Documentary Video Boot Camp is a one-week, immersive, hands-on course I designed and taught nine times at MassArt between 2009 and 2013. I stopped teaching this course at MassArt when I began teaching full-time at Northeastern University in the College of Arts, Media and Design in 2013. MassArt Continuing Education continued to offer the course after my departure for several years taught by Michael Sheridan, an excellent instructor who currently provides workshops that I highly recommend.
Contents
Course variations
The course spawned several variations. I taught a two-day version for O’Reilly Media focused on the use of smartphones. During the Summer of 2015, I taught a three-day smartphone moviemaking summer camp for middle-school students at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in conjunction with the Boston International Kids Film Festival. During the Summer of 2014 and 2015, I taught one-week workshops tailored for middle-school students at Somerville Community Access Television (SCAT) in conjunction with the Boston International Kids Film Festival. I would be happy to develop a version of this course for your organization, contact me for more information.
Course description
Covers the fundamentals of documentary storytelling in an intimate and focused setting designed to help participants develop a basic understanding of shooting techniques, picture composition, sound recording, lighting, interviewing, and editing. The course also includes a brief survey of documentary history and the ethical issues documentarians deal with. The core of the class is a series of hands-on exercises exploring traditional, personal, and cinéma-vérité approaches. Through exercises, screening, discussion, and critique, participants are exposed to a range of aesthetic, storytelling, and technical issues related to the production of documentary videos and build the confidence to apply them to subsequent work. The course accommodates students with no prior experience with video production as well as challenging students who already have some prior experience to hone their storytelling craft and technical skills.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Discuss major historical trends and ethical issues in documentary film
- Explain and apply the fundamental modes of documentary cinema
- Operate a video camera to observe people and processes
- Apply fundamental video production and editing techniques to express ideas using cinematic language
- Create a short documentary video using a structured methodology
Course outline
Monday
- Presentation: What is a Documentary?
- Screening and discussion of example works
- Demonstration: Documentary Camerawork and Recording Sound, Part 1: On-camera sound
- Demonstration: Observing People and Documenting Process
- Practice: Assignment 1 (document a process and observe a person)
Tuesday
- Screening and Critique of Assignment 1 (document a process and observe a person)
- Presentation: Conducting Interviews
- Screening and discussion of example works
- Demonstration: Lighting an Interview and Recording Sound, Part 2: using boom microphones and lavalieres
- Practice: Assignment 2 (conduct an interview)
Wednesday
- Screening and Critique of Assignment 2 (conduct an interview)
- Presentation: Directing the Documentary
- Screening and discussion of example works
- Practice: Assignment 3 (plan and shoot a micro-documentary)
Thursday
- Screening and Critique of Assignment 3 (plan and shoot a micro-documentary), view selected rushes
- Presentation: Editing the Documentary
- Screening and discussion of example works
- Tutorial: Editing, Part 1
- Practice: Assignment 4 (edit a micro-documentary), capture and begin editing footage
- Thursday evening: Optional Editing Lab
Friday
- Tutorial: Editing, Part 2
- Practice: Assignment 4 (edit a micro-documentary), continue editing
- Practice:
Creating a DVDExporting a streaming master (for uploading) and edit master (for the archive) - Demonstration: Online sharing options: Vimeo, YouTube, and beyond
- Screening and Critique of Assignment 4 (edit a micro-documentary)
- Review
- Course Evaluation
Assessment
Student performance in this course will be assessed on a Pass/Fail basis. Completion of a cohesive micro-documentary (Assignment 3 and Assignment 4) with acceptable production values screened in class and participation in the screening and critique of Assignment 3 and Assignment 4 is required to earn a “Pass” for the course.
Course handouts
- Sylllabus
- Documentary camerawork
- Sound recording
- Notes on the interview
- Lighting interviews
- Preproduction checklist
- Production checklist
- Editing checklist
- Useful forms
- Wireless microphones
Creating a DVD- Preparing video for streaming online
- Documentary reading list
- Documentary viewing list
The handouts and resource links for Documentary Video Boot Camp are no longer available on this site, however, a lot of the material originally developed for the class has made its way into posts, pages, and handouts I currently use in my classes, many of which are available on this site. Take a look at the following pages:
- Reference pages and resource guides
- Producing a micro-documentary
- Four approaches to structuring micro-documentaries
- Notes on smartphone documentary moviemaking
For more information
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there’s something specific you are looking for, I’m happy to share resources and discuss collaboration on the design of course materials.
Photo by Anne Marie Stein.
This document was originally published on November 24, 2008, and was last revised on April 10, 2022.
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