Cinematic Research Practices

FSA 4 Peer Review Due date: 20 November

Peer reviews must be completed before 23:59!

For the Field Study Assignment, assess each of the parts according to these criteria:

Establishing Shot

  • Space: Does the selected frame, angle, and perspective include what we need to know about the research site? Does it exclude elements that are not relevant for the setting?
  • Place: Does the shot reveal the context that gives meaning to the filmed process and the portrayed person (think of shipyard for a boatbuilder or theatre for an actor).
    Time: Is the moment of the day well chosen in relation to the filmed activity?
  • Camerahandling & Technique: Has the camera been handled in a skillful way (movement, steadiness etc) and is the shot technically well executed ( aperture, focus, WB etc.)?

Process filming

  • Continuity: Have cinematic principles of continuity editing and time compression been applied in order to give a sense of natural flow of the activity?
  • Rhythm & Time: Has a similar sense of the duration and rhythm been preserved in comparison with the real activity?
  • Representation: Does the sequence represent all phases of the activity in a way we can see and understand what is happening?
  • Cinematographic Quality: Do the choice and aesthetic qualities of frames, composition and the way the shots are made allow for a specific experience of what we see, other than informative description?

Cultural Inventory

  • Material Culture: Does the material culture say something about the role, character or activity of the person?
  • Narrative of the Shot: Does the shot reveal a certain narrative logic in the way the first frame is connected to the last?
  • Cinematographic Quality: Has the camera been handled in a skillful way (movement, steadiness etc) and is the shot technically well executed (aperture, focus, WB etc.)?

Poetic Composition

  • Style: Is there a consistency in style of shots that communicates a certain ‘mode’ of experiencing the content of the composition?
  • Content: What content connects the shots with each other ? What selection criteria did the filmmaker use in order to determine the content of shots?
  • Montage: What montage-principle is used ? What is told between shots? What aspects of form contribute to editing-decisions?

Portrait

  • Portrayal: What do we learn about this person in image, sound and speech? ( Focus not only on what is being said.)
  • Relationship: How do we learn about the kind of relationship the filmmaker has with the protagonist?
  • Approach: Does the chosen style/approach contribute to what the filmmaker wants to convey of and about the protagonist?
  • Camerahandling & Technique: Are camera handling and technique (focus, aperture, White balance etc.) satisfactory?
  • Cinematography: What do we learn about this person in image and speech? ( Focus not only on what is being said.) Do the choice and aesthetic qualities of frames, composition, shots and the way the shots are made and edited, allow a specific experience of the sequence as a cinematic unit?

Assignment 3 November 11-12h

In class: in break-out groups analyze a film structure study how sound, image & titles & narration are used to represent a specific ‘voice’ or ‘voices’ in an observational style student-film of your choice.

Voice in Observational Filmmaking Metje 3 November 9-11h

Giving voice to those who have no political or cultural representation has often been the intention of researchers and documentary filmmakers. That this act itself places the anthropologist in a position of control, has been perceived by many anthropologist filmmakers as an ethical dilemma.

In this Seminar we will discuss the ‘politics of representation’ in relation to authorship and the possibilities and restrictions of filmmaking as a practice of learning from and negotiating ‘voice’ as well as giving ‘Voice’’. How does our collaboration as part of the practice of doing visual ethnography become visible in a film, how do we negotiate different voices in a film in accordance with the understanding of our subjects? How does advocacy work, if it works, and is collaboration and/or advocacy to be preferred over authorship? When should we hand the camera to subjects? How do we deal with voices of those in power and how do we protect voices that have become vulnerable by making them visible?

Field Study Assignment 4 Due date: 16 November

FSAs should be submitted to Pitch2Peer (P2P) before 18:00!

Mastering the technical and mechanical controls of the camera is essential. This requires lots of practice. Now that you have your cameras set up, the following exercises to be completed and submitted as FSA4 aim for you to explore different cinematic styles of recording shots and sequences. You may perform these exercises with any willing participant.

This assignment is due after the MiP week, but we encourage you to perform each of these exercises at least twice. Once before the MiP week and once after. Submit your best version and in the reflection consider what differentiates the two attempts.

Please perform all 4 exercises.

