Documentary and Nonfiction Film Education

Easily find documentary and nonfiction film education programs

By Nikki Davis
If you are an aspiring documentary film maker, finding the right documentary and nonfiction film education program is imperative to your success. Be it nonfiction film classes, documentary filmmaking workshops, documentary film making courses or enrolling in documentary schools, a new or continued education will put you ahead of your peers.

Documentary film education not only includes the use of hardware, but involves camera training as well. To pull off an aesthetic final product, you have to master all of the components to film making.

To find the right documentary film training programs for you:

1. Look at documentary film schools.

2. Consider documentary film training by means of workshop.

3. Continue your documentary film education by participating in contests that will challenge your new skills.

 

Look at statistics before starting your search for documentary film training programs

Before you choose to pursue documentary film training, look at some of the statistics on the field.
Try: Look at the documentary resource page on the Film Education site. There you can learn what a documentary is as well as learn about documentary style. Check out the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics on the movie and film industry for more background information.

Use a documentary education search engine or directory

Instead of using Google or Yahoo, look to search engines specifically designed to give you information by programs such as documentary education.
Try: Look at the by state listing of U.S. film schools at Education.org. Check out the film school, acting school and broadcast journalism options available at the Film Schools & Acting Schools at the New York Film Academy. Request information from The CollegeBound Network.

Find the right documentary education tools

When pursuing documentary education, having the right tools on hand for classes and projects will help put you over the top in relation to other students. You can easily find new and used equipment online as well as discover editing programs to fit your every need.
Try: Check out how Apple Inc. looks to bring documentary film styles into the classroom. Look into new and used camera resources from B & H Foto & Electronics Corp. Look at the 2008 video editing software comparison at TopTenREVIEWS, Inc. All of the software packages are reasonably priced, and they give information covering a number of comparative fields.

 

  • During the documentary education process, look for constructive criticism through professors, teachers, your peers and through contests.
  • Before you begin your documentary film training, choose a mentor to look up to and bounce ideas off of. You should also look at whose style yours most closely emulates and pursue techniques that improve you that person's level of creativity and flow.