"The course gave me a strong overview of how documentary production works from first idea to final delivery. I was genuinely amazed that I could create a full “on paper” production proposal and understand how all the elements fit together. Before the course and with my background in theatre, areas such as post production, workflow and industry terminology felt quite mysterious. I now have a practical understanding of how TV and film projects are structured, scheduled and delivered. And that took a lot of time to research, develop and write. I particularly loved developing my Once Off documentary proposal on The Four Faced Liar Clock of Cork. I plan to build on this learning with a successful application to the Sound & Vision scheme for a radio documentary version of this after completing my upcoming radio presenting course at my local radio station. Thanks to this course, I feel empowered to attempt the formidable budgeting and feasibility piece needed to make a successful Coimisiún na Meán application. I finally feel that now I at least understand the theoretical part of how a documentary is made and now it’s time to try to do that practically. I also valued improving my Excel skills and learning how spreadsheets can prove a project is feasible through budgeting and planning. The course showed me clearly that time is money, how to triangulate time money and quality and how to break a large creative idea into workable stages that are ready to move. "