module 02
weeks 06-09
the art of the real
The information below will give you some sense of the reading, writing, and creative work you will be engaged with during this portion of the semester. There will be variations among each individual course section, so see your instructor for detailed daily schedule, activities, deadlines, etc.

learning goals :: activities
Video as a research tool: searching and exploring, hunting and gathering. The art of the interview. Making direct contact with your subject. Improvisation (being prepared, but thinking on your feet) and rehearsal (rough cuts and multiple drafts). Rehearsing effective creative video production: pre-production (reflecting, brainstorming, and research), production (conceptualizing, storyboards, shot lists, shooting footage), post-production (logging raw footage, paper edits, rough cuts), and presentation (critique, analysis, more reflection, finding an audience).

readings :: electronic reserves
documentary
"Writing a Documentary", Barry Hampe
"Making Analogs of Reality", Barry Hampe
"Visual Evidence", Barry Hampe
"Recording Visual Evidence", Barry Hampe
"The Documentary Interview", Barry Hampe
"Reassemblage", Barry Hampe

audio
"Sound in the Cinema", David Boardwell
"Editing with Sound", Russell Evans

journals
Directed writing assignments will focus on the idea of creative inquiry and method, and will revolve around a four-stage video production process. Section instructors will rely heavily on a common production journaling template to assign specific writing prompts.

video project
Longer, more complex, more intentional.

the art of the real
3-5 minutes
Research and document someone, someplace, and/or something that you know very little about.

process
Select a person and/or topic that you find intriguing and interesting, but that you don't know a lot about. Try to find something in the midst of your everyday life. Would you like to learn more about the Food Co-op you just joined? Ever thought about joining a student club? Ever wonder what its like to work at an all-night diner or be a driver's ed instructor? Or maybe there's a particular teacher you admire but don't know very well?

Spend a few days paying attention to people you see regularly, places you frequent, organizations that interest you; be aware of the people, activities, and situations that cross your path everyday. What do you find curious, intriguing, seductive, inspiring? What are the things you would like to learn more about or understand better? Take notes. Make lists.

Select a subject.

Restriction: The subject you select must involve interacting with and documenting another person. It cannot be someone you already know extremely well (not your roommate, your cousin, or your mother).

You will need to research your subject, think carefully about why it interests you and what you want to learn, engage and interact with your subject, collect data, organize your findings, then synthesize your raw materials into a 3-5 minute video that is engaging and communicates your interests and findings clearly.

Students will view and respond to each other's work.

Section instructors will assign readings and directed writing prompts, screen examples, and generate discussions in class that will help students explore, learn, and discover. They will also provide specific information on due dates, etc.

purpose
This project will give students an opportunity to experience a more intentional approach to video production, and to think more carefully and ambitously about how to construct a narrative in a time-based medium. It will give them direct experience with a model of creative inquiry, and provide an example of how video can be as a tool for social engagement and research.

assessment :: grading rubric
Here is the grading rubric template for this module. As usual, students should consult with their section instructor for specific details, and the assigned grade will reflect an assessment of all components of coursework: electronic journal, finished videos, and classroom participation (including personal skills).

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
Dorothea Lange

I think you almost have to take a step back . . . and address the [question] of objectivity and subjectivity. I think in the first day of film class everybody ought to just completely forget about objectivity. God is objective, and She is not telling us. So each form of film is an attempt to organize the chaos that is life: the universe. I think we come to a kind of shorthand that fiction is narrative and untrue, and that documentaries are true and objective. And that’s not true. We know from literature that some of the greatest truths emerge from fiction, and that it’s possible for a fiction film to carry incredible amounts of truth.
Ken Burns, The Art of the Documentary (interview)

The most powerful and obvious “truths” within cultures are often the things that are not said and not directly acknowledged.
Mary Anne Staniszewski, Believing is Seeing

If you find that you start a number of stories or pieces that you don’t ever bother finishing, that you lose interest or faith in along the way, it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately. You need to put yourself at the center, you and what you believe to be true or right. . . . These concepts probably feel like givens, like things no one ever had to make up, that have been true through all cultures and for all time. Telling these truths is your job. You have nothing else to tell us. But needless to say . . . the truth doesn’t come out in bumper stickers. There may be a flickering moment of insight in a one-liner, in a sound bite, but everyday meat-and-potato truth is beyond our ability to capture in a few words. Your whole piece is the truth, not just one shining epigrammatic moment in it. There will need to be some kind of unfolding in order to contain it, and there will need to be layers.
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

The way you get good stuff in a documentary interview is by encouraging people to tell you stories, not by interrogating them.
Barry Hampe, Making Documentary Films

Interviewing is usually a great part of the research effort . . . The interview is the cornerstone . . . because interviews add so much. They add fresh ideas, ideas you might never have come up with on your own. They provide different angles, views perspectives, insights on the person or topic under study. They give you names of other people you might interview, people you might never have thought of or heard of . . . The interviewee may mention other authorities you should read for further information. . . . And, very important, interviews will provide you words, jargon, specialist language, and more detailed knowledge that will lend authority or credibility to your [piece].
Theodore A. Rees Cheney, “The Purpose of Interviewing”, Writing Creative Nonfiction

I begin where I always begin, with a tremendous amount of research, with a passion to understand the total landscape of whatever subject I’m entering.
Alan Berliner (filmmaker), qtd. in Documentary Storytelling for Film and Videomakers