Documentary Production

The Documentary Development Course offers an introduction to the art and craft of documentary film production. Stressing point-of-view storytelling, students will find and develop a subject and story suitable for a short documentary film (10 minutes), from idea to pitch to a final draft proposal.

Students will learn: definition of styles and genres of documentary film; project development; proposal writing; basic elements of documentary storytelling: interview techniques, verite style filming, use of archival motion pictures, stills, and point of view; the process of preparing and delivering a project pitch; pre-production; and finding the necessary elements to tell the story cinematically.

Critiques, screening work-in-progress and engaged discussion in the classroom on the art of documentary making are key components of the course.