Science Filmmaking Marathon

Course Information

Date
  • Thursday, June 19, 2025,
    9:00 AM till 5:00 PM
  • Friday, June 20, 2025,
    9:00 AM till 5:00 PM
  • Saturday, June 21, 2025,
    9:00 AM till 5:00 PM
  • Registration Opens
    January 15, 2025, 9:00 AM
    Registration Deadline
    May 22, 2025, 12:00 PM
    Course Fees
    This course is free of charge and for doctoral candidates and postdocs of the University of Basel only (min. 6, max. 12 participants).
    Trainer
    Dr. Samer Angelone
    Credits
    1 ECTS
    Organized by

    Graduate Center
    Transferable Skills
    grace@unibas.ch
    GRACE Homepage

    Aims

    In the filmmaking marathon, we train researchers in tools used in dramatic storytelling and filmmaking to communicate their research, thereby making their science more readily accessible for a broader audience. Course participants learn the basics of visual storytelling and filmmaking and in working in groups supervised by professional filmmakers will produce short films during three intensive course days. The produced films will be screened as premieres at the 7th Global Science Film Festival (www.sciencefilm.ch), with a special award for the best film.

    Content

    Day 1
    • Pitching of science stories, and small groups (scientists and artists) making
    • Each group (Scientists and filmmakers) prepare their story, script and storyboard, and present them to the other participants in the marathon

    Day 2
    • Filming (participants are free to decide where and when to film)

    Day 3
    • Films editing

    The premiere of the produced films will take place at the 7th Global Science Film Festival (www.sciencefilm.ch)

    Methods

    Participants will go through the whole process of making films: They will learn how to pitch their film-ideas, the basics of storytelling, storyboarding, filming (including using professional material, e.g. cameras, tripods, light, and sound recording gears), and editing (using Premiere Pro and CapCut software).

    Target Group

    All Doctoral Candidates & Postdocs

    About the Trainer

    Samer Angelone
    Angelone is a filmmaker and scientist. He is the founder of the Global Science Film Festival, and works as a jury-member for prestigious international film festivals. Angelone has directed several fiction and documentary films. He teaches 'Filmmaking for Scientists', 'Storytelling & Storyboarding Science', and 'Video-journalism for Scientists' at different universities, research institutes and film festivals.
    Angelone holds two PhDs in Film Studies and Biology

    To know more about my research and films, please see:
    Science: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samer_Angelone
    Film: https://vimeo.com/samerangelone

    Workload

    Total of 30h (course attendance 24h, preparatory tasks 6h)

    Feature

    Once registration is open, applications will be collected for 24 hours and course places allocated by lot. All registrations received after the initial 24h period will be put on a waiting list and assigned on a first come, first served basis.

    Course places/places on the waiting list will be confirmed by e-mail. Course registrations can only be canceled before the registration period ends (send an e-mail to grace@unibas.ch). Full course attendance is mandatory. Participants who fail to attend a course without prior notification or withdraw after the registration deadline are subject to a fee of CHF 30. In addition, participants who cancel their course registration at a later point in time, are absent without an excuse or do not attend the entire course will, for reasons of fairness, not be considered for course registration in the following semester and will be removed from other courses offered in the same semester. Please find the detailed regulations on the Transferable Skills Homepage.

    Location

    University of Zurich

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