Capturing new community: a case study in digital filmmaking as ethnography

Abstract

This thesis examines the case of New Community Church, a digital film made by the author, from the perspective of ethnographic research. The case study shows how ethnographic process involves movement from a formative theory about a subject, into the field to collect anecdotal research data, about that subject, and finally to a grounded theory based on that data, which is in turn presented to an audience. In the case study it is shown that the author’s filmmaking process follows all parts of this process, and the argument is made that the process should thus be considered ethnographic research.