Screenwriting
| Award | Attendance | Study | Duration | Start | Domestic fees | International fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MA | On-Campus | Full-time | find out | September | £16248 in total | £16448 in total |
About Screenwriting, MA - at London Film School
LFS aims to encourage writing as a continuous practice, to stimulate reflective and critical approaches and to provide a specific historical background to film narrative, genres, and dramaturgy.
An intensive one-year programme that develops the writer’s original voice, embeds professional practice and enhances employability.
At LFS you will gain expertise and experience that form the foundations of your professional screenwriting practice. You will forge relationships and develop networks that propel you into the film and television industries.
MA Screenwriting focuses on the development of the individual screenwriter’s voice. You will be supported and challenged throughout your one year MA as you explore that voice through your screenwriting. You will work collaboratively within a diverse, international cohort and within the conservatoire atmosphere of LFS.
The development of your feature screenplay, at the heart of your MA, is undertaken in small Feature Development Groups of 3 or 4 students, chaired by a tutor. Regular Group meetings are structured around the giving and receiving of feedback and the deep exploration of your feature project from initial idea through several draft screenplays.
The ambition and variety of students’ screenplays reflect both the depth of their creativity and the breadth and diversity of their backgrounds and interests. In addition to your feature screenplay you will have opportunities to write short screenplays and to develop a television series idea.
Screenwriting is filmmaking and MA Screenwriting situates screenwriting in filmmaking, collaborative, industrial and cultural contexts. You will join filmmaking students for screenings and discussions and you will have opportunities to collaborate with them and to script edit their screenplays.
You will be supported with workshops that introduce you to a range of creative writing exercises and to pitching, empowering you to generate and develop ideas, produce scripts and take them out into the market place with confidence.
You will read and discuss numerous screenplays, exploring aesthetic, craft and industrial issues in classes run by the Course Leaders. You will be introduced to - and encouraged to read - a range of theories and approaches to screenwriting. Your tutors will support and challenge you from a variety of perspectives but you will be encouraged to identify and develop your own preferred approaches to screenwriting.
You will consider screenwriting and filmmaking from historical and cultural perspectives and as well as developing creative work you will also produce a Work and Research Journal. The Journal invites you to explore, analyse and reflect upon your concerns as an emerging screenwriter. This underlines the School’s belief that analytical and reflective film-makers are better prepared to navigate - and to exploit the opportunities arising within - contemporary moving image industries.
MA Screenwriting is accredited by Screenskills and embeds professional practice and industry involvement in the course, whilst developing screenwriters’ entrepreneurial capacities and enhancing their employability. Your course tutors are experienced, practising professionals and include screenwriters, producers, directors and development executives. They are also experienced educators.
Along with your course tutors you will be exposed to a wide range of high-profile visiting industry professionals who will share their expertise and insights. Recent visitors include Tony Grisoni, Jed Mercurio, Frank Spotnitz and colleagues from Big Light Productions, Howard Overman, Mick Audsley, the postgraduate, Berlin-based Serial Eyes television series writing programme and many others. In your third term you will be assigned an industry mentor who will support you as you make the transition from student to practising screenwriter.
MA Screenwriting is a demanding, intensive course and its rewards are considerable. LFS invites applications from creative, entrepreneurial and resilient writers who are committed to writing professionally for the screen; writers who may have a background in another medium, screenwriters who wish to burnish their existing credentials, or filmmakers who wish to master the mysteries of the screenplay. The course will challenge you but it will also equip you to write professionally for screen-based media, with the lifetime of fulfilment that offers.
Entry requirements
Contact London Film School to find course entry requirements.
Why study at London Film School
- GLOBAL: The world’s international graduate film conservatoire. A diverse range of cultures and film traditions makes for a creative hothouse. This global network, once built, lasts a professional lifetime.
- PRACTICAL: The school operates as a busy working studio, producing around 180 films each year. Filmmakers gain key credits on production exercises throughout the course, plus on graduation films.
- RECOGNISED: The School has been awarded World-Leading Specialist Provider status by the Office for Students. The status marks LFS out as being recognised internationally in the filmmaking specialism, providing a level of quality and expertise among the finest in the world.
- PROVEN: Thousands of high profile alumni include directors Michael Mann (Public Enemies), Mike Leigh (Mr Turner), Ann Hui (A Simple Life), Koby Adom (Top Boy, Noughts + Crosses), Carla Simon (Alcarràs); cinematographers Erik Wilson (Paddington), Roger Pratt (Harry Potter) Tak Fujimoto (The Sixth Sense); editors Robert Leighton (Misery, A Few Good Men), Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir (Bullet Train, John Wick); producer Iain Smith (Mad Max: Fury Road).
- PROFESSIONAL: Students are taught by experienced filmmakers. Films are made on built sets, shot on professional level cameras, recorded on professional digital recorders, edited on Avid and in most terms given a professional dub.
- VISIBLE: LFS Graduation films regularly screen at Oscar and Bafta qualifying festivals, and often at A list festivals such as Cannes La Cinef, BFI London Film Festival, TIFF and Berlinale. LFS graduates are accepted into multiple talent labs and development schemes such as Locarno Academy, Berlinale Talents, Film London Labs, Serial Eyes and other labs all over the world.
- LOCATION: Located in the heart of London’s Covent Garden, central London offers LFS students access to social events, culture and probably more films showing for London's nine million inhabitants than in any other capital city.