MA Script Writing

Course information
Department
Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Length
1 year full-time

Scholarship information
Funding available

Course overview
The skills of storytelling are timeless. Tackle the creative, analytical and professional
sides of script writing for film, television and radio on this industry-accredited MA.

This course is accredited by ScreenSkills.

With myriad new media platforms, there are more opportunities to create content than
ever before. And all these require a script and a story. But how do you get your work to
industry-standard and in front of the right people? 

The questions we explore

The main question you have to ask yourself for this MA programme is: do I really need to
be a writer more than anything else? That’s quite brutal, but script writing is a tough
profession. You’re totally exposed as a creative person, it’s you and the page and the
tradition in which you’re working, and that can be a liberating but also uncomfortable
place to be. 

The processes we use

The programme is not about learning how to be a writer; it’s about developing and
pushing forward your own writing projects as far and as fast as you can in 12 months.
You’ll be developing your own voice, learning how to critique the work of others, and
getting to grips with marketing your projects. You’ll also be making industry contacts so
you can pitch for employment in an extremely competitive industry. 

You’ll cover every aspect of the writing process from getting ideas, maintaining productive
writing practices and developing characters and storylines, to presenting your work to an
industry standard and pitching your ideas. Writing is a lonely business – that’s why the
community of writers that the programme gives you is such a creative advantage.

The approach we take

This is an MA that really focuses on you as the student. There are lectures, but most of
the time you’ll be working one-to-one with a writing tutor or within small group workshops
(with a maximum of 13 people). 

We keep the course small deliberately. In this way, we know your individual work and you
know other students’ work through the weekly feedback process. We also believe you
don’t know who you are until you’re relating to another person, and ultimately this is what
script writing is about: making that connection.

Why study MA Script Writing at Goldsmiths?

• Focus on further developing your own feature film or TV project in a workshop-
based environment limited to twelve students, ensuring intensive engagement.

• Study on one of the few MA Scriptwriting programmes accredited by ScreenSkills.

• Gain industry exposure from multiple angles. Attend lectures given by industry
professionals, and have your scripts read by professional actors at a Script
Showcase, attended by agents and other industry professionals.

• Be supported in finding an industry mentor who can encourage and support your
development and skills as a scriptwriter, thanks to the programme’s Industry
Mentor Scheme.

• See your scripts come to life in collaboration with other MA Filmmaking students in
the Department at certain points in the programme, and contribute to others’
productions, for example, as a script editor.

• Make use of our on-campus Curzon Cinema for daytime screening events, and
evening first-run films offered at student prices.

• Study within Goldsmiths’ Department of Media, Communications and Cultural

Studies, and hone your craft in a critical, stimulating, and interdisciplinary creative
environment.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact Professor Julian Henriques.

What you'll study

Overview
A core course is designed to give you the skills and understanding required to develop
your Treatment for a feature film or equivalent television or radio script. The course is
taught mostly with workshops, in which you present and discuss your own work with
other students in a supportive environment. There are also class exercises, lectures,
screenings, master classes, seminars and individual tutorials.

Starting in the Spring Term, the course then develops your Treatment into a second draft
feature script (or its equivalent).

You'll then be able to pick from a selection of option modules. 

Modules 
The MA is composed of:

Module title Credits

Long Form Script 90 credits
(Scriptwriting Portfolio)
You also produce a Reflection Essay (15 credits), and choose option modules to the value
of 75 credits from the following list:

Module title Credits

Short Form Script 30 credits
The Ascent of the Image 15 credits
Filmmakers Make Theory 15 credits
Social Activist Film 15 credits
Representing Reality 15 credits
Sound Design 15 credits
Fundamentals
Camera Fundamentals 15 credits
Film Producing 15 credits
Fundamentals
Visual Storytelling 30 credits
Adaptation and Script 30 credits
Editing
Sound Storytelling and 15 credits
Intertextuality of Narrative
Assessment
You are assessed on your portfolio, which consists of your long form treatment and
second draft feature script or equivalent, your 4,000-word Reflection essay on this script,
linked to issues in Media and Culture and a radio script adapted from a source text. In
addition, depending on your options, your portfolio could also include a 10-12 page short
script or script-editing proposal and coverage. Other modules are assessed by 5-6,000-
word essays.

Download the programme specification. If you would like an earlier version of the

programme specification, please contact the Quality Office.

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be
available every year.

What our students say

Entry requirements
Fees, funding & scholarships
How to apply
Staff
Student work
Careers

Short Form Script

30 credits

This course develops the creative skills students bring to script writing through the
completion of their first writing assignment over the first term. Students start the course
with several premises for short films and then select one to develop to final draft during
the module.

The module also emphasises analysing what makes a short script effective by looking at
screenplays as much as finished films. We will consider the different requirements of
shorts and features, how shorts can offer more latitude in terms of formal
experimentation, genre and tone, and the useful discipline imposed by the short format’s
limitations.

The course will develop students’ script editing skills, along with their ability to listen to
notes, through ongoing workshops in which they will provide feedback on each other’s
work. In addition, we will consider avenues for distribution and exhibition, and what role
shorts play in a screenwriter’s career development.

