MA Visual Anthropology / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Beyond Observational Cinema

Course unit fact file
Unit code SOAN70142
Credit rating 30
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This course, in its full 30 credit version consists of the following elements:

·      Five core 3-hour lectures and thirteen between invited lectures, exercises, screenings and practical workshops by visiting professional filmmakers over the first seven weeks of the semester.

·      Production of the Spring Film Project, in pairs, during the break.

·      The editing of this project in the period 27 April to 16 May 2023.

The course can be taken as a 15 credit module, with a smaller number of workshops and assessed through a shorter essay film (see schedule for details).

In the Ethnographic Documentary course unit in the first semester, a strong emphasis was laid on observational cinema on the grounds that this particular approach to filmmaking bears a close affinity to a number of the central ideas and methods of social anthropology generally. However, in this course unit students will be encouraged to consider a more diverse range of film-making approaches. Some of these could be considered complementary to observational cinema, whilst others are quite different, even opposed.  Genres touched include the essay film, ethnofiction, hybrid, reflexive, collaborative and participatory documentaries. Ultimately, the course explores the blurred boundaries of documentary as a fluid genre, playing with fiction and ambiguity, from Grierson's early definition of “creative treatment of actuality” to contemporary experiments with meta-cinema.

Teaching and learning methods

Seminars, Film-screenings, Tutorials

Assessment methods

Film Project

Beyond Observational Cinema is assessed through the production of a sub 20min. film to be shot over the Spring Break. Students will shoot this project in pairs, sharing all production roles: researching, shooting, sound-recording, editing. Partnerships will be set up at the beginning of the semester. The film will be edited following the break. Films will be assessed for their technical quality and relevance to the themes examined during the course (see complete criteria below).

Although students will have up to three weeks to shoot this project, we don't recommend coming back with more than 10 hours of rushes since they will only have 15 days in in the edit suites to edit the film. Before they access the edit suites, they should have produced a satisfactory log of the rushes and a preliminary paper edit. NB: the maximum duration of the Spring Project film should not be more than 20 minutes.

The course also aims at perfecting the technical skills introduced in the first semester, with workshops on camera technique, advanced editing and directing delivered by documentary professionals. Some of the workshops will be in direct dialogue with the course Elemental Media. Overall, the course aims at giving the students a more structured and directive approach to documentary filmmaking.

Feedback methods

Intended Learning Outcomes and Feedback

On completion of the course, students will have

- improved their understanding of the range of filmic genres that can be used within ethnographic documentary.

- acquired competencies in the use throughout the course of the semi-professional film equipment and editing software provided by the GCVA.

- improved their technical skills in all aspects of documentary film production, through targeted workshops, delivered by guest lecturers.

- increased their understanding of the ethical and legal aspects of ethnographic filmmaking.

- improved their level of employability through all of the above and via specific workshops by industry professionals.

Formative feedback for this course is given through tuition delivered in the edit suites whilst summative feedback is given by both tutors and fellow students at the collective screenings at the end of the semester.

 

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Lorenzo Ferrarini Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Information
THIS COURSE IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO THOSE ENROLLED ON THE MA IN VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

 

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