MA Filmmaking (Sound Recording, Post-Production & Design)

Something happens when you add sound to an image. And filmmaking depends upon the strength of this relationship. Ultimately it’s what makes a film work – it’s what moves your audience.

MA Filmmaking (Sound Recording, Post-Production & Design), is housed in a new purpose-built media facility equipped with state-of-the-art teaching spaces including a film studio for sound shooting, Pro Tools suites, Audio Postproduction facilities with Foley recording studios, Avid Media Composer, screening rooms and an Avid ISIS SAN network linking all teaching spaces. The new Curzon cinema provides the department with digital projection along with its weekly programme of first-run films.

The questions we explore

You’ll learn the fundamental technical skills necessary to begin a career in screen sound, both as a location sound recordist and post-production sound designer. But equally importantly, you will gain an understanding of how a film’s narrative relies on the precise partnership between image and sound.

Within this MA programme you’ll expand your existing knowledge of sound. Through recording and design you’ll investigate what it means to listen with awareness and to translate that experience to your audience. And you’ll study how sound is created, how you can manipulate its form, whether it’s natural, synthesised, digitised or analogue, and how to work with sound as a storytelling medium.

Our approach

The Sound curriculum focuses on the structure of the soundtrack, deconstructing it from its beginnings in pre-production to the final mix, experimenting with the ways in which different components (dialogue, atmospheres, sound effects, music) allow an audience to engage with a film’s story. Through iterative exercises, group reviews and regular feedback, you gain the awareness and ability to construct soundtracks that interpret stories through sound.

As a sound specialist you work on one film each term, ending with a major production. You learn about related fields such as directing, editing, producing and documentary, and work with students across specialisms within Goldsmiths Screen School. As well as developing your awareness of the discipline and learning software such as Pro Tools, the Options modules provide the opportunity to learn the concepts and debates informing the wider filmmaking industry. This means you have the chance to explore your craft with other filmmakers and get used to the unique dynamics of the industry

You’ll also benefit from guest lecturers who bring their professional expertise into our classrooms. Last year, specialist classes featured Oscar-winning sound recordist Ray Beckett (The Hurt Locker), film/TV sound editor Adele Fletcher (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) and composer Stuart Earl (The Secret Agent, Lilting).

In addition, MA Filmmaking students collaborate with composers and players from Goldsmiths’ Department of Music who offer a wide range of musical styles from classical to electronic to popular.

Pro Tools tuition is offered to all Sound Recording, Post-Production & Design pathway students giving you the opportunity to achieve Pro Tools Certified User accreditation.

This MA doesn’t just deal with technique and technology and it’s not about objective theory. We explore the space in between. Not only do we want you to acquire the skills and understanding to follow a career in professional filmmaking but also we prepare you to use your new-found expertise in the wider world of media and the arts.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.

In your first two terms, you will spend a full day a week in specialised contact with your specific programme convenor. These sessions include:

• practical demonstrations and exercises
• lectures
• screenings
• small group seminars
• workshops

You will also take three option modules, taught through practical workshops and hands-on experiences, as well as critical discussion and essay writing.

The third term will be taken up with your final substantive project and you will take part in a series of progress and feedback meetings.

Screen Lab

You will also advance your collaborative skills by working in teams with fiction and documentary producers and directors, cinematography and sound students, on a variety of projects and at least three scheduled films across the year.

You will leave the programme with a diverse portfolio of moving-image work that may span a variety of formats – music video, web series drama, documentary, campaign/commercial, experimental art pieces and short fiction films.

Compulsory modules

You will take the following modules:

You will also complete a Final Project (90 credits), assessed by a portfolio of work and a viva that reflects your practice.

Screen School options

As well as your Sound Recording, Post-Production & Design specialism, you will choose three 15-credit modules to enhance your other skills and critical approaches. Options include:

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.