All student scripts on this module receive a rehearsed reading from professional actors
prior to completion of the script. The Department runs an annual script competition for
which scripts completed on this course are eligible. Two scripts are then selected to go
into production as part of the undergraduate film production course and another two for
MA Film Production.

Reading
Aronson, Linda The 21st Century Screenplay (Allen & Unwin, 2010) (Good exploration of
alternatives to the three-act structure and unlocking character through action)

Cooper, Patricia and Dancyger, Ken Writing the Short Film, (Focal Press 2004) (based on
NYU course, has interesting short screenplays)

Cowgill, Linda J Writing Short Films - Structure & Content for Screenwriters (Lone Eagle
Publishing Co., 2005) (good practical guide with exercises and sample screenplay)

Egri, Laglos The Art of Creative Writing (Kensington Publishing Corp., 2001) (especially
good on motivations and how they shape character. Former teacher of Woody Allen)

Goldman, William Adventures in the Screen Trade (Abacus, 1996) (Still the most
perceptive book about the screenwriter’s life in Hollywood, and the funniest)

Mackendrick, A, On Film-making, (Faber and Faber, 2006) McGilligan, P, Backstory 2,

Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s (Univ. of California Press, 1997)

McGilligan, P, Backstory 3, Interviews with Screenwriters of the '60s (Univ. of California

Press, 1997)

Parker, P, The Art and Science of Screenwriting (Oxford Intellect, 1997)

Phillips, W Writing Short Scripts (Syracuse University Press, 1991) (comprehensive

overview of short films)

Yorke, John, Into the Woods: How Stories and Why We Tell Them (Penguin, 2013) (good
overview of structure from one of UK’s best television producers and story editors)

The Ascent of the Image

15 credits

Photography has been understood as the founding innovation for all that we have in our
visual world today. But what was that innovation? To bring a world in motion to a halt?
The first verifiable evidence that there is such a thing as the past? The start of an all-out
mania to get hold of an object or an experience with an image? When these static images
were aligned in a sequence and run through a projector, we called them movies.

This module will examine the values and meanings once attached to photography and
film as regards their relationship to objective reality, to history and to the part they play for
our sense of intimacy in being in the world. Much of photography and film theory have
required a second thought these days, as the way we make, look at, and more
importantly value images has changed significantly many canonical texts. This module
will question the differences between still and moving images and assess their
significance in today’s visual social world.

Filmmakers Make Theory

15 credits

This module will reflect on filmmakers who were/are also theorists: their film work has an
edifying relationship to their theory, which offers a unique opportunity to see theory in
action. Moreover, the intimacy such artists have with the image-making process makes
for passionate writing and strong, compelling ideas. Not coincidently, these are important
ideas with currency for the problems one faces in both making and understanding moving
images. The course will address the work of five theorists drawing from a large pool that
includes Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Jean Epstein, Germaine Dulac, Sergei Eisenstein,
Hollis Frampton, Hito Steyerl, Robert Bresson, Raul Ruiz, and Bela Balazs.

Reading List:

Brakhage, Stan (1963) Metaphors on Vision, special issue of Film Culture, n.30, Fall;
extract republished in Sitney, P Adams (ed) (1978), The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of
Theory and Criticism, Anthology Film Archives, New York. Bresson, Robert (1986), Notes
on the Cinematographer, Quartet Books Limited.

Deren, Maya (2001) Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde, ed. Bill Nichols,
University of California Press. Eisenstein, Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, ed and trans
Jay Leyda, Harcourt Brace Janovich New York.

Epstein, Jean. (1981) ‘Bonjour Cinema and other writings’ trans. Tom Milne, Afterimage
no. 10

Epstein, Jean. (Spring, 1977) ‘Magnification and other writings’, October 3.

Espinosa, Julia García (2000), ‘For an Imperfect Cinema’ trans Julianne Burton, Jump Cut,
no. 20, 1979, pp. 24-26; reprinted in Robert Stam and Toby Miller (eds) (2000), Film and
Theory: An Anthology, Blackwell, New York, 287-297 http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/
onlinessays/JC20folder/ImperfectCinema.html

Frampton, Hollis (2009), On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters, ed. Bruce Jenkins,
MIT Press.

Gidal, Peter (1989), Materialist Film, Routledge, London.

Gidal, Peter (ed) (1976). Structural Film Anthology. BFI, London.

Ruiz, Raul (1995), The Poetics of Cinema trans. Brian Holmes, Paris Editions Dis Voir.

Sarah Keller and Jason N. Paul (eds) Jean Epstein Critical Essays and New Translations,
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 287-310. Solanas, Fernando and Octavio
Getino (1976), ‘Towards a Third Cinema’ in Bill Nichols (ed), Movies and Methods, Volume
One, University of California Press, Berkeley, 44-64; also available online at http://
documentaryisneverneutral.com/words/camasgun.html

Steryerl, Hito (no date) The Wretched of the Screen, Sternberg Press, e-flux journal

Steyerl Hito (November, 2009) ‘In defense of the poor image’ e-flux journal

Vertov, Dziga (1984) Kino Eye trans. Kevin O’Brien, University of California Press.

