Name: Eight-Week Documentary Filmmaking - Courses - MetFilm School
Author: Tom Picken

Overview

The Eight-Week Documentary Filmmaking (full-time) course is ideal for students who want to bring their passion and ideas for a documentary to life and require training in technical and creative filmmaking skills. The course culminated in the production of your own short documentary film. This course is suitable for beginners, no previous experience is required.

Why Take the Course?

Eight-Week from Documentary Filmmaking is an intensive and practical course that equips students with the fundamental skills and focuses on the challenges of the documentary genre, such as working with people and filming reality. Designed to improve students understanding, knowledge and practice in the following areas:

an understanding of the current context of documentary filmmaking based on the history of the documentary genre and its different forms
the ability to research effectively, and to develop, structure and pitch your ideas with the potential market and audience in mind
knowledge and skills to operate a digital camera, sound recording, light a scene and use editing software
an appreciation of the importance of narrative and storytelling in documentary filmmaking and developing a voice as a documentary storyteller.

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What you will study

The following list is an overview of the topics and themes covered in Eight-Week Documentary Filmmaking. For more information, please download the course outline below.

Students examine what is meant by the term ‘factual programming’ and how to generate and develop factual content such as single documentary, constructed documentary, fixed rig and formats. Students will be analysing and interpreting factual stories to understand how these ideas resonate with an audience.

Students explore when and how to use elements of image and sound ‘control’ in a variety of factual circumstances including spoken scenarios such as interviews, voice-overs and vox pops.

Students learn how to tell stories through the use of visual mediums. Looking at composition, blocking and camera positions and how to engage and audience.

Students will learn the importance of planning and preparation; Health & Safety, budgeting and designing a shooting schedule.

Through training in Adobe Premiere Pro, students will develop their technical and creative editing skills, which will give them the necessary understanding to take their own project through the editing process.

Students will collaborate across their cohort to prep, shoot, and edit their final short factual films.