme outline

This MA offers you the chance to develop your filmmaking and critical skills in creative and innovative ways. Led by award-winning filmmakers and taught by highly experienced and established practitioners, this course will give you the opportunity to produce a low-budget independent film to a high professional standard. You will learn how to write a compelling script, raise funds, cast and direct professional actors, design or source costumes, build sets, light and shoot a scene, record sound, score music, and edit a film using professional equipment and software. This course will also teach you how to analyse and critique a range of fiction films in order to find your unique voice in an increasingly competitive field. 

The School of Media, Film and Music benefits from strong industry connections and you will be able to attend masterclasses from leading figures in film and television. You will also benefit from 24-hour access to the latest professional-grade equipment and postproduction facilities. By the end of your studies, you will have produced two short films and generated material to create an attractive show reel, aiding you in your future employment prospects. Your final 20-minute short film will be screened at the end-of-year MA degree show and you will be guided in navigating your way around the film festival circuit.
This course is subject to validation. 

Assessment 

Assessment is by practical video/media, essays and production documentation. The final assessment is a major fiction film project and a portfolio of supporting documents. 

Course structure

We continue to develop and update our modules for 2014 entry to ensure you have the best student experience.

Autumn term: you take the two core modules Directing and Producing, and Script Writing, allowing you to develop techniques for effectively directing actors, storyboarding, art direction as well as the practicalities of script breakdowns, scheduling and budgeting, as well as to write a compelling short film to industry standards, alongside developing your critical abilities in analysing story structure, plot, character development and dialogue. 

Spring term: you take the core module Collaborative Film Project in which you produce a short film. This module will allow you to specialise in a specific key role in production. You will also be supported as you learn how to manage effectively the collaboration necessary in any creative team. You will choose a more theoretical option to broaden your knowledge and enhance your critical and analytical skills in relation to film or other media. Options may include Activist Media Practice • Approaches to Film Noir • Curating Film Culture • Expanded Media Practice • Feminism and Film • Global Cinemas • Latin American Cinema • Media Communication and Culture • New Moving Screens • Photography: Documentary, Landscape, Politics. You may substitute one module from another arts and humanities degree with the approval of the course convenor and the module tutor. 

Summer term: with guidance from your supervisor, you will complete a major fiction film project of up to 20 minutes and a portfolio of supporting documentation. 

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in an appropriate discipline. We also welcome applicants who do not have this academic qualification who are able to demonstrate in their application that they have relevant professional/creative skills and experience.

Overseas entrance requirements

Overseas qualifications

If your country is not listed below, please contact the University at E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Country	Overseas qualification
Australia	Bachelor (Honours) degree with second-class upper division
Brazil	Bacharel, Licenciado or professional title with a final mark of at least 8
Canada	Bachelor degree with CGPA 3.3/4.0 (grade B+)
China	Bachelor degree from a leading university with overall mark of 75%-85% depending on your university
Cyprus	Bachelor degree or Ptychion with a final mark of at least 7.5
France	Licence with mention bien or Maîtrise with final mark of at least 13
Germany	Bachelor degree or Magister Artium with a final mark of 2.4 or better
Ghana	Bachelor degree from a public university with second-class upper division
Greece	Ptychion from an AEI with a final mark of at least 7.5
Hong Kong	Bachelor (Honours) degree with second-class upper division
India	Bachelor degree from a leading institution with overall mark of at least 60% or equivalent
Iran	Bachelor degree (Licence or Karshenasi) with a final mark of at least 15
Italy	Diploma di Laurea with an overall mark of at least 105
Japan	Bachelor degree from a leading university with a minumum average of B+ or equivalent
Malaysia	Bachelor degree with class 2 division 1
Mexico	Licenciado with a final mark of at least 8
Nigeria	Bachelor degree with second-class upper division or CGPA of at least 3.0/4.0
Pakistan	Four-year bachelor degree, normally with a GPA of at least 3.3
Russia	Magistr or Specialist Diploma with a minimum average mark of at least 4
South Africa	Bachelor (Honours) degree or Bachelor degree in Technology with an overall mark of at least 70%
Saudi Arabia	Bachelor degree with an overall mark of at least 70% or CGPA 3.5/5.0 or equivalent
South Korea	Bachelor degree from a leading university with CGPA of at least 3.5/4.0 or equivalent
Spain	Licenciado with a final mark of at least 2/4
Taiwan	Bachelor degree with overall mark of 70%-85% depending on your university
Thailand	Bachelor degree with CGPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or equivalent
Turkey	Lisans Diplomasi with CGPA of at least 3.0/4.0 depending on your university
United Arab Emirates	Bachelor degree with CGPA of at least 3.5/4.0 or equivalent
USA	Bachelor degree with CGPA 3.3-3.5/4.0 depending on your university
Vietnam	Masters degree with CGPA 3.5/4.0 or equivalent

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications, contact the University at E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Additional admissions information

If you are a non-EU student and your qualifications (including English language) do not yet meet our entry requirements for admission directly to this degree, we offer a Pre-Masters entry route. For more information, refer to Pre-Masters.

