Documentary and Film Making

Paper Code: 
24JMC324(A)
Credits: 
6
Contact Hours: 
90.00
Max. Marks: 
100.00
Objective: 

This course will enable the students to analyse and evaluate documentaries, understand major film movements, engage with feminist film theory, demonstrate proficiency in sound and shooting techniques, and finalize documentaries with integrated effects.

 

Course Outcomes: 

 

 

Course

Learning outcome

(at course level)

Learning and teaching strategies

Assessment Strategies

Course Code

Course Title

24JMC324(A)

 

Documentary and Film Making (Theory)

 

CO109: Critically engage with the ethical and aesthetic implications of documentary representation.

CO110:   Explore film forms and styles across movements.

CO111: Evaluate alternative cinema visions, feminist film theory, auteur film authorship.

CO112: Demonstrate proficiency in production elements for documentary filmmaking.

CO113: Apply the grammar of editing to create rough cuts of documentary projects.

CO114: Contribute effectively in course-specific interaction.

Approach in teaching:

Lecture cum Discussion

Tool and script writing practise.

Using mobile and professional cameras.

producing films –documentary and fiction

Video editing practice

 

Learning activities for the students

Self-learning assignments, Effective questions, Simulation, Seminar presentation, Giving tasks, Field practical

 

Continuous Assessment Test

Semester end examination

Group projects on developing television documentary, features and special stories.

 

18.00
Unit I: 
Understanding Documentary Representation
  • Documentary- Six Modes of Documentary Representation- Participatory, Expository, Observational, Per formative, Reflexive, and Poetic
  • Researching the Documentary

 

18.00
Unit II: 
Exploring Film Form and Style Across Movements
  • Film Form and Style
  • German Expressionism and Film Noir
  • Italian Neorealism
  • French New-Wave
  • Genre and the development of Classical Hollywood Cinema
  • Watching Relevant films         
18.00
Unit III: 
Diving into Alternative Visions and Authorship
  • Alternative Visions; Third Cinema and Non-Fiction Cinema
  • Introduction to Feminist Film Theory
  • Auteur- Film Authorship with a special focus on Satyajit Ray or Kurusawa
  • Watching relevant films

 

18.00
Unit IV: 
Navigating the Documentary Production Process
  • Three Phases of Production
  • Structure and scripting the documentary
  • Writing a concept- Telling a story Treatment.
  • Production Phase
  • Understanding use of microphones
  • Sound Recording- Voice Over
  • Introduction to Shooting style- Shooting Schedule
  • Shot Breakdown and Call list

 

18.00
Unit V: 
Mastering Editing and Post-Production Techniques
  • Editing styles
  • Post Production Phase- Grammar of editing
  • Rough Cut
  • Transitions: Scenic Realism and Sound Effects and Visual Effects
  • Finalizing the film
  • Graphics and Title adding
  • Distribution and Exhibition Spaces (Traditional and Online)
Essential Readings: 
  • Andre Bazin, “The Ontology of the Photographic Image” from his book What is Cinema Vol. I
  • Berekeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press: 1967, 9-16
  • Sergei Eisenstein, “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form” from his book Film Form: Essays in Film
  • Theory (Edited and Translated by Jay Leyda) San Diego, New York, London: A Harvest/Harcourt
  • Brace Jovanovich, Publishers: 1977, 45-63
  • Tom Gunning, "Non-continuity, Continuity, Discontinuity: A theory of Genres in Early Films

 

References: 
  • Charles Musser “Documentary” in Geoffrey Nowell Smith ed, The Oxford History of World Cinema Oxford University Press: 1996, 322-333
  • Michael Renov ed. Theorizing Documentary AFI Film Readers, New York and London: Routledge: 1993, 1-36
  • Trisha Das How to Write a Documentary
  • Double Take by PSBT
  • DOX magazine
  • Nichols, Bill (2001): Introduction to Documentary, Indiana University Press: Bloomington.

E Resources

 

Academic Year: 
2024-2025
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