Short films, vlogs, and documentaries
Visualizing Change, Articulating and Countering Hegemonic Discourses on Crime, Migration, Gender and Sexuality
Students create short films, vlogs or documentaries. The target field for the outcomes of students research is the general public, depending on the topic.
Group size: 20
Aims
- Prepare students to critically analyze & interpret (fiction and non-fiction) films, documentaries or (fake) news items on the intersections of crime, gender, migration and sexuality;
- Prepare students for critically representing and visualizing a chosen theme – within the above-mentioned fields – through making an edgy vlog/ short documentary;
- Teach students the basics of docu/vlog-making;
- Facilitate their productions with the necessary tools, knowledge and skills;
- Encourage students to present & discuss their vlogs/short documentaries in public in the form of a seminar/workshop.
Students ec’s for this assignment
Visualising Change was somewhat embedded in a master course taught by dr. Brenda Oude Breuil that amounts to 5 ECTs ('Global reactions to Crime and Disorder'). The visual products that the students worked on in the project served as one of the two exams of the course - accounting for 30% of the final grade
Teacher effort (hours)
Approximately 190h (30h for organising the project structure and content + 15h for seminars + 30h for preparing seminars + 60h for administrative tasks and student co-ordination + 16h for assessing documentaries + 40h for assessing student evaluations and drafting the manual for the project).
Final product
A short documentary or vlog. Students can also decide to present their material for use by a newssite or organization.
Assessment criteria
15% for orginality, 25% for form (editing, montage, photography), 60% for content (critical/anti-hegemonic representation of the chosen topic).
Description of the example
This project endeavors to break down the construction (and possible manipulation) of media messages and news items, focusing on the modalities of the hegemonic discourses behind the fixed, one-dimensional nature of such processes. Moreover, students are stimulated to utilize their creative and critical thinking in order to come up with new stories, focusing on the texture of the experiences and the non-mainstream ways in which ‘dangerous’ knowledge around migration, gender and deviance can be captured and expressed.
The project consists of five seminars. Each seminar is structured based on its thematic focus (introduction – script – filming – editing), with time allocated both for active theoretical engagement on (anti)hegemonic discourses of gender, sexuality and migration (but, more importantly, for hands-on activities intended to help the students come up with and produce a short film/documentary or vlog. To that end, guest speakers/practitioners will be invited to assist the students.
In the closing seminar students present their work to their colleagues and a wider audience. Students receive a list of academic and non-academic (reading) material which is partly obligatory.
More information / Contact
Dr. Brenda Oude Breuil (b.oudebreuil@uu.nl) and Dr. Vassilis Gerasopoulos (v.gerasopoulos@uu.nl)