Build Your Documentary Filmmaking Reel at NYFA
During NYFA’s Documentary Filmmaking programs, students develop non-fiction storytelling skills through a series of hands-on projects. Through the completion of these projects, students learn how to tell a compelling story while exploring various types of documentary films, such as Vérité, Interview, Social Issues films, New Media content and more.
Students learn to create a short film from start-to-finish, as they direct, research, write, produce, shoot, and edit their own work. In longer programs, students have the opportunity to create longer films, building a reel that showcases their best work. A final celebratory screening is at the end of the 1-year Documentary Filmmaking Program, as well as at the end of the MFA program, where students screen thesis films for friends, family, and invited guests.
Documentary filmmaking programs are available at NYFA New York and Los Angeles, and projects vary by location and program length. Please note that the projects listed below are examples of the type of work that documentary students complete and not an all-encompassing list. Please note that projects are subject to change. For more information, please see the course catalog.
MFA Program Projects
Vérité Character Film
With Character Vérité Film, we challenge students to create a “cinema verité” documentary, capturing authentic moments from a person’s life to tell a story, rather than telling us about or interviewing the person. Each student directs, shoots, and edits their own film.
Personal Voice (1st Person Film)
NYFA Los Angeles: In the Personal Voice (1st Person) Film at NYFA Los Angeles, each student produces a film based on a transformational or unique experience in their own life. The project includes on-camera interviews, personal archival material, and montage style editing. Students can use montage to great effect in the compression of time and to create visual collisions or unexpected continuations between shots. In the editing room, students cut the images to work in harmony with rhythm and pacing. Students may add music in post for this 5-7 minute film.
NYFA New York: The Personal Voice (1st Person) Film at NYFA New York explores first person filmmaking and the exigencies of mobile platforms. Students create a 3-4 minute digital video using any film language they choose. Filmmakers create these videos from their point of view and we encourage creative exploration.
Archival Compilation Film
Archival footage, stills, and materials are a powerful tool for documentary filmmakers. The Archival Compilation challenges students to create a 3-5 minute film that combines different types of footage such as interviews, stock footage, and stills. This exercise emphasizes directorial and editorial control to actively engage an audience and express a point of view. We emphasize conceiving and constructing visual and aural juxtapositions and metaphors using these various elements.
Social Issue Film
In the Social Issue Film, students tell a story that explores the social issue of their choice, and may choose to provide a fresh perspective on a political issue or document a local story that has larger implications. Through this project, students add interviews and narration to their arsenal of documentary film language and make use of research, story development, and pre-scripting techniques. They may also use third party materials. During the MFA in Documentary Filmmaking program, this film is up to 20 minutes. In shorter programs, the Social Issue Film is more concise.
New Media / Web Series
It is essential for a filmmaker to keep abreast of the evolution in new media technology and the many new outlets for distribution. The New Media / Web Series Project exposes students to trends in these areas and pitch, develop and create an original, collaborative web series.
Community Film
In the Community Film, students work collaboratively under the close guidance of their instructors to produce a project for a non-profit organization. Throughout this project, we encourage students to put their acquired skills and creativity to work to benefit a cause, learning to meet the demands of a professional client. This project helps students develop a working knowledge of what it takes to produce a high-quality film from start to finish.
Reality TV Bible
The Reality TV Bible gives students the opportunity to conceive and develop an idea for a documentary TV series. Students learn how to develop and polish a written pitch deck and verbal pitch for it. Using the knowledge they learn from their Unscripted TV Storytelling and Master Classes, as well as the documentary techniques they learn throughout the program, we challenge students to structure and pitch a TV series that obeys both classical story conventions and unscripted TV requirements. Students create a thorough and engaging pitch of up to 5 minutes in length.
MFA Thesis Film Project
The culmination of the MFA Documentary Program is a graduate level thesis film on the subject and utilizing the film language and equipment of the student’s own choosing. Making use of research, story development and pre-production techniques, each student develops, produces, and directs a thesis film of up to 30 minutes in length.
