Name: MA Screen Acting - Courses - London - Berlin - MetFilm School
Author: Elise Czyzowska

Overview

The MA Screen Acting course offers students consolidated, bespoke, and advanced training for actors with existing experience in acting and/or performance. You will learn to deliver strong performances within a demanding and competitive industry, taking advantage of industry advancements to explore new technology alongside traditional forms of production.

Alongside craft skills and understanding, you will create your own professional profile, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurialism as you take the next steps in your career, including sessions on fundraising, personal finance, and more.

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Why Take the Course?

Practical: Through hands-on exercises, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and screenings, students will gain the skills and knowledge required to work as a professional screen actor.
Comprehensive: For students passionate about the various forms of performance, and who want to both return to the basics of screen acting, while also looking at the wider techniques and practices, such as commercial casting.
Industry-Facing: Work collaboratively with students on other MA pathways, and develop skills in the latest industry technologies, exploring hybrid performance spaces such as Augmented Production.

What You Will Study

Over three trimesters, you will gain advanced insight into the craft of screen acting, and the professional requirements involved in working in the industry.

Trimester 1 works as both a refresher and a deep investigation into the core facets of screen acting. You will consider the different ways in which a performer connects to their audience, the camera, and their character or role, all while exploring what makes a compelling performance. In addition, you will work on dramaturgy, developing your skills in breaking down and acting scripts, and exploring improvisation.

In Trimester 2, you will build on this learning with more in-depth studies of industry areas. You will learn more about commercial performances and productions, put your acting skills into practice in technology-enhanced spaces, and collaborate with students from other MA pathways on a research project.

In Trimester 3, you will draw together your practical, theoretical, and industry understanding into the creation and delivery of a filmed artefact, and complete your career plan as part of your progression into real world employment.

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Thematic Overview

During this part of the course, we go back to basics for a refresher and a deep investigation into the power of the actor in the Empty Space, as defined by Peter Brook. Drawing on a diverse range of storytelling models, you will devise and perform a ‘black-box’ performance piece stripped of the comforts of screen apparatus, and designed to foreground the fundamental ways in which a performer connects to an audience through narrative.

You will engage with a range of practitioner-based techniques that offer a continuous cycle of performance and review to develop a detailed understanding of the individual’s relationship with the camera. In addition, actors will work on dramaturgy and develop their skills in breaking down and acting scripts, and exploring improvisation as a core component of the development of compelling screen characters and stories.

You will tackle the core voice and body-focused skills and techniques that need to be developed to build and sustain long-term health and vitality both in front of and behind the camera. You will also look at dialects and develop your portfolio for voice-over work.

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 their chosen discipline or as part of their multi-skilling profile.

You will explore the practice and techniques involved in commercial casting and performance, from conventional film and television scenarios through commercials, corporate video, and video games. You will also be offered production skills options – where you can step behind the camera and develop skills as producers, directors, cinematographers, and editors.

You will work on devising and performing sequences appropriate for technology-enhanced environments such as virtual production, green screen, and performance capture. You will work with movement coaches on developing your physical language for a variety of performance capture scenarios, as well as exploring hybrid performance spaces.

Building on your work throughout the course, 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 final project gives you the opportunity to work independently to create work that demonstrates your development as a Screen Actor. 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.

Download Full Programme Specification

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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 of overseas equivalent

Applicants should also hold an undergraduate qualification in a performance-based discipline, or have at least three professional acting credits.

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 showreel.
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 resources available on each of our campuses.

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