Film

Film & Television MA

Hone your skillset and broaden your thinking to create impactful work.

Key details
Location
Penryn Campus
Course duration
1 year
Attendance
Full-time

Course overview

Learn to create work with impact, relevance and reach on this dynamic on-campus MA course in Film & Television. Based in our renowned School of Film & Television and supported by specialist, award-winning staff, you’ll build the craft and critical skills to situate your work in line with current industry trends, both in the UK and globally.  

You’ll benefit from student-centred teaching and expert guest masterclasses while engaging in contextual research and practical projects that mirror professional workflows in real-life creative environments. We cherish courageous originality and the diversity of our student body, welcoming applicants with and without a media background.  

You will:

  • Learn from academic experts and interact with high-profile film and television professionals
  • Take part in production and research reflecting real-world practices  
  • Study at a CILECT-accredited film and television school, on a course carrying the ScreenSkills Select quality mark – indicating those best suited to prepare students for a career in the screen industries  

This Film & Television MA course is industry recognised by ScreenSkills, the industry-led skills body for the UK's screen-based industries, and carries the ScreenSkills Select quality-mark which indicates courses best suited to prepare students for a career in the screen industries.

Screenskills select logoThe course is also one of the few postgraduate programmes recognised by BAFTA UK as an eligible course for the BAFTA UK Scholarship programme.

BAFTA UK Scholarship 

Course details

MA Film & Television

We’ll examine how directors like Ben Wheatley and companies like Curzon and Film4 are using multi-platform release schedules. And how brands like HBO, Amazon and Netflix are shaping what we watch and how we watch it.

Exploring the blurred lines between art and technology, you’ll learn everything from journalism to philosophy to essential research skills. Crucially, on top of learning to develop, write, produce, shoot, record, direct and edit, you’ll look into why your ideas are worth being made.

Taking part in intensive practical group work, you’ll build technical skills and nurture your creativity in all areas of short film and television project development, including learning about legal requirements, ethical standards and risk assessment. This work will be supported with a reflection on how cultural contexts frame production and audiences.

Our masterclasses and guest speaker series will introduce you to a network of experienced professionals from companies like the BBC, Channel 4, Sky and Pinewood Studios.  

Modules

Contextual Studies: Screen, Culture & Society

In this module, you’ll explore how cultural contexts frame and influence both production/distribution strategies and contemporary audiences' engagement through the analysis of a variety of screen texts. You will consider relevant contexts of funding, commissioning, production, distribution and exhibition and their impact on today’s screen representations and storytelling tactics. 

Not only does this module encourage you to use recent research strategies and methodologies in your investigations of selected film and television examples, but also to apply them to your developing film or television practice. 

Creative Practice: Foundation

Learning in an environment that mirrors industry, you’ll build your practical competence in production workflows. You’ll attend weekly seminars and workshops in pre-and-post-production, screenwriting, cinematography, lighting, sound recording, and editing. 

At the end of this module, you’ll submit a short film or a short TV form, as well as a professional production portfolio of paperwork documenting your familiarity with current risk assessment standards and legal requirements of screen production in the UK.

The second Study Block invites you to develop your thinking beyond the limits of western culture. Collaborating with a crew of your peers, you’ll have an opportunity to deliver a 10-minute film/TV form or screenplay inspired by research into globalisation and screen media. 

You'll also get a tase of industry with the chance to visit an international film festival and undertake work placements and internships.

Modules

Contextual Studies: Screen & Globalisation

In this module, you’ll develop political and social sensitivity through an exploration of how film and television, along with new digital forms of connectivity, are central to representations of identity, social/political conflicts and change in today’s global ‘network society’.  

Your research will interrogate globalisation as a conceptual framework, examining representations of hybridised, diasporic and postcolonial identities, transnational productions, migrations, trade politics and economics, grassroots activism, emerging cultures of protest and environmentalism. You’ll analyse a global sample of narrative and factual film and television examples, and discuss their potential to disseminate knowledge.

Creative Practice: Development

In this module, you’ll develop your practical industry skills by creating a short cinematic or televisual form (documentary, narrative or experimental) or screenplay project that mirrors real-world industry workflows. 

You'll explore critical frameworks, conventions and innovations within cinema, television, online viewing platforms, art galleries, transmedia, social media and citizen journalism. You’ll also learn about the contemporary industry and its commissioning, distribution and exhibition channels.

You’ll choose your final project depending on your career plans. If you're planning to move on to a PhD you can produce a dissertation or research portfolio involving a high level of research, a complex reading of film or television, and further discussion. Alternatively, if you want to head straight into industry you can choose an Industry Practice Project, where you’ll make a 20-minute film /TV form or write a feature screenplay.

