Udemy
UdemyDocumentary Filmmaking with Soul
4.6(1,309)5k studentsALL LEVELSEnglish
Korshub's take
Character Documentary as Intimate Art Form
Documentary filmmaking changed. The talking-head format with stock footage has been replaced by character-driven storytelling: intimate, visually sophisticated, emotionally resonant. This course teaches that contemporary approach, grounded in practical experience of actually making documentaries under constraints (minimal equipment, real people, real locations).
The instruction is deeply practical. You follow the filmmaker through an actual documentary project—a female boxer's story in Tokyo—and see exactly how to gain access to a subject's world without intrusion, how to compose shots that matter, how to edit for emotional truth. The course covers the full lifecycle: planning your story, shooting with modest gear, editing for maximum impact. By the end, you'll have both conceptual understanding of documentary storytelling and concrete roadmap for making your first piece. The emphasis on light-footprint filmmaking means you can start with what you have.
About this course
Learn an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaking technique!
It's time documentaries get a fresh lift. Typically, they are taught with outdated methods which stem from the 90's, with boring talking heads and bad imagery. This class, instead, teaches you how to make modern, cinematic, and story-driven character docs that engage viewers both visually and emotionally.
This class will cover the whole documentary filmmaking lifecycle, covering how to plan, how to shoot, and how to edit. Part travelogue, part course, this course will show you how to craft a resonant documentary film with the hand of an artisan and eye of a storyteller. Showing behind-the-scenes footage, they bring you along Dandan's journey of making her beautiful short doc in Tokyo about a female boxer, also known as "The Japanese Million Dollar Baby."
All of the lessons are designed to be applicable, get straight-to-the-point, and use minimal affordable equipment. They present Dandan's signature filmmaking approach, where you'll get to travel with a light footprint and gain access to your character's world in a natural, non-intrusive way.
By the end of this course, you will have all the knowledge, confidence, and a complete roadmap needed to make your first documentary short.
Come join us in this creative adventure!
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