Berlin Film Community

Level Beginner - No previous experience required
Must be at least 15 years old
Language English
Date SAT, JUL 4, 2026 · 14:00 – 16:00
Cost €25.00/ Students €17.00/Unemployed €12.00 (must show a proof)
Location Online
Contact linda@berlinfilmcommunity.com
Enrol here: https://berlinfilmcommunity.com/course.php?slug=turning-research-into-a-documentary

BFC members pay €22 - save €3 on this course.
Membership costs €30/year and includes 10% off all workshops plus member-only events.
Log in or join BFC while enrolling.

In this 2-hour online seminar, we will delve into how research can be transformed into powerful documentary narratives through multimodal expressions. We will critically examine the myth of neutrality in field research and explore the Theory of the Occasion as a means to engage with positionality and embodied knowledge. This session challenges participants to unlearn traditional scientific narratives and embrace creative, ethical approaches that honor complexity and subjectivity in storytelling. Whether you are a filmmaker, researcher, artist, academic, activist, or simply curious about this topic, this seminar invites you to rethink the relationship between knowledge production and representation through concrete examples and reflective practice.

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## What You Will Learn

• Understanding multimodal expressions in documentary storytelling
• Deconstructing the myth of neutrality in field research
• Applying the Theory of the Occasion to creative narrative
• The role of positionality in shaping research-based documentaries
• Strategies to unlearn scientific narrative frameworks
• Analyzing concrete examples from documentary projects
• Embracing reflexivity and ethical responsibility in filmmaking

## Workshop Mentor

Linda Paganelli is an artist, anthropologist, and filmmaker who blends decolonial and queer*feminist perspectives with immersive visual storytelling. With over 13 years of experience collaborating with universities, museums, and cultural institutions, Linda draws on her extensive field research conducted in Afghanistan, Palestine/Israel, and the South West Balkans. She guides you through intimate, ethical, and inclusive filmmaking practices that honor memory, resistance, and more-than-human worlds.

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Note: In order to attend you must register and pay at https://berlinfilmcommunity.com/course.php?slug=film-lighting-workshop
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Level: Beginner.
The workshop is conducted in English and costs 299€.
Membership
Berlin Film Community members pay €269 - save €30 on this course.
Membership costs €30/year and includes 10% off all workshops plus member-only events.
When you purchase this workshop, your first year membership is included in the price.
To find out more info about the Berlin Film Community visit our website.
https://berlinfilmcommunity.com/

This will be a very hands-on workshop that will be a mix of demonstration, practical exercises, and useful camerawork theory. You will learn how to set up both a Sony FX6 cinema camera, as well as a Sony mirrorless camera. You will attach accessories you would normally find on a film set to make these cameras ready for shooting. You will also learn how to break down, prepare for, and shoot a simple, pre-scripted scene with all participants getting to perform the different camera department roles. If you’re looking to advance your camerawork knowledge this workshop will help you take a few big steps down that road.

This workshop is for beginners, however a basic understanding of camera basics such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO are extremely helpful. This will allow me to focus more on the filmmaking aspects of camerawork and be able to quickly go over the very basics and get more in-depth.
The workshop will be taught in English and will be limited to 12 participants to give everyone the opportunity to have as much hands on time as possible.

Camerawork in Practice
Everyone in the class will get the opportunity to set up both cameras, use all the accessories, such as the follow focus, and shoot part of the scene. As we do this, we will rotate through the different roles, with everyone working diligently, as it would be on a film set. We will put our plan into action and tell our story as well as possible.

Camerwork Theory
While this is a very hands-on workshop, I feel that learning camerawork techniques and theory is also extremely important. The camera and accessories are tools which you learn so that you can get better at the creative aspects of filmmaking. In the theory section we will go over framing and composition, how to move the camera, and how to tell a story visually.
I will also show you the basics of how to break down a scene. We will look at the tools which help different departments collaborate effectively and also help a set run efficiently. Shot lists, storyboards, and the production schedule are some of the tools that can break a script down into the individual shots that best tell our story and let everyone know what needs to be done and when. We will create our own shot list and schedule and plan our own shoot based on the already written script. We will then shoot that script as a lean, mean, filmmaking team.

Schedule
Day 1:
Saturday, July 18th – 09:00 – 16:00

• Brief overview of Exposure triangle and shutter speed for film
• Aperture, shutter speed, ISO
• Exposing for film – Don’t use your histogram
• High speed shutter
• Pushing shutter speed for effect or to gain light
• Exposure tools
• False color, Waveform, Histogram, Zebras
• Protecting your highlights
• Exposing your subject correctly – skin tones
• Light meters & lighting ratios with demonstration
• Maintaining consistency between shots
• Codecs and bit depth
• Raw, Log, compressed codecs
• Picture profiles and LUT’s
• Bit depth briefly explained
• Dynamic range explained
• Camerawork theory
• Different shot sizes and what they mean
• Camera Level – low, high, eye level and their impact
• Camera motion – pan, tilt, dolly when to use them
• 180 degree rule and eye lines
• Breaking down a scene
• Building up a cinema camera package for a shoot
• Build up the Sony a7RII and Sony FX6 – cinema lenses, follow focus, focus monitor, and video village monitor.
• Learn the what, how, and why behind all the different parts
• Camera settings overview for both cameras.
• Q&A & Review

Day 2:
Sunday, July 19th – 09:00 – 16:00

• Test of knowledge from Day 1 & Q&A
• Scene break down
• Breaking down the scene we will be shooting
• Shot list, storyboard analysis, lighting diagrams
• Determining which shots to group together & why
• Estimating time for each shot set up
• Setting up the camera in a group
• Two teams will work together to set up each camera to be ready to shoot.
• We will create a shooting schedule and shot list, determining how much of the script we think is possible in 2.5 hours.
• Shooting the scene
• Shoot the scripted scene using the schedule and shot list.
• Camera operator, 1st assistant camera (focus puller), 2nd assistant camera, assistant director. We will rotate so everyone gets a chance to perform each role.
• Review of the raw footage
• Evaluate the footage together

About the Workshop Leader
Alex DePew has spent 17 years in the film industry as a Cinematographer and Gaffer, working on projects ranging from no-budget shorts, music videos, art projects, to ad campaigns for brands like Volkswagen, Loro Piana, and Adidas. He got his start in New York City, his hometown, and has shot all over the world. After moving to Berlin he found his passion for teaching and has taught hundreds of students over the past 9 years. Alex guides you through lighting craft with clarity and enthusiasm, making complex concepts accessible to all.
Alongside Klaus Salminen and Linda Paganelli, he co-leads the Berlin Film Community, now a registered e.V. and home to a community of roughly 17,000 filmmakers and film-lovers. Got questions about the workshop? Reach out at alex@berlinfilmcommunity.com.

For the first Frame by Frame we will breakdown The Bear - Season2, Episode 7: Forks . I absolutely LOVED this episode. It is one of my favorite episodes of any tv show I have watched. It is an absolute masterclass in a character redemption arc. As the emotional beats of this episode rely on the episodes that came before, to fully understand the breakdown it is useful to have watched The Bear through this episode. However, even if you haven't seen it, it will still be very interesting and fun.