Master of Fine Arts - Fine Arts

at Massey University - Wellington Campus New Zealand

More than just the design of buildings, spatial design is all about how people experience spaces. It intersects with the more traditional design fields of architecture, landscape design, interior design, urban design and environmental design.

People inhabit the world in many ways, but we all have spaces where we live, work, play, relax, perform, gather, learn, heal, and celebrate. The design of spaces affects how you feel, how you act, and how you interact with others: Does the layout of your local hospital make you feel reassured or stressed? Do you find you want to linger in some cafes but not in others? Does an office space make it easy and natural for people to get together? Do the views on a walk surprise and delight you because someone has thought carefully about the experience?

Spatial design can improve the standard and quality of our lives, enrich our culture and national identity, and contribute to business success. In spatial design studio courses, you'll learn to design for a host of spaces: private, public, retail, event, work, game, furnishing, experience, display, interface and performance. You learn to use the latest technologies and approaches to design spaces at the required scale, from the big picture (eg urban planning) to the fine detail of construction and materials.

You will have regular access to leading industry-standard film production equipment and the opportunity to work in industry specific film crew roles on your own project.

You'll gain practical experience in a wide range of roles, before specialising in your chosen area and collaborating on independently-developed productions. You'll be working on a wide range of creative projects, using both contemporary filmmaking techniques as well as emerging technologies like Virtual Production.

The Film Production Major will train you in the art of developing and producing stories for film, and you'll gain expertise in telling the stories that are important to you and in helping others realise their creative visions as well.

Commonplace across all major broadcasters and platforms is the audience's desire to consume factual series, bite-size web content and formatted shows from around the world. Factual Production is usually associated with non-fiction broadcast and includes formats such as documentary, chat shows, comedy, quiz and reality shows etc. In addition to broadcast TV, these formats are distributed across a number of different digital platforms both real-time and pre-recorded.

You will go on a journey of discovering compelling real-world true stories and characters lighting the screens of Aotearoa, as well as the international market. This deep dive into factual development, production and post- production reveals the mechanisms of fun and formatted, multi-camera, and studio shows all the way to long-form storytelling around the big issues of the day and character-based features.

We will investigate how the story or format defines the best approach to making the content, alongside explorations to discover your unique, creative voice. 

The Diploma in Communication is designed to introduce you to a selection of disciplines in the communication field. It provides you with employment pathways in the fields, among others, of:

•     Public relations
•     Communication management
•     Arts administration
•     Event management
•     Relationship management
•     Journalism
•     Web content management
•     Social media advising
•     Brand management
•     Advertising
•     Marketing/communications executive
•     Media planning/buying.

Specialise in Visual Effects for your Bachelor of Screen Arts with Honours at Massey
The Visual Effects major teaches you the skills to develop an exciting professional portfolio of work that you can carry into your visual effects career.

Design and control visual destruction, explosions, fluids – you name it – using both procedural and keyframed motion, and fully integrate your visual effects into live-action footage from concept to postproduction.

Gain skills that will help you create fantastic characters and scenes using traditional techniques and advanced technology. Study character design, 3D modelling, texturing and rigging, storyboarding, compositing, particle generation and dynamics. You’ll work with motion capture, virtual production, and a green screen stage.

Go beyond your bachelor’s degree and advance your photography skills with a Postgraduate Diploma in Design.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Design is an opportunity for you to upskill in creative practice, modern photographic skills, technology and theory.

The Diploma in Business Studies is a flexible program that can be completed in one year full-time.

With a Massey Diploma in Arts, you can study what you enjoy and explore subject areas that spark your interest.

You can complete the Diploma in Arts with or without an endorsement in a subject area. Completing the diploma without endorsement lets you sample different subjects and build a qualification that reflects your own particular interests.

If you want to take an endorsement, you can choose from 25 subjects from the Bachelor of Arts degree and specialise in the one that sparks your passion.

Massey’s Diploma in Arts is extremely flexible and you can include courses from many disciplines, including some from outside the humanities and social sciences.

The Bachelor of Design with Honours (Integrated Design), you’ll select courses from two or more of the other seven majors in the Bachelor of Design with Honours. You’ll push your study beyond traditional design boundaries.

Choose courses to form a unique programme of study, in consultation with the qualification leader. You can choose courses from the following disciplines:

• concept design
• fashion design
• industrial design
• photography
• spatial design
• textile design
• visual communication design (including graphic design, illustration, advertising and branding, interaction design and more).

The Graduate Diploma in Screen Arts is an opportunity for people who have already completed a degree to add an additional subject area to their learning.

You’ll be studying with other students in courses at 200 level and above across the majors offered in the Bachelor of Screen Arts with Honours. These are:

• Animation
• Factual Production
• Film Production
• Game Development
• Immersive Media
• Media Technology
• Visual Effects

Working in a production focussed environment, you’ll respond to briefs that combine creative studio practice, storytelling, professional practice and portfolio development, using industry-standard production facilities, studios and labs.