At a glance
- Learn the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking
- Learn how to make the skills transferrable between passion projects and paid corporate work
- Five 2 hour evening classes
About the course
In this five 2.5hr course Tom Webb takes you through the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking, drawing on his extensive knowledge gained creating entertainment, corporate, short form and feature length documentaries. You will learn not only about the technical aspects for documentary making but also interviewing techniques, stylistic approaches, as well how to translate your knowledge from passion projects to paid corporate work. The course will start of looking at documentary as a genre and its relationship to an audience, from there you will learn about the shooting process, interview techniques, post production workflows and finding translatable skills that allow you to leverage your knowledge between passion projects and paid corporate work. Each class on the course will be taught via lectures, disscussion and QandA sessions.
Who should attend
This course is for anyone interested in making documentary style films. Whether you are a complete novice who is interested in getting started or whether you are an experienced videographer who wants to take the next step.
What you will Learn
Week 1: What is Documentary filmmaking?
The term Documentary filmmaking covers a wide variety of subjects, subgenres, styles, format, techniques and unique voices. In this class we will look at:
- The main styles and sub genres
- The building blocks of documentary filmmaking
- How to create a vision for your documentary
- How does style communicate your story
This class is also available as an individual evening, book HERE
Week 2: Production: Cameras, Lights and Sound
You have a subject, how do you turn that into a documentary? What choices do you need to make and which ones are important? In this class we will look at:
- Is equipment really important?
- Camera basics
- Composition and it’s effect on audience
- B-roll is actually A-roll
- Lighting an interview – live demonstration
- Sound and why it’s more important than the visuals
This class is also available as an individual evening, book HERE
Week 3: Empathy or Antagonism
Interviewing subjects can be a daunting task and technique and style changes from film to film. Understanding your subject, style and intention is key to how you approach an interview. In this class we will look at:
- Research and interview preparation
- Earning your interviewee’s trust
- Representation of interviewees
- Open and closed questions
- Asking difficult questions
- The Sucker Punch
- Communicating with your crew in difficult situations
- Soundbites and how to get them
This class is also available as an individual evening, book HERE
Week 4: Post-Production – the most daunting of tasks
This is where your documentary is made/discovered/fixed but where do you start? How do you wrestle hours and hours of footage into the perfect film? In this class we will look at:
- Planning workflow
- Narrative structure
- Making tough decisions
- Project walkthrough
- Narrators – the voice of God
- Animation and motion graphics and how they can facilitate story
- Guiding the audience with sound and music
- Fresh eyes and feedback
This class is also available as an individual evening, book HERE
Week 5: passion and/or/vs profit
Most people aren’t lucky enough to earn good money on projects they love all the time so how do you balance passion projects vs earning a living. How do you find the fun and excitement in the dullest of corporate jobs? In this lesson we will look at:
- One for the heart one for the condo
- You don’t have to understand the content
- Working with clients not for them
- Pitch what they want AND something unexpected
- Applying existing skills
- Passion projects and doing it for the love of it
- General course Q and A
This class is also available as an individual evening, book HERE
Recommended viewing:
- Senna
- 13
- Bowling for Columbine
- Tiger King
- This is Spinal Tap
- Frost/Nixon
About your instructor
Tom Webb started making short films in his early teens and his love of filmmaking continued in his career. After starting his filmmaking life re-editing American TV shows for broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the UK and filming Martial Arts and Professional Wrestling he then went on to be Head of Creative at Upbeat, a digital agency that covers video production and web development. Whilst there Tom filmed and edited everything from press junkets to film premieres, medical videos to corporate events, A-list movie stars to random people in the street. Alongside this Tom has also co hosted the Have You Seen..? Podcast, made award winning short films, short form documentaries and a feature length documentary about the male perspective of fertility treatment called The Easy Bit which premiered at Raindance in 2019.
Tom’s Social Media:
- Personal Twitter: @TomWebbDirector
- Personal Instagram: @tomwebbdirector
- The Easy Bit Twitter: @theeasybitdoc | Instagram: @theeasybit | Facebook: facebook.com/theeasybit
