As a Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking and the Head of Film Production at Notre Dame I currently focus on the Intermediate and Advanced Digital Cinema Production classes using RED Digital Cinema cameras and related equipment. With a focus on cinematography and visual storytelling, students first learn to craft short films using light, composition, camera movement and no dialogue. They then move on to the Advanced class where we spend more time breaking down the use of dialogue, subtext in a script, audio recording and directing actors.
I have also taught Acting for the Camera (with my colleague in theatre, Siiri Scott), The Art and Science of Filmmaking and now teach an interdisciplinary class called Barn Stories: Visual Research and Filmmaking. This is in collaboration with archeologist Ian Kuijt in Anthropology with whom I have worked in Ireland and across Europe for the past several years. You can see much of that work on the main page. This will incorporate what we have learned during our work in Ireland with regard to history, buildings, landscapes and the people who inhabit them. Students will tell the stories behind local barns in Indiana. A sample of the first year of the course can be seen below.
Class productions and some academic asset production stills
Barn Stories: Visual Research and Practical Filmmaking: Co-Taught with Anthropology Professor Ian Kuijt, we take our approach with our work in Ireland and bring it to Indiana barns. Students explore the stories behind the history, structure and people that own, work and lived in barns around the area.
230 Performing Arts Center - Notre Dame, IN 46556
574/631-3034 donaruma.1@nd.edu