Making a documentary is much more than simply filming what surrounds us. It can be a way of understanding the world, a tool to make it a better place...
Making a documentary is much more than simply filming what surrounds us. It can be a way of understanding the world, a tool to make it a better place, and an art form where you can find and express your own voice.
During this workshop, filmmakers will gain first-hand experience working alongside Oscar-nominated documentarian Rithy Panh. The world-renowned storyteller will teach participants his method of narration through working with memory, culture, and identity to gain an in-depth understanding of personal traditions, celebrations, community, and the oral history of a country. His teaching techniques build on the foundations of cultural memory to capture fragile moments through film. Participants will be encouraged to find their own narratives that explore the idea of identity and origins by truly living, working, and breathing with their subjects.
In small teams, students will make short documentaries around the theme of confinement and isolation—outlined in Rithy Panh’s course introduction below—working together with the group to create a cohesive anthology series or a feature documentary in chapters. The first part of the lab will focus on development and pre-production, and the second part will entail production, editing and post-production. Filmmakers will shoot independently and upload their footage for evaluation by the lab mentor and group analysis. By the end of the programme, participants will experience the entire process of making a film. Experienced professional mentors will guide participants throughout the filmmaking process, and students admitted in the programme should be committed to participating for the entire period of the session.
The goal of the lab is to provide new skills, to discover cinematic language, and to transform students into filmmakers who are ready to change the world and tell their stories.
Application Deadline: 11 July 2020
Course Introduction by Rithy Panh
Our time is that of the coronavirus, a small invisible virus with a strange name that has shaken our daily lives and managed to disrupt the whole world. It reminds us of the fragility of our existence. It challenges us about our relationship to our natural, spiritual, social, cultural, or political environment. It disarmed us. For me, this exceptional moment of isolation is an opportunity to ask questions about who we are, about our dreams, about our life. I find it essential to bear witness to this period (difficult for some, saving for others) through our gaze, through films, through reflection, through writing in images and sounds. Of course, this virus drains its sinister procession of deaths, but it forces us to reinvent what binds us. It can bring the best; as it can awaken the worst instincts. It all depends on us. Films are a means of witnessing, capturing, and keeping track of this event.
Personally, I was amazed, without words, in front of the fights to buy toilet paper or this reflex of amassing food reserves for myself when no situation of shortage or war was announced. I also learned from voluntary confinement, that in the beginning, almost nothing worked for me, physically and intellectually. All of life went through messages on social networks—no more physical contact, no more social being, no more working under normal conditions. I felt culturally cut off from everything and everyone. On the other hand, I saw the sky better; I heard poetry better, the song of birds. I appreciated these little things that make the salt of life better.
I propose that this workshop brings a questioning on this pivotal period, going beyond the anguished look, fear or worries about existence to question us on how to redefine a being, rethink our relationship to others and to our environment, how to face the world of tomorrow. It is by facing this virus, by taking back our life in hand with our tools, that we will finally know what this virus is. Filming is used for that, to reveal. Let’s think about the use of movies here. Let’s restore the image of the museum of the imaginary. Let us work with our tools to give meaning, to express our feelings and our ideas. It is important to keep an individual, social, artistic record of this moment. This virus forces us to think about our future so let’s bring creative answers.
Schedule and Course Description
Dates (participants are expected to attend all the sessions):
22 July – 22 October (3 months)
These sessions will take place online, three times a week, for three hours per session.
Part 1: Documentary Filmmaking (Theory & Practice, Development & Pre-Production)
Part 2: Filming, Editing, and Post-Production
Lab Timings
Part 1
Timings will be determined based on the availability of accepted applicants. However, participants should be able to commit at least five hours per day. Proposed timings are 5 – 8 PM, three times a week.
Part 2
Full commitment may be required during production and post-production, depending on the project.
Lab Fee: 2,800 QAR
Language: English
Group Size: Up to 10 participants
Programme Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Applicants should have made at least one short film and demonstrate experience with documentary filmmaking.
During this workshop, filmmakers will gain first-hand experience working alongside Oscar-nominated documentarian Rithy Panh. The world-renowned storyteller will teach participants his method of narration through working with memory, culture, and identity to gain an in-depth understanding of personal traditions, celebrations, community, and the oral history of a country. His teaching techniques build on the foundations of cultural memory to capture fragile moments through film. Participants will be encouraged to find their own narratives that explore the idea of identity and origins by truly living, working, and breathing with their subjects.