Social Activist Film

15 credits

Can film and digital media bring about social and political change? How do such films
work, and what models are there for how filmmakers might relate to their subjects?
Further, how are such films funded and distributed - how does their reach differ from
conventional cinema and broadcast products?

This module will introduce you to activist filmmaking and digital media for social change.
The module will be relevant for you both if your interest is primarily theoretical, and/or
practical - for instance if you are interested in working in this area.

The module will give you a grounding in current debates in the field and, as well as
exposing you to a range of contemporary projects and practices, some of the history of
activist media.

Amongst the sessions and topics covered will be current film representations of activism,
the history of activist and alternative media, a workshop in participatory media
techniques, and case study sessions and in contemporary web-based projects.

The module will help you gain a practical and critical knowledge of contemporary
approaches to activist media practice across different platforms, as well as the history of
activist/community/participatory media.

Representing Reality
15 credits

This module considers the relationship of documentary to re-presenting ‘reality’ and its
various ‘truth claims.’ It explores documentary production in its changing social and
historical contexts, and across its different distribution platforms, and deals with current
debates about documentary ethics and aesthetics. Taught by a range of lecturers (mainly)
from the Media & Communications Department, it encompasses both Anglophone and
some international documentary traditions, and historical examples from the early Soviet
avant-garde to contemporary documentary.

Sound Design Fundamentals

15 credits

This module introduces you to the fundamentals of sound recording.

In the first five weeks you will learn recording, manipulation and editing techniques that
are appropriate to the design of sound for narrative film and television.

For the remainder of the term you undertake a practical project with tutorial support. You
present your completed project to the class in the final week and evaluate your work in a
short reflective essay.

Camera Fundamentals
15 credits

This module introduces you to the fundamentals of video camera operation. Over 5
practical hands-on workshop sessions you learn how to effectively operate a video
camera. A new topic is introduced each week and you spend the majority of classroom
time developing operational skills and completing hands-on assignments.

For the remainder of the term, you work in pairs on two shooting exercises. In one
exercise, you will perform the role of camera operator, and on the other you will perform
the role of focus puller. Tutorial support is provided and you will participate in a group
screening of completed film exercises in the final week.

Film Producing Fundamentals

15 credits

This practice module gives an overview of what a film producer needs to understand
about the development, production and distribution of film content.

Working in teams, the module enables you to develop a critical view of the different roles
of a producer. The development skills include understanding the principles of script
analysis and script editing; developing a project from source material; collaboration with
writers and directors; pitching; negotiating the deal; publicity and marketing; sales,
distribution and exhibition; co-production; financing; legal and financial.

The production skills include budgeting and scheduling; managing the production; post-
production techniques; editing, sound and music. The module will provide an introduction
and context for the development of a ‘reflective practitioner’ approach to the producing
process.

Visual Storytelling
30 credits

Visual Storytelling invites you to make an engaging visual sequence consisting of

between 8-12 still images. Inspired by artist-photographer Duane Michals, the module
challenges you to create a sequence of still images that conveys a story, an idea, an
impulse or an emotional tone that develops between the opening frame and the end-
frame. And beyond.

Module Premise:

1. Only the impossible is worth attempting. Only the invisible is worth photographing.

2. The cut (between frames) is the primary locus of meaning in sequential art.

3. Arranging your images to prioritise meaning in the cuts (not vice-versa) is the path to
engaging visual story content.

Your sequence may be linear or non-linear and may be classically structured, circular or
experimental in nature.

Adaptation and Script Editing

30 credits

Tanya Nash
This module will look at adapting stories for a variety of platforms – film, television, the
web and gaming. Each week will focus on a specific case study. Students will discover
how to assess the components of the source material: its concept, its characters and its
story potential for both a marketplace and a specific platform.

The adaption of ideas, stories and characters is happening continually across a range of
screen media and platforms. Understanding adaptation is key to working successfully in
media industries today. This module will look at adapting stories for a variety of platforms
– film, television, the web and gaming. Each week will focus on a specific case study.
Students will discover how to assess the components of the source material: its concept,
its characters and its story potential for both a marketplace and a specific platform.

The process of adaptation also involves the skills of script editing and rewriting. And this
will also help students to edit and rewrite their own original material.

Reading List:
Aronson, Linda (2010) The 21st Century Screenplay, Allen and Unwin (Ch 19, pp155 -
158)

Seger, Linda (1992) The Art of Adaptation: Turning fact and fiction into film

(Henry Holt & Co)

Krevolin, Ricard W (2003) How to Adapt Anything into a screenplay, John


Wiley and Sons

Hutcheon, Linda (2012), A Theory of Adaptation, Routledge

Sound Storytelling and Intertextuality of Narrative

15 credits

This module is a practical course in writing audio/radio drama by adaptation,

dramatisation, and original dramatic writing based on an idea that could be documentary,
life experience or other artistic inspiration.

The module explores the common aspects of sound narrative in different practice media
and critically investigates to an advanced standard how audio-genic techniques transfer
intertextually between radio, prose, theatre, and film.