Exercise 1. Establishing Shot: Context.  A shot that establishes the context of a film may reveal the landscape and Soundscape and/or environment and position of your subjects dwelling/place of action; revealing the character of the setting, the specific location, and its relation to the natural or built environment in sound and image, this includes the material world surrounding him/her.

  • Make one static establishing shot and one moving (pan or tracking shot) of the context/environment at your field site. In both, pay attention to the sound. Each shot should be no longer than 1 minute and no shorter than 10 seconds.
    • When making the static shot: explore different points of view and different frames and eventually choose one camera-position/angle/frame, that you think might be the ‘iconic’ frame of what the place is about. When making the tracking shot, reflect beforehand on what (parts of the) space you want to connect through your camera- movement. (for instance: the livingroom with the kitchen, or the railroad with the house etc)
  • Exercise 2. Composition of shots: Cultural Inventory. Portray the material world around your main character by making a Cultural Inventory through a series of short shots, together not surmounting 1 minute. Determine the rhythm of the shots and if these should be made with a static and/or moving camera
  • Exercise 3. The Long Take or ‘Plan Sequence’: Activity : Record an activity in one long shot. Edit within the shot by choosing and changing frames and camera-positions (Jean Rouch, Tourou et Bitti , Leonard Retel Helmrich: The eye of the sun),or by staying in one position (David MacDougall, Schoolscapes), or  by making an independent movement that reflects your subjective ‘gaze’ as  filmmaker without your movements being dictated by your object or subject  (Sniadecki: People’s Park ). The shot should not exceed 3 minutes.
  • Exercise 4. Time-compression:  Process.  Record a person performing an activity from beginning till end by applying principles of time-compression. Either apply continuity-editing or make use of jump-cuts without disorienting the viewer.  Either choice needs to be motivated, not random. Reflect on the implicit epistemological messages of either approach. Edit in the Camera.  The edited sequence should not be longer than 3 minutes.

Continuity editing in a process film provides a sequence of shots of an activity that consists in one unity of time place and activity using transitions between shots which seek to give a seamless appearance of time and space, suggesting continuity of action without ‘jump-cuts’.  Usuallly applied when trying to preserve the rhythm, flow and development of an activity.

Non-continuity Editing of an activity, shows jumps in time and place, however without disorienting the viewer but acknowledging filming as intervention. Usually used when the portrayal of your subject and/or his/her experience when performing an activity is more important than describing the specific process.

Record without directing your subject.

For each exercise write down beforehand what it is you intend to explore/convey about the activity that is performed by your subject and how you want to achieve that by applying certain stylistic choices.

When recording a process, show beginning, development, and end and the transition to a next activity/pause. Compress time by at least leaving out 2/3 of the real time the activity took. Try to represent a sense of a rhythm and duration that cognitively reflects a comparable sense of time.

Meta-commentary: All assignments must be accompanied by a brief written reflection (200-300 words max) that provides a ‘meta-commentary’ about the student’s intentions with the assignment’s selection.

File Export

  • Export the 4 Exercises as one file with titles in between identifying the parts of the assignments, e.g. “Exercise 1. Establishing Shot,” etc.

RPA 4 Peer Review Due date: 2 November

Read all your group member’s assignments prior to the next Supervisory Groups session and be prepared to share your feedback.

Feedback should consider how well the student presents a research problem based on specific circumstances and how the questions that motivate the research have the potential to open up this research in generative and interesting ways?

Methods in Practice (MiP) 26 – 30 October

Below you will find the general outline for the Methods in Practice week that will take place from 26-30 October. The week consists of Morning-seminars and tutorials and room to perform practical assignments in the afternoons. Students are expected to reserve the whole week for this training.

Students should find and contact potential research subjects with whom they will do their exercises before the week starts.

We assume that all Master students have experience with doing ethnographic research that they have done in their Bachelor-study. This week is therefore not meant to offer basic training, but offers the opportunity to students to practice the specific methods that they intend to use in their fieldwork under guidance of different supervisors.

Part of the program overlaps for students of all specializations. Some tutorials offer training-opportunities that are specific for one of the three specializations.

Monday 26/10

10:00-11:00 Seminar 1: Being a Researcher 1 (Marja Spierenburg): Introduction to MiP-week. Discuss: ethics, ethnographer as a role, positionality & the politics of representation, postcolonial ethnography, collaboration, engaging in the field, AVG-laws.