Thesis Pitchfest
During the Thesis Pitchfest, students from the 1-Year Certificate Program and the MFA in Documentary Program pitch their thesis films to industry professionals.
Certificate Program Projects
Observational Film
Each student directs, shoots, and edits a visual story about a process or event, up to 3 minutes. We challenge students to work cinematically to utilize film’s most basic and most powerful language as they tell a small slice of life story using only moving pictures with no sound, effects, or music.
Vérité Character Film
With Character Vérité Film, we challenge students to create a “cinema verité” documentary, capturing authentic moments from a person’s life to tell a story, rather than telling us about or interviewing the person. Each student directs, shoots, and edits their own film.
Social Issue Film
In the Social Issue Film, students tell a story that explores the social issue of their choice, and may choose to provide a fresh perspective on a political issue or document a local story that has larger implications. Through this project, students add interviews and narration to their arsenal of documentary film language and make use of research, story development, and pre-scripting techniques. They may also use third party materials. During the MFA in Documentary Filmmaking program, this film is up to 20 minutes. In shorter programs, the Social Issue Film is more concise.
Web Series: Personal Digital Film
The Personal Digital Film explores 1st person filmmaking and the paradoxical demands of the social media audience who are most attracted to documentary videos that are extremely authentic and yet move at the speed of a social-surfers’ attention span. Students create a freestyle 3-minute digital video using any film language they choose. Filmmakers create these videos from their point of view and we encourage creative exploration.
Creative Content
Students explore the newest and most interesting new media trends such as podcasting, web series, immersive, and social media micro docs. After exploring several formats of creative content, each student experiments with the format of their choice, creating a short podcast, webisode, social media micro doc or other new media content.
Non-Fiction TV Series Pitch
For the Non-Fiction TV Series Pitch, students conceive and develop an idea for a documentary TV or streaming series. Students then develop and polish a pitch deck and verbal pitch for it. Using the knowledge they gain from their TV classes, as well as the documentary techniques they learn throughout the first semester, we challenge students to structure and pitch a docuseries that obeys both classical story conventions and TV series requirements. Students create a thorough and engaging pitch of up to 5 minutes in length.
Thesis Pitchfest
During the Thesis Pitchfest, students from the 1-Year Certificate Program and the MFA in Documentary Program pitch their thesis films to industry professionals.
Thesis Film: Independent Documentary
The culmination of the One-Year Documentary Program is a thesis film on the subject and utilizing the film language and equipment of the student’s own choosing. Making use of more intensive story development and a prolonged production period, each student develops, produces, and directs a thesis film of up to 15 minutes in length.
Workshop Projects
Observational Film
Each student directs, shoots, and edits a visual story about a process or event, up to 3 minutes. We challenge students to work cinematically to utilize film’s most basic and most powerful language as they tell a small slice of life story using only moving pictures with no sound, effects, or music.
Vérité Character Film
With Character Vérité Film, we challenge students to create a “cinema verité” documentary, capturing authentic moments from a person’s life to tell a story, rather than telling us about or interviewing the person. Each student directs, shoots, and edits their own film.
Interview Film
The Interview Film concentrates on character and uses an interview to tell a compelling story. Each director finds a person who needs something and is trying to overcome the obstacles to get what they need. The story can be happening now or from the past. Students must determine what kind of interview best reveals the story they are trying to tell, as well as what kind of presence they want to have in the interview. This short film is up to 5 minutes long.
6-Week Workshop Final Film
The 6-Week Workshop Final Film is an opportunity for workshop students to align visual and verbal storytelling to make a film that is important to filmmaker. Students may choose any subject and technique to tell an engaging story. Over the course of the program, students identify the subjects they find compelling, consider what they may want to explore, and prepare to produce their final film. This short film is up to 10 minutes long.
Please note: Equipment, curriculum, and projects are subject to change and may vary depending on location. Students should consult the most recently published campus catalog for the most up-to-date curriculum.