Introduction to Documentary Production ‘08

This blog is a part of a class on documentary production being offered through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Film Department. The course is n introduction and overview of documentary form and production that challenges students interested in documentary film to consider the best ways to represent reality and to tell truths worth telling. The class explores what makes a good documentary or more importantly, a good story. Students will be taught how to produce a story, write a solid treatment, conduct a meaningful interview, facilitate a cinema verité shoot, work as a small crew, set-up an organized editing workflow, and deliver professional results in a timely fashion.

On this blog students will post tri-weekly responses to documentaries they have watched outside of class. After the individual students have teamed up into small production crews they will continue to post critiques of films as individuals, but they will also post cuts of the video their crew is producing. All of the student made documentaries are to be no longer than 6 minutes in length and center around a person, place or thing that is Milwaukee specific.