MA Screen Acting
The MA Screen Acting course offers students consolidated, bespoke, and advanced training for actors with existing experience in acting and/or performance. You will learn to deliver strong performances within a demanding and competitive industry, taking advantage of industry advancements to explore new technology alongside traditional forms of production.
Alongside craft skills and understanding, you will create your own professional profile, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurialism as you take the next steps in your career, including sessions on fundraising, personal finance, and more.
Why Take the Course?
Practical: Through hands-on exercises, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and screenings, students will gain the skills and knowledge required to work as a professional screen actor.
Comprehensive: For students passionate about the various forms of performance, and who want to both return to the basics of screen acting, while also looking at the wider techniques and practices, such as commercial casting.
Industry-facing: Work collaboratively with students on other MA pathways, and develop skills in the latest industry technologies, exploring hybrid performance spaces such as Augmented Production.
Awarding body: BIMM University
What You Will Study
Over three trimesters, you will gain advanced insight into the craft of screen acting, and the professional requirements involved in working in the industry.
Trimester One works as both a refresher and a deep investigation into the core facets of screen acting. You will consider the different ways in which a performer connects to their audience, the camera, and their character or role, all while exploring what makes a compelling performance. In addition, you will work on dramaturgy, developing your skills in breaking down and acting scripts, and exploring improvisation.
In Trimester Two, you will build on this learning with more in-depth studies of industry areas. You will learn more about commercial performances and productions, put your acting skills into practice in technology-enhanced spaces, and collaborate with students from other MA pathways on a research project.
In Trimester Three, you will draw together your practical, theoretical, and industry understanding into the creation and delivery of 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.
During this part of the course, we go back to basics for a refresher and a deep investigation into the power of the actor in the Empty Space, as defined by Peter Brook. Drawing on a diverse range of storytelling models, you will devise and perform a ‘black-box’ performance piece stripped of the comforts of screen apparatus, and designed to foreground the fundamental ways in which a performer connects to an audience through narrative.
You will engage with a range of practitioner-based techniques that offer a continuous cycle of performance and review to develop a detailed understanding of the individual’s relationship with the camera. In addition, actors will work on dramaturgy and develop their skills in breaking down and acting scripts, and exploring improvisation as a core component of the development of compelling screen characters and stories.
You will tackle the core voice and body-focused skills and techniques that need to be developed to build and sustain long-term health and vitality both in front of and behind the camera. You will also look at dialects and develop your portfolio for voice-over work.
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 their chosen discipline or as part of their multi-skilling profile.
You will explore the practice and techniques involved in commercial casting and performance, from conventional film and television scenarios through commercials, corporate video, and video games. You will also be offered production skills options – where you can step behind the camera and develop skills as producers, directors, cinematographers, and editors.
You will work on devising and performing sequences appropriate for technology-enhanced environments such as virtual production, green screen, and performance capture. You will work with movement coaches on developing your physical language for a variety of performance capture scenarios, as well as exploring hybrid performance spaces.
Building on your work throughout the course, 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 final project gives you the opportunity to work independently to create work that demonstrates your development as a Screen Actor. This is an opportunity to deliver work that is creatively exciting, distinctive, and industry-facing. You will also present your career plan, including evidence of new skills to be assessed by industry employers as you prepare to enter or re-enter 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.
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.
