Our programme focuses on developing both your musical and technical skills, with personal guidance from experts in the field. You work directly with filmmakers, allowing you to learn the profession through practical experience.

Why study Screen Scoring at Codarts?
At Codarts, we believe that you learn by doing. From day one, you work on industry-based projects. Through this hands-on experience, you continuously discover new aspects of the profession. For example, in the past year, our master’s students composed music for fifteen student films and animations.

You start by developing a concept. This forms the blueprint of what your music should express in relation to the film. During meetings with directors and other clients, you learn how to communicate about music in film. Attention is also given to the psychological aspects of such collaborations.

Programme
The programme combines practice-oriented work with theoretical depth. In your principal subject lessons, you work on your compositions and learn to orchestrate from the perspective of film scoring. You take subjects such as film history and the philosophy of art. You can also choose additional subjects from the wide range offered at the Conservatoire to further refine your skills.

You learn how to translate your concept into music and sound, acoustically and/or electronically. You receive weekly individual lessons in our analogue studio, where you work with classic synthesisers. In addition, you follow lessons in a film sound studio to mix and master your music in 5.1 surround sound. In projects such as OPUS 111, you compose music for live ensembles – all focused on developing musical and sonic finesse to make your music speak as clearly as possible in a film context.

Artistic Research
Alongside the practice-based programme, you work on a two-year artistic research project. You choose a topic that fascinates you and is relevant to your film music practice – for example, the harmonic structures in a John Williams score or an in-depth analysis of the sound world of Hildur Guðnadóttir. You develop this topic across three academic research phases, resulting in a paper that can be consulted by fellow students. This research offers the opportunity to deepen your compositions further.

Masterclasses and Collaborations
During the master, you can take part in various projects, such as the special International Film Festival Rotterdam, where a large orchestra performs film music live to picture, composed by our students. You can also join the Musicalmakers project, in which you collaborate with lyricists from Music Theatre.

In addition, there are regular masterclasses from renowned composers and artists. This gives you the chance to learn from the best and to build a network within the film and music industry.

The ‘Team Around the Artist’ approach we use at Codarts ensures comprehensive support for our students, while our focus on the quality of professional working relationships creates a sense of pride and community.

The aim of our Master Screen Scoring is to prepare you for a career as an autonomous composer, equipping you with the tools to keep developing yourself in the dynamic world of film music.