Mini Documentary

Assignment Value:

1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

Submitted by:

  • Bill Genereux
So far, this assignment has been completed 24 times.

Create a mini-documentary about someone who is fascinating. Don’t pick your best friend or a close family member. Find someone from your community with a great story to tell. Make this your BEST POSSIBLE work; we’re talking broadcast quality (ok, maybe only broadcast on public access TV, but still you get the idea.)

Use the video medium to show us the essence of who that person is. Preferably, depict this person in their natural surroundings. Use an establishing shot to give us a sense of place. Use cutaway shots so we can get more information about how that person works and/or lives. Use good camera composition techniques to frame your shots. Use tight editing to keep things moving. The video should only be 2-3 minutes long, no more or no less. Your finished video should be compelling to watch from beginning to end, with no slow spots or down times. Use sound, type and transition effects wisely. Use appropriate music from a source like Freeplaymusic.com to help set the mood and tell the story. If possible, record audio separately from the video camera’s microphone. You can use a lavalier microphone, or an audio app on your phone strategically placed out of sight, but near the subject speaking for recording high quality audio. If you use a second recording device for audio, clap your hands to help synch your sound file to your video file. Take your time, and be thoughtful about how your story should unfold for the greatest dramatic impact.

For an example of what an excellent Mini Documentary looks like watch The Story of Gerald Hersch on YouTube. It is less than 2 minutes long, but it takes us through a complete story arc that makes us want to know the person being depicted, as well as experience strong feelings as we view the film. Your film should do the same.

Do this Assignment

If you complete this assignment, share it! If you are signed up with a blog that feeds the main DS106 site, to have your example added below just add the following tags (or labels if you use Blogger) when writing the post on your own blog (You must use BOTH!):

If your blog is not connected to ds106, you can add your example directly.

Submissions So Far

@E_Spengler

The life of Lisa Hoffman

Behind the Story:

Narrating the Process: …

@EmilyHutchins8

The Story of Kate

For this assignment (5 stars), I decided to create a documentary based on my character, Kate. I started by thinking abut what I wanted

@dnguyenUMW

Complete 12 Stars

Motivational Poster!

That Bucket List Though

I believe Robert Neville’s bucket list would contain these:

Find another living human Beat my depression See his daughter and wife once again Beat
2cups

A Story of Rock n Roll

@Reagan Hotz

The Story of Reverend Evadne Tuxhorn

This is my response to the Mini Documentary assignment. I had to create a short documentary about a person’s life, however, there was a

@tifamonster

Riza McHale’s Life

For this assignment, we were required to create a 2 to 3 minute documentary based on someone important. I took this opportunity to expand on

@CadillacezMedia

Mini-Documentary

This is the assignment that I was most worried about throughout the week because the assignment was to create a 2-3 minute mini-documentary about someone

@mezzmello

Character Documentary

I completed the four and a half star Mini Documentary.

I applied this assignment to my character, creating a mini synopsis of the first third of

@julianna_proc

Mini-Documentary

For my last assignment of the week I did the 4 1/2 star mini-documentary on my character Bob. You can find all of the info on

@NatalieCPSC106

Talie’s Documentary

This week I was to complete this mini documentary assignment . I chose to create this documentary about my western character, Talie. You can

Help Someone Else Do this Assignment

If you create a tutorial for this assignment, share it! To have your tutorials appear below, make sure your posts are showing up on the main DS106 site and that you use the following tags (or labels on Blogger) when writing the post on your own blog (You must use BOTH !):

Submissions So Far