Documentary Workshops
Wendy Smith’s Documentary Workshop is for students who already have some foundation of the four basic areas of digital filmmaking: camera, lighting, sound and editing.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
The goal is to plan and shoot one short documentary project to demonstrate student understanding of their acquired skills, within a documentary context. Working in small crews, students develop documentary techniques, aesthetic sense and point of view toward the material.
Week One:
Students familiarize themselves with the role of the interview in documentary and learn to plan, shoot and conduct a variety of interview styles. They practice handheld camera framing and movement and learn to cover simple live action as well as more complex scenes. The emphasis is on the ability to shoot from different angles of the action in order to facilitate editing. After pitching and doing preproduction for their final documentary, students begin shooting on Friday.
Week Two:
Shooting continues through Tuesday morning when rushes are screened. The instructor looks at assembled scenes as students work their way through the rough cut. During this directed edit lab, students assemble their footage and fine-tune it into a final version using Final Cut Pro software. This week concludes with a class screening and critique of the edited films.
TESTIMONIALS
Wendy is the greatest teacher I’ve had so far. We should really have her again through out the year. She has such an amazing way of teaching and I really felt that I learned A LOT from Wendy. Definitely one of the greatest weeks at CDIA so far.
~ Mayco, student at CD IA
She inspires her students to fall in love with film and discover themselves through the medium. I was amazed at the amount of information and knowledge that Dr. Smith had and was willing to share with her class. There are few times in a student’s life when an extraordinary teacher comes along to inspire the student to achieve what the student herself doesn’t know she is capable of achieving. Dr. Wendy Smith is such a teacher.
~ Rona, graduate student, VSW
One of the things I appreciated most about Wendy’s teaching method was her blend of technique and aesthetics. Wendy was expert at instigating stimulating discussions about the nature and art of documentaries, as well as giving concrete advice on such topics as camera work, workflow and editing. I really learned a lot in a very short period of time.
~ Forest, graduate student, VSW