2 years part-time
Part-time
£14,000 (INT) *
We’re planning to teach through a flexible combination of online and face to face learning for the first few months of the new academic year. If you’re thinking about starting with us in autumn 2020 or spring 2021, check back for more detail on arrangements for this course in July and August, and see our current plans for teaching and learning.
Overview
This course will now start in January 2021 as we've changed some of our teaching arrangements in response to the coronavirus outbreak. You'll get the same great learning experience with lots of support to do your best with this later start date.
This course is no longer accepting applications for 2020 entry. The next entry is January 2021
Behind every great film, series or show are great writers. This hands-on master's degree gives you the opportunity to make your voice heard in stage, screen and audio. You'll gain the tools and confidence to work in a diversity of sectors and with growing job prospects in theatre, screen and audio, there’s no better time to get into the industry.
Why study MA Scriptwriting at Middlesex University?
This course is aimed at potential and current practitioners who want to develop their writing skills, or equally those from a writing background looking to specialise.
You'll be supported in developing your writing voice and be guided on story structure and our placement opportunities working with writers will give you real life experience.
With London on your doorstep, you'll have support to work with numerous theatres, film and TV production companies, BBC4 and regional radio stations and speakers giving workshops.
Course highlights
- Development and supervision of a major project
- Experience of working as a writer (from contracts to final performance)
- Working with specialists in theatre, radio, film and TV
- Being supervised by genre specialists such as comedy, drama, arthouse cinema, experimental and podcast serials
Find out more
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Course content
What will you study on MA Scriptwriting?
Across this master's five modules, you'll cover everything from storytelling for stage, screen and audio and the fundamentals of character and narrative, to tropes of genre in each of the forms. The course is designed to include innovative practices such as immersive theatre, multi-media writing and experiential writing.
What will you gain?
You will graduate with an array of practical skills that will equip you for a career as a writer and a solid grounding of how to sell your work, such as developing your pitching and negotiating skills. For your end of year major project, you'll write a major work that is negotiated with your tutor and may include a public reading with professional actors.
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Modules
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Dramatic Storytelling and Textual Dramaturgy (30 credits) - Compulsory
This module offers a critical analysis in a range of storytelling structures and principles at play in dramatic texts / works across all three mediums of stage, screen and audio. You'll explore aspects such as narrative style and voice, dramatic action, character development, linearity, dialogue, tension and conflict.
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Writing for Stage, Screen and Audio (30 credits) - Compulsory
This module will allow you to produce four pieces of work. You'll focus on form, structure and style, characterisation, dialogue and language in a stage, audio and screen context by examining three-dimensionality and liveness. The module also includes script formatting, developing, drafting and workshopping scenes.
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Script Practice as Research (30 credits) - Compulsory
This module will enable students to develop skills in the field of practice-based research as a means of investigating new conventions through innovative practice. Students will develop appropriate methodologies to instigate their research underpinned by a thorough awareness of historical, theoretical and cultural contexts. This module prepares students for contextualising their major project utilising practice-based research whilst also enabling experimentation of both form and content.
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Working as a Scriptwriter (30 credits) - Compulsory
This module gives you a critical understanding in the production cultures and practices of the Screen, Stage and Audio industries. You'll also have opportunities for skill development and employment with support Industry placements and Enterprise Initiatives.
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Major Project (60 credits) - Compulsory
This module presents an opportunity for you to reflexively develop and examine your creative practice, situating it in relation to, and in dialogue with, the wider context of professional scriptwriting. You'll be able to foster a professional identity as a thinking practitioner, capable of creative risk-taking in the expanded field of scriptwriting.
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You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are not offered on every course. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
Teaching
How is the MA Scriptwriting taught?
The course is predominantly taught via seminars and workshops, where you're encouraged to collaborate and learn from your peers.
Workshops will often emulate industry-standard writing rooms, so that you become familiar with the script writing process.
You will be assigned a supervisor for your major end-of-year project.
Assessment
Assessment is on the basis of creative work, including a 15,000-word final submission, research documentation, critical analysis, reflective analysis, reports and short scripts/scene. There are no exams on this programme.
Entry requirements
Fees and funding
Careers
How can the MA Scriptwriting support your career?
This MA prepares you to go on to a wide array of careers in radio, web, TV and film in a range of roles such as:
- Reader for commissioning editors of drama/comedy
- Dramaturgy for theatre
- Literary agent
The course is particularly useful for aspiring writers, script editors, readers, agents and directors.
Staff profiles
Deborah Klika
Programme leader
Deborah is a Senior Lecturer in Television and Film Production, specialising in screen narrative comedy.
James Charlton
Head of Media Department
James has written theatre plays, screen plays and directed for theatre and film. He has won the International Playwriting Festival at the Warehouse in Croydon and his play Fat Souls was nominated for Writers Guild Best Fringe Play. His co-written film Best Shot was also nominated for Best Short Film at the North London Short Film Festival.
Dr Charlotte Thompson
Senior Lecturer
Dr Thompson is a playwright and has worked as a writer, theatre practitioner and teacher in community contexts for several years. Her key areas of interest include playwriting, prison theatre, theatre in education, contemporary western dramaturgies, alternative dramaturgies, and empathy and embodied reception in theatre and performance.
Pedro de Senna
Senior lecturer
Pedro has worked as an actor, director, designer and translator. His play A Tregédia de Ismene, princesa de Tebas won the first Seleção Brasil em Cena (2006), a national award for new writing. He is also is the Programme Leader for BA Theatre Arts (Directing).
David Cottis
Lecturer
David is a lecturer in scriptwriting, dramaturgist and is a literary advisor.
Contact us
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