Ideas for Successful Documentaries Short Course
Course description
Course overview
Documentaries have never been so popular and there are more filmmakers than ever. Films and their viewers have become very sophisticated. To gain funding and engage audiences, aspiring filmmakers must have a thorough understanding of the form. How and why documentaries are made is as important as the subjects they explore.
Facilitated by a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker, this course consists of progressive steps designed to investigate documentary practice. Each step involves looking, thinking, writing and discussing documentary while also filming, recording sound and editing.
Students will reflect on key questions throughout the course. What is there of you in your filmmaking and why should your film exist? What's the difference between an interview and a conversation? And at what point do documentaries become fiction?
During the course, students are encouraged to embrace and utilise other art forms to stimulate ideas and develop unified concepts. The course involves practical exercises both in and outside the classroom, group discussions and collaboration. Students gain insight as to where their ideas for films come from and what they're trying to achieve. The aim is for students to leave the course with a skill set of new ideas, approaches and critical thought.
This course is available in multiple formats: a 5-week evening course or a 2-day course. If a certain format isn't listed please check back for future dates.
Who this course is for
This course is open to both new and experienced documentary filmmakers. It would be an excellent fit for anyone working in the creative industries who is required to make documentaries as well as those who would like to upskill.
Technical skills are not essential as the course is about generating and shaping ideas.
Key information
Topics covered
- Analysing key scenes from documentaries - looking at how and why filmmakers made their choices
- Practical exercises including developing ideas, casting, empathy, writing, pitching, interview techniques etc
- Applying critical thought to films as well as your own work
Learning outcomes
- Developed critical sensibility of how and why we create documentaries and what we want to convey through them
- Leave with a course portfolio of work that is relevant to their skills and ideas
- Digital badge and certificate of attendance.
Materials
- Phone with a camera or a video camera and/or a sound recorder and microphone
Tutor
Mark Aitken
Mark Aitken is an award-winning documentary practitioner of film, photography, radio, written and spoken word, sound, animation and installation. He's currently completing mixed-media works in Lapland about loss, memory and transformative renewal.
Key past works include 'Neighbourhood of Infinity' about confinement and freedom, the multi-award winning 'Dead when I got here' about a Mexican psychiatric hospital run by its own patients; 'Forest of Crocodiles' about a fearful white South African rural community; 'Until when you die' tracing a Vietnamese refugee's journey home and 'This was Forever' about the loss of a community allotment in London. His photo series 'Sanctum Ephemeral' won the UK National Open Art 2017 and Portrait of Britain 2017 and is permanently installed on-site in London.
Mark was a Kone Arts Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies and taught film practice at Goldsmiths for 11 years. He ran a non-profit company that produced over 40 films. Mark holds a PhD by Publication entitled 'Emotional truths in documentary making' from Goldsmiths.
For more information about Mark Aitken's education and work, please visit www.markaitken.org and https://polkadotsonraindrops.jimdofree.com
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