Documentary Filmmaking: approaches and practices (022P3)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

You will explore documentary methods and structures through practical exercises and projects to develop a systematic knowledge of production within the genre. The module introduces you to individual building blocks of non-fiction storytelling. You will:

• engage in the analysis of selected historical and contemporary documentary practices to situate you own work within the field and critically reflect on it
• gain a comprehensive overview of key concepts in non-fiction production, in particular narrative structures, interviewing, address, point of view, documentary ethics and montage
• apply advanced skills in research, planning, scripting, shooting and editing to self-initiated projects.

Concepts of the documentary form are explored and interrogated through practical work designed to enable you to articulate a critical and creative approach to the relationship between practice and theory. The term culminates in a substantial portfolio project and accompanying critical introduction, which builds on the experimentation and analysis undertaken throughout the module.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.