DV Lab: Documenting Science Through Video and New Media

This lab session concludes with a demonstration of a basic three point lighting setup, along with tips for using natural lighting.

This lab session begins with a lecture on lighting. Topics include: the physics and perception of light, lighting setups for interviews, and lighting equipment.

This session covers interviewing techniques. Topics include documenting the MIT student experience, with a talk by guest Associate Dean Chris Jones; how to ask questions; and shooting tips for interviews (e.g. framing, lighting).

This lab session concludes with a brief lecture on microphones and digital audio, followed by hands-on activities with the class audio kit, including clip-on lavalier and shotgun boom mics.

This lab session begins by discussing footage from the Lab 1 camera exercises, followed by a brief review of some camera features. The segment ends with a short discussion of film grammar (e.g. different types of shots).

This lab session concludes with a tutorial on the specific camera (Sony HVR-A1U) and tripod used in class, and students roam the campus doing initial shooting exercises.

This lecture explores the interaction between doing science and making documentaries. Science is a human activity, not purely objective but also framed in social interpretations; and its depiction in film affects the public's grasp of scientific debate.

This lab session begins with a short lecture on video camera fundamentals and terminology.

The class views and discusses excerpts of three films about the Inuit -- Nanook of the North (1922), Nanook Revisited (1990), and Starting Fire with Gunpowder (1991) -- and Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929).

This lecture poses ways to think about documentary film, e.g. an interactive process among filmmaker, subjects & audience; and a construction of initial questions and "what's in vs. out" editing. Examples from early science films & contemporary works.