Documentary Foundation Certificate | London

To provide a basic and practical guide to the art of documentary filmmaking

Tutor:	Col Spector	Venue:	St George's Church, Bloomsbury Way London WC1A 2HR
Dates:	Wednesday 17, 24 November 1, 8, 15 December	Duration:	5 Evenings
Time:	6:30pm - 9:00pm	Price:	£165.00 + 17.5% VAT

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This foundation course in documentary film-making will give you the skills required to:

Develop a distinctive documentary idea
Test its effectiveness as an engaging film
Decide the appropriate way to film it
Find the right people to appear
Choose the best things to film
Shoot and edit your film in the most effective way
Pick the right music or sound
Shape your finished film into a story that works dramatically and emotionally.

Week 1: How Good Is Your Idea?

You think you’ve got a great idea for a documentary but will it really make a film? It’s not enough to just find a subject that interests you. A documentary is much more than that. Especially one that people will want to pay money to see. This evening explores how you can find out whether what you’ve got will really make a film and how you can work on your idea to ensure that it does.

Deciding what sort of documentary you are making
Making your film reflect your world view
Getting your film to ask a question
Deciding on an appropriate style e.g. comedy treatment of a serious subject
Establishing drama in your film
Putting your idea to the test

Week 2: Interview Style and Technique

Having built the all-important foundations of your film in Week 1 it’s time to search for the people to inhabit your film. Is it better to use normal people or professionals? How do you know who will be right to interview? And how do you convince people who’ve never been in front of the camera to bare their soul in front of a potentially intrusive camera? What are the five big mistakes of interviewing?

Choosing the right participants
Deciding if you need a narrator
Choosing where to put the camera and frame size
The behaviour of the crew before, during and after an interview
Coverage during the interview
Practical interview exercises

Week 3: Camera, Lights and Style

The lighting and camera style will affect the story you are telling. And to decide that style you must first know the story you are telling. Once decided you have to be able to realise that vision on an appropriate budget

Choosing an appropriate style for your story and budget
Deciding to go hand-held and without lights
Shooting a documentary on your mobile phone
Filming successful drama reconstruction
Comparisons of different styles and techniques
Basic lighting exercises

Week 4: Editing & Sound

Story telling is an art. I often see well-shot documentaries with interesting characters that are dramatically a mess with no real sense of vibrant story-telling. Once in the cutting room it may be too late to salvage a badly thought-through film. But then again, with a little additional filming, it could be the making of a film. It all depends..

How to use a dramatic arc
Make them laugh, make them cry, but make them wait
What to cut-away to
What to do if your film is not coming together in the edit
The power of serendipity
Using sound design instead of music
Choosing and briefing a composer
Dramatic analysis of a great documentary

Week 5: Sell Your Documentary

So you think your film is ready to send out into the big wide world of documentary exhibition? But is it really? What have your test screenings told you? Is it time to invite a broadcaster in to view a rough-cut? Should it be entered to film festivals before you try to sell it to broadcasters?

What if broadcasters aren’t interested?
Making your film the best it can be
Learning from recent documentary success stories
When is it better not to be commissioned?
Getting music and interviewee clearances
Using film festivals to promote your film
Using film festivals to get your next film commissioned
Using the internet to showcase your film
Marketing your film

To enhance your appreciation of this course it is suggested you pre-view:

Man On Wire (2008) (Director: James Marsh)
Grizzly Man (2005) (Director: Werner Herzog)
Garbage Warrior (2007) (Director: Oliver Hodge)

Anyone interested in the art of documentary filmmaking

Col Spector is an award-winning director who began his career producing and directing documentaries for the BBC. These include “Just Enough Distance” “The Lost Supper” and “Trouble At The House” He then went on to write and direct the short comedy drama “New Year’s Eve”(with Stephen Mangan & Keira Knightley) before making his feature debut with the low-budget unromantic comedy “Someone Else” (with Stephen Mangan & Susan Lynch).

Visit Col's website

Here are Col's Top 5 Docs:

Capturing The Friedmans (screened at Raindance in 2005)
If the Great American Novel were a documentary then it might look like this. An extraordinarily constructed film that doesn’t provide easy answers and lets the viewer put 2 + 2 together.

Dig!
Possibly the most enjoyable 90 minutes I’ve ever spent in a cinema watching a documentary. It shows the thin line between loser and genius and has the immortal line: “You f*ckin broke my sitar, motherf*cker”

Grizzly Man
An 18 certificate Doctor Doolittle. Werner Herzog’s take on one man’s doomed love affair with a grizzly bear. Tragic and darkly humorous.

The Story Of The Weeping Camel
This story of a Mongolian camel that neglects her new-born camel plays like a drama. Certain scenes were in fact re-enacted for the camera but rather than appearing false and awkward as some drama reconstruction can, this film is charming, playful and deeply moving. A documentary to definitely brighten your day.

Hearts of Darkness
This behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed Apocalypse Now is an utterly riveting story about one man coming face to face with self-doubt and a whole load of bad luck. It also has a wonderful epilogue filmed in the late 80s where Coppola gives his predictions for a digital future where anyone will be able to go out and make a low-budget film.