COURSE OVERVIEW
Gain a thorough practical education in editing.
Build your skills as an editor in a professional filmmaking environment. Throughout the course, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a wide range of practical projects, including animations, fiction films, documentaries, science and natural history programmes, and commercials - working in your own editing suite.
Content Tabs
You will work to Industry standards using high-end facilities. You are encouraged to consider your craft as part of the whole process of film and television production and not merely as the final stage, developing your skills as a narrative and technical editor.
You will collaborate with fellow students in other specialisms on a wide range of projects, putting into practice the skills you will learn throughout the course.
COURSE FACILITIES
Throughout the course, you will have your own dedicated editing suite. We have a large number of specially equipped cutting rooms for digital and 16mm film editing. They are supported by viewing and transfer facilities, 16 NLE systems running AVID Media Composer and Adobe Premiere. In addition to individual editing suites, there are multiple suites open to all students.
The emphasis of the editing curriculum is firmly on storytelling and the relationship between editor and director. You will learn to apply your craft to the demands of fiction, documentary and animation, creating visual narratives while working with sound, music and, where appropriate, special effects. Workshops with other departments develop concepts of visual storytelling, mise-en-scène, storyboarding, sound design, music and scriptwriting.
In the final year, you will collaborate to make a digital fiction short film, and three graduation films in animation, documentary and fiction.
It is our aim to assemble a group of students with diverse and varied backgrounds. There is no 'typical' student or perfect candidate who conforms to a mandatory list of qualifications.
You are likely to have some industry experience or training in editing. Your background may be in the arts or other media.
While many applicants will have a degree from a British or overseas university, we will consider applicants who do not have a degree if they have an impressive portfolio, a creative track record or an alternative qualification.
International students Visa and English language requirements
If you have any questions, please email info@nfts.co.uk.
The following item(s) should accompany your online application:
- You must supply a creative video montage of found images (obtained from the television, the internet or another source) or existing film footage edited with a soundtrack. The montage should be between 2 and 5 minutes running time, edited by the applicant. Please submit the montage as a Vimeo or YouTube link.
Once we receive and review your application and creative montage, we will provide you with a link and password via email, to download selected rushes of an NFTS first year short drama student film. You will be asked to edit the film from these rushes, following the shooting script supplied. Please add music and sound effects where you feel appropriate. When the email containing the link is sent to you, you will be given a 7 day window to complete and return. Once the edit is completed, you are required to upload to Vimeo or YouTube and send the link to registry@nfts.co.uk
Please note. You may not receive the email containing the link as soon as you submit your application. Please bear with us and it will be sent as soon as we have reviewed your application.
Applications open 8th January 2025 and will close at midnight on the day of the deadline, shown at the top of this page.
Funding Available
The NFTS awards more scholarships and bursaries to British students, relative to the size of our student body, than almost any other educational institution in the UK. If you’re successful at gaining a place on the course, you will be contacted by our funding team with details on how to apply for one of these scholarships.
Student Showcase
Caterpillar (Sâu Bướm) (Trailer)
2021 graduation film
Director/Writer - Marcus Anthony Thomas
Producer - Johannes Schubert
Editor - Lesley Posso
Caterpillar (Sâu Bướm) was the winner of the Postgraduate Craft Skills, Editing category at Royal Television Society Awards 2022. The film follows a young Vietnamese boy, who is a victim of modern-day slavery. In the aftermath of a failed escape attempt, his relationship with his overseer becomes even more complicated.
Silence (Trailer)
2022 graduate documentary
Director - Arnas Pigulevicius
Producer - Alfred Deragne
Editor - Osian Pearson
Deep in Lithuania’s Labanoras Forest, a small community of locals is haunted by the past. To survive the war against Soviet oppression, they had to live in silence. Only now can they bear witness to the horrors that happened there.
Curiosa (Trailer)
2022 graduate animation
Director - Tessa Moult-Milewska
Producer - Sychelle-Kristina Yanda
Editor - Giorgia Zarantonello
Curiosa tells the story of Mary who visits her boyfriend's flat for the first time, just to discover it’s been stripped bare of all personal belongings. After being denied an explanation, she climbs into his head.
Breakable (Trailer)
2022 graduation film
Director - B Welby
Producer - Elena Valeri
Editor - Natalia Gozdzik
An avid believer in a self-help community, invites his recently bereaved friend to a healing weekend to help dealing with grief, only to realise he might be the one who needs help.
Seabird (Trailer)
2021 graduation science and natural history film
Director/Producer/Camera - Conor Ferris
Editor - Zak Lawrence-Earey
Since he was a boy, writer Adam Nicolson has been visiting remote islands in Scotland that were once filled with the sound of seabirds each summer. After witnessing the distressing decline of these colonies first hand, he shares a unique perspective on the resilience of life in the face of catastrophe.
Shiny Floors (Trailer)
2022 graduate television show
Director - Aenn-Sophie Siebert
Producer - Matthew Bibby
Editor - Jón Atli Guðjónsson
When a primetime reality show host is ousted in a very public scandal, a motley crew of surviving production members must work with a newly promoted producer to rebrand the show whilst battling the comical eccentricities of the television business along the way.
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Kensuke's Kingdom
Editor Richard Overall
Winner of 3 British Animation Awards including Best Feature.
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
The Acolyte
Editor Miikka Leskinen
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Baby Reindeer
Editor (eps 1-4) Benjamin Gerstein
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
The Crown S6
Editors Daniel Greenway and Paolo Pandolpho
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Fool Me Once
Editor Jamie Kataky
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
The End We Start From
Editor Arttu Salmi
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Scrapper
Editor Matteo Bini
Assistant Editor Tine Lykke Jensen
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Minions: The Rise of Gru
Editor Claire Dodgson
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Heartstopper
Editor Sofie Alonzi
Graduate Success
Editing graduates have a high rate of employment on feature films, shorts and television programmes. Many new graduates quickly become editors on independent productions or assistant editors on features or TV drama.
Recent credits include...
Belfast
Editor Úna Ní Dhonghaíle
