Documentary Studies
Spring 2019 Courses

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Index:

NOTE:  All courses listed as DS count towards Skidmore College's Media and Film Studies Minor. 

Course Descriptions

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DS 251B - Intro to Documentary Studies
Sarah Friedland
Thu, 2:10-3:30pm (2 cr)

This course introduces students to the historical, theoretical, practical, and ethical traditions of creative non-fiction storytelling. Through a variety of mediums – photography, sound, performance, film, etc. – we will study how makers and scholars have approached the representation of reality on a global level. We will: interrogate extractive and colonialist practices in documentary; think about the ever blurring line between fact and fiction; and consider personal, collaborative and collective methodologies of storytelling. 

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DS 110A - Storytelling: Video
Ron Taylor
Mon, 4-6pm, 1/2 semester (1 cr)

This 7-week course supports students working on independent non-fiction projects that may or may not be related to another course, in any stage of production. Students may enter the course at any level of production experience, as basic instruction in equipment and software will be covered. Technical skills will be developed through a series of directed exercises done in class. This is a great opportunity to develop a project for your portfolio! Proposed projects may employ video, photography, audio and/or any other media. Students will workshop an individual short project through script, story boards, rough and final cut screenings, and individual critiques. Students will focus on finding an approach to form that suits both subject matter and their personal creative and academic goals. Students will also engage in critiques, technical workshops, screenings and discussions. Exposure to a variety of creative production styles will help each student begin to develop their own unique approach.

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DS 112B - Storytelling: Photography
Daesha Harris
Wed, 5-8pm (2 cr)

Students will examine how the tradition of documentary photography and the documentary aesthetic in image making has evolved over the last century. Considering the various ways in which this style of photography has been executed (scientific evidence, reportage, fine art and a tool for social change) students will explore ways to apply these approaches in the local community. Students will develop an appreciation of the medium's potential to be document, art or both and question the role of the documentary photographer's power in shaping what we see. They will look and learn from work of photographers past and present such as Gordon Parks, Sally Mann, Wendy Red Star, Mara Sanchez Renero and William Eggleston among others. Students will develop their documentary practice in the Saratoga community by taking part in adventures and field trips on and off campus to build a portfolio of work. Prerequisite: Photography I, Intro to Digital Photography, or equivalent experience with permission of the department (write to mdocs@skidmore.edu).

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DS 113B - Storytelling: Interviewing
Julie Casper-Roth
Mon, 1:30-3:30pm (2 cr)

Students will learn the basics of oral history interview practices, ethics and techniques, including how to digitally record and transcribe an interview. We will begin by working on stories with Saratoga Springs residents. Each student will record, log and transcribe two interviews, one from a pre-selected pool of interviewees and another of their own choosing. Completed oral histories may become part of the Skidmore-Saratoga Memory Project.

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DS 116A - Storytelling: Mapping
Thomas Hart
Tue, 2:10-3:30pm (1 cr)

Are you used to static presentations built in Power Point? Are you interesting in learning an easy, compelling alternative based on dynamic web content? In this course, we will learn how to create map-based stories. Presentation of geographic information begins with maps made following good design. But what is the rest of the story in presenting an online map? Good design is only the beginning. Once content is mapped, how and with what media can the visual information be best presented? Developing a complete story requires narrative and flow considerations that allow the mapped information to gain meaning for end users. This course will explore use of presentation strategies starting with Google Maps and then moving to the popular and powerful ESRI Story Mapping platform. Students with prior GIS experience will be able to create more complex map visualizations, while those uninitiated in GIS will be able to create maps using both their own and existing data sets to achieve powerful and appropriate visualizations. The course allows for those with significant presentations at the end of the semester, such as capstone projects, to apply visualization and presentation methods gained in this course in those projects.

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DS 119A - Spoken Word and Storytelling  -  NEW!!
Luis Inoa
Thu, 6-8pm, 1/2 semester (1 cr)

This 7-week course offers encouragement, structure, and assistance for any student who has a story to tell. The course will center self, families, and specifically black families as inspiration. It will ask students to reflect on the stories, songs, and photographs of their lives to create autobiographical spoken word and storytelling pieces. The class will offer writing exercises, small group shares and discussions, conversations about craft, reading aloud of newly-created work, and viewing of live and recorded performances. Over the course of the seven weeks, students will edit and fine-tune their pieces and prepare their final performance through practice. Students will come away with new material, live performance experience, and a taste of collaborative creation. The course is appropriate for all levels of experience with both writing and performance.

