Undergraduate Research - The Documentary: Doing Visual Ethographic Research
Full course description
Many of us regularly turn to documentaries as entertaining and engaging ways of learning about new topics from different perspectives. Visual communication – including non-fiction film – is increasingly saturating all aspects of our lives, and images and sound now constitute a large part of the information and entertainment we seek out and consume in daily life. In academia, too, visual methods are increasingly part of the toolkit used to do research and share research with both specialist and general audiences. Audiovisual media, like documentaries, can broaden the topics we can research, add new dimensions to the knowledge we create, and make scientific findings accessible to diverse audiences. As such, filmmaking can be a way of conducting serious academic research – asking questions, gathering data, and presenting arguments – in novel and creative ways.
This project will extend your existing academic skills into a new arena by introducing you to an alternative medium for doing and presenting academic research, namely through filmmaking based on the visual ethnographic tradition. You will learn basic filmmaking skills and visual research methods and use them to design and carry out your own research project in groups. The result will be a short research film, through which you will answer an academic research question and present new information in accessible, informative and appealing ways. By the end of the project, you will have acquired the tools necessary to design, record, and edit your own research film which deals with an academic question in a field of your interest.
The Documentary is a semester long group research project carrying 10 ECTS. The level of the project is equivalent to that of a 3000 level course, as we expect students to acquire entirely new skills while building upon their existing academic knowledge and research skills. It encompasses the two skills trainings and the project offered during the Spring Semester. During the first period, students will be acquainted with the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of research filmmaking. Simultaneously, the groups will start to develop their research. In the second period, students will do their research by conducting visual ethnographic fieldwork. In the final period, students will edit their documentaries.
Course objectives
By the end of this project, students will:
- Develop an understanding of the basic theoretical and methodological aspects of filmmaking as a research method (visual ethnography);
- acquire and apply basic research-filmmaking skills, i.e., planning, filming and editing; and
- produce a research film that investigates and answers a relevant academic question.
Prerequisites
First year students are not eligible for this project. There are no prerequisites for this project, however, the Ethnography track and a topic-related course in Film Studies such as HUM3036 Narrative Media are strongly recommended. Essential requirements are enthusiasm and the motivation to work hard on a team project and develop new skills.
Places on this project are limited, and students must apply individually by writing a motivation letter, which should [i] explain how taking this project fits clearly into the student’s academic plan; [ii] include an intended research topic and explanation of why it constitutes a good subject for visual ethnographic research; and [iii] provide a brief description of any relevant knowledge or skills, such as digital film production or (visual) ethnographic research. Applications are due by the standard course registration deadline in the Fall Semester. Admission will be based on the motivation letter, in conjunction with students’ progress rate and GPA.