MFA Advanced Film Practice
Postgraduate Programme
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Programmes & Courses
This one-year course gives you the chance to focus on your creative and professional development as a screenwriter, producer or filmmaker.
This course is ideal for talented writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, sound designers or editors looking to take their careers to the next level. The MFA Advanced Film Practice provides a space to focus on your personal, professional and creative development.
The MFA is designed as an additional year of study on top of a Masters Degree. It might also appeal to talented individuals without a post-graduate degree but with an equivalent body of creative work and/or industry experience.
As part of your application, you will propose a project which will be the focus of your MFA studies. Screenwriters might wish to develop a screenplay or TV pilot and bible ready to send to producers, broadcasters and agents. A director might develop a project ahead of a funding application, or focus on a specific area of their craft – working with actors, camera or sound. A producer might develop a single project in preparation for a funding application or as a ready-to-go low budget feature, or work on a slate of projects. Cinematographers, sound designers and editors can work on aspects of their craft, seek out work experience, and emerge with a professional CV and showreel.
MFA students will work individually on a series of exercises and on a project. Nevertheless, there is the opportunity to collaborate with fellow students on Edinburgh Napier’s postgraduate programmes – MA Screenwriting, MA Film and the Kino Eyes International Masters in Film. At Edinburgh Napier, you can also access students studying music, photography, graphic design and other subjects within our School of Arts and Creative Industries (SACI).
Please contact the Course Leader by email in the first instance: j.mavor@napier.ac.uk.
The course is taught over three trimesters, starting in September.
In the first and second of these, you will focus on research into your idea and into the professional context for your work in the PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE MODULE (60 credits). We will agree a set of exercises and tasks to help develop craft skills, professional contacts and industry knowledge relating to the area in which you wish to work. These exercises are gathered into a portfolio for assessment.
In the final trimester, you will apply these ideas, skills, contacts, connections and confidence to the development of your final project in the PROJECT DEVELOPMENT MODULE (60 credits). You will get feedback on your final project from Edinburgh Napier staff and from an industry professional working in your area.
Students will work with Programme Leader James Mavor and other key staff at Edinburgh Napier.