Business of Film MA

Program Overview

This Business of Film MA course equips students with essential knowledge and skills in the business of film, delivered in partnership with the BFI (British Film Institute) as their industry partner. It is a professional development program for those aspiring to support, finance, and market good films. The course emphasizes practical experiences and business challenges through live industry projects, placements, and marketing opportunities, preparing students for the challenges of the modern film industry.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This course aims to equip students with essential knowledge and skills in the business of film. It is a professional development program for individuals aspiring to support, finance, and market films. The program is designed for those already working in the film industry and those from other fields like accounting, law, and logistics who wish to enter the film business. The program emphasizes the importance of finance, legal knowledge, and marketing in building a sustainable career in the film industry. It also highlights the significance of communication, networking, and relationship building for professional success. The program aims to:

• Provide a comprehensive understanding of the film industry through practical experiences and business challenges.
• Prepare students for the challenges of the film business today.
• Build industry contacts and extend entrepreneurial skills.
• Develop greater commercial acumen.
• Embrace creative individual problem-solving skills alongside necessary business and negotiation skills.

Outline:

The course is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, industry guest speakers, practice-led case studies, and placements. It emphasizes group work, with students participating in small and large-scale projects while gaining an understanding of the fundamentals of the film business.

Course Structure:

• Core Modules:
• Creative and Business Acumen:
Develops business-framing and entrepreneurial mindset for film production, focusing on project management, leadership, IP, business plan authorship, idea development, solution-making, pitching, public speaking, communicating value, negotiation, and deal making.
• Developing Your Film Career: Reinforces professional development and collaborative approach to career development in the film business.
Students work in groups to develop their own career trajectory through collaboration on business ideas.
• Distribution, Exhibition and Marketing: Introduces the demands of marketing, distribution, exhibition, and festivals.
Delivered through Regent Street Cinema, this module provides a case study of an active cinema business and its operations.
• Film Business Final Project: Synthesizes skills and experience from modules across the course, allowing students to carry out business-oriented research with supervision from faculty and industry professionals.
• Film Finance and Funding Models: Provides an understanding of film finance, financial management, budgeting, investment and funding, and reporting in the film industry.
• Film Industry Work Placement: Encourages students to inform and focus their studies by undertaking a work-based placement within an existing organization or through association with an individual.
• International Film Industry and Global Markets: Develops advanced knowledge of the global film market and its variations.
Students gain a deep understanding of key territories, explore their significance, and interrogate the emergence of new markets and rising national film cultures.

Teaching:

• The course is taught by leading academics and guest industry professionals.
• The format of delivery enhances students' ability to promote, finance, and distribute film productions successfully.
• The course emphasizes practical application through workshops, tutorials, and real-life case studies.
• Students benefit from guest lectures, work placements, and insights from the BFI.

Careers:

Graduates of the Business of Film MA will be able to work in a wide range of roles across the different sectors of the film industry, including:

• Development
• Marketing
• Financing
• Distribution
• Exhibition
The degree provides students with a competitive edge in a market that values high-level skills in communication, creative approaches, research, and technical understanding of emerging digital forms.

Other:

• The program is delivered in partnership with the British Film Institute (BFI), the UK's lead organization for the moving image.
• Students have access to guest speakers, networking events, and placement opportunities through the BFI.
• Students can also work in conjunction with Regent Street Cinema, gaining valuable experience on real-world film distribution projects.
• The course is based next to London's iconic Regent Street Cinema, with opportunities to secure hands-on experience working with the cinema's production team on their marketing, distribution, and exhibition of films.

When you have enrolled with us, your annual tuition fees will remain the same throughout your studies with us. We do not increase your tuition fees each year. This opportunity is available if you have a personal tuition fee liability of £2,000 or more and if you are self-funded or funded by the Student Loans Company.