WORKSHOP
DOCUMENTARY MAKING
Making a film is building a representation of the world from a personal point of view.
Introduction
"At the beginning, I imagined that the lights in the cinema room were turned off so that the images on the screen could be better seen. I looked more closely at the spectators comfortably seated in their chairs and I realized that there was a much more important reason: this obscurity allowed the each spectator to better separate himself from the others and be alone, to be simultaneously among the others and separate from them.
Each individual, when watching a film, creates their own world. From each detail – of a city or a prairie, of a character or a theme – that appears on the screen, each spectator absorbs the information to later create his universe. Cinema does not only inform us about a single world, but several. It does not speak to us of a reality, but of infinite realities."
Abbas kiarostami
In this workshop we intend to create a space where cinema is thought of as an art and an instrument of representation, reflection and understanding of the world that goes beyond the borders of the merely visible, where the representation of things that we think are banal and common allows us to rediscover them and surprise us again. A film may not change the world itself but its course, changing the way we see and face it.
It is in documentary cinema that we want this space to focus. Not as a dogmatic form of a genre, but as a representation of something that is close to us, physically and emotionally: a person, a group, a place, an action... We propose to do this as a group, through recording, viewing and discussing images and sounds that testify to the way we see and understand the world, as if it were an epiphany.
Technique is not essential and it will not be the subject of this training. Technique only interests us to the extent that it allows us to capture images and sounds on which we can work.
Following on from the work we started in 2008, the objective this year is once again to arouse and deepen the interest in documentary among the participants, and thus begin to create a small nucleus of potential directors who will be able to make films that reveal fair views of reality. in which they live. What we want to develop with the participants of this workshop is a genuine sense of listening and a principle of complicity with who and what is filmed. Making a film means being open to the world with curiosity and a critical spirit, working on points of view about the reality in which we live.
Introduction, 1st week:
- Group viewing and analysis of films. We will show and discuss some remarkable films from the history of documentary, thus creating a universe of common references that we will frequently resort to during the workshop.
- Presentation and explanation of the filming equipment to the participants. The way of working that we are going to propose during the workshop presupposes that all filming is done by teams of two people: camera operator and sound engineer. All participants will be directors and camera operators of their own films and exercises and will make sound in their colleagues' exercises. In this first phase of the workshop, the objective is to understand how these teams of two (camera and sound) can work and train this operation.
- Realization of two short practical exercises whose objective is to introduce in practice some fundamental questions of documentary filming, also to discuss the problems and difficulties of each one and to perceive the degree of autonomy and development of the group. All exercises will be viewed and analyzed as a group.
- Group and individual discussions on the theme proposed for the final exercises and the ideas of each participant. The goal is that by the end of this week all participants know what they are going to do and have already started the research.
Shooting, 2nd, 3rd and half of the 4th week:
- From the second week on, each participant starts shooting their final exercise. The filming of each one will be accompanied by the group. Each time the film is filmed, the filmed material is viewed and discussed in the group. Simultaneously there will be individual meetings with each participant.
- Continuation of movie viewing
Assembly, half of the 4th week and 5th week
- Each participant will have three days to assemble the final exercise. These montages will be made with professional editors who will participate in the documentary editing workshop that will last for two weeks and whose final objective will be to assemble the participants' exercises in the directing workshop. Editing will be accompanied by workshop trainers and an editing trainer who will teach the documentary editing workshop.
- The assemblies will be made in assembly units with Final Cut to be made available by those responsible for the atelier.
Projection and public discussion of the final exercises
- On the last day all exercises will be projected in a public session and discussed after the projection.
Some rules for carrying out the final exercises
- Each participant must find their own work topic based on the theme proposed for the workshop.
- In all exercises carried out during the workshop, including the final exercise, voice-over or music superimposed on the filmed material cannot be used
- Each participant can only film 2 hours of raw material
- Filming will always be done by teams of two people (director/camera + sound)
- All filmed material must be viewed and discussed in the group before filming again
Participants:
6 Participants for achievement
3 participants for assembly
Max 12 Participants for the theoretical module (including the 6 participants of the realization workshop and the 3 of assembly)