Screenwriting HE Certificate

Throughout the year you will be introduced to different kinds of writing in short formats. You’ll be challenged on a regular basis as you become acquainted with the tools and rules of different areas of writing in collaboration with your peers. 

Here are some of the audiovisual formats you can look forward to working on:

• Short fiction films
• Documentary scripts
• Music video/musical short films 
• Animation scripts
• Game proposal for video, role playing, board or other game formats
• Emerging media script content

More details on workshops and course structure coming soon.

The film and media industry never ceases to evolve and reinvent itself. We aim to provide you with an education that enables you to either be a change maker or to be capable of adapting and staying at the forefront of industry developments.

Although production companies often seek to work with young writers with fresh ideas, they hesitate to invest in inexperienced writers. However, graduates with a portfolio consisting of high quality projects, constitute excellent candidates for the markets needs. 

Our Screenwriting programme aims to produce versatile creatives that will be able to meet the demands of the growing industry while creating new positions and markets for themselves and for others. 

Our programme has been designed to give you broad yet relevant experience in a number of specific industries for you to progress into your chosen area of interest.

Here are just a few of the fields you can aspire to after completing our 1-year HE certificate course: 

• Freelance Screenwriters
• Creative producers of television series and feature films
• Creators in web series
• Writers of comic books and novels
• Creators and developers of Video Game stories
• Speechwriters
• Advertising Copywriters

Your initial progression choice will be whether to make your first foray into the film industry or to continue your development in the second and third year of our Screenwriting Bachelor's degree course.

There is no right and wrong answer here. It will depend on the skillset you have already developed and what you are planning to do in the film and media industry.

Your success in either depends entirely on you – what you bring, your approach, and the grit, passion and sheer determination with which you take the next course or start your first project in the film industry.

However you measure it and whatever artistic realm you are working in, most creatives would like to achieve success with their creative endeavour. There are many types of success an individual may want to achieve. From successful completion of an artistic exploration all the way through to financial security and a global audience. 

There are many skills required to develop these dreams into real and practical futures. Our optional course in self-development and leadership is the ‘rocket fuel’ which will provide you with the frameworks, the focus and the drive to help realise your future.

Self development to better understand how to take decisive action, to communicate powerfully with others and take an honest look at how you limit yourself. Leadership to complete your creative project, to bring your work into the external world and to attract an audience to share, appreciate and follow your work. 

This is a brand new course which Catalyst will run for the first time in 2023-24. If you see this message, it means that we are still in the process of accrediting it with our university partner (Plymouth Marjon University), which awards the degrees and certificates that our graduates receive after completing their studies with us.

How does this affect you? After the course is accredited, we will register it with the Berlin Senate, so that students enrolled on it are eligible to apply for funding or a student visa in Germany. If you would need a student visa to live in Berlin for the duration of your studies, then we recommend that you wait until this course is formally approved by the Senate before beginning your visa application. 

We expect this to be finalised by April 2023. In the meantime, you can still submit an application to study with us and we will contact you by email as soon as we receive official accreditation and Senate approval. In our 10 years in Berlin, all of our Bachelor and Master degree courses have been successfully validated within the same framework.

All applicants will be asked to provide: personal and educational information, documentation of their education experience, a portfolio or audition tape, and a personal introduction (which can be submitted as a written statement of motivation or a video/audio clip). 

MINIMUM ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

- Standard entry: graduation from high school at a level which would normally permit entry to university in the country where it was gained. This would be A-Levels in the UK and the Abitur in Germany, for example.

- Non-standard entry: We recognise that not all education happens in the classroom and it may be possible to admit you through a non-standard access route. If you do not possess the required formal qualification, but have acquired relevant professional or life experience, please contact our Admissions team.

If neither of the two categories above describe your situation, you'll most likely need to complete a short course to gain access to our 1 and 3-year HE degree courses.

LANGUAGE 

The language of instruction in all our courses is English and applicants must demonstrate a level equal to IELTS 6. We do not ask for official exam results, but we will assess the standard of English in your application and support materials.

For more information please contact our Admissions team and we’d be happy to discuss your opportunities to come study with us.

Course start: mid-September 2023

Application deadlines

• Round 1 - International (non-EU) and EU students - 31 March, 2023*
  * Non-EU students will need to apply for a student visa to live in Germany. The application process for this takes several months and you can only begin this process after you have been offered a place and enrolled on the course.
• Final deadline - EU students only - 31 May 2023

We offer two ways to pay:

• Single Payment Option:
  Single payment tuition fee - August 1st deadline
  Annual Enrolment Fee* €895 + Annual Tuition Fee €9,855 = €10,750 per year
• Monthly Instalment Payment Option:
  Monthly instalment plan from August 1st - May 1st
  Annual Enrolment Fee* €895 + 10 instalments x 1,085.50€ = €11,750 per year

* The enrolment fee is non-refundable. It is due every year as part of the total annual fee.

If you decide to enrol in both a 4-week short course and HE degree course (1 or 3-years long) with us, you will receive a discount of 500€ on the total tuition.

Get a feel for our school from the comfort of your home with our Virtual Open Days and skill-focussed Taster Workshops.

Hosted by our team and students, these online events will give you a sense of what it's like to come and study with us in Berlin.

We look forward to meeting you online soon!