My colleague Amy Lauters recently gave me a box she received during her research on farmers’ wives. A family had sent it to her with the hopes she might find it helpful or interesting as part of her work. I took a quick peek at the box’s contents. It contained pictures, a geneaology, newspaper clippings,…
Author: Documentary Site
11 Lessons from a Fundamentals of Game Design Course
In the last few months, I have taken some courses in game design and development. The first course, titled Fundamentals of Game Design, introduced basic principles to think about when getting started. While simple in theory, the principles are much more complex in practice. The following post brings together 11 lessons from that four-week course….
Text-Based Games and Nonfiction Storytelling
As part of learning more about game design and development, I have started playing and researching text-based games toward understanding more about nonfiction game development and online interaction. A text-based is just that: A game wherein everything, including scene-setting, character development, and action, is conveyed through text. Some might include ASCII or other images, but…
18 Places to Check Out Documentary Shorts Online
The following post contains a list of several places to check out documenary shorts online. While you can find some for monthly subscription on Netflix, Amazon, and others, this list includes more curated shorts that represent a variety of styles, subjects, and intentions. Everything listed here is presented in English, either through speaking or subtitles….
Interactions and Music Unite Story in Cohesive ‘Florence’
Florence is one of the most beautiful “interactive storybooks” I have ever seen. Available on Apple and Android devices, Florence tells the fictional story of a mid-20 something woman named Florence Yeoh who feels stuck in her life. By chance she meets Krish, a cellist, and they date and move in together. After some time,…
Starting with Smartphone Filmmaking
During the last year or so, I have been looking at different points of entry into filmmaking. This post focuses on perhaps the easiest entry point: a smartphone. A smartphone offers a complete filmmaking kit that fits in your pocket, with recording, editing, distributing, and, of course, viewing. Both Apple iPhones and Android phones offer…
Some Observations from Recent Documentary Viewing
A few weeks back I watched about 45 documentaries in a short time. Part of that viewing was judging for a film festival, and part of that was doing some catchup on recent titles. When watching that many documentaries in such a short period, I noticed some patterns. Drones Drone footage is fun to create…
Some Lessons in Nonlinear Editing
In the last few months I have begun to learn more about nonlinear editing. I can now assemble a simple video with basic edits and sound, but nothing I have produced thus far has much polish to it just yet. Part of the lessons I have learned has involved trying different programs. I have tried…
Some Alternatives to Adobe Cloud Products
Updated August 26, 2019, to include a link to Gimp. Adobe has come to dominate with its extensive program offerings: Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator. For the professional, the suite might be a must-have. Some prefer the cohesion across the options, and they like access to conistently updated software. Not everyone supports their subscription…
How to Learn Filmmaking without Pursuing a Degree
For many years, I considered pursing a degree in documentary production. With so many great master’s-level programs out there, from Wake Forest to Montana State, the temptation was quite strong. The desire to take on more debt, however, not so much. Degree programs do offer several advantages: Focused and compressed learning time Access to the…