Video Document is an introductory video production course that aims to develop fundamental skills in creating video documentaries, while engaging with issues around accuracy, authority, editorial and the manufacture of belief.

You will choose and research a topic pitch a proposal to produce a video documentary covering your findings, then practice creating an 'objective' and 'accurate' presentation of your chosen subject as a short video. You'll then be asked to examine your work and that of your peers for bias and inaccuracy, and so to question the ideal of absolute truthfulness implied by the documentary form.

You will then pitch and produce a second video work employing tactics of propaganda, essaying a topic as seen from your personal viewpoint. This will allow questions of how media technology confirms belief to be addressed.

From these exercises you will be able gauge the appropriate and effective use of video in your own documentation and be better prepared to 'read between the lines' of video essays made by others.

This course relates to companion courses in sound production and imaging. It's useful for any student involved in video documentation and production research, in that it provides fundamental skills in production while clarifying the advantages and intellectual pitfalls involved.