Course Spotlight: Ben Sutherland on MA Screenwriting

The journey of creative practitioners is rarely linear. As we grow our skills, experiment with different forms and find inspiration in the world around us, we often feel inspired to explore the possibilities of new and diverse fields.

Postgraduate study offers a useful opportunity to not only build on our existing expertise, but also to consider futures within different disciplines and industries. At London College of Communication (LCC), we offer MA courses in areas ranging from design and social innovation to filmmaking, journalism and photography – all of which have been designed to support creatives to make, innovate and collaborate in ways that enhance their personal practice.

Our MA Screenwriting course focuses on developing writers for film, television and radio. As one of the UK’s leading media scripting courses, it harnesses industry connections, practical experience and theoretical foundations to support students as they build their writing voice, skills and research methods, and graduate with an effective professional portfolio.

Like many of our Master's courses, MA Screenwriting is home to a community of practitioners from the creative industries and beyond, all of whom bring dynamic perspectives and ideas drawn from both their personal and professional experiences.

Many students may not have previously worked in the screen industries, but are selected on the basis of their passionate commitment to writing for film, television and radio. This multiplicity of ideas and approaches helps to create a course environment that encourages cross-collaboration, ideas-sharing and communication in ways that excite, challenge and inspire.

Journalist Ben Sutherland enrolled on MA Screenwriting in Autumn 2023. He shares his experiences of returning to university study, sparking sources of creative inspiration and the joy of finding new channels to bring your passions to life.

New melodies

I went into 2023 having decided that, after 22 years at the BBC as a journalist and editor, I wanted to make a leap into the world of writing fiction. I’d spent over 2 decades writing other people’s stories - now I wanted to write my own.

I’d played around with writing scripts a few times, but never taken them anywhere beyond some read-throughs with friends. I was doing it from a position of ignorance - most of what I knew about screenwriting came from reading William Goldman’s books and that episode of Friends where Joey tries his hand at writing (the first time I’d heard the phrase so critical to screenwriters, ‘inciting incident’.)

Yet I still had all these ideas for films and TV shows and bits of dialogue that I made notes of. I sometimes dream entire plots (though not always good ones – ‘workplaces realise their pension funds are going to be too expensive so start putting really unhealthy stuff in the canteens’ is one that in the cold light of day probably doesn’t have much mileage). But I didn’t know how to turn them into something that a producer would actually read.

I felt like someone who has new melodies constantly wandering through their head, but doesn’t know how to write music - so I began to look at how I could change that.

Initially, I was thinking of doing something like a short course, just to pick up the basics, but from the moment I found the MA Screenwriting course page on the UAL website, I knew this was the course I wanted to be on more than anything else.

A perfect introduction

The application process is certainly a thorough test - requiring story ideas, personal statements and, critically, a 10-page screenplay.

Writing the script for the application was the most incredibly intense experience. I’d taken a huge chance on myself to go into this field. I’d soon know if I was actually any good at it at all.

After all, if I got rejected, it would be a pretty powerful indication that perhaps this wouldn’t be the best path to follow - with all the ‘what is the meaning of my life then?’ questions that would immediately follow.

The lecturers on MA Screenwriting are, after all, serious writers with long lists of credits - and awards - behind them. Course leader Kelly Marshall wrote Horrid Henry and London Bridge; Mark Clompus’ name is on nearly 100 episodes of Doctors; one of Tessa Sheridan’s works won a Palm d’Or at Cannes. These are people who really know good writing.

Happily for me, the screenplay I wrote - a 10-page short film about 2 women in a stand-off amidst an armed conflict in central Africa - got me through to the interview stage.

The interview itself was, in the best way, acutely rigorous - a massively thorough examination of my ideas for screenplays: endings, themes, potential audience. It was, really, a perfect introduction into what the course would be like.