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DS 251A - Sounding the Museum - NEW!!
Adam Tinkle
Wed, 12:20-2:20pm (cr 1)

In this course, students will survey the many and varied ways in which sound is implicated in, and implemented by cultural organizations, with the Tang Museum as a test case. The course begins with an acoustical survey of the museum--how it sounds as a physical space, what sounds it produces as an exhibiting and presenting institution, and how sound is entailed in its brand and digital identity (using a newly-composed sound design for the museum's video series as a case study). Then, students will form working groups to pursue research into, and produce proposals for, a number of sonic interventions in the museum. These will include: an audio guide for one of the Spring exhibitions, a sound exhibition in the museum's Elevator Music series, the museum's concert series (Upbeat on the Roof), and a prospective, not-yet-created record label for the Tang. After this proposal stage, we will select one or more of the most practicable ideas, and then get deeper into hands-on work towards these proposals. Along the way, students will engage with a number of sound-focused public events at the museum. -- In this way, the actual work of the museum itself forms the center of the curriculum, providing an experiential context within which students can understand their work to have a Tangible audience and a concrete public address.

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DS-251C 001 - Multi-Media and Literary Archive
Marc Woodworth
Tu/Th, 12:40-2pm (3 cr)

Interested in developing fresh multi-media content while working creatively with archival materials and contemporary writers, artists, critics and thinkers? You might find yourself conducting an interview with a leading fiction writer and editing the session into a podcast-ready piece. Or exploring the world of 1960s left-wing politics by making a short film including archival audio, video and original correspondence. As a workshop collective, we'll invent, compose and create fresh content in a variety of media (from audio and video to digital and text) as part of a rich and immersive opportunity to work creatively, drawing on a deep archive of material (including correspondence, images, audio, video, and manuscripts). This hands-on makers workshop is ideal for anyone who loves media, storytelling, art, literature, politics, ideas and cultural analysis. For students interested in the fields of publishing and marketing, the class will offer the opportunity to gain skills essential in today's arts and business worlds while developing original multi-media content. The best of the projects we realize will be featured in the real-world context of Salmagundi Magazine's new website -designed by NYC's Linked by Air –and other social media platforms. Both students new to multi-media production and those who already have experience are very welcome to join us.

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DS 251C 002 - 3D Interactive Storytelling
Greg Lyons
M/W, 2:30-3:50pm, (3 cr)

In this course students will learn interactive media design in the Unity3D video game engine. No prior coding or gaming experience is necessary. Unity3D is a powerful interactive storytelling tool that can be used to bring student research or creativity to life in a variety of ways.

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DS 251D - Documentary Film Production: Form and Content
Sarah Friedland
Tu/Th, 9:10-11am, (4 cr)

An introduction to the tools, skills and practices used in documentary film production. Through the frameworks of documentary aesthetics and ethics, students will learn about style and craft in non-fiction film and apply this knowledge to their own documentary production work. Over the course of the semester, students will work in groups and individually to create multiple short documentary films in varying styles. All skill levels are welcome. Central to this course is the close observation and understanding of the world around us. Students will learn how to be respectful and acute observers in order to focus their lenses on the immediate and personal stories surrounding them. (Fulfills the arts requirement.)

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DS 351 - Storytellers' Institute Prep
Sarah Friedland
Tue, 6-8pm, (2 cr)

For students accepted to summer 2019 Storytellers' Institute. This course will give students the tools they need to prepare for a successful June fellowship. Time will be divided between: preparation of projects, skill-building,introduction to the annual theme, and programming the student festival component to the annual Storytellers' Institute Festival Symposium. By permission of the instructor only. Applications due October 24, 2018.

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ES 352C - Environmental Justice in the Capital
Andrew Schneller
Tue, 2:10-5:10pm (3 cr)

Humanities Action Lab: Environmental Justice in the Capital Region-- An investigation into environmental injustices and community advocacy in Albany, NY. Skidmore College students in this course will contribute a final multi-media piece as part of the touring Humanities Action Lab, a coalition of universities, issue organizations, and public spaces in 36 international cities. Students will conduct both primary and secondary source research that works to better understand and highlight threats to public health and the environment, and potential solutions. We will interview, record, and photograph active stakeholders and sites in the Albany Environmental Justice arena, which includes a diversity of community members, activists, state agencies, and industry. Travel to Albany, and evening/alternate class sessions will be required. This course has been designated as Applied Civic Engagement (ACE). Prerequisite: Enrollment for this course is by special permission only, and the course requires some prior experience in justice-related course work. Please email Professor Schneller with your interest in the course.

**Counts towards all-college humanities requirement

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MF 351C - Law and Ethics for Media
Scott Mulligan
M/W, 2:30-3:50pm (3 cr)

Do you plan to work in a media-related industry after college? Do you make media-based content as a filmmaker, musician, radio/audio/podcast producer, videogame maker, marketer or maker, storyteller, museum curator or visual artist (including photography, painting, etc.) now? If so, then you need to take this class! This course provides essential, practical information that is indispensable for media content creators, regardless of their medium, applying to nearly all majors. This course offers an interdisciplinary approach for filmmakers and documentarians, authors and artists, musicians, makers and marketers, to explore ways to protect their ideas, expressive works and creative endeavors from being copied or stolen by others, especially in the digital age. Students will learn to develop approaches regarding underlying policies and to challenge assumptions at the intersection of storytelling, business, art, law and creative expression. Some documentary films will be shown on a few evenings during the semester. Fulfills the Arts Administration Program's Focused Elective requirement.