COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Documentary Shorts

You will analyze various documentary genres before visualizing your own material. Learn interview styles and techniques that will allow your subject to tell their story in the rawest form. Receive practical skills like developing a pitch, creating shooting plans, and the art of storytelling. At the end of this module, you will shoot a 10-minute documentary that has the potential to be extended into a long-form or feature documentary.

Cinema Verite

Also referred to as “observational cinema” or “truthful cinema,” cinema verite is a direct form of documentary that is usually absent of voice-over narration. It combines elements of improvisation with camera work to depict truth and highlight subjects hiding behind cruel reality. The camera is often a character in this genre and can be referred to by others in the film, who usually dislike being in front of the camera. Robert Flaherty, The Maisel Brothers and Nicholas Broomfield are seminal cinema verite filmmakers. Students will also learn how to decide what is important to put in your film and what can be left out and how to know when a documentary film should end.

You will shoot a subject in a verite style for three hours and cut that footage into a 5-minute short. This footage can later be used as part of a longer project.

Biographical Films

Before students put others on screen, they should turn the camera on themselves and understand what opening up on screen takes. The biographical story project does that, and students will produce a 3-5 minute piece telling a story about an important part of their past.

Each student is required to write, direct, edit and appear in an autobiographical film. Students are encouraged to tell a story about something profound that has changed their life. It is also encouraged to take artistic risks and dare to be unique. The bio can be experimental or simply a video blog augmented with moving imagery. Students are evaluated on storytelling, photography, sound, and editing. The goal of this project is to help students move from individual exercises to a fully formed film.

Lifestyle Series

Develop a marketable lifestyle series in the vein of reality shows like Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares or Top Gear. You will learn how to showcase entertaining characters that audiences can connect with. Gain insight to the editing process, learning how to pick out key moments within hours of footage and cut it into an engaging story. Complete this course with a pitch package and sizzle reel ready to take out into the industry. If you choose to pursue this as a grad project, you’ll have the opportunity to pitch your series to a panel of streaming and TV producers.

Documentary Aesthetics

The documentary genre was born from factually documenting subjects, mostly for educational or historical purposes. Entertainment has also become a key factor, and documentarians now borrow elements from dramatic cinema to make their stories captivating for audiences. The documentary genre is constantly evolving, finding new ways to deliver the facts in engaging, exciting, and creative ways, and in this course, students will explore the narrative structures, situations, moods and character development of the various styles of documentary film.

Documentary Series

Documentary series like Making a Murderer, Tiger King and Wild Wild Country are amongst the top-viewed shows on Netflix. This course will help to turn your idea into a series of engaging episodes. Workshop and develop your concept in-class with an industry mentor. Learn how to plan the story arc, filming and editing to maximize viewer interest and marketability.  

By the end of this course, you will have conceptualized a documentary series, completed a pitch package, and filmed a proof of concept demo showcasing your visual style, key subjects and the viability of your series. You’ll get the opportunity to pitch your series to a panel of producers and shoot a pilot for your documentary series as a grad project.

Graduation Project

The sole focus of Term 3 is the production of a grad project. Work together with your classmates and spend 16 weeks planning, shooting, and editing your project under the guidance of instructors and industry mentors. This project may be a documentary feature, a pilot for a doc series, or an episode of a lifestyle series. Once completed, your project will round out your portfolio and launch your career with a film or series that is ready for sale, distribution, and broadcast.

Cinematography

This hands-on course will cover the fundamentals of cinematography. Set up and use a camera to create a variety of basic and artistic shots, using framing and other techniques to enhance the story you are trying to tell. You will also be introduced to lighting techniques involving mood, exposure, colour temperature, as well as camera settings that can change the dynamic of a scene. Learn to create lighting scenarios indoors and outdoors with a variety of equipment.

Editing as a Storyteller

Documentary stroies are made in the edit suite. Dive deep into the creativity of editing by utilizing pacing, rhythm and flow to edit a film fitting for its genre and narrative. Analyze films with unique editing choices and discuss the effects and emotions each cutting style has on the audience. Whether it’s building tension or slowing the pace before a big reveal, your creative choice as an editor greatly impacts how each scene affects the big picture.

Audio

This course will introduce students to sound for film, how sound is measured and how it behaves. Sloppy sound can immediately turn people off of a film. Clean sound is an important component of every film, and having the technical skills to achieve it is a necessity. Learn to use the correct microphone, environment, digital recorder and microphone placement/direction to capture clean sound, as well as post-production techniques to enhance the soundscape of your doc.

