Courses
Documentary to Mockumentary
This video production course charts the territory between documentary and mockumentary, looking at the history of truth in media. We begin by examining the history and production techniques of documentary filmmaking, then move into the genre of mockumentary, examining everything from reality TV to fake news. We examine how mockumentaries use sophisticated editing techniques to present work that is truthful in form, yet falsified in content. Over the course of the semester we analyze the fine line between media manipulation and editorial representation through production activities that critically engage the ethics of truth in the documentary form. Throughout the semester students will produce short documentaries and mockumentaries. They complete a series of assignments including on-the-street interviews about real and fake news items, fake biographical videos, mockumentaries and class presentations on the issue of trust between the director and viewer. The goal of the class is to build a complex discourse around issues of representation, trust, and responsibility by examining how the technological advancement in media production has altered our perception of the “real” and how it is often manipulated for emotional and political impact. We approach the material as both critical media makers and devoted viewers.
Scriptwriting 1
A successful short-film is not simply an abbreviated version of a feature film but entails a different kind of storytelling. Edgar Allen Poe’s description of a good short story is as relevant to film as it is to literary fiction. A good short story, he said, is not just “an incident or an episode extracted from a longer tale,” but a work of narrative-art that “impresses the reader with the belief that it would be spoiled if it were made longer.” Designed as a writing workshop, this course will address the many facets of writing screenplays for short films. Students will develop at least three scripts (2-8 pages long), from idea to end product, through individual and collaborative exercises, rewriting, and discussion of their works-in-progress. Students are encouraged to write scripts that can be produced with resources available to most students.