We kicked off the first meeting of the documentary production team today with some laughs and some serious conversation about the nature and ethics of documentary work. The class will be co-taught by Jori and Justin Rosengarten, a RISD-trained filmmaker.

We talked about what it means “to document,” the Latin root of documentary (docere, which means “to teach or instruct”), and about a documentary continuum that ranges from simply capturing reality (like videotaping the Super Bowl) to the way TV news channels often slant stories to a particular point of view. We talked about filming surreptitiously (and about what surreptitious means) / the ethics of recording when someone doesn’t know you’re recording.

We arrived at a definition of a documentary as “a film about something real you want to explain/talk about/explore that you present with a particular point of view.”

After talking we practiced interviewing each other, something we will do more of as the semester progresses, which we prepared for by talking about “closed” vs “open” questions and figuring out how to use the audio recorders.

The rest of our time together was spent watching short documentaries complied by Justin here:

http://cmwdocclass.tumblr.com/

We’re all looking forward to next week! Special thanks to Justin, Laura, and to sound artist Stephan Moore for hanging out with us today.