Documentary: Connection Course

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Subject guarantor:

Vít JANEČEK

Name of lecturer(s):

Vít JANEČEK

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Students will acquire a fully-rounded and well developed complex insight into documentary cinema from a variety of modes: representational, film-making, a practical approach to writing about subjects and proposals, by undertaking small practical exercises using only simple tools.

Mode of study:

Lecture/seminar.

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

Students are required to undertake two practical exercises utilising only mobile phones or simple digital cameras.

Recommended optional programme components:

Participation on FAMU module: Creative Documentary Today; 23 - 26 October (part of Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival) is recommended.

Course contents:

The course focuses on exploring documentary cinema from a broad range of artistic and rhetorical standpoints examining the representation of reality, via both a theoretical and empirical base. As its foundation the course considers the theoretical approaches of Nichols, Bruzzi and Gauthier within the context of theories of representation (especially Jost).

Apart from screenings and subsequent reflections, the course will also include 2 small practical exercises with the purpose of examining documentary principles (the level of technical accomplishment within the resulting films is not overly important, as students will often use either mobile phones or small digital cameras).

Each session consists of an introduction, a screening and a discussion of selected films, organized either historically, or in accordance with considered modes of documentary film-making: poetical, methods of exposition, observational, interactive, reflective/reflexive, performance based. Two sessions will also include subsequent screenings and discussion of the students' practical exercises.

Recommended or required reading:

Course literature:

Bill Nichols: Introduction to Documentary film (1991)

Stella Bruzzi: New Documentary: A Critical Introduction (2000)

Guy Gauthier: Le Documentaire, un autre cinéma (1999)

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

Lectures, screenings of examples, viewing and discussing student's excersises.

Assessment methods and criteria:

Two small practical exercises utilising either a mobile phone or a small digital camera. Technical quality is not overly important as we will be exploring approaches and principles (30% = 10+20), 2-3 pages of either a film analysis or a concept for a documentary (30%), attendance (40%).

Course web page:

Note:

0. Outline on the course.

1. Modes of representation (reality / fiction / game-play); documentary modes; the relationship between various cinematic elements within documentary film, the use of logic within both narration/narrative and non-narrative forms

2. Poetical mode + key historical approaches + screening; submission of 1st practical exercise

3. Poetical mode + contemporary examples

4. Expository mode + key historical approaches + screening

5. Observational mode + screening + discussion

6. Watching 1st practical exercise, submission of 2nd practical exercise, Interactive mode + screening + discussion;

7. Reflexive mode + screening + discussion

8. Reflexive mode + screening + discussion

9. Watching 2nd practical exercise; performance based mode + screening examples + discussion

10. Submission of written essay or subject, performance based mode + screening examples + discussion

11. Final session, feedback on essays or topics

Schedule for winter semester 2014/2015:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue	místnost 107 Učebna 1 (Lažanský palác) JANEČEK V. 14:50–16:25 (přednášková par. 1)
Wed
Thu
Fri

Date	Day	Time	Tutor	Location	Notes	No. of paralel
	Tue	14:50–16:25	JANEČEK V.	Učebna 1 Lažanský palác		přednášková par. 1

Schedule for summer semester 2014/2015:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Photography EN - Bachelor (optional subject)
• Photography EN - Master (optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Screenwriting-2014 (optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing (optional subject)