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Cost: £295
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Overview
This online evening course focuses on the art of storytelling in documentary film.
Each session will include discussions of how theoretical concepts relate to formal considerations in documentary filmmaking.
This course takes place across 10 Tuesday Evenings (6.30pm to 9pm).
This course is run by the Open City Docs School, based in UCL's Department of Anthropology.
Who it's for
This course is for:
- documentary practitioners who are either preparing, shooting or editing their documentary
- scholars who want to analyse or write about documentaries
- anyone who is passionate about non-fiction films
There are no pre-requisites required to apply for this course.
Course content
The following content is an example of what will be covered, but is only indicative.
Session 1: Soviet Montage and Poetic Documentary
- Documentary elements
- Soviet montage and conceptual watching
- The poetic documentary
Session 2: Continuity and Observational Documentary
- Spatial and emotional impact of shot sizes
- The immersive actuality of continuity
- The observational documentary
Session 3: Interviews and Participatory Documentary
- Character profiling through interviews
- The function of cutaways
- The participatory documentary
Session 4: Defamiliarisation and Reflexive Documentary
- Brecht and defamiliarising the audience
- The reflexive documentary
- The hybrid documentary
Session 5: Narrative and Point-of-View
- Narrative structure: story and plot
- Narrative point-of-view
- Creating empathy for characters
Session 6: Materialities: Objects and Spaces
- The mediation of space and time
- Everyday materialities
- Memory as trace and event
Session 7: : Performativity and Documentary Comedy
- The performative documentary
- Documentary comedy and distantiation
- Parody and mockumentaries
- The investigative documentary comedy
Session 8: Essay Film
- Portrait essay
- Travel essay
- Diary essay
- Editorial essay
- Refractive essay
Session 9: Stereotypes and the Other
- Social categorisation and documentary narratives
- Stereotypes and prejudice
- Types of Others in documentary
Session 10: Challenging Stereotypes
- Industry initiatives
- Narrative and aesthetics to de-stigmatise communities
- Perspective-taking and empathy
- Cross-categorisation, recategorisation, decategorisation
Teaching and Structure
The course consists of 10 weeks of online sessions.
Keeping the balance between the theory of practice and the theory in practice, each session will include discussions of how concepts relate to formal considerations in documentary filmmaking.
This course will be delivered via online distance learning, and students will require a computer or other internet connected device.
Cost
The standard course fee is £295.
The following discounts are also available:
- Students/concessions: £275
- UCL students: £260
1x Universal Credit bursary place is available for this course. Please see our bursary policy here.
Further information
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Course team
Dr Catalin Brylla
Catalin is a Principal Lecturer in Film and Television at Bournemouth University, and holder of a doctorate in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths, University of London, his research aims for a pragmatic understanding of documentary spectatorship with regards to experience, empathy and narrative comprehension. In a larger context this work also advocates for the filmmaker’s understanding of how audio-visual and narrative representation impacts on society’s understanding of stereotyped groups, such as disabled people, women and African cultures. He is currently editing two books, “Documentary and Dis/ability” (with Helen Hughes) and “Cognitive Theory in Documentary Film Studies” (with Mette Kramer). As a practice-led researcher, he has just completed two feature documentaries about blindness and the everyday, and another feature documentary, “Zanzibar Soccer Dreams” (with Florence Ayisi), about Muslim women playing football.
“I enjoyed the course. It was my first documentary course, and the final result was positive. I have learned a lot and have much more to learn. The programme was good for a short course—dynamic classes balanced between the contents, debate and participation.” – Ricardo Sá Nogueira, previous student
“The course was brilliant, very rich in content and interactive. Catalin has been extremely supportive throughout, provided a lot of resources and offered great analytical depth, which was very suitable to my needs.” – Eleni Pappa, previous course participant
“I loved it so much and it was so interesting! Catalin is an incredible teacher, not only because he covered so much and structured it so well, but made us think. I saw things and noticed stuff I never did before. It will really change how I see things. So thank you so much for that.” – Past Participant, March 2024
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Course information last modified: 23 Apr 2024, 17:32