For those of you who are working on documentaries for their final projects, here is a link to a good page on release forms. Scroll down and click on the link to download a basic release form. Modify as you see fit. Look at the Witness Video site for more details on releases and the need for legal indemnification.
http://www.documentaryhowto.com/documentary-tips/37-documentary-tips-1
Here are the links that Sami forwarded to me. Sobering stuff. Necessary. Do what the kid’s t-shirt says.
http://www.lracrisistracker.com/
For those of you that plan to make a documentary as their final project, here is a great resource for conceptualizing and producing a documentary video. Click on the image to go to their book. Click here to go to their website:
COMM 158, Fall 2011
Documentary Film and Media History
Instructor: Dan Leopard (dleopard@mac.com)
FINAL PAPER-PROJECT
PROPOSAL: Please write a short five (5) sentence proposal for your final paper. You must include the working title and the topic of your paper as well as a specific account of what research materials – books, films, television, art, websites – you will be working with.
Please email me your paper/project topic no later than: Wednesday October 26, 2011
FINAL PAPER: Papers must be eight (8) pages in length (12 pt. Times New Roman font or similar). Papers must adhere to MLA style. Failure to follow the conventions of scholarly writing and the notes style (as described in Corrigan or the MLA Handbook) will result in an automatic half grade reduction. Please review the policies on late papers and issues of academic integrity as specified on the course syllabus.
Strive for a coherent argument based on evidence from films, television programs, new media, books, articles, and course material (discussions and lectures). Research methods may include textual analysis, historical or cultural studies, visual studies and analysis, or other methods that you would like to use with my approval. You must include a bibliography as the last page of your paper (which does not count toward your overall page count). You may include a filmography (or videography or such). Papers must be double spaced with a cover sheet indicating author, title, and course name. Papers must be emailed to: dleopard@mac.com as a pdf file titled: “your name”final.pdf
FINAL PROJECT: Project formats must be approved by the instructor. Projects should be of sufficient scale that it replicates the amount of work and effort that would go into producing an 8-page research paper (see me for more explanation of this point). Video and image-based projects must be posted to YouTube and a URL sent to me via email to the address above.
Projects may be documentary, animation, audio, narrative, and such, but they must be based on original research. Projects must be clearly labeled with author, title, and course name.
In addition to the project, students are required to submit a three (3) page (12 pt. Times font or similar) explanation and analysis of their project. This short write-up must be emailed to: dleopard@mac.com as a pdf file titled: “your name”project.pdf
FINAL PRESENTATION: Each student will present a short summation of their research on Wednesday November 30, 2011 or December 7, 2011. Presentations will be no longer than 10 minutes in length and will be followed by a very short question and answer session with classmates. Your presentation is the oral and visual aspect of your final paper or project. The bottom line is that you must provide your audience with what they need to know to understand your project. Images and clips included in your presentation should be short and selected for maximum impact. You will be randomly given a time slot in which to present, but it will be on one of the dates listed above. You must attend both sessions to get credit for your presentation.
Due date/Time for final paper-projects:
Submitted via email no later than Wednesday December 14, 2011 @ 6PM (Pacific Coast Time).
NO LATE PAPERS/PROJECTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. FINAL PAPERS-PROJECTS AND FINAL PRESENTATIONS COMPRISE 45% OF YOUR OVERALL GRADE.
pdf version: Comm 158 Final F11
This is an important, yet obviously deeply flawed, film in the documentary canon. Watch the opening section for a pungent bit of myth building using actuality footage. Also, skim through the film, or watch it all, for scenes of the famous evening rally speeches. Also, very important as far as formalist issues go in documentary construction.
Click on the link below. It will lead you to Current TV’s page about their series 50 Documentaries to see before you die. The docs are more recent, the oldest being 1988, but the list is good for docs from the 1990s and 2000s. There are links to clips from each of the featured docs. Look around and see what interests you.
http://current.com/shows/fifty-documentaries/videos/featured-clips/
Grim stuff tonight, I know. I left pretty traumatized by the scenes depicted in both clips. But consider for next class to what extent the filmmakers are justified in using such images. Do the scenes from Rio and Beirut bring to life the horror that is associated with violence or simply decommission our compassion with a flood of incomprehensible pain? Can images replace memory – personal and/or cultural? Do we as viewers necessarily see only the studium in these images or is a punctum possible as well? What about truth?
I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say “figment.”
- Andy Warhol, 1985
