Diploma in Drama (Screen Acting)
This two-year diploma offers in-depth training in voice, body, imagination, and collaboration, allowing you to develop your acting toolbox. You will be further challenged with opportunities for live performance, while being guided and advised on how to form industry networks – a crucial part of gaining relevance in an ever-evolving industry.
240 Credits | Full-time | On Campus
South Seas Film School is unlike any facility in Aotearoa - You will get real experience and see how film and television departments really collaborate.
Through a steady stream of practical filmed projects, we broaden and challenge the scope of your development as an actor.
This two-year diploma provides in-depth and practical training through developing your toolbox: voice, body, imagination and collaboration. We allow time for your physical and vocal practice to become embodied. You will explore multiple acting techniques for screen and live performance, and develop your own critical and creative thinking. Alongside this core training, you will get real experience of how film and television departments collaborate through a steady stream of practical filmed projects. We broaden and challenge the scope of your development as an actor by providing opportunities for live performance; this serves to deepen your craft and self-knowledge as a performer, to help you to carve out a sustainable and lifelong acting career.
You need to be committed, disciplined, wildly passionate, empathetic, punctual and hardworking to succeed in this industry, therefore we support you to build the resilience, rigour and creative drive that you need by creating a positive, challenging campus environment. South Seas tutors are experienced industry professionals who have worked on many screen projects such as Shortland Street, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Outrageous Fortune, Eagle vs Shark, In Dark Places – to name a few... and through this experience, we're able to help you build necessary skills and knowledge.
We also guide and advise you on how to form industry networks – a crucial part of maintaining relevance in this ever evolving film and television industry.
Successfully complete this course and you’ll receive the New Zealand Diploma in Drama (Level 6).
What you'll learn
Critic, develop, reflect and succeed
Alongside developing specific skills for working on-screen, you will engage in rigorous physical and vocal training and be introduced to multiple approaches to acting. You will develop skills in analysing text and reflect on your own performance and progress.
Practise makes perfect
You will practise your craft on and off camera, and your familiarity and confidence with the technical aspects of screen acting will grow throughout the year. You will gain a deeper understanding of acting through our holistic approach.
You get to tell your story
A key element of your second year will be providing you with the skills to create your own work, this will take the form of collaborative workshops and a screen project led by an industry professional. You will have further training in acting techniques and many opportunities to practice with industry mentors and directors.
We refine your techniques
We provide you with a range of physical and vocal specialist workshops; with access to smaller group sessions, addressing your own specific goals. These in-depth workshops include accent development, voice overs, motion capture, and other technique aspects for you to further develop on.
Showcase your project
We bring in a range of specialist industry professionals throughout the year, to support your core training. You will be guided in developing your self-taping skills and audition techniques. At the end of the year, you will collaborate with a professional director to shoot your showcase piece and graduate with showcase material to introduce you to the industry and emerge as an actor, a collaborator and a creative.
Course Start Dates
Next round of Auditions for the Feb 2025 intake will be on Saturday, 16th November 2024
A bit more information
Domestic students
Tuition Fees:
First year: $9,314
Second year: $9,315
Student Services Levy: $350 per year
Fees Free Study
To find out if you are eligible for Fees Free study, please find out more here or visit the government Fees Free Website
International students
Year One
Tuition Fees: $24,500 (NZD)
Course Related Costs: $2,000 (NZD)
Year Two
Tuition Fees: $20,825 (NZD)
Course Related Costs: $2,000 (NZD)
For more information, click here to download the international course costs PDF.
Please note fees are subject to change.
The course is open to all New Zealand and international students.
International applicants must be 18 or older
International students must demonstrate English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS (Academic) Level 6
All applicants must complete the course application form and written requirements
We will invite suitable applicants to attend an audition workshop at South Seas
The audition workshop involves applicants taking part in a series of exercises observed by South Seas On-screen Acting tutors, who assess the applicant’s suitability for a place on the course. Tutors will invite some applicants for a 'callback', to complete more exercises and submit to an interview. The tutors then contact all applicants and advise whether they will be offered a place on the course or not. Students will need to provide a CV (work or performance) and Headshot prior to the audition.
Get more info
Provide your details in the form below and one of our course advisors will then be in touch with more information.
Why past students have loved studying at Yoobee
“I started out at South Seas as an 18 year old who wanted to learn how to direct documentaries, and went on to become a well-known TV presenter. It’s funny because on almost every single project, I’ve met someone who graduated from South Seas. It’s really awesome. We’re all wearing our colours really proudly.”
- Oriini Kaipara, TV Presenter
“Yoobee used the latest software with the latest industry methods, and we had tutors that understood what was needed to be successful. Everything we did was graded and given feedback on, as it would have been if we were working for employers. It was awesome preparation to face the real thing.”
- Anthony Williams, Creative Producer at TVNZ
“We were given so much ‘on set’ training through working with the other departments at South Seas that, when finally on a professional set, I was able to know what was going on at all times and act to my full potential.”
- Rebekah Palmer, Actress
Where You Can Study
South Seas Film School Campus
A legend in its lifetime, our South Seas Film School Campus functions like a real-life working Hollywood-style studio.
Qualifications are issued by Yoobee Colleges Ltd. Yoobee Colleges Ltd is an NZQA Category 1 provider, the highest rating a school can be awarded by the Government.
Term dates are subject to change pending enrolment numbers, availability and unforeseen funding fluctuations. Yoobee Colleges Ltd reserves the right to modify schedules to make sure the College runs well and students are offered the best learning experience.
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