STUDIO PROMPT

• What are some of the technical and ethical considerations when we turn the camera towards characters and locations and describe our work as documentary?

STUDIO DESCRIPTION

In People + Places, students will engage in a variety of studio activities (including screenings, discussion, practical exercises, reflective tasks and media production) to explore the various ways in which nonfiction materials can be arranged for different outcomes and audiences. The first half of the semester finds students researching and reflecting on various approaches to capturing the real world. In class, students will respond to the work of practitioners such as filmmakers Frederick Wiseman and Molly Dineen and photographers Eve Arnold and Martin Parr in a series of in-class exercises. Along the way, students will evaluate and improve their media production skills. The second half of the semester finds students working in small groups to devise, pitch and produce a major work. This major work is usually a short documentary of 5 minutes duration but there is also scope to create a print or transmedia artefact.

[Photo Credit – Remote Scottish Postboxes, Martin Parr, 2017]