DOC 150 - Introduction to Documentary Storymaking

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirement HU.
This course is an introduction to digital documentary storymaking. It merges the critical study of documentary media with the hands- on construction of documentary stories. Working with tools of the documentary arts - video, still images, audio, writing - students will acquire the foundational skills of media production and effective storytelling while absorbing and analyzing rich examples of documentary storytelling over time and place. The course provides a survey of traditions and issues in documentary media and an introduction to documentary practices and methods. Students will study representative works from a variety of documentary approaches and learn to analyze the techniques of observation and representation at use in these pieces. Finally, students will become familiar with major theoretical constructions of documentary and be able to use these analytical tools to critique both historical and emergent documentary forms. Students will complete several small documentary projects to be gathered in an e-portfolio to be further developed in the capstone.