AUB, MA, Film Practice

On this course you will be inspired to create and hone your craft as well as developing new skills to a high level, all in an environment that empowers students to collaborate with other emerging artists and filmmakers. The MA Film Practice course is based on the AUB 180 credit MA framework. The awards attainable are a Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits) and a Masters (180 credits).

This uniquely positioned specialist programme offers the opportunity for students to develop and realise their creative ambitions through practice based research. The course is underpinned by a team of specialist tutors who are experienced practitioners and researchers in a wide variety of film practice modes.

UNITS

Strategies for Practice: Identification

The first unit consists of film exercises, workshops and seminars that relate to the fundamentals of film and further develop your contextual framework and the conceptualisation of your practice.

The unit encourages you to develop more authorial focus, through independent study and group collaborations; a process that emphasises and focuses analytical and critical awareness. Experienced filmmakers, whether working in narrative, documentary and/or artistic traditions, will be challenged to assess and articulate all that constitutes their practice. And if your first degree was in a subject other than film the unit’s components offer developmental opportunities, the acquisition of new technical comprehension, subject appreciation and practice related application.

Throughout this unit you will be engaged in practice-based research, identifying the appropriate method and methodology (relevant processes, ideas, works, theories), which will aid the generation of new understanding and work (audio/visual exercises and experiments that will aid the development of form and content for your Master’s Project). As the unit progresses you will reflect on your intentions, refine your project’s objectives and design its outcome (which could be a documentary, fiction, experimental or sound work etc.) in preparation for the next two units, Master’s Project 1 & 2: Research and Resolution.

Master’s Project 1: Research

The second unit concerns the further focusing of your research and the practical development of your specific interests. This unit brings together the first unit’s taught progress with your practice related intentions and will determine your study’s final manifestation. The application of research methods, the interrogation of contextual and conceptual issues, the planning of project production, will lead into the next unit, Master’s Project 2: Resolution. This process will be augmented by specialist tutorials and presentations and critiques with both staff and students. The unit will require you to articulate and formalise your visual and sonic intentions (e.g. film, soundscape, material experiment, performance) and how they will be realised in a Learning Agreement.

Master’s Project 2: Resolution

In the third unit you will implement your project plan, which has been identified in the Learning Agreement, producing a completed work. You will also evaluate your progress and assess the project’s means of presentation (e.g. single screen and/or installation) and dissemination (e.g. festival and/or digital platform) resolving the outcomes of your project in ways that communicate to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.