The Documentary Storymaking minor emphasizes hands-on experience in the methods, tools, practices and partnerships that foster students’ understanding and ability to create meaningful stories with and for diverse communities.
While developing students’ personal capacities for creative and ethical expression, the minor in Documentary Storymaking is also deeply community-based and connects to the issues, concerns, and stories of broader importance in partnership with a variety of organizations and communities within the Lehigh Valley.
The Minor in Documentary Storymaking includes three required courses:
Doc 150: Introduction to Documentary Storymaking (typically offered in the fall semester)
This course is an introduction to digital documentary storymaking. It merges the critical study of documentary media with the hands-on construction of documentary stories. Working with tools of the documentary arts—video, still images, audio, writing—students will acquire the foundational skills of media production and effective storytelling while absorbing and analyzing rich examples of documentary storytelling over time and place. The course provides a survey of traditions and issues in documentary media and an introduction to documentary practices and methods. Students will study representative works from a variety of documentary approaches and learn to analyze the techniques of observation and representation at use in these pieces. Finally, students will become familiar with major theoretical constructions of documentary and be able to use these analytical tools to critique both historical and emergent documentary forms. Students will complete several small documentary projects to be gathered in an e-portfolio to be further developed in the capstone.
Drew Swedberg. T 7:00-9:45 PM, Media 2 – 248 N. Third St
Doc 250: Documentary Storymaking Bridge
Documentary Storymaking Bridge places students’ original documentary projects at the center of the class. The metaphor of a bridge links us to Documentary Storymaking theoretical discourses, research practices, and creative production, as well as to ethically-minded documentary connections and partnerships in the community. The course is a meaningful bridge to larger projects for those students working toward a senior capstone or toward the next step after college, and offers support for complex media projects that are too large to fit into one class or one semester—integrating students’ foundational work in media making with the advanced work to come. Designed for students working above the introductory level, projects will evolve within a context of essential engagement with the study and practice of documentary rights and responsibilities.
Prerequisites: DOC 150 or instructor permission
Andy Smith. TR 1:15-2:45 PM, Landis Cinema (101) – Buck Hall
Doc 370: Capstone in Documentary Storymaking (Typically offered in Spring)
This course challenges students to synthesize their course of study across the Documentary Storymaking Minor and solidify their learning in a collaborative documentary project. The course is required in order to complete the Documentary Storymaking minor. The Capstone is a workshop-based experience that guides students through the design, planning, field research, production, and completion of a substantial documentary media project that results in a public presentation of their most advanced work. Production will be informed and enhanced by class discussion of selected readings, screenings, relevant theories and practices in documentary. The course is open to Documentary Studies minors and other advanced students by permission of instructor.
Prerequisites: Doc 150, Doc 250, and the elective(s) in the specific production skills (e.g. film/video, photography, audio recording/editing, hypermedia authoring) necessary for the capstone project they wish to develop.
Additionally, students complete 2 electives (at least one emphasizing documentary production in any media type).