Interactive Media

In the Canadian documentary Welcome to Pine Point, you explore the memories of Pine Point’s former mining community. You unravel the story by clicking on characters, hearing them speak and flipping through digital books on the film’s website. This course teaches you how to craft similar stories, which allow viewers to engage with your film beyond just watching. Analyse different docs that utilize alternative storytelling methods and discuss how to implement their strategies into your own documentaries.

Editing

Editing is an invisible art but an integral part of every film and filmmakers must have knowledge of what happens in the edit suite if they want to be successful. This course will give you in-depth, technical knowledge of Adobe editing tools such as Premiere and Audition. Learn the jargon of the trade, how to organize and label your footage, and how each film progresses through the editing process from assembly to locked picture.

Story Structure

The documentary genre was born from factually documenting subjects, mostly for educational or historical purposes. While this foundation remains present, entertainment has also become a key factor. Documentarians have found new ways to make their stories captivating for audiences, leading to many sub-genres.

In this course, students will be introduced to many types of documentaries including anthropological, investigative journalism, poetic cinema, expository storytelling, observational film, mockumentaries, docudramas and dramatic reenactments. Students will explore the narrative structures, situations, moods and character development of these various styles.

Colour Correction

The use of colour in film is a method of storytelling in itself. You will be introduced to colour theory by analyzing films to see how their use of colour aids in the emotional beat of the story and evokes a subconscious response within the viewer. Apply your understanding of colour hues, saturation, brightness, luminosity, contrast, and more to your film as a way to enhance your story.

After Effects

In this course students will learn how to use motion graphics techniques with After Effects, the industry standard software for creating motion graphics and simple animations. This hands-on course provides a solid foundation in using After Effects to create title sequences, graphics, and animations to add visual flair to your projects.

Content Marketing

Content marketing and advertising is a viable source of income for doc filmmakers and a potential revenue source for project funding. This course introduces you to making documentary-style advertisements and promotional videos for clients, and how to approach product placement and sponsorship in your films. Learn how to develop creative briefs and specific approaches for writing web and television ads, as well as client management, contracts, invoicing, and more.

Pitch Packages

Pitching is a fundamental part of getting your project made. It is the first step to generating the interest to get your film funded, produced, and screened. In order to have a successful pitch, your project must be presented in a way that can attract different personality types. Some people will look at your project for its art, others will look at it for entertainment, and many look at it as an investment requiring a financial return. 

This course explores the many methods to pitch your project, including verbal and written packages, digital teasers, sizzlers and much more. Apply these techniques to develop a package for the documentary you wish to pitch as a grad film, which will be presented to a panel of industry experts and producers, the very people you will need to impress in the real world.

Documentary Producing

Many skill sets are required to be a film and television producer. Students will learn the key responsibilities of a documentary producer: money management, people management and schedule management. Complete real-world grant applications from funders such as Storyhive, BC Creative, CBC, NFB, the BC Arts Council, and more. You will create the necessary finance, schedule, and marketing documents to ensure a successful shoot and build the team to realize your vision.

Story Impact

The Good Pitch Program, organized by Story Money Impact, acts as a matchmaker between artists and campaigners, philanthropists, brands, media and changemakers passionate about producing groundbreaking films for social and environmental change. Discover what films have found success through Story Money impact and learn how to find topics of social importance and how you can creatively and impactfully tell that story. After a guest lecture by a member of Story Money Impact, you will pitch your socially-motivated story idea to a Story Money Impact representative and share a list of ideal partners.

Crowdfunding

You don’t have to be the only person to fund your film, and neither do any financiers. Crowdfunding has skyrocketed as a finance-source for independent filmmakers. You will learn how to run a crowdfunding campaign and develop an effective strategy to reach your monetary goal. Familiarize yourself with sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. Understand what value and benefits and perks you can provide your “backers” (funders) in exchange for their financial help. Finally launch a crowdfunding campaign of your own as a source of revenue for your grad project.

Career Development

Discover the many opportunities available to documentary filmmakers. See how you can use your portfolio and skillset as stepping stones towards the ideal career you want to develop. Learn how to network, build your brand and make your presence known in the industry. Network with entertainment professionals and industry mentors to build the connections that will last well into your professional career.