11:15-12:00 Tutorial 1: Negotiating Access (Marja Spierenburg): Role-playing-Discuss ownership, exposure, ethical considerations, conditions for collaboration, with another student who performs as your research-subject. how to introduce the signing of a publication / distribution Agreements (AVG-law).

Engaging in Ethnographic research/ filmmaking in the field requires different steps that might vary in different circumstances. From negotiating access to the research-location and agreement to do research (& film) to explaining Participant observation or creating interview-opportunities.

Introducing yourself as researcher and introducing the camera to your main characters may demand that you negotiate opposition to filming, finding grounds for reciprocity and establishing rules to give form to ethical conditions of filming and publishing etc.

12:15-13:00 Specific Tutorial 1: Being in the field in body & soul and with equipment (Metje Postma / Koen Suidgeest) – How to deal with your bodily presence when moving in a new environment. How to introduce your equipment like: sound recorder, photo camera or video-camera in an appropriate way.

Doing Research and filming is not only a technique and a method, but also a corporal and emotional activity in which you as a person have to fully engage. Not only do you have to manage yourself, but you also have to learn to blend in with the social circumstances and expectations of the people you are working with.

In this session we will enter into that physical and emotional practice. How is your body involved in research and filmmaking, how do you deal with emotions of yourself and others, and how can you ‘be’ in the field with or without the camera?

We will share some of our and other (ethnographic) filmmakers’ experiences with you and discuss questions you might have with regard to how you want to approach your role as ethnographer in your own project.

Filmmaking as a wholebody relational practice ➙

The same for All.

14:00-17:00 Assignment 1: Approach your research subject(s), visit your research-location / or make contact online if not possible otherwise, discuss your project with your research-subject and negotiate conditions for research & for using specific equipment.

Aim: Negotiating access in practice. Find a way to fill in your role as researcher.
Learn to explain your aims as ethnographer to people who do not know what anthropology is. Dealing with ethical considerations.

Requirements: If possible, students work in teams of 2 within their specialization.

17:00-18:00: Evaluation & Reflection 1 Students discuss their learning-experiences in small/Kaltura liveroom break-out groups, and send a short report of the discussion to the supervisor of the day. Include a list of individual wishes of what students would like to get out of the MiP- training. Send the group-report and to the supervisor.

19:00-20:00: Q&A Session 1 (Marja Spierenburg) Students can contact the supervisor in case they have any questions. The supervisor will be available on-line between 19.00 and 20.00 hours.

Tuesday 27/10

10:00-11:00 Seminar 2: Being a Researcher 2 (Metje Postma) Research discipline and working methods in and around the field. Planning, improvisation, online encounters, embodied encounters, keeping things going.

11:15-12:00 Tutorial 2: The ethnographic Gaze (Metje Postma): participant observation; systemic observation, note taking, drawing, journal keeping, audio-recording, photography; using your mobile phone in the field.

12:15-13:00 Specific Tutorial 2 (Metje Postma): Each specialization discusses specific role & learning-aims that come with their specialization.

VE: Observing with the camera

14:00-17:00 Assignment 2: (to be performed in teams of 2) Return to your research-site and apply the different ethnographic techniques of observation and recording that you will be using in your research. Follow a specific research-routine. Work from a research-question that you use as guideline to explore your subject. Perform a one-hour observation and work out your notes in your diary and generate an ethnographic record.

Students from different specializations will make use of the different techniques, appropriate to their specialization.

After performing the exercise, also make an entry in your diary in which you reflect on your experiences of being in the field in the role of research.

Aim: Practicing with basic note-taking and recording techniques, similar for all ethnographers and transforming those in an entry as ethnographic record as part of your field-research data.

Requirements: topic should be a lived activity or event outside your own circle, if possible. Students should bring the tools they intend to use during fieldwork

17:00-18:00 Evaluation & Reflection 2: Students discuss their learning-experiences

In small groups. Then write a report of the group-discussion with experiences and questions they want to discuss with the day-supervisor. Send your report to the day-supervisor at least 30 minutes before the Feedback-meeting.

19:00-20:00 Q & A Session– (Metje Postma) Students can contact the supervisor in case they have any questions. The supervisor will be available on-line between 19.00 and 20.00 hours.

