Please note! Course description is confirmed for two academic years, which means that in general, e.g. Learning outcomes, assessment methods and key content stays unchanged. However, via course syllabus, it is possible to specify or change the course execution in each realization of the course, such as how the contact sessions are organized, assessment methods weighted or materials used.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
A workshop style course that will give students the opportunity to learn and practice filmmaking skills, be introduced to cinematic approaches and reflect upon their own artistic development with the guidance of experienced filmmakers.
Students will apply the cinematic approaches explored in the course in a film exercise assignment, extending their filmmaking skills.
Credits: 4
Schedule: 09.11.2020 - 20.11.2020
Teacher in charge (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022): Arturo Delgado Pereira
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Arturo Delgado Pereira, Salla Sorri
Contact information for the course (valid 02.11.2020-21.12.2112):
Course: Director Atelier 2 (ELO-E1535)
THE STAGED DOCUMENTARY
With Marcus Lindeen
Major in Documentary Film
2020/2021
Department of Film, Television and Scenography
ELO, Aalto University
Dates: 09.11-20.11
Time: See schedule below.
Room: Hybrid course (partly via Zoom/partly presencial) TO BE CONFIRMED.
Link to class: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67118568800
Responsible teachers: Salla Sorri /Arturo Delgado Pereira
Teaching Language: English
Credits: 4cr
E-mail: arturo.delgado@aalto.fi / salla.sorri@aalto.fi
CEFR level (applies in this implementation):
Language of instruction and studies (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022):
Teaching language: English
Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
A workshop style course that includes masterclasses with visiting filmmaker, film screenings, discussions, and independent study time in which students will carry out a practical film exercise under the guidance of the visiting filmmaker.
Applies in this implementation:
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKSHOP
What happens when a documentary filmmaker doesn’t take the camera out into the world to capture reality, but instead invites the subjects to a studio and stages their stories with scripted dialogue, scenography and smoke machines? Swedish director Marcus Lindeen works with both documentary film and theater. Using examples from his own work and the films of other directors, he will reflect on the possibilities and problems that come with mixing the two art forms. What are the artistic and ethical consequences of hiring your story subjects as actors and asking them to participate in constructed scenes?
MARCUS LINDEEN’S BIOGRAPHY.
Marcus Lindeen is a Swedish artist, writer and director. His latest play is called The Invisible Adventure and premiered at Théâtre de Gennevilliers in October 2020 as part of Festival d’Automne in Paris. His latest feature documentary film The Raft premiered at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen in 2018 where it won the main award. The Raft has since been shown in over fifty festivals (IDFA, BFI London, Zürich, Melbourne, Sao Paolo, Moscow) and was theatrically released in eleven countries, among them France, Mexico, the UK and the US. The film became a New York Times Critic’s Pick and was broadcasted on BBC Storyville. In 2019 it won the Prix Europa for Best European Television Documentary. The same prize was awarded to Marcus Lindeen’s debut film Regretters in 2011. Regretters is both a theater play and a documentary film about two Swedish men who change their sex twice. The play has been translated into several languages and the film went on to win numerous festival awards. In 2011, his second film Accidentes Gloriosos premiered at The Venice Film Festival where it won the prize for best medium-length film in the Orizzonti section. In 2017, the scenography used in The Raft was exhibited as an art installation at Centre Pompidou in Paris. Marcus lives between Paris and Stockholm, where he is also pursuing a PhD candidate at Stockholm University of the Arts, exploring the subject of ”The Staged Documentary” through an artistic film project consisting of a trilogy of studio based documentaries.
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
Active participation, lectures, workshop work and the completion of film assignment.
Applies in this implementation:
Pre-Assignment
Watch The Raft before Monday 9 class and Regretters before Tuesday 10.
THE RAFT (97 min, documentary 2018)
https://vimeo.com/237073867
Password: acali
REGRETTERS (60 min, documentary 2010)
Password: regretters
Assignment
Students will be asked to make a short film exercise (3-5 min) where they use a, for them, new method of staging reality inspired by the examples and ideas presented during the seminar. More details about the assignment will be provided in the first days of class.
Workload
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
Lectures: 20-54h
Workshop/Independent study: 54-88h
Applies in this implementation:
SCHEDULE AND SEMINAR OVERVIEW
Link to all online sessions: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67118568800
MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER 10.00-14.30 (lunch break between 12.00-13.00)
Lost at sea - The director as experimental scientist
A detailed look into the process of making The Raft, from idea to finished film, with a focus on the biggest creative crisis of the process and how I came to approach that by forcing myself to see the similarities between the controversial scientist in my documentary and myself as a director. Just like he pushed his ”human guinea pigs” to create better results for his science back in 1973, I found myself trying to manipulate the same people 40 years later to create more dramatic moments for my film.
Preparation: The presentation and discussion requires you to have seen The Raft (97 min) before. Link above.
TUESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 10.00-15.00 (lunch break between 12.00-13.00)
A fictional storm, sound scripts and documentary re-takes
This three-part seminar is going to be about the way I think around documentary scriptwriting and what it does to my relationship with the participants. What happens when the director’s ”poetic truth” ends up in conflict with the participant’s own idea about how their story should be told? Or when scripted material starts blending into the real memories of your characters? I will use examples from both The Raft and Regretters, but also talk about a documentary theater technique I use when working for the stage, where the actors are wearing hidden earpieces and the dialogue is controlled by a pre-edited sound script.
Preparation: The presentation and discussion requires you to have seen Regretters (60 min) before. Link above.
WEDNESDAY 11 NOVEMBER 10.00-13.00
Dear Director: Staging outside the studio.
While making research in the archive of Ingmar Bergman for a theater play based on his unrealized films, I found an old fan letter that made me venture into one of the strangest and most inspiring projects I have made. It became the short film Dear Director about the American jazz pianist Kazzrie Jaxen who in 1980 wrote a 16-page confession letter to the famous Swedish filmmaker, and later discovered that she was suffering from something called “vanishing twin syndrome”. The film blends fiction and reality and brings the working methods from the studio into the real life setting of the main character. We will watch the film together and talk about the process. During this session I will also show examples from other directors and talk about their methods.
THURSDAY 12 NOVEMBER-WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER
Students work on their filmmaking assignment. They will develop, shot and edit the film exercise during these days.
THURSDAY 19 NOVEMBER 10AM-3PM
Room: R037/Odeion (TO BE CONFIRMED)
Feedback Session with Marcus Lindeen I:
Half of the class will present their filmmaking exercises.
FRIDAY 20 NOVEMBER 10AM-3PM
Room: R037/Odeion (TO BE CONFIRMED)
Feedback Session with Marcus Lindeen:.
Half of the class will present their filmmaking exercises.
DETAILS
Study Material
Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:
Study material changes according to course content.
Applies in this implementation:
Filmography:
Lola Arias - “Theater of War” (2018)
Werner Herzog - “Little Dieter Needs to Fly“ (1997)
Dalia Al-Kury’s - ”The Privacy of Wounds” (2018)
Karolina Bielawska - ”Call Me Marianna” (2015)
Sarah Polley - “Stories we tell” (2012)
Adina Pintilie - “Touch me not (2018)
Carl Javér - “Reconstrution Utøya” (2018)
Joshua Oppenheimer - “The Act of Killing” (2012)
Jairus McLeary, Gethin Aldous - “The Work” (2017)
Chloé Zhao - “The Rider” (2017)
Orson Welles - “F for fake” (1974)
Barbara Visser - “The end of fear” (2018)
- Teacher: Delgado Pereira Arturo
- Teacher: Sorri Salla