| Qualification: | Graduate Diploma |
| Level: | 7 |
| Dates: | 2026 Semester 1: 09 February to 13 November |
| Duration: | One year full-time |
| Location: | |
| Credits: | 120 |
The Graduate Diploma in Screen Arts (Filmmaking) aims to equip students with the professional, creative, analytical, and technical skills to prepare them for employment or further study in the film, animation, television, cinematographic, and digital media industries.
You will learn:
This course will teach you to conceive, execute and promote digital film or animation productions to industry standards. Focusing on filmmaking will develop your ability to professionally screen-write and edit material, demonstrate core technical principles of operating digital cameras and produce well composed shots with quality sound and lighting.
Compulsory
GD730 Internship
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will engage in activities which further develop their skills as professional creative sector practitioners. They will undertake an industry related internship(s) gaining a clear understanding of organisational and operational requirements and contribute as directed within that environment. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop and refine an internship proposal/s that clearly identifies relevant skills and plan and manage activities to achieve these. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will complete an in-depth evaluation of the internship experience based on documentation collected over the duration of their internship. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will demonstrate an understanding of the requirements of Health and Safety in the workplace.
GD701 Studio Project 3
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will build knowledge and skills in communications and management strategies to develop or produce a creative project. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop individual or collaborative projects with peers or external partners but must implement individual processes with legal considerations. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will plan and implement pipelines/workflows that embed researched and evaluated ethics, health, safety, and wellbeing procedures. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will identify audience to ensure all concepts and designs are user-centric and have clear approaches to brand development and product release. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will critically analyse and execute transmedia approaches to release their final project.
Electives
Choose three of the following (with the programme manager's approval):
BSA 504 - Screenwriting 1
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop an understanding of conventional film structures, such as the three-act structure, and alternative story telling structures. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop writing skills to be able to effectively develop a short film script outline, treatment and screenplay. An emphasis will be made on assisting students to develop skills to analyse dramatic structure, visualise dramatic elements and develop creative dialogue.
BSA 534 - Pre-Production Techniques
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will learn how to schedule and budget a production or event, as well as being able to examine the structure and organisation of departments involved in developing and implementing a project. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop documentation and pre-visualisation artwork as part of a proposal for this production or event.
BSA604 Screenwriting 2
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will advance upon skills gained in BSA504 Screenwriting 1, with a particular focus on structure, conflict and character status. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will explore feature film screenwriting. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will refine their short film writing skills and script editing skills, and will be introduced to various forms of serial storytelling such as television or/and web-series drama.
BSA 602 - Audio Techniques
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop an understanding of producing audio for the screen arts. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will research and analyse historical and contemporary audio practitioners and their contributions to the evolution of the screen arts industry. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will also gain creative and technical skills to effectively manipulate audio for screen arts projects.
BSA 634 - Cinematography
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will gain a theoretical understanding and practical experience of the lighting and camera tools and techniques used in digital cinema production through a practical project. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will develop skills to an industry standard for both location and studio situations.
BSA 627 - Visual Effects Compositing
ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will critically analyse and evaluate tools and techniques, design processes and production of CGI live action visual effects projects. ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥ will use knowledge and skills gained to create a seamlessly composited, visually compelling screen arts project.
This programme is eligible for the Zero Fees Scheme.
International Fees can be found here.
This programme leads graduates to further study or employment in the screen arts sector as camera assistant, lighting assistant, director’s assistant, production coordinator, assistant scriptwriter, sound engineer, transmedia producer.
Applications are open to Bachelor degree graduates who can demonstrate equivalent, relevant, practical professional or educational experience in a related discipline.
Special Admission
Notwithstanding the above admission criteria, provided the applicant has successfully completed an approved course or programme, or has relevant industry experience, which is deemed to meet the required standard for entry, the applicant may be admitted to the programme.
Provisional Part-time Admission
An applicant, who does not meet academic criteria, may be provisionally admitted to enrol in one or more papers. Upon successful completion of the paper(s), the student may apply for special admission or admission by mature entry.
Additional Criteria
In addition, the following requirements also apply to applicants in all admission categories:
- Introduces key question
- States main argument
- Explains why the topic is of interest
- Defines key terms
- Discusses proposed research methodologies
- Demonstrates awareness of related contemporary work in the field
- Includes relevant references
- Outlines proposed timeline
- Outlines approach to documentation
- Identifies any ethical considerations
Portfolio Requirements
Applicants are required to submit a portfolio of their work with their application, as follows:
English Language Requirements
Applicants, whose first language is not English, or who come from a country where the language of instruction in schools is not English, are required to provide evidence of having achieved one of the following
NCEA Level 3 with University Entrance, or
an International Baccalaureate Diploma or Cambridge A- level qualification for which the teaching and assessment was conducted in English; or
Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA),or Trinity College London Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CertTESOL);or
Successful completion of all primary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand primary school years 1 to 8) and at least three years of secondary education (being the equivalent of three years from New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand,,Australia,Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States one of the countries listed in Rule 18.5 where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or
Successful completion of at least five years of secondary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or
Successful completion of a Bachelor's Degree, Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, Bachelor Honours degree, Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters' Degree or Doctoral Degree, the language of instruction of which must be in English and which must be from a tertiary education provider from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States or
Successful completion of one of the following internationally recognised proficiency tests listed below to the level required of the programme of study and with all scores achieved in a single test during the two years preceding the proposed date of enrolment
IELTS test - Academic score of 6 with no band score lower than 5.5
TOEFL Paper based test (pBT) - Score of 550 (with an essay score 5 TWE)
TOEFL Internet based test (iBT) - Score of 60 (with a writing score of 18)
Cambridge English Examination - B2 First or B2 First for schools or C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency with a score of 169. No less than 162 in each skill.
OET - Minimum of Grade C or 200 in all sub-tests
NZCEL - a) Expiring Level b) Current: a) Level 4 (Academic) b) Level 4 (Academic)
Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE (Academic) score of 50 with no band score lower than 42
Language Cert - C1 Expert International ESOL Written (LRW) PASS with no less than 25/50 in each skill and Spoken (S) PASS
Trinity ISE - ISE II with no less than distinction in any band
* New versions of some NZCEL qualifications, and in some cases new qualifications, were published on 13 June 2017. These are intended to replace pre-existing versions and qualifications, which have been given expiring status until discontinued on 31 December 2019. (a) denotes expiring (b) denotes current
To be awarded the Graduate Diploma in Screen Arts (Digital Filmmaking) students must have been credited with all required papers as specified in the Programme Schedule. The total credit value of the Graduate Diploma in Screen Arts (Digital Filmmaking) is 120 credits.
Classes are held Monday to Friday, 9.00am-5.00pm at SIT's Downtown Campus (Don St, Invercargill).