Wednesday 28/10

10:00-11:00 Seminar 3: Speech Acts (Koen Suidgeest): Interviewing, leading conversations, overhearing speech acts & group discussions, Ways to engage in speech acts, taking notes and / or recording (in pairs).

11:15-12:00 Tutorial 3: Training Interviewing or Conversing: (Koen Suidgeest) Role-play to practice interviewing/ conversations. Do one interview with question/topic-list, practice with engaging in a conversation that you may want to use for your research.

12:15-13:00 Specific Tutorial 3: Each specialization discusses specific modes of engagement in conversations that come with their specialization – specific problems, interpreters.

 VE:  Run-through-of  recording-practice (Koen Suidgeest)

14:00-17:00 Assignment 3: Do an interview / group discussion / on camera conversation on location, specific for your specialization

Aim: To practice with the mode of engagement in speech acts, specific for your research and to practice recording-techniques during such sessions.

Requirements: You need to have made arrangements with someone on your
research location for conducting the kind of speech-act you wish to perform. Be sure to have your specific recording equipment ready for use.

17:00-18:00 Evaluation & Reflection 3: Students discuss their learning-experiences in small groups. Then write a report of the group-discussion with experiences and questions they want to discuss with the day-supervisor. Send your report to the day-supervisor at least 30 minutes before the Feedback-meeting.

19:00-20:00 Q & A Session (Koen Suidgeest) Students can contact the supervisor in case they have any questions. The supervisor will be available on-line between 19.00 and 20.00 hours.

Thursday 29/10

10:00-11:00 Seminar 4: Ongoing Research: Analysing, reflecting on and managing your data of your ongoing field-research, maintaining & developing your relationships & deepening your research through generating themes & key-concepts. Dealing with shifting focus/themes/topics as result or fieldwork (Ratna Saptari)

11:15-12:00 Tutorial 4: Practicing with organizing your data and writing a field report including different sources & managing your data in a systematic way. (Ratna Saptari)

12:15-13:00 Specific Tutorial 4 (Metje Postma): Each specialization discusses specific ways of processing their research-data and ways that help to generate themes and key-concepts from the research-data during fieldwork, generated through editing & analysis and in relation to your research-question and theoretical perspective.

VE: The practice of editing as analysis- tutorial (Metje Postma)

14:00-20:00 Assignment 4: Write, film & edit a piece (edited sequence, multimodal outcome, text etc.) 

Choose an appropriate format for your research) that connects the data that you generated to your research-question and reflect on the key themes/concepts that you generated from your data.

Aim: To exercise how writing / editing can work as an analytical tool during your research. Practice with categorizing, generating key-words and distinguishing ‘story-lines’ from fieldwork to study and back again. Reconnect to theory.

Requirements:  Collaborate with your teammate with whom you performed the research and compare how different perspectives and forms of representation (Writing/filming) may draw attention to different aspects of the researched realities.

VE Students:

19:00 Deadline to upload a 3-5-minute edited output (film or multimodal) to Kaltura Media Gallery.

20:00-22:00 VE CRIT Session — In Kaltura Live Room we will have a plenary feedback session with all VE instructors and students.

Friday 30/10

09:00-10:00 Seminar 5: Health and Sanity in the field (Jan Jansen)

10:00-11:00 How to Avoid Fraud and Plagiarism in the 21st Century

11:15-12:00 Tutorial 5: Plagiarism Test

13:00-16:00 Feedback session on written/edited student-works + advice for further Training (all 4 supervisors.). On Campus if possible- One work-group for each specialization.

16:00-17:00 Feedback by students on MiP-week– Discussion on what skills students feel they have developed and which ones require more training.

Drinks

Drinks

CX1 – Festival Interventions Due date: Spring 2021

UPDATE: Due to the new Covid health regulations, WORM decided to close its doors for the public until further notice. This means that Field Recordings 3 will be postponed. As things stand, Tim and Sander are hopeful that the event can take place in the spring of 2021 – after you’ve completed your fieldwork. Relatedly, The CX1 course assignment will be postponed as well. We will update you about the exact dates in due course.

Based on the ideas discussed on 22 September with Sander Hölsgens & Tim Leyendekker, student groups should complete their program intervention for the Field Recordings festival to be submitted to Kaltura Media Gallery.

Interventions should be accompanied by a 1-page motivation statement. If your group is planning a live/streaming intervention during the actual festival, a 1-page motivation statement for the the project is still due at this time.

