MA Screenwriting (Fiction)
‘Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead’ – Gene Fowler
We don’t pretend screenwriting is easy. You could sit staring at a blank piece of paper – or computer screen – or you could enrol on the Skillset accredited Northern Film School MA Screenwriting course. We invite applications from all backgrounds and experience - from writers and script editors to development executives and producers, from actors and teachers to historians and homemakers. If you have a track record, portfolio of work, or simply stories to tell, we welcome your application.
‘These things are important to me, these things I write. I recognize and embrace the notion of collaboration - and other people should, too’ – Charlie Kaufman
The Northern Film School works collaboratively across all courses and during the first Semester students take a mandatory Module in Writing the Short Film which is also taken by MA Film & Moving Image Production students. There is also an optional joint course for both MA Screenwriting and MA Film & Moving Image Production students in Creative Producing and thus, from the outset, an understanding of the realities of and practicalities of development and production are built into the MA Screenwriting students’ education.
Students continue in the first semester with Introduction to Feature Film, Dramatisation, Television Continuing Drama and Adaptation taught through master classes, lectures and seminars. In the second Semester, students will be required to continue Feature Film and can then choose two out of the following four Modules: Original Television Drama, Adaptation II, Comedy or Children & Families.
To proceed to Year 2, students are required to pass Year 1. Year 2 is on a part-time basis as students will now be focusing on their original project and are required to write an original feature or TV series.
Through the rigorous and demanding application of professional screenwriting practices in partnership with our impressive team of industry professionals, and our extensive contacts in the Film and TV drama industries, the Northern Film School’s Screenwriting MA provides you with an opportunity to build a strong foundation for a career in screenwriting.
‘I don't care who you are. When you sit down to write the first page of your screenplay, in your head, you're also writing your Oscar acceptance speech.’ – Nora Ephron
