Applications open:
02 Jul 2018
Applications close:
17 Oct 2018
Duration:
2 years full-time
Attendance:
Three days face-to-face per week
$50,976 ($25,488 p.a.)
The fee shown is the indicative course tuition fee, expressed as a both a total course cost and per annum cost. For more information, see fees and scholarships below.
FEE-HELP and scholarships available
$101,952 ($50,976 p.a.)
The fee shown is the indicative course tuition fee, expressed as a both a total course cost and per annum cost. For more information, see fees and scholarships below.
Become a creative leader in the global screen industry
In our digital world, the skills and capabilities demanded of the director are increasingly complex.
Unique in its structure, the Master of Arts Screen: Directing offers you the opportunity to master your directing skill-sets through a series of intensive workshops, cross-disciplinary collaborations and mentorships.
The aim of the course is to give you the context and opportunity to evolve your individual approach as a professional director, and to hone your understanding of your directorial vision within collaborative environments.
Is the 2019 Master of Arts Screen: Directing right for you?
Why do this course
You will be given the opportunity to develop your practice and career path as a screen director while gaining access to world-class mentors, lecturers and practitioners.
You will gain practical insights into, and experience of, the professional life of a director and be provided with space, time, support and resources to evolve the process and practice of your own creative work. Through collaboration, which is a fundamental and crucial part of your working life as a director, you will have the opportunity to work with other highly-skilled creatives including cinematographers, writers, producers, designers and editors across several workshops and projects to realise your vision. These multiple opportunities will facilitate the development of ongoing working relationships, which are valued hallmarks of the AFTRS vision and culture.
What you can expect
Your creative leadership will be exercised through intensive practical workshops, underpinned by explorations of contemporary screen language. Working in small, cross-disciplinary groups, you will collaborate with your fellow students to develop a shared vocabulary for cinematic storytelling and life-long collaborative networks.
Throughout your first year, you will drill deep into your craft, working with leading industry practitioners who will contribute to the coursework program and provide insights into your practice.
In your final year, you will create a funded major project using AFTRS’ extensive production facilities to realise your vision. The course concludes with a professional placement.
Across the course, you will be supported to consider who you are as a creative practitioner and develop an adaptable, creative skill-set. Learning to document and analyse your process through the development of a practice-based research project, you will understand how you have been informed by innovations and processes of the past, and how your practice engages with contemporary screen culture and its emerging trends and technologies.
Career opportunities
The Master or Arts Screen: Directing will equip you with the deep specialist knowledge and collaborative, professional practice to propel you towards professional roles.
Over the past 40 years AFTRS directing graduates have received critical acclaim and won or been nominated for a slate of awards. Notable alumni include: Jane Campion nominated for BAFTA and Emmy Awards for Top of the Lake (2013 – 2014) and nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director for The Piano (1994); Gillian Armstrong, winner of AFI and London Critics Circle Film Awards for My Brilliant Career (1979), received critical acclaim for Little Women (1994) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997), winner of Australian Director’s Guild Awards for Love, Lust and Lies (2010); Chris Noonan nominated for an Academy Award Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Babe (1996); Cate Shortland winner of Best Director at AACTA Awards for Somersault (2004) and Berlin Syndrome (2017).
Potential careers:
- Director
- Assistant Director
- Story Producer
Meet our Head of Directing
Rowan Woods
Rowan Woods is an award-winning director of television and feature films. He directed The Boys working with his AFTRS colleague writer/producer/director…
You Will Learn to
Demonstrate and apply advanced knowledge of theory and practice as a professional and creative leader in their discipline.
Critically evaluate and apply a deep understanding of cinematic storytelling to create audience-engaged work for the screen.
Justify and implement a reflective creative practice that synthesises specialist knowledge, research and an understanding of personal process.
Apply an adaptable skill set.
Demonstrate an ability to lead, inspire and collaborate across diverse projects with a confidence in their creative voice and core value.
DISCLAIMER ** Changes in circumstances may impact upon the accuracy or currency of information. While AFTRS takes all due care to ensure that the information is accurate, it reserves the right to vary any information described here without notice.