You'll consult your work with an assigned supervisor and share it with your peers and the course team for step-by-step feedback.

Modules

Contextual Studies: Final Major Project

Under the guidance of a dissertation supervisor, you’ll practice your research skills and demonstrate your academic expertise through completing an advanced critical analysis on a subject of your choosing. You’ll produce a contribution to the field of cinematic studies, where a clearly articulated research methodology will provide a sound structural underpinning.

You can choose to present your research either in the form of an extended written essay or a video essay with an accompanying piece of critical writing.

Creative Practice: Final Major Project

For your Final Major Project, you’ll create an advanced portfolio consisting of a film or TV project together with a written critical evaluation of your chosen areas of creative practice.  

Your project may take the form of your own short film (narrative, documentary or experimental) or TV pilot which you will write and direct, or you can complete the module via a negotiated skills portfolio documenting your contribution to short film/s directed or produced by your peers.

The modules above are those being studied by our students, or proposed new ones. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes. If a certain module is important to you, please discuss it with the Course Leader.

How you'll learn & be assessed

Taking place over 45 weeks and 3 semesters, you’ll choose specialisms focused on your ideal career, and learn from industry professional mentors. Our visiting lecture programme has featured critic Dr Mark Kermode, Red Riding writer Tony Grisoni, The Midnight Beast producer Mary Burke, and Green Wing writer James Henry.

The School of Film & Television has hosted Channel 4 Talent Day, and we often help our students secure placements at Warp Films and TwoFour.

Assessment methods

  • Continuous assessment with no formal examinations
  • Core theory based on written assignments
  • Core practice assessed on visual project and accompanying portfolios
  • Elective modules all with theory/practice options
  • Dissertation and/or major project in final semester
A student poses in front of the film set for Mab Hudel
Mab Hudel Beach Shot 4

Students and staff collaborate on short film Mab Hudel


Students and staff have collaborated on new Cornish language film Mab Hudel, directed by Bait star Edward Rowe.

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Facilities

  • 129-seat cinema, with Christie M Series 2.5k projection and 7.2 surround sound.

Four large production studios:

  • Production Studio 1:  multipurpose studio equipped with three Sony HXC-FB80 studio cameras, chromatte grey screen and full lighting rig. Integral live gallery including 4-input Tricaster Ultra HD production system.
  • Production Studio 2: multipurpose studio and support area for studio 1.
  • Production Studio 3: multipurpose studio with lighting rig.
  • Production Studio 5: Specialist green screen studio with infinity cove & 360 degree subject lighting rig. Access to Xsens motion capture kit and VR/AR/MR equipment.
  • Nine Mac Pro edit suites with Avid Media Composer, Adobe Creative Cloud Suite & Da Vinci Resolve.
  • Two specialist grading suites featuring DaVinci Resolve and 4K preview screens.
  • Two 28-seat ‘Post Hubs’ for post-production software training, equipped with dual screen Apple iMacs. Software available includes Avid Media Composer, Adobe Creative Cloud, Da Vinci resolve and Pro Tools. Production management software is also available.
  • 25-seat dubbing theatre with Avid S6 mixing desk and Pro Tools Ultimate.
  • Three further post-production audio suites – all equipped with Pro Tools Ultimate.
  • Foley/ADR suite with access to a wide range of mics, foley traps and props.
  • All post-production suites network-linked to Avid NEXIS shared storage system for seamless access and integration of projects.
  • Digital cameras (HD to 4K) including Arri Alexa, RED, Sony, Canon, Blackmagic, Panasonic, and Arri SR3 and Bolex 16mm film cameras. Odyssey 7Q+ External Recorders are also available.
  • Wide range of hot and cold (LED) lighting equipment including systems by Arri, Dedo & Kino Flo alongside traditional blondes and red heads.
  • Grip and gimbal systems available include Free-Fly Movi M5, Wally Dolly, Indie Dolly, PD1 Dolly, Koolertron Sliders, Glidecam 2000, Libec and Camcrane Jibs.
  • Audio equipment includes Sound Devices 633 mixers, recorders and an extensive range of microphones.
  • Four animation software studios containing powerful Dell Precision Workstations with Cintiq 24” & 27" pen displays. Software available includes Autodesk Maya (3D), TV Paint (2D) and Foundry Nuke Studio (VFX Compositing), alongside Adobe Creative Cloud Suite.
  • Dedicated stop-motion animation studio equipped with Canon EOS camera bodies, Nikon lenses, manfrotto grip and Dragonframe capture software.

Staff

You’ll learn from active writers, producers, directors, editors, sound designers and cinematographers, while our visiting speakers have featured leading critics, the writers of Southcliffe, How I Live Now and Campus, and the producer of For Those In Peril.

