UC Documentary Film Directing

Focus on Sound and Signature

Course Supervisor: Rob Rombout

Advisers and Coaches: Michel Coquette, Charo Calvo, Sonia Pastecchia, Daniel Deshays, Rogier Van Eck, Nikos Appelquist.

The course focuses mainly on the film exercise Sound Before Image in which sound (the director’s voice, in particular) is the first and essential part of the creation. 

The starting point of Sound Before Image is a text (with speech directions) written and read aloud by the director. This is gradually developed into a soundtrack before the (eventual) use of images.

Students are assisted by the instructors as well as by guest lecturers and a voice coach to write, create, record and direct their own voice in their mother tongue. Narration, intonation, breathing, poetry and point of view are the keywords. Students learn to become a narrator, an actor in their own film, by using their own voice.

This learning experience sharpens the awareness of the audio part of the documentary process. Students learn that their voice can do more than provide a ‘voice-over’; their voice can be an essential instrument in the creation of a documentary film.