Credits: 4

Schedule: 11.03.2019 - 22.03.2019

Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation): 

Course: Advanced course in Aesthetics 

of Documentary Film Editing (ELO-E1522)

Major in Documentary Film

2018/2019

Department of Film, Television and Scenography

ELO, Aalto University 

 Dates: 11.03.-22.03

Time:See detailed scheduled before.  

Room: R029/381 (subject to changeand depending on class activities)

Responsible teacher: Arturo Delgado Pereira

E-mail:arturo.delgado@aalto.fi


Teaching Period (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Periodi IV

Learning Outcomes (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Opiskelijat oppivat ymmärtämään syventävällä tavalla leikkauksen erityispiirteitä dokumentaarisen ilmaisun näkökulmasta. Ei temaattiset rajaukset (rakenne, rytmi, tarinakaari, vaihtoehtoiset dramaturgiset mallit, erilaiset ajan esittämisen tavat, montaasi jne.)

Content (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Syventävä kurssi, jolla tarkastellaan rakenteiden, rytmin, tarinakaaren, vaihtoehtoisen dramaturgian, erilaisten ajan esittämisen tapojen tai montaasiperinteen näkökulmasta leikkauksen estetiikkaa vaihtuvin temaattisin painotuksin. Kurssilla tehdään oma pienimuotoinen harjoite, joka voi liittyä omaan harjoituselokuvatuotantoon.

Details on the course content (applies in this implementation): 

SHORT DESCRIPTION by Diana Toucedo (filmmaker and visiting lecturer)

 It is often said that the true condition of human beings is to think with their hands. In cinema, the hand becomes the original center of any gesture. We start to write, we take a camera, a microphone with a hand... and then our hands are the ones who edit on a computer. Our thoughts, desires, passions are materiliazed and sculpted through the gestures that define our relationships with the world. Gestures of creation, whether real or imaginary, through images.

 A hand writes stories or sketches in its wish to become subject of cinematographic language, but, what's our cinematographic language? Can we find our own voice through this audiovisual language? Is there a standard way of telling through images or can we invent our own? On author films or creative documentaries it can be the emotion grammar the only guide for finding a subject inside the film, as Miguel Angel found the "David" inside a Carrara marble stone. But, what do we have to do as filmmakers for finding our film into the real world? Is there an original emotion who guides the search or we think through forms to find an emotion? Can we define our own gestures, thoughts and relations through our hands? 

Relations are also another important point when a filmmaker is shooting and editing. A double gesture that permeates the images; during the shooting process, we need to take a lot of decisions, we need to gaze, look with patience, concentration and intuition to catch "the images", the only ones that belong to our film. And at the editing stage the same way of analysing, re-viewing and re-finding the most powerful potentials of our images is essential. So, a permanent process of creation is going on throughout the whole production stage, trying to find the alive spirit of our project. The Chilean director Raúl Rúiz says at his "Poéticas de cine" that experiencing a work of art is not about merely “falling in love with it”, but rather about “understanding the process of falling in love”. To do so, we need the freedom to move away from the loved object in order to return to it freely.  


Assessment Methods and Criteria (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Luennot, katselut ja vierailut sekä workshoptehtävä. Kurssin hyväksytty suorittaminen edellyttää aktiivista osallistumista ja paneutunutta kurssitehtävän suorittamista.

Elaboration of the evaluation criteria and methods, and acquainting students with the evaluation (applies in this implementation): 

GENERAL SCHEDULE 

During this first week of the coursewe will welcome Anja Salomonowitz in our course. Anja will give a lecture about her creative process of her documentary work with a focus on editing decisions. She will also screen her work in progress This Film is a Gift in order to analyze the journey from idea (paper) to film (screen), and reflect upon different versions of her work in progress. (14.03).

On the second day of her visit (15.03) Anja will do individual/group tutorials with students about their own documentary work. 

Prior to Anja’s visit students will have the opportunity to view two of Anja Salomonowitz’s previous workIt Happened Just Before(Anja Salomonowitz, 2006)and 727 Days Without Karamo(Anja Salomonowitz, 2013) and 

On the second week of the course, we will welcome Diana Toucedo (18.03-22.03) Diana will offer lecturers on editing documentary and hybrid film works as well on how to prepare to get the most out of the first viewing of filmed material. 