Some members of staff only teach on specific modules, and your course might not feature every staff member who teaches on the course.

Dr Anna Misiak

MA Film & Television Course Leader

Former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Southern California, Anna Misiak holds a PhD from the ...

Dr Anna Misiak
Kingsley Marshall book cover Philosophical Reflections on Black Mirror

Dr Kingsley Marshall

Head of Film & Television

Dr Kingsley Marshall is Head of Film and Television at the CILECT and ScreenSkills accredited School...

Dr Kingsley Marshall
Professor Neil Fox profile picture

Professor Neil Fox

Professor of Film Practice and Pedagogy

As a proud first-generation university graduate from a working-class background in Luton, it is an h...

Professor Neil Fox
Nick Manley staff profile picture

Nick Manley

Lecturer

Nick has worked worldwide in the industry for over 30 years as an award winning  documentary ca...

Nick Manley

David Smithers

Technical & Facilities Manager, The School of Film & Television

After graduating with a degree in History and Media from the University of Leeds, David started his ...

David Smithers

Peter Felstead

Senior Technician

I joined the University in 1991 when I moved to Cornwall. My first role was to run the photography s...

Peter Felstead

Dr Jem Mackay

Course Leader, Film & Television MA (Online)

Dr Jem Mackay is a filmmaker/artist who has been exploring collaborative systems within creative pro...

Dr Jem Mackay

Paul Mulraney

Lecturer, Film

Paul is a lecturer in the School of Film and Television, teaching general film practice across all l...

Paul Mulraney
Mark Jenkin poses with his Kodak B&W camera
Mark Jenkin

Mark Jenkin becomes Falmouth’s first Distinguished Professor


Mark Jenkin is a BAFTA award winning filmmaker who's worked at Falmouth University as an associate lecturer for over a decade - find out more about his new role.

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Falmouth Film students holding up reflectors in dramatically lit studio
MA Film Main
MA Television Production students filming in the Media Centre studio

Careers

Graduates have worked in industry roles ranging from directing and producing to screenwriting, sound editing and set design, for companies including the BBC, Envy, Essence, Fox, ITV, S+O Media, Silverstream TV and Radio & Television Hong Kong.

How to apply

Have a question?

To find out more about this course, how you'll learn and what funding is available, get in touch with our friendly Course Advisors using our online form:

Ask us a question

Apply now

Ready to apply for postgraduate study? You can apply online by clicking the button below. 

Apply now

We welcome applications from those with relevant equivalent Level 6 qualifications. Our typical applicants hold an undergraduate degree of 2:2 or above, or equivalent experience and a demonstrable interest in the subject.

We’ll also welcome your application if you have formal or 'certified' learning (such as training courses not run by universities or colleges) and learning from work experience or self-study. This is called Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL), and should have been gained within the last five years, and equivalent to the learning outcomes of our minimum entry qualifications.

APL applicants using experience to apply should note there is an application fee for entry with advanced standing or with exemption from specific modules or credit.

If English isn’t your first language, you'll need to demonstrate English language skills that are sufficiently developed for successful completion of your studies. We accept a range of recognised English language qualifications that are equivalent to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic minimum score of 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

International applicants who require a student visa to study in the UK must take a recognised language test that is approved and vouched for by the University. Our Applicant Services Team can help with any questions you may have about study visas or suitable language tests.

Fees, costs & funding

Tuition fees for September 2024 entry

£10,200 per year – full-time UK (£250 acceptance fee payable. This is deducted from tuition fees)

£19,950 per year – full-time EU/international (£500-£2,500 acceptance fee payable depending upon your status. This is deducted from tuition fees)

Tuition fees for September 2025 will be confirmed in summer 2024.

Tuition fees are set annually and are subject to review each year. The University may therefore raise tuition fees in the second or subsequent years of a course, in line with inflation and/or the maximum permitted by law or Government policy. Students will be notified of any changes as soon as possible. 

The figures above don't include accommodation and living costs

Typical course costs

  • A laptop will be an essential piece of equipment along with a reliable broadband connection
  • £300 - Suggested reading
  • £200 - £1,000 - optional study trips

If you need to bring equipment or materials with you, these will be outlined in your Welcome Letter.

Ask a student

What better way to find out about life at Falmouth University than by asking our current students?

From course details and academic support, to the social scene and settling in, our students are ready and available to answer any questions you might have. Simply set up your account, send them a question and they'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Speak to an advisor

Do you have questions about the course or studying at Falmouth? Fill in our simple online form and we'll get in touch to support your application journey.

Submit form
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