This 5-day film-making course will take you through all the stages of making a short documentary about your work. It includes:

 

• Documentary theory: what makes a good film? How to think about using film and video to promote your research. The language of film: Shot sizes, camera movement, and how to use them.

• Pre-production: Planning your film, researching content, organising shoots. Understanding equipment, copyright and permissions, story-boarding.

• Production: Shooting interviews, shooting additional material, getting good quality sound, lighting your interviews

• Post-production: Editing your film, boosting the colour and audio of your film, best use of music, adding simple graphics, titles and web links.

• Promoting your film: Upload to Youtube, search engine optimisation, social media, getting your film seen.

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Each day will combine learning theory in the classroom, with practical, hands on experience of filming techniques, and analysing footage. Each participant will have the opportunity to be involved in every stage of the film-making process. They are invited to come prepared to make their own film on the course, and will be taught all the stages to produce a finished film after 5 days.

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About George Chan: 

"I’ve worked in TV and film for eighteen years after joining the BBC

to work with Sir David Attenborough on the series State of the

Planet. I’ve been fortunate to travel the world producing and

directing on internationally renowned documentaries, such as

Planet Earth and Wild China, and I now bring a wealth of high

quality broadcast experience to research and enterprise taking

place in the UK. My early career started with a PhD in Evolutionary

Biology and I have continued to work alongside scientists and

researchers on an almost daily basis – translating and bringing

discoveries and ideas to life on screen. It’s been a real privilege

to be able to film groundbreaking research and meet the people

behind it."

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Participants and registration

The course accepts a maximum of 9 students. It is ideal for anyone wanting to learn the techniques of documentary filming. Students typically have a background in science (wanting to disseminate their work more effectively), science communication, and marketing.

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To register click here.

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The fees include full participation in the course and course material, provision of a certificate of attendance, half-board accommodation at Casa Morgado Esporão for up to 5 nights including breakfast, lunch and coffee breaks (offering assortment of coffees, teas, fruit juices and cookies). 

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Unfortunately we have no scholarships on offer. We do offer early bird discounts and shared accommodation is provided for those with more limited budgets. 

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Cancelation policy

If you wish to cancel your participation in this course, cancellations up to 60 days before the course start date will incur a 40% cancellation fee. For later cancellations, or non-attendance, the full course fee will be charged.

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In the unlikely event that the course is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, accepted candidates will either be entitled to a full refund of the course fee, or the fee can be credited toward a future course. The organisation is not responsible for travel costs, or any other expenses incurred by the candidate as a result of such cancellation. Every effort will be made to avoid the cancellation of the planned course.
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Place and date

The workshop will be held at Casa Morgado Esporão - "Residência das Artes, Ciências e Humanidades". The course will take place between the 19 and 23 of October with teaching taking place from 09:30 am and 05:30 pm.

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Testimonials

This is the third edition of the course. Testimonials from students and the teacher are provided in the video below.