Related programmes

• Film Studies MA
• Journalism and Documentary Practice MA
• Journalism and Media Studies MA
• Multimedia Journalism MA

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: to be confirmed
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: to be confirmed
Overseas students: to be confirmed

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Our internationally respected research explores questions around the materialities, technologies and politics of cultural forms and formations. Researchers work on, across and through a range of media: film, television, radio, photography, and ‘new’ and interactive forms. They specialise within three interlocking themes: 

Cultural histories/cultural politics

Research is focused on histories of journalism and the public sphere and the relationships between cultures, technological change and social and political change. It also encompasses an analysis of the construction of national identities and borders, and their institutionalised histories and marginalised others. 

Media technology, form and experience

The relationships between technology, form and experience are explored through studies of techno-cultural innovation, sense perception, and embodied experience. A key aspect, which builds on expertise in the Department, is the development of new critical frameworks for the exploration of new media forms and practices as they emerge in everyday life. 

The politics of representation

The Department of Media and Film has long been a centre of excellence for research on gender, sexuality and representation. We continue to build on this through a concern with the images, sounds and narratives of popular culture, and the ways in which these construct identities and play on pleasures, fears and desires. 

Individual research interests are briefly described below.

Dr Caroline Bassett New media technologies, most recently working on narrative and new media. Published widely on new media and gender. 

Dr Michael Bull Works extensively on the nature of auditory experience. Specialises in the work of The Frankfurt School. 

Wilma de Jong Researcher, scriptwriter, director and producer. Media and activism, independent production, documentary and news. 

Andrew Duff Production tutor. Specialises in exploring reactive and interactive multimedia, experimental digital and analogue audio. 

Melanie Friend Documentary photographer. Representations of conflict and trauma, asylum detention in the UK. 

Lee Gooding Senior production tutor. Has produced a range of programmes for a number of organisations. 

Adrian Goycoolea Filmmaker addressing issues of identity, exploring the intersections of personal memory with social and political histories. 

Dr Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives (2009). 

Dr Gholam Khiabany Academic leader of the journalism degrees. 

Professor David Hendy Media and communication history, sound studies, modern mass media. 

Professor Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives (2009). 

Dr Margaretta Jolly Oral history, auto/ biography, diary writing. 

Dee Kilkelly Production tutor. Co-runs APT new media, a collective responsible for art events and club nights in and around Brighton. 

Mary Agnes Krell Media artist whose work spans performance, digital media and narrative practices. 

Dr Kate Lacey Director of Doctoral Studies, writes on media and the public sphere. Author of Listening Publics (2013). 

Andy Medhurst Post-war British popular culture; media representations of masculinity and homosexuality. 

Dr Monika Metykova Lecturer in Media Communications/Journalism Studies. Transnational media; cultural and media policies. 

Dr Sharif Mowlabocus Digital cultures, gender, sexuality and representation. Author of Gaydar Culture (2010). 

Professor Sally R Munt Queer studies, cultural studies, identity and emotion. Co-author of Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places (2010). 

Dr Kate O’Riordan Cultural studies of science and technology. Author of Human Cloning and the Media: from Science Fiction to Science Practice (2008); The Genome Incorporated (2010). 

Dr Martin Spinelli Produces award-winning literary and experimental radio projects. Interests include radio art and sound poetry, and cultural studies. 

Lizzie Thynne Film-maker who has exhibited widely in broadcast, festival and gallery contexts. Interests include auto/biography and surrealism. 

Janice Winship Published on women’s magazines, advertising and consumption in the 20th century. 

Kirk Woolford Media artist who engages in practice-led research to explore concepts that defy textual representation. 

Careers and profiles

This degree will provide you with the necessary skills to work in the creative industries – including in roles such as script writer, producer, director, cameraperson, art director, sound recordist, sound designer, and editor. 

School and contacts