This popular weekend course, guided by Award-winning director Colm Quinn (Needle Exchange) and aimed at beginners, encourages students to write and present documentary proposals, develop and research ideas, produce, direct and interview. Other subjects taught on this course are digital camera skills, sound recording and advice on funding & markets. Two proposals are selected to be made into short documentaries over a weekend.

Our Talent Talks series continues this season with a talk with documentary-maker, Ross Whitaker. Ross will discuss the lessons learned from the documentaries that he has made over the last ten years. The session will be hosted by Documentary-maker and GMIT lecturer, Donal Haughey. Having worked across feature-length documentaries, short documentaries, sports films, current affairs and formats, Ross has insights into all aspects of factual filmmaking and will talk about:

• accessing funding
• differing approaches to documentary-making
• interview techniques
• self-shooting
• visual storytelling
• festival strategies
• choosing the right type of distribution.

Filmmakers will be welcome to ask questions and discuss their own projects. Ross' past films include Bye Bye Now, Home Turf, Saviours and When Ali Came to Ireland. Ross’s new feature documentary, UNBREAKABLE, is due to be released in October 2014.