Burn Your Scripts - The Craft of Non-Fiction Filmmaking

Course Profile

Course: Burn Your Scripts  – The Craft of Non-Fiction Filmmaking

Date: Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December.

Duration:  2 days

Cost: Free

Venue: Galway

Tutor: Paul Webster

Crew Academy West is an initiative of Screen Ireland and run by Atlantic Academy
 

Course content:

• Introduction on Cinematic Short Documentary.
• Case Studies of Paul Webster’s award winning short films The Vasectomy Doctor & Canine.
• How to find the right story.
• Genres within documentary
• How to make an impactful short documentary.
• How to manage subjects/dealing with real people.
• Working with archive.
• Documentary Skillsets vs Drama Skill sets.
• Workshop with established DOP on cinematography for documentary.
• Working with documentary crews.
• Interview techniques.
• The editing process.
• Deep dive into longer form documentary; Feature Documentary, Documentary Series, Factual TV etc.
• Pitch decks and sizzle trailers
• Pitching workshops.

Participant Profile:

This course is aimed at emerging industry professionals who have some experience working in the audio-visual sector and are interested in non-fiction filmmaking. Participants should be at a point in their career where they have worked on short films and potentially TV or other projects.

Application Procedure:

Please apply online at this link 1pm on Sunday 17th of November  

For technical difficulties with the online system please email crew.west@nationaltalentacademies.ie

Film & TV Crew Academy West courses are open to all regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability.

Tutor:

Paul Webster is an Irish filmmaker driven to make entertaining, fun and touching films about real people that connect with audiences in a meaningful way. To date, he’s made successful shorts and TV projects that explore a rich variety of subjects from sports and music to nature and politics. His short, The Vasectomy Doctor, was nominated for an Irish Film Academy Award and screened at festivals all over the world, picking up 20 awards along the way. In 2023 he finished a feature documentary examining the history of housing crises in Ireland. It was described in the Irish Independent as ‘Brisk and Absorbing… There was so much in writer/director Paul Webster’s excellent film that it could easily have been expanded into a six-part series.’ His latest short film, Canine, won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the Cork International Film Festival and was selected for Tribeca Film Festival 2024. He’s developing this project into a feature film as well as several new and ambitious documentary projects.