Visual Media Production - Making Short Fiction Films

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label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Ioana Dinescu
Working in small groups, participants in this hands-on production course will develop a screenplay, shooting script and storyboard for a 4-7 minute short fiction film, carry out such other pre-production tasks as casting and location scouting, and then shoot and edit their films. In the process, they will gain experience with identifying and resolving storytelling problems and with the organization and execution of complex tasks while working as a team under the pressure of tight deadlines.

The conceptual framework for this course will be a non-formulaic model based on the view that short film storytelling can best be described in terms of opposing properties that balance and complete one another in a dynamic interplay. An approach of this kind is not only more open than the standard sequential and actant models, but also better suited to catching the most common beginner mistakes when short films are produced by student filmmakers.No previous experience with production equipment is required. Basic instruction will be given in the use of semi-professional cameras and the Final Cut Pro editing.

Period
16-07-2014 - 13-08-2014 (4 weeks)

Target group
Bachelor's students

Course aim
In the evaluation of exam performance, emphasis is placed on the students ability:

1) to understand the storytelling principles and strategies specific to the short fiction film in the light of at least two narrative models, and to apply those principles and strategies effectively in the development of a screenplay and in the identification and resolution of storytelling problems;

2) to produce a short fiction film, by carrying out such production tasks as casting and location scouting, the staging and filming of events before the camera, managing basic lighting and sound recording, and editing the film using Final Cut Pro;

3) to explain in a subsequent report on the film produced in this course the basic choices that were made regarding:



a) script development;

b) camera work and framing;

c) visual and sound editing;

d) an audience test; and

e) how the production might be viewed with respect to the short fiction film as an art form.

Credits
10.0 ECTS credits

Course fee
EUR 0: Students on a bilateral exchange programme do not have to pay. Freemovers are obliged to pay participation fees while tuition fees only apply to freemovers from countries outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland.

Course leader
Richard Raskin, Aarhus University

Aarhus University International Centre
Address: Hoeg Guldbergs Gade 4, building 1650 Aarhus C
Postal code: 8000
City: Aarhus
Country: Denmark
Website: http://www.au.dk/summeruniversity
E-mail: SummerUniversity@adm.au.dk
Phone: +45 8942 2320