CI245 Documentary Production: A Editor’s Perspective is a course at Colby College.
A documentary comes to life in the editing room. In this course the students engage with various forms of documentary storytelling from an editor’s perspective. In addition to watching documentary films, students produced and edited three documentary video projects. While attention was paid to developing ideas and production, the class focused most heavily on the editing phase of production. Time was given to refine, re-cut and reedit. Students learned the art of process, of revision and re-imagining, as well as learning valuable technical skills such as using a camera, shooting a scene, and interviewing techniques.
Students edit shorts about Mark Wallace, a lobsterman, and his stern-man, Gardner Dryer. For this assignment students are given the same footage shot by Erin Murphy and Palmer Taylor. They have to figure out their editing style and how they want to tell a story about lobstering off the coast from Friendship, Maine.
For their second assignment, students spend 24 hours on Allen Island, a small, private island halfway to Monhegan. Students are asked to shoot a visual narrative about the island. Students often choose to focus on stories about the sheep, about the built environment, about the rocks, and about each other.
Finally, the students spend the last half of the class working on documentary shorts about food production in Maine. This assignment is part of the Maine Food project. Topics have included a local CSA, a homesteading farm, an aquaponics school, food security, a local diner institution, and a farm-to-table restaurant.
For more information about Allen Island you can read about it here.
This course is part of the Digital Maine project.
