MA Writing for Screen and Stage
Module Descriptions for Stage 3
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Module Six: Production Case Study (20 credits)
At this level, students are expected to be working in effect as
a professional writer, conceiving, developing and refining a
high-quality screenplay which must arrive at a production-ready
status by its final submission. As an insight into the process of
refining such a work, students will engage in a case study of a
previous film or play. This will be an artistic and commercial
analysis of how a particular, possibly favourite, cinema or theatre
production came into being, from its conception to its realisation
and exploitation. The choice is made by the student, in discussion
with their tutor, and in order to achieve some distance of view and
so that the study has the advantage of hindsight, the choice should
ideally avoid new works in favour of a work from the past, albeit
the recent past if the student so wishes.
Students who want to write films or plays are generally driven
by examples they have admired and been inspired by. This is
an opportunity for the student to draw that inspiration into their
own writing by studying a work in close detail, researching the
creation and production, interviewing key personnel if this is
possible, and through this process applying a critical framework
with which they can identify the key decisions in the development
of the work and their outcomes.
Module Seven: Major Project Screenplay
(Option A)
Full-Length Feature Film Screenplay (40
credits)
If students choose the area of cinema and television, they will
create and write a feature-length screenplay of their own choosing.
This can be any genre – horror, comedy, thriller, science fiction,
love story, biopic, etc., and it will be assisted and guided
throughout by their personal tutor in a series of distance
tutorials by telephone or email, and with face-to-face tutorials
taking place when the project is selected at the fourth
residential, and when it is discussed again mid-development at the
fifth residential.
The screenplay is a major work. It should be between 90 and 120
pages, and will be honed and polished through the final seven
months to a point at the end of the programme where it can be sent
to production companies as a professional submission. It will also
be accompanied by a reflective essay which analyses in retrospect
the process of creating this major work, and the learning and
personal development experienced within the project
Module Seven: Major Project Stage Play (Option B)
Full-length Play/Performance Text (40
credits)
If students choose the area of theatre, they will write a play
or a stage performance text. This is a major work, normally up to
two hours on length, on a subject and in a genre of the student’s
choice. It should be 90-120 pages, and will also be developed
and refined over the final seven months to a point at the end of
the programme where it can be sent to theatre companies as a
professional submission. The theatre script will also be
accompanied by the submission of a reflective essay, analysing and
considering the process of creating this major work, and the
learning and personal development gained from it.
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Page last updated 3/23/2010