Overview

The MA Cinematography course offers students a unique opportunity to develop the necessary skills and techniques to work professionally within the camera department, employ a range of technical and creative techniques to maximise visual storytelling, and explore a range of film formats and processes.

You are entering screen industries transformed by innovative technology and formats. Industries that are growing in awareness of diversity, sustainability, progressive workplace practices, and globalisation. Industries experiencing change – and we want you to be a part of that change. On the course, you will be with a like-minded group of aspiring industry professionals. Alongside your acquisition of skills and understanding, you will create your own professional profile, and have the option of developing additional skills including editing and sound recording.

Why Take the Course?

Practical: Through hands-on exercises, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and screenings, students will gain the skills and knowledge required to work with cameras and lighting to industry standards.
Comprehensive: Gain skills vital for look, design, and rushes management through creative and technical training in grading and processing software, to enhance the visual aesthetics of student productions.
Industry-Facing: Opportunities to gain a wide range of industry-relevant skills across projects including a short, filmed project, 35mm workshop and shooting exercise, and classes on the function of each major camera departmental role.
Real-life Experience: Students will get the chance to work as a director of photography alongside other MA pathways on short video content for external clients, providing the opportunity to further highlight their talent.
Professional tutors: Many of our teaching staff are currently working in the industry as: TV and film directors, broadcast journalists, producers, writers, and more*.

*Due to the nature of their work patterns, named staff on programmes are subject to change, and are also dependent on the programme and modules selected for study by the student. For a selection of the tutors who teach across our campuses, please see Our People.

Our outstanding academic credentials are recognised by leading higher education bodies. This course is 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.

Programme Aims

Deep understanding of the roles and responsibilities relating to being a cinematographer for a range of screen platforms.

The ability to interpret and craft creative projects suitable for industry and audiences.

The skills need to deliver content that is of a professional standard and fresh in its approach.

The ability to articulate the role visual screen storytelling plays in contributing positively and progressively to an increasingly globalised and inclusive world.

Developed to high level productive ways of working with directors, producers, and crew in the realisation of compelling and meaningful content.

A detailed, structured, and ethical approach to content production including incorporation of lighting and exposed principles that acknowledge a range of skin tones and other characteristics of inclusive production.

A positive engagement with the use of non-discriminatory language and conventions in relation to role and filming processes.

Understanding of the role of research and intellectual enquiry as an integral part of academic development and professional practice.

The knowledge, skills, and understanding to enable you to develop professionally as a contemporary screen professional.

What You Will Study

Over three trimesters, you will gain advanced insight into not only the work of a cinematographer, but also into the implications of crafting and delivering screen content to a wide variety of audiences and contexts.

Trimester 1 focuses on the essential elements of cinematography: camera, light, exposure, and interpretation in a range of circumstances including the film or television studio. Alongside that you will explore your own qualities as you build a career profile that will develop as the course – and your understanding – increases.

In Trimester 2, you will put your understanding into practice through an ambitious production exercise where you will experience the expectations of delivering to a brief with external clients. You will also be given the opportunity to explore your cinematographic style and signature through a series of filming exercises. Alongside this, you will join with students from all disciplines to explore in depth the role of research in both your academic and professional development.

In Trimester 3, you will draw together your practical, theoretical, and industry understanding into a final piece, working with producers and directors on a filmed artefact and complete your career plan as part of your progression into real world employment.

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Module Overview

The overview below is not a complete list of MA Cinematography modules. For the complete list, please download the full Course Specification below.

Through seminars and practical exercises, you will explore the core craft skills a cinematographer needs in today’s screen industries, including the roles and function of the camera department. During the early weeks of the module, you will work with students from other pathways to make a short video using a camera phone, based on something that you want to say.

You will cover a range of skills appropriate to your role, including the mechanics of lighting and camera movement across a range of shooting scenarios, with emphasis on exposure, depth of field, lens choice and camera placement, and how to use these techniques to tell a story.

You will develop authentic and detailed career paperwork and supporting materials including a CV and personal profile. As part of the module, you will be offered Elective Upskilling sessions – opportunities to develop screen industry skills outside of your chosen discipline or as part of your multi-skilling profile.

Working with production teams drawn from other pathways, you will work as a DOP on a number of videos for external clients. Sessions on key elements of location filming, green screen compositing, and shooting table-top for commercials will support you in your work.

Building on the work of previous and concurrent modules, you will gain a deeper insight into current theories, principles, and discussions relating to issues of diversity, sustainability, and ethics within the screen industries.

Your third collaborative project gives you the opportunity to work independently to create work that demonstrates your development as a cinematographer/DOP. This is an opportunity to deliver work that is creatively exciting, distinctive, and industry-facing. You will also present your career plan, including evidence of new skills to be assessed by industry employers as you prepare to enter or re-enter the screen industries on graduation.

We include a diverse range of teaching methods which include:

seminars in smaller groups;
small group tutorials;
practical group work;
formative feedback through critiques/screening and reflective sessions;
skills Labs – a reflection of ‘real world’ experiences; and
enhancement activities.

We use a wide range of assessment which include portfolios, performances, research, presentations, and reflective work. Please download the Course Specification below for more information.

Download Full Programme Specification

Entry Requirements

Standard Entry Requirements

Age: All applicants must be 18 years or older at the time the programme begins.
Education: A 2:1 honours degree from a UK university or overseas equivalent.

Applicants must also submit:

A personal statement of at least 500 words. The MetFilm School online application form details the information that your personal statement must include.

Students Not Meeting Academic Requirements

Students without a degree, but who can demonstrate relevant industry experience or a degree below a 2:1 equivalent are still able to apply. They will need to submit the following:

A professional industry reference.
A professional CV.
A 750 word statement of why you wish to enter the screen industries, indicating the ways in which you think they are changing.

Students receive the Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud License for the duration of their course. For more information, please check Equipment in the Study with Us section for your chosen course, and the Location sections for the range of equipment and learning resources available on each of our campuses.

For more information on MA Cinematography entry requirements, language requirements, funding, and the application process please visit: