Dramaturgie für Dokumentarfilme

17./18. September 2011, Bavaria Studios Geiselgasteig

Documentary film structure is based on the interface of narrative content and the audience‘s emotional journey while watching it. We need to keep a dual perspective: organizing the events in a narrative sequence, while imagining what the audience will feel when they watch it.

In this workshop, we will apply Four Models of Story Development to documentary film structure, as well as show how genre strategies will clarify your pre-production, production and post-production strategies.

The documentaries we will review include „Rivers and Tides“, „Bowling for Columbine“, „Daughter from Danang“, and two HBO films where Thomas Schlesinger was the story consultant: „Prom Night in Mississippi“, with Morgan Freeman, and „A Small Act“.

Seminar in englischer Sprache

Thomas Schlesinger received a Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts at UCLA, and studied storytelling for ten years under the tutelage of mythologists Joseph Campbell and Jean Houston. He teaches his „Screenwriter as Storyteller“ seminars under the auspices of the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm Ltd., the American Film Institute, and various studios and film schools internationally.
www.writingfilms.com