This workshop is part of the 2024 Backyard Docs Film Festival, our annual celebration of non-fiction cinema that explores our region’s Rust Belt and Appalachian identity. It showcases documentary films and filmmakers connected directly to our region or through a shared connection with our region’s identity and culture.

Get your tickets here!

As we find ourselves in a time of political uncertainty, journalism has once again become a beacon of hope. However, this time, newsrooms and journalists must try harder to captivate an audience that has become increasingly skeptical of media outlets. That is why introducing basic documentary filmmaking techniques to journalists working with video can help boost the quality of your reporting and engagement.

"A Crash-Course in Documentary Filmmaking for Journalists” is a workshop designed to equip professional and aspiring journalists with the foundational skills and tools needed to create more engaging video stories using documentary filmmaking techniques. It’s also a great opportunity for newsrooms to elevate their video reporting by incorporating basic yet effective film industry production methods.

Participants will learn the fundamentals of producing short documentary videos for news from start to finish, including popular independent filmmaker tools, best ethical practices, field production methods, and cinematography techniques. Participants will also learn basic safety and security protocols.

Through hands-on exercises and case studies, this workshop will provide the tools and insights needed to tell impactful, truthful stories that resonate and inform in times of uncertainty. This workshop will be conducted by video journalists P. Nick Curran and Alexis Johnson, who have years of experience reporting for major news outlets covering crucial news topics.

Complimentary food and drinks will be provided during the session on a first-come first-serve basis.

WORKSHOP SPONSORS

Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub

Presented by Point Park University's Center for Media Innovation, the Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub serves as a shared newsroom for local journalism.

The Video Consortium

VC is a global nonprofit that connects and supports the world's nonfiction filmmakers and video journalists to tell bold stories that change the world.

WORKSHOP GUEST INSTRUCTORS

Alexis Johnson

Alexis Johnson is an Emmy-winning correspondent based in Washington D.C. Alexis began her career in journalism as a Multimedia Journalist at WVVA, the NBC affiliate in Bluefield, West Virginia. She then moved into digital and print news as a breaking news reporter for NJ.com in New Jersey. In 2018, Johnson was hired as a Digital News Editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette before switching to a reporting role covering trending topics at the start of 2020.

Alexis joined VICE News in October 2020 and went on to cover politics, race, and culture. She appeared on multiple platforms including VICE News Tonight, VICE on Showtime, Counter Space, Breaking the Vote, VICE News Reports Podcast, as well as appearing across VICE’s social platforms including TikTok and Twitch.

Alexis has covered the biggest national stories including the 2020 general election, the 2022 midterms, the aftermath of Jan. 6th, the inauguration of President Joe Biden, the Derek Chauvin verdict, the arrest and detainment of Brittney Griner, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the fall of Roe v. Wade and the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police. She was awarded a 2023 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism for her coverage of death threats made against election workers after the 2020 presidential election and the attack on American democracy.

Alexis also reported on cultural topics like Black spirituality, the struggles of Black TikTok influencers, and diversity in the pilot industry, a story that was nominated for a 2023 News and Documentary Emmy. She has also appeared as a host of the digital series VICE Debates, moderating a panel about colorism that reached over half a million viewers on Youtube.

For her final project at VICE, Alexis hosted, co-produced and co-directed a feature-length documentary titled Vice News Presents: When Black Women Go Missing that is streaming on Tubi. The film takes an in-depth look at the crisis surrounding the disproportionate number of missing and murdered Black women around the country and investigates the causes of the epidemic. A Pittsburgh native, Alexis graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania before earning a Master's Degree in Media Studies and Production from Temple University. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists as well as Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Alexis is currently an Associate Professor in the Journalism department at Point Park University.

P. Nick Curran

P. Nick Curran is a documentary and commercial cinematographer and editor living in Brooklyn, NY. Within the broader scope of social justice, Nick focuses on extremism, labor, protest, and policing (and where they intersect). His shooting and editing work for documentaries and reporting has appeared on HBO, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Intercept, More Perfect Union, Topic, Means TV, and PBS. My documentary work with the Fund Excluded Workers coalition is, as of November 2021, on exhibit at MOMA PS1 in Queens. A film I edited, Flashpoint: Protests, Policing, and the Press, won an audience award for short documentary in May of 2024 at the Independent Film Festival Boston. Nick has produced, shot, and edited campaigns with Converse, Adidas, New Balance, Sofar Sounds and Aventon. He has also had over ten years of experience editing sizzle and case study videos for clients like Timberland, The North Face, Converse and Johannes Leonardo. In 2018, his producing work with Adidas won a Gold Clio. In 2024, Nick’s shooting work with Vox and Doritos won a Shorty and my shooting and editing work with Edelman and Allegra Airways won a silver Gerety.

Nick will be screening his short film, From Gaza to Ohio, on Saturday, Dec. 7th at the Community Power short docs screening at the Energy Innovation Center at 6pm.