To prepare for Diana’s visit and the activities she will set for the class, Diana has assignedstudents some preliminary work. Apart from somefilm viewingsthat she has recommended, students will have to select some unedited film material from a current or past project (3 to 10 minutes length) and add some basic subtitles. It could be situation, a character, an image, or a moment that holds some kind of power (i.e. emotional, affective, audiovisual, narrative power). It is important that this material is not edited. Students are due to bring this material on Tuesday 19.03 for the class “The attentive look”.

Films assigned by Diana Toucedo to watch prior to her visit:  

Nobody’s Business (Alan Berliner, 1996)

Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989)

Embracing (Naomi Kawase,1992) 

Les Plages D’Agnes (Agnès Varda, 2008)

Visages Villages (Agnès Varda, 2017)

Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)

No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)



Workload (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Työmäärä yhteensä 54-108t.

Details on calculating the workload (applies in this implementation): 

DETAILED SCHEDULE

WEEK 1

Monday 11.03 (09:30:12:00): Introduction to the course + Screening

Presentation of the course + screening Nobody’s Business(Alan Berliner, 1996)

Tuesday 12.03 (09:30-15:00)Film screenings. 

Screening of Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012) + No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)

Wednesday 13.03 (10:00-16:00): Prep for Anja’s Salmonowitz’s visit. (Screening of her work)

 Screening of 727 Days Without Karamo(Anja Salomonowitz, 2013) and It Happened Just Before (Anja Salomonowitz, 2006)

Thursday 14.03 (09:30-16:00) Anja Salomonowitz’s visit

 Am: Lecture with filmmaker and editor Anja Salomonowitz. 

 Pm: Screening and discussion of Anja’s Salmonowitz’s editing process in her work in progress 

filmThis Film is a Gift 

Friday 15.03(09:30-16:00):Anja Salomonowitz´s turorial with students. 

Individual or group tutorial with Anja Salomonowitz about current student’s work. 


WEEK 2: DIANA TOUCEDO. 

 Monday 18.03 (10:00-16:00): Editing documentary and hybrid work.

 Through the analysis and viewings of different authors and styles we will deepen in the potential of editing for documentary and hybrid film works. 

Introduction of the class assignment “First person” based on the material found in  “Your Lost Memories” https://vimeo.com/user1803216

Tuesday 19.03 (10:00-16:00):The attentive look

Diana’s lecture on how to analyze the different layers we can identify in the filmed material. Diana will focus on how to treat and prepare for the first viewing, a key and unrepeatable moment in the editing process. 

Presentation of students’ selection of images coming from their own material for the class assignment “The Attentive Look”. With Diana’s guidance students will analyze the different layers of those images, the visible and “invisible” affects and emotions in them, as well as their emotional and narrative potential. The focus of the day will be on the importance on preparing for the first viewing of filmed material. 

Wednesday 20.03 (10:00-16:00):Your Lost Memories (I)

Students will show a first assembly of their “Your Lost Memories” assignment. We will analyze this work in progress as a group. 

Thursday 21.03: Your Lost Memories (II)

Independent study: working on first person editing assignment. 

Friday 22.03: Your Lost Memories (III)

Screening and discussion of students’ work. 


Study Material (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Vaihtuvien teemojen mukaisen oheismateriaali tai kirjallisuus.

Substitutes for Courses (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Vastaava aiemmin suoritettu kokonaisuus erikseen sovitusti.

Course Homepage (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/search.php?search=ELO-E1522

Grading Scale (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Hyväksytty - hylätty

Registration for Courses (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Kursseille ottamisen prioriteettijärjestys ARTSissa 1.1.2018 

Further Information (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Yhteistyössä leikkauksen kanssa.

Opiskelijoiden tulee osallistua kurssin ensimmäiselle kerralle varmistaakseen opintopaikkansa.

Details on the schedule (applies in this implementation): 


Assignment 1: Watch Diana Toucedo´s and Anja Salomonowitz's assigned material. 

Assignment 2: The attentive look. 

Assignment 2: First person exercise. 


Description

Registration and further information