ANTHRO 402: Visual Anthropology Final Project

The Course Final Project involves creating a short ethnographic film (or other type of visual anthropology project). Because it is not feasible to produce a whole ethnographic film over the span of a semester while also covering the course work, your assignment will be to create an ethnographic film grant proposal which includes a short film sample of what the final project would look like given funding and time. You may work in small groups of up to 4 members. Your final project consists of the following components:

• Ethnographic film of a local (non-Yale) community (5-10 minutes)
  • The film must be given to the instructor in DV file format, DVD, or Mini-DV cassette format by the final deadline
• Project Funding Proposal/Treatment (joint) - approx. 5-10 pages. This will be addressed to a fictitious funding agency. You should address issues of:
  • Topic
  • Geographic area
  • Story or structure
  • Documentary style used
  • Ethics
  • Staffing
  • Permission rights needed (individual, corporate, governmental, music, artwork, etc.)
  • and last but not least, a full budget
• Consent forms from all individuals appearing in the film. This is very important. Projects will be considered incomplete without this.
• Production notebook or fieldnotes (see below).

Students doing photoessays or other types of works should see the instructor well in advance so that we can talk about the expectations for the final project. As you can imagine, the project will take an enormous amount of time on your part.

Production Notebooks and Ethnographic Notebooks

It is very important the group Director/Producer maintain a master production notebook. This is a physical notebook (computer based ones have difficulty holding the various physical objects needed) that should contain:

• Ethnographic notes (see below)
• Storyboards / sketches / treatments
• Copies of photographs / other visual material you may use ("Ken Burns style")
• Log of all shots taken <= VERY IMPORTANT.
  • Number and date all cassettes
  • Log into the book when/where you shot each scene
  • Who you talked to, which voices are appearing on the microphone
  • Transcribe or at least annotate all shots
  • When downloaded to harddrive, note location and filename of clips
• List of people you talked with / want to talk to
  • Contact address / phone number
  • Signed consent forms <= Very IMPORTANT
  • Blank consent forms "just in case" (tracking down informants to have them sign forms later is a big pain)
  • Business cards

Each group member is also required to maintain an ethnographic notebook. Each time you enter the field, you must write a log entry in your notebook. At minimum, you should describe when/where/who/what was happening. The more analytical you can become in your notes, the better. Ethnographic field notes should be written as immediate to the field experience as possible.

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