"Storytelling 2.1" is an interdisciplinary course designed to teach students the process for creating compelling narratives and the tools for promoting them in the current media environment. Students will work with an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and prominent Entertainment PR strategist on a documentary project focusing on the "other DC" -- the one typically not seen by tourists and visitors. This is a continuation from last Spring's Storytelling 2.0 class. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Vargas, whose year-long Washington Post series inspired the upcoming documentary "The Other City" on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in DC, will guest lecture along with other prominent professionals in music composition, editing, cinematography, marketing and distribution.

Students will participate in the different phases of the filmmaking process; they will also help create a Web site and develop a festival, press, outreach and marketing strategy for a project. Students will be given concrete video production assignments directly related to the making and marketing of the documentary and getting to know "the other DC." They will be expected to do online and field research, assist with basic film production on location, utilize basic interviewing skills, and create and provide content for the Web site. The hands-on documentary work will be accompanied by watching and discussing documentary films with emphasis on understanding and learning about the basic principles of storytelling and filmmaking.

Class discussions, which will include additional guest lecturers from the film community, will focus on such topics as:

1/ What makes a good story, how to "find" original stories
2/ Developing characters and plot, interviewing techniques
3/ The legal and business aspects of documentary filmmaking
4/ The use of new media in documentary filmmaking
5/ Using documentary films to effect social change
6/The current state of the documentary marketplace and
7/How to package and promote a film project throughout its entire life cycle.