Continuing Education at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

In this course we will focus on and practice film editing techniques that help keep the audience engaged, such as cutting in motion and matching in action. You will also learn how to color-correct your footage in Premiere Pro to take the aesthetics of your film to the next level. Students will be provided with appropriate footage to practice and employ these techniques. They can also use their own footage. (6 hours/Intermediate)

Naz is a filmmaker and an educator with over fourteen years of experience in film and media production. She has produced short films and documentaries for public television, nonprofit institutes, and corporate media. She had her first teaching experience when she was a graduate student in media arts at the University of Arizona. Since then, Naz has organized and taught digital storytelling and video production workshops for minority youth and community members. More recently, she taught film production, storytelling, and theory courses at the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham where she was the lead faculty in the Digital Film and Video Production Program. She is currently editing her documentary, a story of loss and grief, and working on an animation script. Naz lives in Durham, collaborates with local and international filmmakers, serves in various capacities for local nonprofit organizations, and bakes lots of cookies around the holidays.

This online course is for documentarians interested in learning the process used by narrative/fiction film cinematographers and directors to create images from script to screen in order to incorporate reconstructions and re-enactments in their work. Students will adapt voiceovers and narration into a shooting script that will be used to make a shot list, a lined script, a storyboard, and blocking diagrams of actors, including production design. We will also look at different case studies in which reconstructions are employed creatively to help students find the correct balance between revealing and retaining information from the audience for maximum dramatic and cinematic impact. (16 hours / All levels)

Vishal Solanki is a Los Angeles–based cinematographer and director working in both fiction and nonfiction films. He also works as adjunct faculty for cinematography at Santa Monica College Film Program. His last documentary, Caffeinated, was distributed by Amazon Prime, among other platforms. Recent documentary credits include additional cinematography for The Advocates (LA Film Fest 2018) and Game Girls (Berlinale 2018). He has filmed PSAs of Sesame Street for HBO and PBS. Vishal is an associate of UC Berkeley’s IRP workshop and a 2019 DX Scholar at the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival in Washington, D.C. His cinematography and directing work focus on social justice stories through narrative films and documentaries.

Making documentary films involves more than just pointing your camera at a subject or recording an event. Your film is a historical document that not only tells the story of your subject but reflects you as an artist, and directing a film means making difficult choices, from initial story concept to first screening.

Documentaries are similar to narrative fiction films in that both are based on a series of tools and techniques. This course will focus on helping participants choose how best to tell their story, design their production, develop their aesthetic, and capture their story on film. Through the screening of selected film clips, readings, in-class instruction, and weekly assignments, students will gain an understanding of the art of directing a documentary while developing the skills they need to fulfill their vision. (16 hours / Beginner/Intermediate)

Randolph Benson is a graduate of Wake Forest University and of the North Carolina School of the Arts’ School of Filmmaking. His film Man and Dog has appeared in film festivals worldwide and has garnered numerous awards, most notably a Gold Medal in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards. His work has been featured on HBO, Bravo, the Independent Film Channel, numerous public television stations, Canal Plus–France, Telewizja Polska S.A.–Poland, and KBS-Korea. Benson received an Eastman Kodak Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a First Appearance Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

In this workshop, we will discuss major editing techniques and the influence of documentaries in filmmaking advances. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of nonlinear editing using visuals and sound and will gain a solid foundation for working in Adobe Premiere Pro. By the end of the day, the students will edit a short one-minute film from stock footage or from their own material. (6 hours / Beginning)

Naz is a filmmaker and an educator with over fourteen years of experience in film and media production. She has produced short films and documentaries for public television, nonprofit institutes, and corporate media. She had her first teaching experience when she was a graduate student in media arts at the University of Arizona. Since then, Naz has organized and taught digital storytelling and video production workshops for minority youth and community members. More recently, she taught film production, storytelling, and theory courses at the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham where she was the lead faculty in the Digital Film and Video Production Program. She is currently editing her documentary, a story of loss and grief, and working on an animation script. Naz lives in Durham, collaborates with local and international filmmakers, serves in various capacities for local nonprofit organizations, and bakes lots of cookies around the holidays.

