University degrees: Postgraduate
Course length: 2 years full-time
Course city: Sydney
The Master of Arts Screen: Documentary is a unique two-year graduate degree dedicated to forging the next generation of documentary filmmakers, focusing on visual storytelling, audience engagement and screen business.
The program has been designed to embrace the full gamut of the documentary spectrum, from short and long-form documentaries, television pilots, through to augmented reality and visual installations.
This intensive course is developed in conjunction with industry practitioners and has a focus on concrete opportunities to help you forge ahead in your career.
WHY DO THIS COURSE
In the Master of Arts Screen: Documentary you will develop cinematic storytelling skills whilst working in partnership with producers, cinematographers, editors, sound designers and composers to create world class graduate projects.
Through intensive practical workshops you will learn about visual storytelling and screen business, creating a proof-of-concept that will lead to the realisation of a funded major project in the second year. Alongside the practical streams, you will learn early documentary traditions through to the latest industry trends, helping you to contextualise your own creative practice in the industry.
AFTRS is committed to providing students with direct industry contact in multiple forms. This includes, but is not limited to, guest lecturers, networking opportunities and industry attachments.
The Master of Arts Screen: Documentary course will challenge you to critically engage and experiment in exploring, discovering and honing your own unique and distinctive creative voice.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
In the first year, you will learn the fundamentals of visual storytelling across the documentary spectrum. Working both on-location and in the studio, you will expand your understanding of all aspects of documentary production: from generating ideas to industry pitching, shooting to the creation of market-ready materials. In the second year, you will create and direct a funded major project film using AFTRS’ state-of-the-art production facilities.
During the course you will work in small cross-disciplinary groups to develop a deeper understanding of core screen principles and foster new industry collaborations. You will undertake a professional placement, which aims to support your transition into the industry upon graduation.
Throughout the course, you will be supported to consider who you are as a creative practitioner and develop an adaptable, creative skill-set and an entrepreneurial attitude. Learning to analyse your process through the development of a practice-based research project, you will understand how your practice is informed by the past and how to engage with contemporary screen culture and emerging trends in the industry.
The Master of Arts Screen: Documentary will equip you with specialist knowledge and collaborative experience in documentary production, propelling you towards a creative leadership role in the global documentary industry. Industry practitioners will contribute to the coursework program, providing insights into their practice, and you will collaborate with your fellow students in small cross-disciplinary groups.
Many of our graduates have become leaders in the Australian documentary industry and gone on to secure significant roles at major production, both nationally and internationally. AFTRS documentary alumni include: Robert Nugent, End of the Rainbow (2007); Rebecca Barry, I Am A Girl (2013); Sascha Ettinger-Epstein, The Oasis (2008), The Pink House (2017); Madeleine Hetherton, The Surgery Ship (2017), Larissa Behrendt, After the Apology, (2017); Hollie Fifer, The Opposition. (2016).
