Film, Television and Screen Media (MA) - 2013/2014 entry

This programme, available in both part-time and full-time study modes, offers its students a broad-based understanding of how film, television and other screen media have developed and interacted across their varying histories, together with the opportunity to specialise in chosen areas of those media histories in order to personalise their MA studies towards specific intellectual interests and future career hopes. The programme is unique in the way that it combines rigorous academic study with creative and practical opportunities, the latter offered both within certain optional modules and via the two-month work placement.

Teaching and supervision, in historic buildings in Central London which dramatically house an award-winning Film Centre with its 70-seater cinema, is by leading film and media academics such as Professors Laura Mulvey and Ian Christie, and Drs Mike Allen and Dorota Ostrowska. Their extensive research interests in cinema history, film aesthetics, television industry and form, and contemporary and future new media opportunities, inform every aspect of the programme.

Core teaching is supplemented by invited talks given by leading international academics and industry professionals, both in order to widen the intellectual framework of the programme and to enable further productive interaction between academia and industry.

The programme, because of this intermixing of the academic and the practical, also enables its students to take their interests further, either into further postgraduate study, towards to a career in teaching, or into possible work opportunities in many areas of the media industries.

Find out more about why you should choose Birkbeck and about studying with us.  

• Located in central London, in the heart of historic Bloomsbury, within easy reach of its world-famous social and cultural scene (cinemas, theatres, restaurants and clubs) and academic facilities (the British Film Institute, British Library and other research facilities, University of London Colleges, etc).
• Taught by globally renowned film and media academics.
• Ideal if you have already studied film and/or visual media at undergraduate level or would like to enter the field from another academic or professional area.
• Option of a work placement within a media company or institution.
• Guest speakers, including leading film- and television-makers, critics and media managers.

The programme consists of a combination of a core module, a choice of option modules, a research project or placement, and a dissertation. Subjects covered on the core module include pre-cinema media, early cinema, early television and digital media.

The core provision of study is designed to introduce you to the basic methodologies and issues involved in the area concerned, as well as research skills and methods.

Option modules allow you to pursue specific interests and areas of research. These may include:

• Avant-Garde Film, Video and Beyond (not running in 2013-2014)
• British Film and Television 1960-1985
• Contemporary US Cinema (not running in 2013-2014)
• Film Festivals (includes practical element)  
• Image and Sound (includes practical element)  
• Post-War European Cinema at the Crossroads
• Exhibiting the Moving Image (includes practical element)
• Global TV.

A unique feature of the programme is the placement, which offers you the experience of working in a prominent media company or institution. Alternatively, the research project gives you the chance to undertake independent research and reflect on research methodologies.

You will complete the programme with a 15,000-word dissertation.

The purpose-built Centre for Film and Visual Media Research in Gordron Square houses teaching facilities and research projects that follow on from the AHRC Centre which Birkbeck co-ordinated in 2000-2005 and offers exceptional screening and reference opportunities.

The Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image was founded in 2012 to co-ordinate research in film and media across Birkbeck.

In addition to the Birkbeck Library, you will have easy access to the nearby University of London Library, the British Film Institute and the British Library, as well as other specialist collections and institutions in central London. You will be encouraged to attend other lectures and screenings of interest organised by various research centres at Birkbeck and the University of London.

We attract a rich programme of visiting scholars and practitioners. There is a self-access centre for audio-visual materials and we have well-equipped computer facilities, including a multimedia laboratory.

Find out more about our world-class research resources, as well as our specialist resources and collections, including the London Screen Study Collection.

If you are interested in further research, we offer an MPhil/PhD in Film and Screen Media.

Graduates go on to careers in film and television companies, in museums and galleries, in arts administration and in teaching.

• Early application recommended, but later applications also considered.
• Interviews March–September.