VISU3011: Documentary Filmmaking

• VISU1021 or VISU2021

• None

• None

• The module aims to acquaint students with the major technical and aesthetic considerations that need to be taken into account when planning, shooting and editing a short documentary film, to link these to thematic concerns in film studies and beyond, and to develop their filmmaking skills as a research-informed practice.

• The module will typically cover the following areas:
• Introduction to documentary as a film practice
• Introduction to documentary ethics
• Content development, emphasizing visual storytelling through documentary film, narrative structure, and theme.
• Pre-production, highlighting ethical approval, pre-visualization strategies, question analysis, interview techniques, casting, rehearsing, scheduling.
• Production, focusing on directing both the interlocutors and the camera, shot choice/composition, crew work.
• Post-production, focusing on editing aesthetics and sound design.
• Throughout, technical skills and aesthetic choices will be related to research thematic concerns that students seek to address by means of documentary film practice.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• On completion of this module students should:
• Understand the major aesthetic, ethical, and technical considerations involved in documentary filmmaking, as well as the relationship between them.
• Have theoretical and practical/ experiential knowledge of the steps involved in documentary filmmaking, from development of the initial idea to making the final cut.

Subject-specific Skills:

• On completion of this module students will have developed:
• The ability to use documentary film as a means of addressing or exploring specific thematic concerns.
• Skills in visual storytelling, interviewing, and storyboarding.
• Skills in directing participants and the camera.
• Skills in post-production editing and sound design.

Key Skills:

• On completion of this module students will have developed:
• visualisation skills
• independent research
• interpersonal skills
• organisation
• time management
• presentation and collaborative work
• technical skills

• Seminars will introduce students to the conceptual questions involved in documentary filmmaking via a series of selected films and readings, and will also allow support students to develop appropriate research questions or problems that they seek to address by means of documentary film practice.
• A week-long intensive filmmaking process, timetabled in the Easter vacation to avoid intractable timetable clashes, will train students in the practical business of documentary filmmaking.
• The module will be assessed by means of a short film addressing a specific research question or problem formulated by the students. There will also be an individual commentary, in which students will reflect individually on the collaborative process of documentary film-making, and how film practice can be used as a means of addressing thematic concerns.

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