Thread by @danielsilas

Opportunity for African video journalists, producers, and documentary filmmakers.

We have created a new #BBCAfricaEye training in the art & craft of documentary storytelling.

Thread…

This course is *not* about how to shoot or edit. We’re working with a lot of people who can film and cut beautifully. We also have a network of great investigators and reporters across the continent.

But documentary storytelling…that’s a harder challenge.

The training is about how to find and develop incredible stories, how to imagine them as visual narratives, and how to direct and structure those stories in the field and in the edit.

It deals with Qs like: Why do some stories have narrative pull? Where does it come from? What’s the difference btwn a subject & a story, & why does it matter? What makes great characters, & how can they be developed? What kind of narrative structures create drama & fascination?

Why is access so crucial to visual storytelling? What is “actuality” & what do films look like w/o it? What are the different types of documentary style or approach, & which should I use? How can great documentaries be structured, and what does that mean for how to plan my shoot?

It looks at the basic grammar of TV or video storytelling: how scenes, sequences, and shots are assembled into stories.

And it considers the ethics of investigative documentary storytelling: How far can you go in structuring reality? What is your duty of care to the people in your film? How have other people screwed this up and strayed from the truth?

It’s an intense 3-4 day training, with a lot of viewing and dissecting documentary - feature docs, current affairs, investigations. Great films, bad films…we talk about them all. It’s the course that Africa Eye’s best producers and Exec Producers wish someone had given us*

[*before we had to learn this stuff by making a ton of mistakes]

It is especially useful for anyone who wants to jump from making 3-8 min digital video or news packages to making 30 or 60 minute documentaries. That’s a big jump, and there’s not a lot of training out there in what it takes to get across it.

If you think you would get something from this training, DM me your contacts and I’ll get back to you with how to apply. We’re looking for producers, filmmakers, video journalists and investigative reporters with some experience here, not total beginners.

We piloted this in Nairobi last month, and we’re going to try and run it again later this year in W Africa somewhere, and then maybe in Southern Africa and in East Africa again. Nothing fixed, but get in touch and I’ll let you know as plans shape up. Thanks for listening / END