DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION   Comm Studies 635  Fall 2009
 Prof Kindem  Office hrs.: 11:00-12:00 MW  Rm 315 Bingham Hall 962-4960
Course Purposes and Objectives:
1) to work in a small group producing a short documentary video that has cultural, aesthetic, and/or social value and 2) to acquire video/digital media writing and production skills used in documentary preproduction, production, and postproduction
Required Texts:
Rabiger, Michael, Directing The Documentary, 4th ed. Focal Press, 2004.
Bernard, Sheila Curran, Documentary Storytelling, Making Stronger and More Dramatic Nonfiction Films, 2nd ed. Focal Press, 2007.
Recommended Texts:
Kindem, Gorham and Musburger, Robert, Introduction to Media Production: the Path to Digital Media Production, 4th ed., Focal Press, 2009
Nichols, Bill, Introduction to Documentary, IU Press, 2001.
Nichols, Bill, Representing Reality, Issues and Concepts in Documentary, IU Press, 1991 (required of graduate students only)
Rosenthal, Alan, Writing, Directing, & Producing Documentary Films,  Revised ed., SIU Press, 1996.
Requirements:
Editing Exercise  10%  (Sept. 28)
Proposal, Treatment, Budget & Schedule, Presentation  20%  (Sept. 23 & 30)
Midterm Examination  10%  (Oct. 21)
Documentary Still Images & Counterpoint/Overlap Sequences  20%  (Oct. 26 & Nov. 9)
Completed Documentary Video  40%  (Dec. 10)
Proposal and Treatment:
A  proposal and treatment for your ten minute documentary video should be approximately 8 to 10 typewritten double-spaced pages in length.  The proposal should include each of the following items: 1) a film statement, indicating what you hope to say; 2) background and need, indicating your purposes and objectives; 3) your approach, structure, and style; 4) a budget;  5) a shooting schedule, 6) an equipment list, and 7) a short summary of the creative staff’s prior credits and relevant experiences.  Your treatment should be written as a third person, present tense narrative and include each of the following: 1) action sequences; 2) main characters/social actors; 3) conflicts; and 4) stylistic features that will enhance your piece.   A treatment visualizes the story as it will unfold on the screen, and includes all the majors actions and scenes in reduced form.  A good treatment adopts a lively prose style that effectively communicates the tone of the piece. Your video project should be provocative and insightful.  It should have something significant to say and you should find an effective means of saying it.
Counterpoint/Overlap Editing:
Counterpoint editing brings sounds and images into juxtaposition.  In practice this means bringing together the sound from one shot, such as an interview, with the images from another, such as B-Roll of the interviewee actually doing or not doing what they are talking about.  The benefits are multiple.  Talking-head material is kept to an interesting minimum as an interview is pared down and the audience is challenged to reconcile people’s ideas with what they are actually doing.  The overlap cut is a contrapuntal editing device, which is often used to hide the telltale seams between shots.  It brings sound in earlier than picture, or picture in earlier than sound, and thus avoids the jarring level cut, that is, abruptly cutting sounds and images simultaneously.
    (All projects will be done in groups of three or four, and all members of a group will receive the same grade on group projects unless two members of the group indicate that a particular member, who will receive 0 out of 100 points on that project, did not participate in the production of a specific project.  Grades are calculated on a ten point basis: 92.5+pts.=A, 90-92.5pts.=A-; 87.5-90pts.=B+, etc.  Assignments and projects are considered 24 hrs. late, if they are not turned in during the class at which they are due, and they drop 10 points at the end of that class and another 10 pts. for each additional 24 hrs. they are late.)

Schedule:
Aug 26  Introduction: Producing and Directing Low Budget Documentaries designed to fulfill Aesthetic, Cultural, and/or Social Purposes
        31  Basic Digital Editing
Sep   2   Digital Editing Practice
         9   Formulating Ideas for Documentary Projects
        14  Research and Writing the Proposal; PRELIMINARY PROJECT IDEA PRESENTATIONS
        16  Shaping the Approach, Structure, and Style
        21  Writing the Treatment and Narration;
        23  Budgeting and Scheduling; PROPOSAL PRESENTATIONS
        28  VIEWING OF EDITING EXERCISES; Still Image Scanning & Counterpoint/Overlap (B Roll) Recording & Editing
        30  Digital Video Recording;  WRITTEN PROPOSAL/TREATMENT/BUDGET/SCHEDULE DUE
Oct    5  Digital Video Recording Practice
          7  Lighting
         12 Lighting Practice
         14 Audio Recording and Dubbing
         19 Audio Recording and Dubbing Practice
         21 MIDTERM EXAMINATION
         26 Still Image Scanning/Editing & COUNTERPOINT/OVERLAP (B-Roll) RECORDING RAW MATERIAL PRESENTATIONS
         28 Still Image Scanning/Editing Practice
Nov   2  More Advanced Digital Editing
          4  Digital Editing Practice
          9  COUNTERPOINT/OVERLAP EDITED SEQUENCE (approx. 2-5 minutes) PRESENTATIONS
         11 Special Effects
         16  Special Effects Practice
         18  Audio Mixing
         23  Titles  
         30  From Computer to Tape
Dec    2  Project Problem Solving
          7   Project Problem Solving
     .    9   Final Computer Editing and HDV Tape Transfer FINAL PROJECTS DUE
         10  CLASS SCREENING of Completed Documentary Projects

Required Reading  Documentary Production  Comm. Studies 635   Fall 2009

Required Texts:
Bernard, Sheila Curran, Documentary Storytelling, Making Stronger and More Dramatic Nonfiction Films, 2nd ed., Focal Press, 2007.
Rabiger, Michael, Directing The Documentary, 4th ed., Focal Press, 2004.

Recommended Texts:
Rosenthal, Alan, Writing, Directing, & Producing Documentary Films, 2nd ed., SIU Press, 1996.
Kindem, Gorham & Musburger, Robert, Introduction to Media Production 4th ed., Focal Press, 2009.
Nichols, Bill, Introduction to Documentary, 2001. [Nichols I]
Nichols, Bill, Representing Reality, IU Press, 1991. (required of graduate students only)

Required Reading Schedule:                              (Recommended)          (Recommended)
                   Bernard                   Rabiger    Rosenthal & [Nichols I]   Kindem & Musburger
Aug   26       1-11                         1-46                    1-13                               1-79
          31    193-210                   428-435                                                   327-361
Sep     2  
           9     137-142                  117-139              14-44; 223-258               95-133
          14  113-136;142-149       203-255            [Nichols I 99-138]            79-85
          16  47-86;93-109              47-112             45-103; 181-213            135-178
          21 151-174;211-234 218; 369-402; 443-454
          23                    218-224; 256-281; 324-328   105-131                      85-92
          28                            401-427; 436-442            65-180
          30    177-192  141-174; 194-201; 283-301  133-163; 281-290      261-326
Oct     5                                    324-367                                             217-238; 255-267
           7                             174-186; 302-312                                            215-259
          12
          14                           187-194; 313-323   149-177;241-248;353-361 179-212
          19
          21
          26
          28
Nov    2
           4
           9
          11                                                                                                    385-402
          16
          18                                   443-481                     214-221               
          23                                   482-496                                                   363-385
          30     
Dec     2
           7
           9