UCL's Open City Docs School Film Courses
Open City Docs creates an environment where documentary film is as critical as other film genres and enjoyed by more and more people. Based at UCL, we challenge, explore and expand ideas of what documentary can be and do. Presenting films about real life, about the experience of real people provoking debate and opening minds Open City Docs is where the next generation of filmmaker is nurtured and celebrated . Open City Docs runs Open City Docs Fest, MyStreetfilms project and the Open City Docs School . The School trains the future generation of documentary filmmaker. We provide practical and creative skills delivered by leading tutors from the industry. Training people to see the world differently, understanding why documentary matters and thinking about how it can be used. From an evening course to a full scale masters we are open to all.
The anthropology department, which has pioneered this practically oriented work in digital communication, now, together with Open City Docs School, runs a major series of practical, hands-on, professional training programmes in documentary and digital video for social scientists, scientists, arts and humanities researchers and students. Each year we run two term length courses providing students with new ways to engage with the world, distinctive means to generate knowledge about it, and to think about how that knowledge can reach a wider audience. This film-making training fosters a new kind of diligence, new modes of attentiveness and styles of thought that enable students to turn their ideas into visualised narrative. In their films students who have been through our courses have found expressive forms for their ideas and with these they have inspired and spoken to others in a fashion that the traditional ‘student essay’ has never or only very rarely done. These postgraduate courses can be taken as part of a masters degree for credit or they can be audited with a certificate of completion provided. Non-university graduates can take these courses for certification.
Beyond the two degree modules in terms one and two, we also provide, during the course of each year, a one-week (introduction to camera technique), a two-week (brief introduction to film making) and the module-equivalent three-week summer course resulting in the production of a 5-10 minute film. Evening and weekend workshops, run by InSight Education, can be taken by anyone including non-university participants for certification.
Now that still cameras and mobile cell-phones can capture digital video, every researcher has the tools of the trade to hand whether they are in Ouagadougou or Whitby. This programme harnesses this technology and trains people to use it with skill, creativity and professional standards so research data can reach a carefully defined audience.
WATCH THESE FILMS MADE BY STUDENTS ON THE DEGREE COURSES
AND OPEN CITY DOCS SCHOOL WORKSHOPS.
Click on any brick in the wall to play the film.
OUR RANGE OF FILMMAKING COURSE
1. Practical
Filmmaking Module for Credit and to Audit
a. Practical Ethnographic and Anthropological Filmmaking Module: social observation style, Autumn Term 1. For details click here
b. Practical
Documentary Filmmaking Module: interdisciplinary scripted style, Spring Term 2.
For details click here
2. Open City Docs School Workshops
and Summer Schools
a. A series of
5-day, 10-day and 3-week workshops and summer schools during Reading Weeks and
the Easter and Summer vacations. For
details click here
3. Evening and Weekend Workshops
a. An extensive
series of short evening and weekend workshops and masterclasses run by InSight
Education at UCL. For details click here
OUR FILM SCREENING PROGRAMME
During term time we hold a weekly FREE
SCREENING of relevant documentary films every Thursday evening with a Question
and Answer session by the filmmaker. For
details click here
FILMMAKING FACILITIES & SERVICES
1. Camera and Filming Equipment
2. Editing Suites
3. Mentoring, advice and supervision
4. Technical facilities and assistance
5. Archiving and storage
