College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Communication
Documentary Storytelling, Minor
Overview
In addition to University Requirements:
- Complete individual plan requirements.
Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.
No more than fifty percent of the units used to satisfy minor requirements may be used to satisfy major requirements.
| Minimum Units for Completion |
18 |
Purpose Statement
Discipline: The Documentary Storytelling minor will give students a variety of storytelling skills and a mastery of technical skills that will prepare them for future work with clients and/or their places of work, as they will develop skills in audio editing, researching material in archives, digital filmmaking skills, composition, photography, and lighting revolving around creative ways to tell nonfiction stories. These are all essential skills within today's complex and constantly changing profession of visual storytelling. Students can build these skills by creating projects about and within the content of their majors. (In order to make it easier for students to complete the Documentary Storytelling minor, we will remove or provide instructor overrides to existing pre-requisites.)
Content/Skills: An introductory course provides the intellectual foundation (CMF 106) and then students enroll in documentary production skills classes (filmmaking, photography, audio, and/or archival storytelling). This is a hands-on skill-building minor to meet the production demands of students who may want to build skills in these areas within their existing majors, whether they are in history, sustainable communities, sciences, social sciences, business, the natural world or hotel management, among others.
Career/education goals: This minor prepares students to gain skills for their future career goals by adding documentary production skills that a variety of fields and businesses require within their communication channels (through websites, email newsletters, and social media). Stories need to be told about research in the sciences, social services, and education, to name a few examples. The documentary storytelling minor opens more opportunities for visual creative storytelling in the nonfiction field for NAU students, no matter their major.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Build and refine skills in photography, filmmaking, sound recording, editing, and sound design in a variety of projects.
- Research, plan, produce, budget, finance, shoot, edit, and promote a variety of documentary projects.
- Apply skills of interviewing, gathering information, researching people and ideas for potential documentary stories.
- Read, write, and discuss the traditions and history of a variety of documentary stories.
- Integrate other areas of knowledge students currently receive through their respective majors.
More Information