At the time of the event (6-8 November), all Student Interventions will be combined as an entry for the Leiden Anthropology Blog.

Research Proposal Assignment 4 Due date: 23 October

Submit RPA4 to the appropriate “Soup Group” googledoc folder before 23:59!

Open the linked folder. Access requires that you sign in to Google Drive.

Koen’s Soup Group

Mark’s Soup Group

Metje’s Soup Group

Sander’s Soup Group

Copy the template document (right-click for the option to ‘Make a copy’). Please do not overwrite the template file.

Operationalizing Research Questions

(800-1000 words)

  • Part 1 (100 words): Your assignment should begin by describing your research as a detailed case study that specifies in concrete terms where will you be doing your research and with whom. Your task is to be factually descriptive of the context.
  • Part 2 (100 words): Next explain why you want to do this research, what is motivating you, and what you want to demonstrate with your research. With your concepts in mind and their relationship to anthropological debates in the literature, how will you operationalize your research so that it can contribute to anthropological knowledge?
  • Part 3 (200 words): Elaborate what makes your chosen case simultaneously unique and generalizable. In other words, your research should be able to produce:
    1. detailed knowledge that provides insights about something not well understood (e.g., the role of transnational activists in the movement of refugees; the politics of historical commemoration in contemporary South Africa; the production of national identity in Aruba’s Grand Carnival Parade; ‘natural hair and beauty’ politics among hairdressers in Accra; everyday strategies domestic laborers use to cope with social crisis; the usage and experience of hormonal contraception; public and private boundaries around female masturbation; etc.), and
    2. generalizable knowledge that provides representative examples about something of greater interest and importance (e.g., national borders, religious diversity, ecological sustainability, protest politics, gender relations, decolonization politics, beauty standards, female sexuality, medical dependency, economic decline, migration policies, etc.)
  • Part 4 (50-100 words): Taking your answers to the above prompts, reformulate your research question by answering the following questions and then convert these into a single question as demonstrated:
    • What do you want to learn about? (Description of a unique situation)
    • Why do you want to learn about it? (Analytical conceptualization)
    • Why is this important? (Research relevance / key concepts)For example:
    1. I’m trying to learn about: the social world of alternative media production in Beirut
    2. Because I want to understand how: contemporary Arab image-makers grapple with national histories of violence …
    3. This will help me contribute insights about: the way experimental visual approaches mediate the experience of postwar subjectivity, critique (neo-) orientalist representations, and activate intersections of public participation.Becomes:
    • My research explores the social world of alternative media production in Beirut, because I want to understand how contemporary Arab image-makers grapple with national histories of violence in order to address the way experimental visual approaches mediate the experience of postwar subjectivity, critique (neo-)orientalist representations, and activate intersections of public participation.Other examples:
    • This research explores the political intervention of congregants of Kasr al-Dubara Evangelical Church since January 2011, because I want to understand how rhetoric and power mobilized religious subjectivities in Kasr al-Dubara Church toward new political projects and activisms. This study will analyze how Evangelical Egyptians, as members of a precariously situated religious minority, are negotiating their own histories and the current political arena in order to carve out a space in the public debates over citizenship, good governance, and belonging.
    • My research will use visual ethnographic methods to examine the primary school curriculum reform in Timor-Leste, because I want to comprehend how different visions of education, working environments, and communications media and practices shape education policy. This study seeks to contribute to current debates and ethnographic knowledge about how global education policies are re-contextualized in diverse localities and in the various layers of the policy–to–practice process, including international development organizations, government, the reform project, and schools.
  • Part 5 Draft 4-6 sub-questions that are clearly motivated by your research, but break the main question into smaller parts. The sub-questions are not additional questions, but rather the concretization of the main research question. These are the things you need to know in order to answer your research question. For each sub-question, indicate whether it is descriptive (who, what, where) or analytic (how, why). In other words, is it aimed at describing/establishing what is happening in the field or at explaining/interpreting what is happening in the field. Lastly, indicate if the sub-question will be answered through film, text, or a combination.
    • For example, “What are the various institutional structures that shape women’s experience with hormonal contraception?” is a descriptive question, versus “How do these structures influence women’s experience with hormonal contraceptives?,” which is an analytical question.