Genre

As I have chosen to create a documentary, I have researched some of the various types:

• Observational documentary - Attempts to simply observe a life with minimal intervention.
• Expository documentary - Speak directly to the audience proposing a strong argument/point of view.
• Participatory documentary - Believe that it is impossible for events not to be influenced by the fact that they are being filmed. The filmmaker is a part of the film and we get a sense of how situations in the film are altered or affected by their presence.
• Reflexive documentary - Draw attention to their own constructedness and the fact that they are representations.

I believe my documentary will be in the form of an observational documentary as I aim to give an insight into his life without causing any disruption.

Pitch & Audience Feedback

 

I presented a pitch of my documentary idea to my class. Most of the details were delivered verbally and in response to questions and therefore the PowerPoint itself does not present a lot of information.

 

Following my presentation I requested feedback from the class including any problems they think I may face.

 

From doing so it appears as though the main issue they feel may arise is the fact that my filming may be relatively weather dependent. My dad does not ride out on his bike, clean it or make modifications when it is raining and therefore I will have to be prepared to film whenever the weather allows.

 

I feel this is an issue which I will be able to overcome

Change In Idea

Due to a lack of response from the LTA, and wanting to move forward with the planning of my coursework, I have changed my coursework idea.

My new idea is a documentary based upon the life of a biker with the main cast member being my father, John Bradley. It will include an interview with him as well as shots of him out on his bike, cleaning his bike and talking about modifications he has made.

I will aim to simply take these shots as and when they happen in order to create a natural and realistic documentary.

I have not decided upon a specific target audience as I believe this is something that could interest anyone. It is not something that only bikers themselves would want to watch as those who don't ride bikes may find it intriguing to learn more about those who do.

Audience Research

I created a survey on Survey Monkey in order to gather information and inspiration about which direction to go with my documentary. It consisted of 9 questions and I obtained answers from 10 respondents.

Below are the responses to some of my questions and how I intend to utilise this information: 

From the above question 6 people responded with 'Channel 4' and 4 with 'Discovery Channel'. Due to this I will attempt to make my documentary appropriate for viewing on Channel 4 and will also take this into consideration when designing my newspaper advertisement and double page spread.

As a result of these responses the narrator on my documentary will be the voice of the cast member.

The repondents answered 50/50 to this question and therefore I am not any further forward in how to structure the interviews within my documentary. As a result, I will decide myself what I believe will work best and what I have saw most within documentaries. Due to this, I will probably have only the interviewee on screen talking to the camera.

From the question 'Place the following in order of what you would most like to see in a documentary about bikers/motorbikes' I found that the most popular topic was information about the life of a biker and what interests them. Consequently, this is the route I am going to take with my documentary.

Initial Ideas Presentation

Initial Ideas from lucybradley95


Above is a PowerPoint presentation summarising my 5 previously introduced initial ideas. I presented this to the students in my class along with feedback forms to find out what they liked about my idea, what I should improve/what I may find diffcult to do with reference to my main idea.

Overall, I gained a positive response and they liked my idea however the general consensus was that gaining a suitable amount of footage in one day may be quite difficult. As my documentary would be based on one event, I would have to gather the majority, if not all, of my footage within this day which could prove to be a challenge. However, I believe with the correct planning and preparation I would be able to do this, I would just have to be aware of what shots I needed prior to the day. I could do this by creating a checklist and ticking it off as I go.

Other than this, the only other issue raised was one I had already considered myself. Due to the time of year, there may not be any upcoming tennis events and I would have to find out about this before taking my idea any further so as not to waste time on an idea I cannot actually create.

 

Initial Idea 5

My fifth idea circulates around brief 1, 'a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video'.

The video would be to the song 'Life Happens' by Brandon & Leah and would be along similar lines to the existing video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyz6RiU6YQQ&list=PLvX1e3zw2FBCru55OyJyzJtNxLQtWjtbL

There would be no narrative or storyline as the video would simply be a compilation of clips of a group of friends laughing and having fun. I would attempt to use relatively natural shots in order to avoid it looking overly 'cheesy' however ensuring it still suits the light-hearted happiness of the song. In between these shots the video would keep cutting back to two people lip-syncing, probably sat on a wall or a field, who are supposed to be the 'artist's. However, I would not include very long clips of this as it may be difficult to make their lip-syncing match the lyrics and if this goes wrong my video would appear amateuristic.

