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Filmmaking (Experimental Film) at Goldsmiths, University of London - UCAS

Course options

2025 - 2026
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Course summary

If you are passionate about pursuing a career as a storyteller, film director or content creator in an environment that promotes innovative filmmaking, this programme is for you.

  • This MA is designed to help you develop your distinctive authorial voice as a filmmaker and storyteller, offering training, mentoring, masterclasses and facilities that nurture an innovative approach to film practice as a self-shooting, self-editing director.
  • You will gain a rounded set of creative and professional skills in conceptual development, cinematography, sound design, pitching, animation, producing and editing, making you highly employable in the independent film, promotional media and digital content production industries.
  • The Experimental Film pathway is one of seven pathways in Goldsmiths MA Filmmaking. It is housed in a new purpose-built media facility with state-of-the-art teaching spaces including film and photography studios, a range of professional cameras including Sony FS5s and Blackmagic Cinema, edit suites with Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere, animation studios and Pro Tools audio post-production suites.
  • The programme offers a unique blend of hands-on workshops, studio and location filming exercises, filmmaker masterclasses, conceptual development, and industry pitch experience. It also offers private edit time and technical support to ensure the professional-standard completion of your projects.
  • You will work on ten short films and one longer-form 20-minute project during the year, building a creative, diverse portfolio of work that showcases skills in different modes and genres. Your moving-image work will span fiction, documentary, gallery film, short form for the web, promotional content and music video as well as hybrid and experimental genres.
  • Your final project, a 20-minute film, will be in a style or mode of your choice.
  • In your optional modules, you can choose to attend classes in related disciplines such as cinematography and editing, as well as the opportunity to take more theoretical modules exploring subjects such as race, gender, social justice, producing, activist film, media law and promotional content.
  • The programme will prepare you to enter the global job market, armed with an enhanced understanding of your practical, intellectual and creative capacities as a filmmaker.
  • The MA encourages you to develop:
  • A broad range of skills and knowledge of film production techniques, ethics and aesthetics
  • Specific filmmaking and production management skills
  • Technical skills (including camera, lighting and sound editing)
  • An understanding of the workings of the media and their broad cultural and social impacts
  • The Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies has been ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 16th in the world (third in the UK) in the 2024 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.

Modules

Overview You will be taught the skills to be able to self-shoot and edit, completing ten short films and exercises in the Autumn, as well as working on conceptual development and developing your own voice as a cinematic storyteller. In the Spring and Summer, you will make your own 15-20 minute film, learning to write treatments, pitch to an industry panel, produce, direct and edit to a professional standard. Compulsory modules You will take the following compulsory modules: Experimental Film: Specialist Skills Short Film Practice You will also complete a Final Project, a 20-minute film with a subject and style of your own choice, assessed alongside a portfolio of development work. Optional modules As well as your experimental film specialism, you will choose 2-4 option modules (60 credits) to enhance your other skills and critical approaches. Examples of the modules available include: Social Activist Film Adaptation and Script Editing Camera Fundamentals Contemporary Screen Narratives in Practice and Theory Experimental Media Film Producing Fundamentals Sound Design Fundamentals The Ascent of the Image Visual Storytelling Practical Law for Film-makers Mediating Violence: Feminist, Queer, Decolonial Perspectives Embodiment & Affect Virtual and immersive media experience

  • Please note, the module content and availability is subject to change.

Entry requirements

You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least second class standard in a relevant/related subject as well as a level of practical experience from work in the arts or the media. You might also be considered for some programmes if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level. Because funding deadlines and requirements vary around the world, applications are considered on a rolling basis from February onwards and places on the programme fill up across the recruitment cycle. For this reason, we strongly advise you to submit your completed application as early as you can. We accept a wide range of international qualifications. If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 7.0 with a 7.0 in writing and no element lower than 6.5 to study this programme.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

For details of fees and funding please visit https://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/fees-funding/ or the programme page on our website.
Filmmaking (Experimental Film) at Goldsmiths, University of London - UCAS