Secrets to Successful Documentary Film Production

Go behind-the-scenes with 24-EXCLUSIVE, VIDEO-BASED lessons covering everything from the PLANNING, to the SHOOTING, and

4.60 (631 reviews)

Udemy

platform

English

language

Video Design

What you will learn

Understand the creative insight and what takes to make award winning video documentaries.

Learn by example. If you would like to learn, step by step, how I conceptualised, shot and edited two, highly acclaimed TV documentaries, then this is for you.

Gain insight into what thought processes professional TV documentary makers use to shoot, gather content and edit award winning video stories.

Enjoy being taught by a TV broadcast professional that has dozens of broadcast programs to his name, shown on networks around the world.

Decide who you would prefer to be your instructor? Someone successful in the world of TV broadcasts?

You can only be taught to the level your instructor has reached—never beyond. You decide what you want to end up doing, and seek out teachers that have achieved your own goals.

Why take this course?

Follow award-winning broadcast professional, Andrew St Pierre White as he takes you set-by-step, as he conceptualises, shoots and edits two of his highly acclaimed TV documentaries. The first is based on a one-hour special documentary broadcast by Discovery Channel, and the second a half-hour serialised episode of a 26-part African adventure travel story.

Once released, critics used the words, "gripping", "superb", outstanding" in their reviews of these films.

The course consists of a series of videos with details of what is being taught as written summaries.

The documentary is run, and as the story unfolds, the director/producer goes though all the thoughts, processes, equipment and creative processes used. This is a real-life event, valuable to those who both shoot and edit stories on video.

As every scene is covered, the shooting techniques, editing ideas and storytelling methods are revealed. This is an actual documentary, so what is taught is not just theory— it has become fact, and you can see the results for yourself.

The documentary was produced by an indie producer, yet still sold to major networks. How this was done is discussed.

The course lectures run to 247 minutes (±4,1 hours). With some, you may need to watch them more than once, because there is quite a lot of learning to do.

If you are interested in making serious documentary films, or telling thought-provoking videos for TV or social medial, then this course has a lot to offer.

Much of what is being taught here is not, and cannot be taught in a classroom. It goes beyond theory, as the course is based on actual, highly successful productions.

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Reviews

Sanjay

February 23, 2024

Thought provoking approach. Making me think of my own documentary and how I can apply what I'm learning at every step.

Mark

October 15, 2023

Another fantastic course! Gonna apply what I can and then rewatch at least once more. Well done Andrew and thank you once again for sharing!

Ulrich

July 16, 2023

The age of this course (created in 2017) shows, the examples given are even older. The presenter is engaging and many (not all, though) advices given are still valid today.

June 22, 2023

Thank you for a good explanation on creating documentary style films. Thank you for creating and releasing these informative courses.

Gary

June 12, 2022

He has made some very good points that I believe were honest and truthful that didn’t fit the conventional wisdom.

Stefan

April 9, 2022

Very helpful. It gave me confidence in progressing with my idea for a documentary. In my passed life I was a classically trained musician so I have good in-depth knowledge of the connection of music/sound and emotion. It was good to see this connection confirmed in videography/film making. Handy hints for interviewing and backgrounds, neither of which I knew a lot about. A lot of Andrew's attitudes toward documenting and presenting a reality resonated strongly with me. Thank you!

Robert

March 26, 2022

It's basically a review of his work, by him, with some tips along the way. There is some good advice, but there is way too much footage of his documentaries for me. It gets quite dull if you have no specific interest in aviation or the end of some random river I had never heard of (which I do not) ... It's very much from an editors perspective. I was hoping for more content on the process of preproduction / production / post production and selling. It's not a bad course, but I didn't take many notes ... I am now taking another (much shorter) course on documentary making, and I am taking notes non-stop ... he is obviously experienced and knows how to make a traditional documentary, but I am trying to make something more engaging and creative.

Vije

June 30, 2021

It's unfair to rate creative courses. What appeals to one might be horrible to another. It's a great experience to learn from such an accomplished professional like Andrew. Highly recommend this course

Shaheed

May 24, 2021

wonderful documentary of documentary making. Thank you Mr. White for the wonderful disposition. You are an inspiration. Make many more such documentaries and help folks like us to benefit. You are the Master, and the Master Class is phenomenal. Thank you, Shaheed, Bangalore, India

Mike

January 24, 2021

I'm now at my 7th Andrew St-Pierre Udemy course. Love it. The only two things that I would like to see added are 1) explanation of how B-roll audio-only sound clips are captured and identified once back in the edit room 2) an actual detailed step-by-step course of Andrew planning, shooting and editing a documentary film (for example on the restauration of an old ship or plane, or on a century old farmers market or auction, or anything that carries emotion). This would help in tying everything together. Great courses, thanks for sharing your vast experience and knowledge.

Jim

January 19, 2021

I think, if all the talk is followed through on, then it could turn out to be a good course. However, what's been said so far could have been cut by 50% and made the same point. My time is limited....and I like things that just get to the point.

Sam

January 10, 2021

The course has my attention so far. I like the idea of seeing how a real life production came together, with the ups and downs. I'm looking forward to the next sections.

Karol

November 27, 2020

Andrew is a very knowledgeable instructor and I can easily say I have learned something about documentary storytelling. It was definitely worth spending about 10 pounds... What I didn't like? First of all (and I share similar sentiment to few other people here), all of it was a little outdated. Not necessarily the SD format of the documentary shot in the 90s. Way it was cut and lit... I have to give it to Andrew that he’s aware of this which he expressed several times - he definitely isn't arrogant and up his own ***. Choice of music (I know we're talking about subjective choices and tastes) wasn't great despite the fact Andrew went on and on about it... Pretty cheap, overly cinematic and definitely used by Hollywood filmmakers before. I am a professional sound recordist, so I might be biased, but I didn't like the audio quality of the entire course... Not sure who was editing those clips, but some denoising would do (it's a second decade of 21st century and we have Izotope RX and Cedar). Last thing is the subtitles. I had to watch few modules with a sound off because I didn't want to disturb other people around me. Subtitles were really bad! So many mistakes, misheards etc. Udemy, are you using speech to text software or employ someone extremely cheap who isn't a native speaker of English? I am sorry for my rant, after all I have paid only the equivalent of a cup of tea and a cake. This symbolic sum I have paid for the course is the reason I won’t be asking for a refund, but I will definitely think twice before buying any more courses from Udemy.

Fernanda

June 10, 2019

Its a good course which helps you to reinforce your knowledge about storytelling and how to improve it because the instructor gives you many tips to do it. I'm glad to choose it!

Sergey

September 26, 2017

Got exactly what I was looking for. This course has both shared experience and couple of nice stories created by author, and that makes it a joy to watch lecturers. Definitely helps to understand how documentary movies are made.

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