NARRATING NATURE: DOCUMENTARIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Spring 2017 | ENV XXX Cross listed: LATAM XXXX | ICS XXX | DOC XXX Nicholas School of the Environment Duke University Time Location (TBD) W/F 8:30am – 9:45am (10:05-11:20 a.m. / 6:15-7:30 p.m.) Classroom TBD Instructor Miguel Rojas Sotelo [email protected] Phone: 919-681-3883 Office hours: (2 hours) Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:45-10:15am @ Franklin Center 133 COURSE INTRODUCTION: Documentary (non-fiction) research-based films, photo essays, radio documentaries, hypermedia documents, and long-form analytical narratives shed light on our world. They portray the environment, real people, events, and situations - with an aesthetic sensibility that transforms these depictions into compelling statements about all aspects of our environmental, social, cultural, political, and economic lives. In the course of a couple of generations managed to powerfully raise the temperature of an entire planet, to knock its most basic systems out of kilter. Although we know about it, we don’t know about it. It hasn’t registered in our gut; it isn’t part of our culture (yet). Art, like religion, is one of the ways we digest what is happening, to make sense out of it that proceeds to action. The aim of this course is to evaluate and illustrate how film documentary media can help communicate, critique, and educate the public about the complex environmental and social issues of our times. Students will analyze how environmental and social issues are presented through different audiovisual forums. The overarching theme of the course is to investigate how environmental/social activism and communication is enhanced (or hindered) through these modes of creative visual expression. As the course develops students will have the chance to put these concepts into practice and create their own environmentally-themed pieces. The course will cover both the history and introductory tool set involved in the production of each documentary mode, placing a strong emphasis on linking the research methods of the sciences and the humanistic concerns of the arts. Among the subjects covered in the course are: media archives and archival research, ethical and legal issues associated with documentary research and production, the history and theory of documentary photography, film, radio, and documentary production and editing. “No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. Stories are how we 1 explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define and teach social values. ” — Dr. Pamela Rutledge, Director, Media Psychology Research Center. Course Description: This course is developed in order to allow participants to understand, utilized, and produced (in an introductory level) documentary media on environmental topics. The course is divided into two parts (and four sections): the first part, introduces students to the histories and theories of non-narrative media production, while giving methods for understanding how media is constructed, produced, and circulated. Also, it introduces participants to the practices of documentary production, terminology, and ways to research and structure a documentary project. The second part is a hand-on workshop in which participants would be able to produced individual and group projects by applying the toolset studied and discussed in the first part. Simultaneously, the participants will be watching, discussing, and analyzing a number of environmental documentary films that present the diverse horizon of production on issues such as environmental justice, nature films, scientific media, and new multimedia applications. Two sections of the course deal with history and visual theory; the other two are related to production of individual and group documentary pieces. Students will produce an individual audio/visual essay (photography and audio) as mid- term project. The final “group” project will produce three short documentary films (3-10 minute long) on topics workshoped during the course. A documentary film is an editorial project; as such it has to be understood as a scholarly, research, and aesthetic product that links not only audiovisual narrative techniques, but also research, science, and authorship. In-class screenings, readings, and assignments would be giving in weekly bases. For the hands- on sections, students would produce footage and shoot interviews outside class. In-class screenings of works-in-progress would help students improve their work through instructor and peer feedback. The completed films will be screened and discussed during the final open class (as as small film festival). Instruction focuses on an overview of the documentary process, including documentary form and style, preproduction, shooting, editing, and documentary structure. Goals & Objectives: Each student will complete an individual photo and or audio essay (3 minute, 30 to 60 images) as a mid-term project. Each student will be part of a group documentary project (final films ranging 3 - 10 minutes). The individual pieces can be developed in SoundSlides or PowerPoint, and use Audacity for the audio part; group projects will be produced in high resolution video and edited in Final Cut Pro. Final versions will be exported to vod/mp4 (Quicktime file). Every week, students will be expected to come to class on time, prepared with that week’s assignment; for the hands-on sections participants are expected to be ready to present on digital format (SS/PPT/Quicktime files). For the second part of the semester the class will be split into three groups for more in-depth discussion and advised of works-in progress. Students must have access to a camera and editing equipment (via CDS and the LINK), and at least one idea ready for development after spring recess. 2 Students will keep a log (digital portfolio) with weekly assignments and detail diaries of preproduction, production, and post-production of the individual and group projects. Grading: Course grades will be based the on the completion of assignments and classroom participation as follows: Breakdown of the weight for each component of the final grade: Digital Portfolio (Weekly assignments and logs): 20 %. Final cut of individual photo/audio essay: 30% Attendance/Punctuality/Participation: 10 %. Final cut group documentary project: 40%. Letter Grade % A (90-100%). B (80-89%). C (70-79%). D (60-69%). F (-60). Digital Portfolio: Journal assignments will be given weekly and will include things like: writing critics on films, creating monologues or dialogues for essay, outlining a potential documentary film, developing a character profile, archival research, time-lines, etc. Each entry will surround a specific environmental issue. The Portfolio will also host the development of the two course projects. For mid-term project: ONE 3-5 PAGE “SCRIPT,” documentary film script, street composition, screenplay etc. about an environmental issue of your choice. Examples include monologues, dialogues, documentary film treatment. Students will also provide a demonstrated understanding of their chosen environmental issue with a ONE PAGE treatment discussion of main arguments, controversies, misconceptions, etc. For FINAL GROUP FILM, ONE 5-10 PAGE “SCRIPT,” documentary film script, street composition, screenplay etc. about an environmental issue agreed by the group. About Group Project: With a group of 4-6 other students, you will work to create a final film that sheds light on a specific environmental topic. You will be given chances to build on components of your midterm script, or create something new entirely. Before starting production the group has to submit a: documentary prospectus. It should be a detailed narrative (5-10 pages in length), that offers a comprehensive description of a documentary project your group will undertake. The group might expand on one of the midterm projects (treating it as a pilot) and making it the focus of a more ambitious undertaking described in the prospectus. The prospectus should include: 1) a comprehensive narrative describing your project, including its rationale (why this topic; why this format; why this approach), 2) a discussion of intended audience, 3) a review of related projects (and how yours will differ from them), 4) a full discussion of research strategies and sources, 5) an overview of production tasks (for the group), and 6) a detailed production outline 7) a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The prospectus should be submitted electronically (and add it to each portfolio) on the date recorded in the schedule of the class. READINGS: 3 Required Readings (these are our core texts; they will be supplemented by on-line and reserve readings and resources): o Alan Weisman, Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. (Chelsea Green, 2008) o Jared Diamon, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking Press, 2005) o Patricia Aufderheide, Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2007). o Robert S. Boynton, The New New Journalism (Vintage Books, 2005). o Robert Coles, Doing Documentary Work (Oxford, 1997). o Ken Light, Witness in Our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000). o Liz Stubbs, Documentary