HIST 509 Historic Filmmaking

A small-budget filmmaking course for those working in history with focus on pre-production, copyrights, sound engineering, lighting, editing. Students must use a smartphone or video camera.

Historical filmmaking is a skillset that is growing within the modern economy of historical sites as well as in modern media. With the proliferation of digital media in society, the need to communicate with it and understand it, the skills of media literacy and fluency are at an all time high. This course will meet the needs of building digital skills on a foundation of strong historical research.

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in Course Overview.

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, there will be two discussions in this course. The student is required to provide an initial thread in response to the provided topic for each discussion. Each initial thread is to be 300 words in length, demonstrate course-related knowledge, and include at least 1 scholarly citation in Turabian format. In addition to the initial thread, the student is required to reply to three other classmates’ threads. Each reply should be 150 words and include at least 1 scholarly citation in Turabian format.

This orientation video focuses more on the technical aspects of getting comfortable using film equipment. The goal is to get the student comfortable with the whole process and to stretch the student’s historical skills by examining a topic relevant to his/her location. The video will be a baseline to show the student’s starting point with video skills for this course. The video must be between 2-4 minutes in length.

The Film Treatment Plan will serve as the basis for planning future videos. Treatments are used to pitch ideas to prospective entities who would be willing to support the student’s film financially. They can also be used to justify expenditure in the student’s organization. Either way, the treatment covers the background, rough plot, and resources necessary to complete a film. The treatment plan must be between 2-3 pages in length, include at least 3 scholarly sources, and use Turabian format.

Documentaries are synonymous with history. This assignment focuses on honing one of the documentary styles covered in this course, and covering a historical topic. This assignment is meant to combine both historical skills and filmmaking skills. The student will create a mini documentary that is between 6-8 minutes in length to combine visual primary sources with excellent research to produce a clear and coherent narrative.

Cycle Video: Shortform and Social Media Assignment

This assignment focuses on concision in filmmaking as well as experimenting with creative methods of using filmmaking to express historical topics. The student will experiment with poetic documentaries and designing videos to fit modern trends on social media. The video must be between 1 minute and 1 minute and 30 seconds in length. The goal is for the student to be both creative and precise with all three videos that are produced.

Planning for success and cohesive storylines are additional measures to ensure the student is staying on track with his/her video. This assignment will ask the student to create a treatment for his/her final video and include storyboarding of his/her ideas. The student will also submit shotlogs to show his/her work in staying organized on production days.

This film will be the student’s major work of the semester, culminating all of the student’s ideas and experience in one video. The student will create a film that represents his/her situation as well as a clear documentary style. The student will also exemplify the historical research process through film. All of this should be done in a way that the student would distribute it for others to see. The final film must be between 15-18 minutes in length.

This quiz will cover financial issues in filmmaking. This quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 4 essay questions, and have a 1-hour time limit.