The NFTS is to deliver the first FREE online course in filmmaking as part of the British Film Institute's partnership with FutureLearn. Entitled ‘Explore Filmmaking: from Script to Screen,’ applicants can sign up NOW for the course, which is supported by the Lottery-funded BFI Film Academy that provides opportunities for young people aged 16-19 to learn more about the film industry and the range of disciplines it encompasses.
The course will begin on 2 February 2015 and run for six weeks. It will see a team of award-winning filmmakers – whose credits include The Crying Game, Leaving Las Vegas and Touching the Void– guide learners through their own approach to telling stories. They will also demystify their individual filmmaking specialisms – from writing and directing to cinematography, editing and composing.
The partnership with the BFI reinforces FutureLearn’s commitment to building a portfolio of career-enhancing courses for the creative industries, as part of its wide-ranging line up. The BFI, in turn, will use the relationship to open up access to breadth of opportunity in the filmmaking industry to a worldwide audience, complementing its already extensive education programme.
FutureLearn offers free, web-based courses from universities, cultural bodies and other centres of excellence around the world. Set up by The Open University as the UK’s first provider of massive open online courses (MOOCs), FutureLearn operates as a social learning platform, connecting people around the world who learn by having conversations around course material provided by world-class educators.
The BFI joins 39 internationally renowned universities and three cultural bodies in the FutureLearn partnership – the British Council, British Library and British Museum – delivering free short courses to anyone with an internet-connected device. As well as developing its own courses, the BFI will share its expertise in filmmaking, and open up its content archive to other FutureLearn partners creating film-related courses.
BFI is the most recent stalwart of the UK creative sector to venture into free online courses through FutureLearn. The NFTS joined as a partner in June, at the same time that Pinewood Studios announced plans to produce a free course with The Open University, aimed at people interested in pursuing a commercial career in the film industry. The BBC also made its first foray into MOOCs this summer, working with four of FutureLearn’s university partners to create a portfolio of courses about World War 1.
