Film and Video Production
Curriculum guideline
Lecture: 1.5 hours/week
and
Lab: 2.5 hours/week
Students will receive a combination of lecture and lab-based learning, including hands-on practical experience recording and editing live action footage with location sound.
The Cinema Environment
- Storytelling and Society
- Fiction vs Non-fiction: Documentary and Truth
- Ethics: Informed Consent and Visual Storytelling
Story Development
- Story and Project Development: From Concept to Screenplay
- Ethical Representation: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Unceded Territory
- Story Structure
- Artistic Identity
- Finding the Visual Metaphors
- Point of View: Voice and Perspective
- Research and Cultural Practice: Indigenous Perspectives and Methodologies
Pre-Production
- Storyboarding and Pre-Visualization
- Aesthetics and Composition
- Managing and Organizing Visual Assets
- Understanding Production Financing and Distribution
- Interviewing Skills: Ethics, Research and Preparation
- Production Planning and Paperwork: The Role of the Production Manager and Assistant Director
- Location Scouting: Location as Character
- Location Through an Indigenous Perspective
- Ethics: Filming in Culturally Diverse Communities
Production
- Basic Camera Operation: Settings
- Basic Lighting Set Ups for Cinema and Video
- Digital Video Filming Techniques
- Framing for Your Intended Audience: Aspect Ratios for Cinema and Social Media
- Composition: An Introduction
- Camera Lenses
- Dynamics of Motion
- Running the Day of Shoot
- Shooting Sequences: Framing and Lighting
- Recording and Location Sound
- Digital Media Management, Backup and Transfer of Footage
Post-Production
- Sound and Picture Editing Principles, Interpreting the Director’s Vision
- Introduction to Editing Software
- The Editorial Workflow: First Assembly
- Building Sequences
- Shaping The Story: The Rough Cut
- Sound Editing and Design
- Music: The Score and Licensed Music
- The Mix: Putting It All Together
- B-Roll and Stock Footage
- Overlays, Effects and Animation
- The Current and Future Roles of Artificial Intelligence
- The Fine Cut: Giving and Receiving Critical Feedback
- Colour Correction and Colour Grading
- Versioning, Packaging and Localization
- Delivery Protocols and Technical Specifications
Distribution
- Distributing Media Content
- Theatrical and Non-Theatrical Distribution
- Online and Self-Distribution
- Building a Media Ecosystem
- The Release: Protocols of Cultural Knowledge Sovereignty
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Research and develop an ethical approach to filmmaking with respect to culturally diverse communities and/or sensitive topics;
- Establish perspective and visually interpret a point-of-view;
- Integrate Indigenous storywork principles;
- Synthesize aesthetic principles and composition with visual storytelling;
- Integrate camera and sound skills with story development;
- Apply a production and post workflow to producing a short media project;
- Edit a short film using sequence-building with audio and visual assets.
Assessments will be based on course objectives and will be in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. An evaluation schedule will be presented at the beginning of the course. This is a graded course.
Students are expected to be self-motivated and to demonstrate professionalism, which includes active participation, good attendance, punctuality, effective collaboration, and ability to meet deadlines.
Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the instructor’s course outline.
Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.
Sample Grading Scheme:
| Research and Development Plan | 20% |
| Camera and Sound Exercise | 15% |
| Film Synopsis | 10% |
| Rough Cut | 15% |
| Final Project | 30% |
| Attendance and Professionalism | 10% |
| 100% |
A list of recommended textbooks and materials is provided on the Instructor’s Course Outline, which is available to students at the beginning of each semester.
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