Filmmaking for fieldwork

Book excerpt: Designed for researchers seeking new ways to explore their field and media professionals aiming to extend their practice, this filmmaking handbook shows you how to plug in to issues at the intersection of documentary cinema and ethnography. Exploring the unique potential for filmmaking to describe lifeworlds and the role of video editing in generating new ideas about human experience, it offers practical and theoretical advice for those making their first films. Based on over twenty years of teaching and industry experience, Filmmaking for fieldwork aims to inspire the development of core skills in camera use, sound recording and editing that can be applied to sensory, observational, participatory, reflexive and immersive modes of storytelling. Written for a multi-disciplinary audience, this book covers all stages necessary to produce a documentary film, from conception through to preparation, production, editing and distribution.