MA Cinematography
MA Cinematography offers you a unique opportunity to develop the necessary skills and techniques to work professionally within the camera department, employ a range of technical and creative techniques to develop and enhance visual storytelling, and explore a range of film formats and processes.
You are entering an industry transformed by innovative technology and formats, and with growing awareness of diversity, sustainability, progressive workplace practices, and globalisation. The screen industries are experiencing change – and we want you to be a part of this change.
On MA Cinematography, you will study alongside a like-minded group of aspiring industry professionals. Alongside your acquisition of craft skills, you will develop crucial soft skills such as communication, creativity, and teamwork.
Why Take the Course?
- Practical: Through hands-on exercises, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and screenings, students will gain the skills and knowledge required to work with cameras and lighting to industry standards.
- Comprehensive: Gain skills vital for look, design, and rushes management through creative and technical training in grading and processing software, to enhance the visual aesthetics of student productions.
- Industry-Facing: Opportunities to gain a wide range of industry-relevant skills across projects including a short, filmed project, 35mm workshop and shooting exercise, and classes on the function of each major camera departmental role.
- Real-life Experience: Students will get the chance to work as a director of photography alongside other MA pathways on short video content for external clients, providing the opportunity to further highlight their talent.
- Professional tutors: Many of our teaching staff are currently working in the industry as: TV and film directors, broadcast journalists, producers, writers, and more*.
Awarding body: BIMM University
Our outstanding academic credentials are recognised by leading higher education bodies. This course is recognised by ScreenSkills, the industry-led skills body for the UK’s screen-based industries, and carries the ScreenSkills Select quality mark, which indicates courses best suited to prepare students for a career in the screen industries.
Programme Aims
- Deep understanding of the roles and responsibilities relating to being a cinematographer for a range of screen platforms.
- The ability to interpret and craft creative projects suitable for industry and audiences.
- The skills need to deliver content that is of a professional standard and fresh in its approach.
- The ability to articulate the role visual screen storytelling plays in contributing positively and progressively to an increasingly globalised and inclusive world.
- Developed to high level productive ways of working with directors, producers, and crew in the realisation of compelling and meaningful content.
- A detailed, structured, and ethical approach to content production including incorporation of lighting and exposed principles that acknowledge a range of skin tones and other characteristics of inclusive production.
- A positive engagement with the use of non-discriminatory language and conventions in relation to role and filming processes.
- Understanding of the role of research and intellectual enquiry as an integral part of academic development and professional practice.
- The knowledge, skills, and understanding to enable you to develop professionally as a contemporary screen professional.
What You Will Study
Over three trimesters, you will gain advanced insight into not only the work of a cinematographer, but also into the implications of crafting and delivering screen content to a wide variety of audiences and contexts.
Trimester One focuses on the essential elements of cinematography: camera, light, exposure, and interpretation in a range of circumstances including the film or television studio. Alongside that you will explore your own qualities as you build a career profile that will develop as the course – and your understanding – increases.
In Trimester Two, you will put your understanding into practice through an ambitious production exercise where you will experience the expectations of delivering to a brief with external clients. You will also be given the opportunity to develop your narrative and creative skills through a series of collaborative filming exercises. Alongside this, you will join with students from all disciplines to explore in depth the role of research and the significance of EDI in both your academic and professional development.
In Trimester Three, you will draw together your practical, theoretical, and industry understanding into a final piece, working alongside other MA students on a filmed artefact and complete your career plan as part of your progression into real world employment.
Course Specification
Mode of attendance: Full time
Length of course: 1 year
Awarding institution: BIMM University (UK)
Campus delivery: Berlin
Language of study: English
Credits: 90 ECTS/ 180 FHEQ (UK)
Minimum Requirements
An undergraduate degree or significant experience in a relevant vocation. Please reference the Entry Requirements webpage for additional international qualification equivalencies.
Proof of English Language proficiency is required if English is not your first language, or you have not studied at Undergraduate level in English previously. BIMM University Berlin requires equivalent to Level B2 CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). Please reference our English language requirements webpage for further information.
All applicants will be subject to a portfolio review and interview with a BIMM University Berlin Lecturer. Applicants with significant demonstrable experience in a related vocation, and who do not have an existing recognised undergraduate qualification, may be considered for Recognition of Prior Certified or Experiential Learning (RPCEL).
Course Fees
We’re dedicated to giving our students the best film education possible – which means accessing our globally successful first-rate lecturers in premium locations at the heart of Germany’s film scene.
Such cutting-edge facilities can be expensive, but we make sure all BIMM University Berlin courses are great value for money – representing a practical and affordable investment for your future career in the film industry.
Please note: module names and structure may be subject to change.
Through seminars and practical exercises, you will explore the core craft skills a cinematographer needs in today’s screen industries, including the roles and function of the camera department. During the early weeks of the module, you will work with students from other pathways to make a short video using a camera phone, based on something that you want to say.
You will cover a range of skills appropriate to your role, including the mechanics of lighting and camera movement across a range of shooting scenarios, with emphasis on exposure, depth of field, lens choice and camera placement, and how to use these techniques to tell a story.
You will develop authentic and detailed career paperwork and supporting materials including a CV and personal profile. As part of the module you will be offered Elective Upskilling sessions – opportunities to develop screen industry skills outside of your chosen discipline or as part of your multi-skilling profile.
Working with production teams drawn from other pathways, you will work as a DOP on a number of videos for external clients. Sessions on key elements of location filming, green screen compositing, and shooting table-top for commercials will support you in your work.
This module consists of a series of workshops and exercises in advanced aspects of cinematography, which includes a more sophisticated look at lighting and camerawork, such as the importance of inclusive lighting and exposure principles.
This module will further consider the creative and collaborative working relationships between the cinematographer, and other members of the creative team, such as the director and gaffer, and the rejection of gendered or other terminology that may discourage crew diversity.
This module will emphasise the relationship between technical and creative principles of cinematography and your own emerging signature, in preparation to working professionally as a cinematographer in today’s creative industries.
Building on the work of previous and concurrent modules, you will gain a deeper insight into current theories, principles, and discussions relating to issues of diversity, sustainability and ethics within the screen industries.
Your project is an opportunity to deliver work that is distinctive, industry-aware, based in research and reflects awareness of a diverse and inclusive world. You will also present your career plan, including evidence of new skills to be assessed by industry employers and refine your career plan in preparation for entering or re-entering the screen industries on graduation.
We include a diverse range of teaching methods which include:
- Productions
- Seminar-style Group Teaching
- Tutorials
- Practical Group Work
- Formative Feedback through Critiques, Pitches, Screenings, and Reflective Sessions
- Work-integrated Learning
- Authentic Assessment
We use a wide range of assessment which include portfolios, performances, research, presentations, and reflective work. Please download the Course Specification below for more information.
Any questions?
For any questions regarding our courses or if you’d like more information on how to apply to BIMM University Berlin, please contact our Admissions Team on +49 (0)30 311 99 186 or email admissions@bimm-institute.de.