How do you craft footage into a story—better yet, your story? We’ll analyze documentaries to learn basic editing conventions and study the effects of stylistic choices. Then, through in-class exercises and weekly outside-of-class assignments, we will try it out for ourselves. Using Adobe Premiere Pro, students will edit the same supplied footage to create their own take on the “same” story, which they will share with each other in class. (21 hours / Beginning)

Durward Rogers is a filmmaker with an interest in scientific and technical documentaries. He started practicing film photography at the age of nine and has used Photoshop and digital cameras since they were first released. Before earning his Certificate in the Documentary Arts, Durward spent twenty-five years as a computer graphics engineer, working on such projects as the world’s fastest graphics supercomputer and the original Xbox. He is currently working on a film about climate change.

Additional information:

Some “homework” assignments may require the use of CDS facilities between classes.

Please bring a portable hard drive.

This course offers students the basic skills necessary to gather footage and negotiate technical problems in the field without compromising quality. Learn how to plan and organize a project, choose the best location for a shoot, work with available light, select the right microphone for the right situation, set proper audio levels, and “shoot in sequence.” We will also discuss proper framing and composition techniques and the advantages of hand-held vs. tripod shots. (21 hours / Beginning)

Simone Keith is an educational video specialist with North Carolina State University. Her mission is to help people think visually and be intentional in using video to communicate with their audiences. Simone started her career as a broadcast news videographer and editor and has received three regional Emmy awards for her work on In the Garden with Bryce Lane. She currently teaches video production classes at the Center for Documentary Studies and collaborates with local filmmakers on various documentary projects. Simone is a native of Brazil and a chocoholic. When she is not watching a film, she spends her time gardening, traveling with her husband, and playing with her latest toy, a drone called FlyingCow.

Additional information:

Students may use any video camera available to them. However, a camera with an external microphone jack, a headphone jack, and the capacity for manual control of exposure and white balance will be ideal for this course. Video camera tripods (not photo camera tripods) are also recommended. Please contact the instructor with any questions about equipment

Your smartphone is the most powerful filmmaking tool on the planet. This course teaches you how to use your phone and the tools of filmmaking to tell the stories that matter to you. You’ll learn how to shoot interviews, record sound, and edit your footage on a timeline just like professional filmmakers. During this five-week online course—suitable for anyone with a smartphone and the desire to tell stories with video—you’ll learn by doing as you produce your own short project. (10 hours / All levels)

Please note: This course is offered in an online format and will not meet at CDS but will instead take place in regularly scheduled virtual sessions.

Hal Goodtree is a career filmmaker who has worked with James Earl Jones, Cindy Crawford, The New York Times and the National Football League. His work has been awarded an Emmy, a Cannes Lion and Best Short Documentary at the Longleaf Film Festival. He has been an instructor at CDS since 2015.

This intensive course offers an overview of the essentials of a business plan, specifically, the major components of a plan for a startup film-production business. With the instructor’s help, students will work in small teams to draft a business plan for a production company. The goal of the course is to give students a step-by-step introduction to the process of researching and thinking about the business in a structured way. (6 hours / All levels)

Naz is a filmmaker and an educator with over fourteen years of experience in film and media production. She has produced short films and documentaries for public television, nonprofit institutes, and corporate media. She had her first teaching experience when she was a graduate student in media arts at the University of Arizona. Since then, Naz has organized and taught digital storytelling and video production workshops for minority youth and community members. More recently, she taught film production, storytelling, and theory courses at the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham where she was the lead faculty in the Digital Film and Video Production Program. She is currently editing her documentary, a story of loss and grief, and working on an animation script. Naz lives in Durham, collaborates with local and international filmmakers, serves in various capacities for local nonprofit organizations, and bakes lots of cookies around the holidays.

The Audio, Photography, and Video Projects courses provide documentary artists the opportunity to work with award-winning professionals in small group settings. Each term, CDS invites three established artists to teach the Projects courses, which are designed for individuals who are working on projects in a particular medium and seeking creative guidance. The courses are designed around the specific needs of participants, who share excerpts from their works-in-progress.

Students may take the course for credit more than once. Certificate students are required to take a Projects course in their chosen concentration before enrolling in the Final Project Seminar; in this case, the objective is to emerge with a nearly finished version of their project, ready for a final polish. (12 hours / Advanced)

Jim Haverkamp is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in Durham, North Carolina. His credits include the short films When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl, It Had Wings, and Armor of God. He has also worked as an editor on several feature documentaries, including Monster Road, Doubletime, and Rarefied. Jim has served on the selection committee and awards juries of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and he is co-organizer of Durham’s Strange Beauty Film Festival.