| COURSE NUMBER: |
CMNA 399 |
| COURSE TITLE: |
Special Topics in Communication Arts - 2017/18 Winter
Documentary Video Production |
| NAME OF
INSTRUCTOR: |
Aaron Krogman |
| CREDIT WEIGHT
AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION: |
credits 3(hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 0) |
| COURSE
DESCRIPTION: |
A course on a topic of figure of special interest to a
member of the communication arts faculty and offered on a non-recurring
basis.
Prerequisites: 3 credits of Drama or 3 credits of
Communication Arts
2017/18 Winter
This course is an introductory exploration of the documentary genre,
covering both the history and form of documentary film through of a
survey of significant films and filmmakers, as well as initiating
students in the basics of their own documentary projects. For much of
its history, documentary has taken a back seat in pop culture behind
fictional film and TV, and even though the last 25 years has seen a
surge in interest, documentary can be described as insignificant to a
large portion of modern audiences. Still, the adoption of many
documentary characteristics by fictional genres, and the question of
reality displayed in Reality TV and Alternative News, reminds us that
documentary is at the forefront of all screen-based media, defined as
“the creative treatment of actuality.” The increasing accessibility of
cameras and filmmaking technology also means that more and more people
are creating screen-based media, and participating in an increasingly
diverse and global conversation.
This course seeks to explore questions around documentary film’s
relationship to truth-telling, the human voice, and the complications
of filmmaker bias. Unsurprisingly, biblical themes overlap with this
medium in significant ways, including bearing witness and speaking
truth to power, and the course will articulate a Christian vision for
engagement in documentary film, both as audience and as content
creators.
This course includes a lab component that will begin later in the term,
in which students will learn basic tools of documentary production.
They will produce and present an interview, a group short doc, an
individual short doc, as well as pitch a treatment for an original
feature length documentary film. In the spirit of the theme of the
course, the instructor’s bias transparently offered is that documentary
film is perhaps the most interesting creative medium there is right
now, and the hope is that students will discover the primacy of the
documentary for our screen-saturated present.
|
| REQUIRED TEXTS: |
- Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary.
2nd Ed. Required text.
- Aufderheide,
Patricia. Documentary
Film. A Very Short Introduction. Required text.
- Rose,
Frank. The Art of
Immersion. Selected chapters provided electronically.
- Renov,
Michael. The Subject of
Documentary. Selected chapters provided electronically.
- Rabiger,
Michael. Directing the
Documentary. 5th Ed.
- Murch,
Walter. In the Blink of
an Eye. Selected chapters provided electronically.
|
| MARK DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT: |
| Documentary
film review |
30% |
| Documentary
treatment presentation |
10% |
| Post-screening
documentary response |
5% |
| 60 second doc
"Festival" submission and Q &A |
10% |
| 2 minute interview |
5% |
| 10 summaries of screened documentaries |
10% |
| Final exam |
20% |
| Attendance and participation |
10% |
|
|
|
100% |
|
| COURSE OBJECTIVES: |
Students should emerge from this course with the ability:
- to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the form
of documentary, by surveying multiple key documentary films and texts
covering the history of the medium
- to assess and review documentary film, using the
terms and categories characteristic of the medium, in light of the
significant films and movements that come before/after
- to articulate the relationship between documentary
film and Christian theology, specifically where documentary film
overlaps with a vision of Christian faith marked by image bearing,
stewardship, servanthood and bearing witness
- to develop an appreciation for the relevance and
translatability of documentary film theory to multiple other media
platforms
- to develop an appreciation of and skill set in the
basics of documentary production, by producing several short
documentary film assignments
- to become lifelong documentary enthusiasts (if not
already!)
|
| COURSE OUTLINE: |
- Jan 5: Introduction: Overview of Syllabus; How do we
encounter Documentary?
- SCREEN Nostalgia for the Light (2010) 1h30m,
discussion.
- No reading. Assignment of documentaries for
presentations.
- Jan 9: To what extent can we define documentary?
Where does documentary come from?
- SCREEN Nanook of the North and Moana (excerpts);
Peter Flaherty and primitive cultures
- Read pg. 1-42 Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary
- Jan 11: Grierson and social activism, brief history
of the National Film Board of Canada
- Read pg. 1-38 Aufderheide’s Documentary Film
- Jan 16: The Camera as Eye; Why the Edit works.
- SCREEN Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
??? discussion.
- Read In the Blink of an Eye, pg xiii-20, 57-63
- Jan 18: Dziga Vertov and kinopravda kinoeye
- SCREEN The Man with a Movie Camera, and other bits
- Read pg 38-44 Aufderheide’s Documentary Film,
- Read pg 120-141 Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary
- Jan 23: Documentary as Propaganda; The corruption of
aesthetic beauty.
- SCREEN Triumph of the Will, discussion
- Read pg 42-66 Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary
- Jan 25: NO CLASS
- Jan 30: Cinema Verité
- SCREEN Dont Look Back, discussion
- Read pg 44-55 Aufderheide’s Documentary Film
- Read pg 94-119 Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary
- Feb 1: Nichols’ Models
- SCREEN Salesmen and Primary, discussion.
- Read pg 142-171 Nichols’ Introduction to
Documentary
- Feb 6: Nichols’ Expository, Poetic and Observational
Modes
- SCREEN excerpts of The Plow That Broke the Plains,
Super Size Me, Koyaanisqatsi, Jesus Camp
- SCREEN Grizzly Man, discussion.
- Read pg172-211 Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary
- Feb 8: Nichols’ Participatory, Reflexive and
Performative Modes
- SCREEN The Thin Blue Line, (student response)
- Feb 13: Theology and the Documentary: Image-bearing
- SCREEN Hoop Dreams (student response)
- Read pg 212-252 Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary
- Feb 15: Theology and the Documentary: Speaking Truth
to Power
- SCREEN The Act of Killing/Cesar’s Last Fast?
(student response)
- Feb 20: Reading Week—NO CLASS
- Feb 22: Reading Week—NO CLASS
- Feb 27: Theology and the Documentary: Bearing Witness
- SCREEN excerpts of Shoah, and The Battle of Chile
- Mar 1: Theology and the Documentary: Voice for the
Voiceless
- SCREEN Man on Wire (student response)
- Mar 6: Basics of filmmaking: Preproduction
- Read pg 119-137 of Rabiger’s Directing the
Documentary
- Mar 8: Basics of filmmaking: Image and Sound
- Mar 13: Basics of filmmaking: Editing
- Mar 15: LAB Researching and Planning
- Mar 20: LAB Production
- Mar 22: LAB Production
- Mar 27: LAB Production
- Mar 29: LAB Editing
- Apr 3: LAB Editing
- Apr 5: Presentation of Treatments, LAB Editing
- Apr 10: Actuality and the Art of Immersion
- Read pg. 133-143, 289-319 The Art of Immersion
- Apr 12: A Christian
Vision for Documentary: The Art of Persuasion through Transparent Bias
- Read excerpts from Ellul’s The Presence of the
Kingdom
- Apr 17: Festival: 60 second docs and Q and A,
discussion.
- 60 second documentary and interview DUE
|