This idea would include various locations, anywhere I see relevant for people 'having fun'. For example: the beach, in a car, in someone's house, the pub, bowling ally etc.

My ancillary texts would be:
- A digipak for the album's release
- A magazine advertisement for the digipak
Both of the above would feature an image of the two 'artists' seen in the video.

Initial Idea 4

My fourth idea is once again ' an extract from an original documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes' however it would be based on a real event.

I am involved with the Lawn Tennis Association, updating their social media websites and writing the occassional article for their website. As a result, I would like to create a documentary based on one of their tennis events. I would choose an event for over 18s so that I wouldn't have to gain parental consent. The documentary would eithercover the event as a whole, interviewing various players and spectators or follow one player throughout the day, documenting their progress and interviewing them about their tennis career. If I decide to take this idea further I would gain advice on which would create a more professional looking and interesting documentary.

The cast would be genuine competitors and the interviews would be real. This would work to my advantage as I don't have to worry about amateur acting skills or elements appearing fake or scripted. However, I will have to get in touch with the LTA to see whether they have any upcoming events (they may not due to the time of year) and whether I have permission to go ahead with this idea.

My ancillary texts would be:
- A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary
- A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

Inital Idea 3

Similarly, my third initial idea is also based upon brief 7, 'an extract from an original documentary TV programme, lasting approximately 5 minutes.'

I have once again chosen to base the documentary on young people, as it would be easy to access a 'cast' of a similar age range to myself. This idea circulates around the concept of young people and binge drinking. As a result, my documentary would feature shots of young people (all of whom would be abobe 18 years old) drinking alcohol and socialising, as well as interviews about why they choose to drink alcohol and when they began doing so. I have also considered adding an element about smoking.

I would fabricate stories about the 'casts' life as to why they binge drink e.g.- Alcoholic parents, a difficult home life, young carers in order to make it more interesting and as if it has a point to it rather than them just drinking to socialise. I believe it would not be too difficult to ensure the cast adopt their new personas appropriately as I wouldn't give them a specific script so their speech wouldn't appear as over rehearsed and more like a genuine interview.

I would use locations such as:
- Newcastle city centre at night - I would only use this for shots of drunk people staggering/to show the extent of binge drinking
- Peoples houses
- Local pub

My ancillary texts would be:
- A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary
- A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

Initial Idea 2

My second idea is brief 7, 'an extract from an original documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes'.

This would be based on a real issue, young people and unemployment, in order to make a realistic looking documentary. It would circulate around the lives of two young, unemployed people and their daily struggle looking for a job. There would be elements of them at home, seeking employment online and simply talking to the camera about the hardship they face daily, as well as featuring them out and about in the city centre, handing out CVs.

I would use my friends as the cast which would make them easy to access as well as me being able to film them in confidence knowing that they are aware of my aims and have given consent to take part.

My ancillary texts would be:
- A double page spread from a listing magazine focused on the documentary
- A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

Initial Idea 1

My first idea is brief number 8, 'the first two pages of an original local newspaper'. I believe this would be a good idea as I could utilise some similar skills which I used when creating my magazine, but adapt and progress in the creation of a newspaper. I would use a simple house style, using very few colours in order to make the newspaper appear as professional and realistic. However, in order to comply with the brief and ensure my newspaper is 'original' I would like to create a newspaper aimed at teenagers-young adults. Many young people do not read or watch the news and are more interested in magazines and celebrity gossip and so I believe it would be an interesting concept to create a newspaper which would appeal to the younger generation and keep them informed about world news and current affairs.

As this is a very original idea I do not have any particular inspirational texts, just newspapers in general. I would have to deconstruct and analyse many existing newspapers in order to ensure that my task complied with regular conventions in order to create a realistic looking newspaper.

I am unsure what sort of stories I would like to be featured on the first two pages I create and this would be something I would have to think about in more detail if I choose to go ahead with this idea. I do, however, know that the title of my newspaper would begin with 'The' because, even though I am yet to deconstruct existing newspapers or look at them in much detail, this is something which I have noticed is a recurring feature.

For my ancillary texts I would create:
- A billboard poster for the newspaper
- A radio advertisement for the newspaper