Overview
Technical Requirements:
i) You will continue to work and collaborate with your group members and deepen your research;
ii) page length:
1,750–2,000 words maximum length ( + images and appendices).
iii) include images where desired (original photographs, short video, drawings/sketches, collages, water colours, etc.)
iii) use proper academic citation: include a filmography and a bibliography; use a single citation style throughout your essay;
iv) number your pages;
v) double-space your writing;
vi) use a 12-pt. font;
vii) include the names of all group members.
Formal Requirements:
In this essay, students will develop further, the main aspects of their proposed documentary above with a proper introduction, body and conclusion. You will need to consider the following in each:
1) Introduction: (5-7 sentences max.) An introduction provides the lay-out of the land, a mapping or a diagram of what is to follow.
i) In your introduction introduce your specific topic and focus in a sentence or two.
ii) State the main question of this documentary. You should have developed and refined this question further, beyond what you had in your initial research proposal.
iii) State your perspective or point of view on this main question. This will be your main argument/claim. (In a sentence or two state what your specific claim/argument/point of view is on the question. What is your take on it? Be persuasive.)
iv) Outline three supporting arguments for the main argument/claim above. (One–three sentences.)
2) Body of Essay – methodology and some formal considerations: Elaborate and develop the focus of your environmental topic and explain why you chose it. Why was it important for you/your group to select this particular focus for your 20-minute environmental documentary? Elaborate and develop your argument (your stated point of view) introduced in the introduction above. Elaborate and develop your three supporting arguments by interweaving the following elements into the body of your essay. (Make sure that you explicitly discuss and examine relevant elements of the course contents (including the readings, documentaries and lectures) in your field-research essay. Your essay should be informed and interweave issues taken up in the readings, documentaries and lectures within the context of your own documentary production.)
A: Ethics
i) Indicate who your audiences will be. (Other students, environmentalists, mainstream public, non-governmental organizations, academics, who?)
ii) Who are you and what do you do? Why have you/your group decided to make this environmental doc and what are you trying to achieve with it? Locate your voice, agency and power in the relations among yourselves and the issues you’re taking up.
iii) Are you speaking for yourself and your own concerns, or are you speaking about the concerns of others/another group? Are you representing yourselves and your issues, or are you representing others/other issues?
Explain and elaborate in detail: will you be representing your locality (are you/group participating in the narrative personally on an environmental issue?) Or, will you/group be representing another group? What are some ethical concerns around voice, agency, power and authority that you anticipate? What measures have you taken to safe guard your documentary against allegations of misrepresentation of other groups/people and environmental issues?
B: Agents/interviewees/environmental organization:
i) Include a description of the issue you will be taking up and who is the main interviewee/ persons/environmental organization you will interview. State their name(s) and position(s) that they occupy, and/or the organization’s name. (Include their contact information in an appendix below);
ii) Who are the secondary people you will interview? Why have they been selected? State their names and positions. (Include their contact information in an appendix below).
iii) Elaborate on why you will be interviewing these people/organization. Why does the audience need to know who they are, and why they are important for your doc.?
iv) On the other hand, if you and your group are the main participants in an environmental project, include your names and your concerns.
v) If you have no interviewees, and your documentary is a visual essay, explain, elaborate and examine the details of your approach to the doc.
C: Questions:
i) What will your questions for this individual/people/environmental group be? List 5 well-developed questions.
ii) What are the anticipated responses? What will your follow-up questions be? List 3-5.
Illuminate the reader of your essay (your TA) as to why you have selected these particular questions. How and in which way will these questions, and their responses, be of interest to audiences?
D: Location scouting:
i) Location scouting: what locations have you scouted and will be using in your interviews and supplementary visuals? (Indoor/outdoor, office/warehouse/kitchen/backyard/park/etc.)
E: Mode of filmmaking:
i) What mode of filmmaking will you be utilizing? Participatory, expository, observational, poetic, reflexive etc. Explain and expand why you/your group has made this choice.
F: Representational Style:
i) Which representational style will you use? Realist, experimental, ironic etc? Explain why you have chosen this representational style and how will it add to the visual elements of your narrative.
G: Images:
i) Present 5-10 images (original images are preferred but, if necessary, you may utilize other sources) to provide a glimpse into the visual landscape of the film you are developing.
3) Conclusion:
The body of your field research will have contextualized your environmental documentary in relation to the course materials (documentaries, readings and lectures). In the conclusion, synthesize what you have learned from making your own environmental documentary in relation to the environmental documentaries screened in this course.
(In the next three months you will have gained substantial insight into documentary making processes and styles through the course materials. Incorporate these insights into your essay on making your 20-minute environmental documentary. In your conclusion you/your group should synthesize what you have read and learned in the course about documentary production with your own documentary production.)
4) Bibliography:
Use at least 5 reading sources from the course syllabus to draw upon and elaborate within the context of your essay above;
In addition to the above, you may also use 3-4 other scholarly sources and/or 3-5 non-academic sources such as reputable newspaper articles, magazines or web searches;
Make sure you use footnotes/endnotes/embedded notes whenever you cite from any of these sources;
Use only one citation style throughout the essay and make sure you cite all your sources, including images.
5) Filmography:
Make sure you cite at least 3 films listed in the course syllabus for reference, comparison or inspiration;
You may also use 2-3 environmental docs not included in the course syllabus;
Reference the films in your footnotes/endnotes, and again, in a proper filmography.
6) Appendices:
All extra material that does not fit within the flow of the essay should be included in an appendix or several appendices.
For instance:
In Appendix A include the contact information of primary and secondary interviewees, contact information of the environmental organization etc.
In Appendix B, include another category of information, such as your primary and follow up questions for the interviewees;
in Appendix C, include another category of information (if needed).
All course documentshttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1gglosGt8QkOdaZ...
Attached is the proposal for the research essay and the professor's revision of the proposal.