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Book Launch
31 May 2012
Anthropology in London Day
11 June 2012
Masters Open Day
25 June 2012
Anthro Newsletter
Film Courses

Most university courses train students to produce
written work through intensive and long-term training in essay writing. But the
world has moved on. For the vast mass of humanity, digital, visual
communication is not the future but the present. UCL is therefore leading the way in providing more
formal means for students to acquire the time-consuming and difficult skills of
visualisation and visual communication. Our two parallel – for-credit - courses
provide 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.
The anthropology department, which
has pioneered this practically oriented work in digital communication, 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. We offer two
parallel degree modules in terms one and two to allow both for timetabling
conflicts and to provide diversity within this program. The degree module,
ANTHGS20 in the autumn Term 1 focuses on the ethnographic style of
observational filmmaking. ANTHGS25,
which runs in the spring term 2 also caters for broadcast-style pre-scripted
documentary filmmaking. 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. 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 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. 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
