Documentary Film Practice

Overview

Students will explore documentary methods and structures though practical exercises, film analyses, and film production so as to develop a systematic knowledge of production within the non-fiction genre. They will engage in analysis of selected documentary practices and outputs and gain a comprehensive overview of key concepts in non-fiction production, in particular narrative, address, point of view, and montage through discussion and making. Advanced skills in research, planning, scripting, shooting and editing will be applied to self-initiated projects.
In this level 2 module, students will develop the technical and critical skills essential to documentary film production. Students will engage in analysis of a range of documentary sub-genres, such as ethnographic film, hybrid- documentary, expository documentary and nature film with the aim of developing a short documentary film by the end of the module.

By the end of this module, students will have worked on producing creative, critically informed documentary projects to a high standard, and will have developed their skills in cinematography, studio lighting, location filmmaking, sound recording and editing.

Our practice-led sessions will begin by creative documentary methodologies relevant to subject through text and film analysis, group discussion, then pitching, pre-production and ethics and through the stages of production and post-production.

Learning Objectives

Having completed this module students should:

• understand practices of non-fiction film production in relation to their social, cultural, economic, political and technological contexts;

• reflect critically on the uses of relevant production techniques in the use of image and sound in non-fiction film production;

• employ models of analysis in order to consider, discuss, and evaluate contemporary documentary films and their significance

learn new production skills and apply these in group collaboration.

Skills

Research and analytical skills in creative practice

Communication and presentation

Combining methodologies from film practice with its institutional, intellectual, and societal contexts

Assessment

None