In small teams, students will make short documentaries around the theme of confinement and isolation—outlined in Rithy Panh’s course introduction below—working together with the group to create a cohesive anthology series or a feature documentary in chapters. The first part of the lab will focus on development and pre-production, and the second part will entail production, editing and post-production. Filmmakers will shoot independently and upload their footage for evaluation by the lab mentor and group analysis. By the end of the programme, participants will experience the entire process of making a film. Experienced professional mentors will guide participants throughout the filmmaking process, and students admitted in the programme should be committed to participating for the entire period of the session.
The goal of the lab is to provide new skills, to discover cinematic language, and to transform students into filmmakers who are ready to change the world and tell their stories.
Application Deadline: 11 July 2020
Course Introduction by Rithy Panh
Our time is that of the coronavirus, a small invisible virus with a strange name that has shaken our daily lives and managed to disrupt the whole world. It reminds us of the fragility of our existence. It challenges us about our relationship to our natural, spiritual, social, cultural, or political environment. It disarmed us. For me, this exceptional moment of isolation is an opportunity to ask questions about who we are, about our dreams, about our life. I find it essential to bear witness to this period (difficult for some, saving for others) through our gaze, through films, through reflection, through writing in images and sounds. Of course, this virus drains its sinister procession of deaths, but it forces us to reinvent what binds us. It can bring the best; as it can awaken the worst instincts. It all depends on us. Films are a means of witnessing, capturing, and keeping track of this event.
Personally, I was amazed, without words, in front of the fights to buy toilet paper or this reflex of amassing food reserves for myself when no situation of shortage or war was announced. I also learned from voluntary confinement, that in the beginning, almost nothing worked for me, physically and intellectually. All of life went through messages on social networks—no more physical contact, no more social being, no more working under normal conditions. I felt culturally cut off from everything and everyone. On the other hand, I saw the sky better; I heard poetry better, the song of birds. I appreciated these little things that make the salt of life better.
I propose that this workshop brings a questioning on this pivotal period, going beyond the anguished look, fear or worries about existence to question us on how to redefine a being, rethink our relationship to others and to our environment, how to face the world of tomorrow. It is by facing this virus, by taking back our life in hand with our tools, that we will finally know what this virus is. Filming is used for that, to reveal. Let’s think about the use of movies here. Let’s restore the image of the museum of the imaginary. Let us work with our tools to give meaning, to express our feelings and our ideas. It is important to keep an individual, social, artistic record of this moment. This virus forces us to think about our future so let’s bring creative answers.
Schedule and Course Description
Dates (participants are expected to attend all the sessions):
22 July – 22 October (3 months)
These sessions will take place online, three times a week, for three hours per session.
Part 1: Documentary Filmmaking (Theory & Practice, Development & Pre-Production)
- Theoretical discussion and tutorials
- Looking inside yourself: what do you want to talk about?
- Looking outside yourself: discovering reality
- Ethics in documentary filmmaking
- Overview of the creative process, from idea to the final product
- The relationship between you and reality during the process
- The relationship between your goal as a filmmaker and the expected final product
- Analyzing and viewing films
- Development of participants’ documentary proposals
- Practical training:
- How to scout for locations and subjects
- Fundamentals of filming and recording
- Shot lists, shooting plans
- Exercise: make a 3-to-5-minute film without editing (the subject will be assigned).
- Selection of projects to be produced in the second session
- Formation of production teams. Each participant will work in the team of at least one project as the director, producer, sound recordist, or camera person.
- Planning for the 2-month period of independent work
Part 2: Filming, Editing, and Post-Production
- Shooting and analysis of the rushes with the assistance of an editor
- Editing and Post-production
By the end of the course, students will have created three to five documentary short films, which are screened for the class. As a group, we prepare distribution strategies. Then, based on their personal experience, each student proposes a new idea for another documentary. The lab ends imagining new films and defining the individual style of each student.
Lab Timings
Part 1
Timings will be determined based on the availability of accepted applicants. However, participants should be able to commit at least five hours per day. Proposed timings are 5 – 8 PM, three times a week.
Part 2
Full commitment may be required during production and post-production, depending on the project.
Lab Fee: 2,800 QAR
Language: English
Group Size: Up to 10 participants
Programme Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Applicants should have made at least one short film and demonstrate experience with documentary filmmaking.
| In collaboration with: Bophana Center, Cambodia.http://bophana.org/ | ||
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