MA Wildlife Filmmaking
- Entry year
- 2025/26
- Course code
- D4P31
- Level
- Postgraduate
- School
- School of Arts
- Campus
- City Campus
- Duration
- One year
- Delivery
- Full-time, starts September
- Programme leader
- Peter Venn
This course is open for applications.
Please note that this programme is currently being redesigned with additional module choices. A new structure will be confirmed by January 2025.
Page last updated 1 November 2024
Introduction
UWE Bristol’s MA Wildlife Filmmaking is ideal if you want to learn how to tell intelligent, engaging stories about natural history. This world-leading course has been co-designed with producers, directors and production managers from the BBC’s renowned Natural History Unit.
Accreditations and partnerships:
Why study this course?
Study a uniquely designed industry-led curriculum alongside a purposefully small group of peers. You’ll enjoy hands-on experience of professional film equipment, develop high-level production management skills, and gain contemporary insight into crafting natural history narratives.
In our collaborative culture, you’ll develop communication and production skills to engage diverse audiences and have access to talks and events from across the creative industries. You’ll be encouraged to develop a distinctive, personal approach to documentary, with students in the past pursuing diverse genres – from observational and behavioural to expedition and experimental films.
Why UWE Bristol?
As a creative student you’ll be perfectly placed studying in Bristol, an UNESCO City of Film, widely recognised as the global capital of natural history production. Our academic partnership with the BBC's Natural History Unit means you'll have opportunities to frequently meet with professional programme makers, giving you industry insight and knowledge.
We've established ourselves as part of the city’s thriving production community. Where possible you'll receive direct editorial input on your filmmaking from an industry-based mentor, alongside expert input from our sector-leading academics and technical staff.
Where can it take me?
You’ll graduate with a globally recognised qualification and have a broad range of career options available to you regionally, nationally and internationally.
Equipped with essential skills and specialized knowledge, our graduates are well-prepared for entry-level roles in the wildlife production industry. Most find positions with the BBC or independent production companies in Bristol, across the UK, and internationally. Some graduates also pursue independent funding to create their own future productions.
Our students have been nominated, and won, major emerging talent awards including at BAFTA, Wildscreen, Royal Television Society, Jackson Hole and the International Wildlife Film Festival. Graduation films have been included in BBC broadcasts and in commercial distribution, selling to broadcasters globally.
BAFTA Student award winner and alum, Nyal Mueenuddin's film, 'When the Floods Come', documents the stories of people affected by flooding near the River Indus in Pakistan. Nyal said, “I’m unbelievably honoured to have won a Student BAFTA for my documentary and I’d like to thank the team who worked alongside me on this project."
To see examples of work produced by our recent MA Wildlife Filmmaking graduates, visit our UWE Showcase site.
Watch: Welcome to the School of Arts at UWE Bristol
Structure
Content
The course is practical and production-based. During the one-year course, you'll complete four modules:
Creating the Story - (Semester one) You'll work on developing film narratives and some of the conventions in storytelling used by productions. Through dialogue and written work, you'll see how film ideas come together through discussion.
Mastering the Business - (Semester one) This module introduces you to the way production works, including post-production and production management. It also provides commercial context for film ideas and the current production landscape for natural history shows.
Preparing for Production - (Semester two) This module comprises all the preparatory work required to launch the production stage for your final MA module films. This requires you to complete the editorial development and production management prior to filming which commences Semester three.
Professional Production - You'll now move into your production schedule, including final planning, filming, and post-production, through to delivery and submission in September/October. You'll produce an individual film project in this semester. You'll also have production support through tutorial discussions to track project progress, which will replace your weekly seminars and workshops.
The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved we'll inform you.
Learning and Teaching
Taught by a team with industry expertise across natural history and documentary practice, you’ll learn to understand and push filmmaking boundaries through technical and theoretical input. You’ll study through a combination of practice-oriented lectures, seminars, workshops, and tutorials, and you’ll also benefit from events with industry experts.
Informal discussion with the BBC and independent production companies will push your developing practice forward. You’ll be expected to demonstrate flexibility to attend industry events and festivals alongside scheduled classes.
All School of Arts MA courses actively encourage cross-disciplinary discussion and multi-disciplinary interaction across our diverse community of postgraduate artists, filmmakers, and designers. This ensures you’ll bring different perspectives to your creative practice.
See our glossary of teaching and learning terms.
Study time
This is a full-time course, which starts in September and runs for three terms over 12 months. Learning and teaching sessions typically take place over three days per week, variable across the academic year. Outside of your contact hours, you’ll have the opportunity to access the available resources.
Assessment
You’ll be assessed through a range of methods designed to mirror professional practices in the wildlife film industries. Completing this course requires evidence that you can comply with strict health and safety and ethics processes for all production activities.
For example, all final module films and all overseas productions will need your tutor’s approval and in some instances UWE Bristol’s executive approval too. You’ll be evaluated through presentation, portfolio, practical work and written reflection with ongoing feedback from tutors.
You’ll spend your last term producing a distinctive short-form film, screened publicly to showcase your skills and ability to plan and deliver a production to industry standards. You may choose to travel overseas to film for your final project, but many well-received films have been made here in the UK.
Learn more about our assessments.