Further Research

Further Research

The further researched involved topics such as location choice, and people to possibly follow or interview. 

For the narration of the documentary, we decided using myself would be a more personal touch for the final major project. Through certain bits, I will be involved in the documentary, Me before a night out and me the morning after, as a one to one basis, like a diary entry. 

The plan is to try and get a fly on the wall type documentary with someone like a DJ. 

For this whole documentary being a local one, using a local DJ who often does sets in town seems appropriate, my brother is a local DJ who would be willing to participate. 

The location plan is to be around Chicagos on a thursday night and Hitchin on a friday - saturday. these are the local places which will get the busiest at these times. We would know familiar faces so we know people would be up for an interview. 

Documentary Workshop

Documentary Workshop

Our teacher set up a workshop for the people doing their FMP on a documentary. We got given task sheets that involved group work of mind mapping different types of documentaries we see every day. In our mind map, we involved programmes such as Big Brother, Sun sex and suspicious parents, My big fat gypsy wedding and party paramedics. We had to put them in what type of documentary we believed they were, such as fly-on-the wall, observational etc. 

After this task, we were briefly informed of a very popular documentary that had been made and recognised a few years ago called Bowling for Columbine. It was based around gun crime in america and focusing on the columbine high school shootings that happened in 1998. He informally researches and discovers how easy it is for people to purchase guns around america. He interviews families that own their own guns to protect themselves, He asks how is to blame; TV, Film, Toy Guns, Police, Rock and Metal music. There is no answer,  there is multiple things that people could blame for the huge amount of gun crime in the united states of america. 

The Trailer for Bowling for Columbine

Some techniques I picked up on through watching this documentary was various things. One of which was like a video vox pop. The narrator would ask someone a question, show their answer and then somewhere else, somebody with the opposite answer or opinion would be played. It gave more than one persons insight into the questions asked. The documentary also used animation, characters to show a humorous side and although for my own documentary research, somebody said animation would take the seriousness away from the documentary, I did not feel this happened for this documentary, it was a very serious documentary which covered upsetting and emotional stuff, but the animation did not take that emotion away, it just made it a little more light hearted in some places.


I really liked the use of CCTV footage, that was a very personal touch. It made you feel involved. I like the way he used himself to discover the information everyone is trying to seek, such as; finding out how to purchase a gun etc. 


At one point during the documentary, he points out that there are more important stories in the world, not just gun crime. For instance; pollution. At this time, he was around police officers and camera crew, asked them about the pollution but they were not interested, all they were interested in was the potential gun crime use at that moment. It showed us what people's intentions are and their priorities. 

Development Process

Development Process

This video blog includes us talking about the decision that we made on using the teenage based documentary. We both briefly explained our own ideas and our feedback forms, then we decided which would work best and which we could work towards to make a very impressive documentary. We were giving ideas about different camera angles we could use and the general structure of the documentary. We said that the next stage was completing another questionnaire for the audience to give us an opinion on our ideas. 
We aim to complete this questionnaires and results by the middle of april (this works best because our target audience are going to be on easter holidays, available to interview) After half term to then do another video entry to conclude the results and the next stage in the development process. 

Research

RESEARCH

Sun, sex and suspicious parents is one of the programmes I used for research.

It is a documentary on teenagers going on their very first group holiday. This clip shows the type of lifestyle that the teen generation live on a summer holiday. My intentions are to show this, but more locally. More interviews and more of a video narration from myself throughout. 

16 and pregnant is a documentary on american teenage girls that document their pregnancy, the due dates, the actual birth and the life after the birth. You see arguments, break-ups, crying, screaming and eventually you see happy families. In this particular trailer/clip, you see the hand drawn animation title pages which is the style I am aiming on using in my own documentary/animation. It relates more to people my age.

The Only Way is Essex. This was a popular reality television programme based on a group of people living in Essex. At the beginning it was watching them every day, watching them doing normal things, but lately it has turned more scripted. 

Pitch board and Feedback Forms

PITCH BORD AND FEEDBACK FORMS

Above is an image of the pitch board I created to gather feedback of my ideas from various people. 


The content:
Synopsis: Documentary mix with animation of a local night out. Interviewing and analysing the behaviour of drunk teenagers. Getting an insight from inside a night club or bar, possibly having discussions with pub owners or bouncers. The main peg is for the audience to see what teenagers get up to when unleashed off a weekend.


Linked research I showed the programme title images for programmes on channel 4 and BBC 3 that relate to my concept. Channel 4 programme "The Family" and BBC 3 programme "Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents" I wrote a conclusion of what each programme offered on the pitch board to give an aspect of what I wanted to involve in mine. 


Under further links and comments; I added an example of the twist I wanted to involve in my documentary. I done a screen shot of the title sequence for 16 and pregnant to show the drawn animation style I intend on using. Also I put an image of a drawn character on there, in the style of character animations. 
I mentioned clips of teenagers on a night out like they do on a night out in another country but this time it is more local. The only way is essex was also involved, I used this as an example of a reality television popular programme of this current generation, mentioned how at the beginning it was about a group of people living their every day lives, but it did later on turn a bit more scripted and pretentious. 


Target Audience: 16-24, I explained why I put this as the target audience, mainly because they are the ones that would be more interested in a documentary like this.


Feedback Forms: I had overall 13 completed feedback forms...

. 
Questions asked and an average answer:


1. Would you agree to the target audience for this documentary?
every person who filled out my feedback form agreed to the target audience of 16-24 yr olds.


2. Do you believe this works better as a documentary, or creating a film in the eyes of a teenager?
the majority answered that a documentary would be better, in the eyes of a teenager. Its more real if it is a documentary, whereas a film can be fictional.


3. Are you familiar with the programmes I have linked to this as research?
Yes they were.


4. If answered yes, do you think by adding an animation twist would work?
Mixed answers for this question. Some people believed that it would work, and it would make it unique. Some people were worried that if it is not completed properly, it would not look great. Some of the audience made a point of saying that with the animation, it may not be as serious. But then others disagreed and said that a funny side to the documentary.


5. If you were on a night out and you saw someone with a camera, do you reckon you would be willing to participate?
Tricky question, because some people said they would prefer not to. Others said that it depended on how "drunk" they were and someone advised me to be careful with my camera equipment around drunk people!


6. For a final major project, this camera use and the content involved needs to be correct, is there anything you would change or add?
Most answered No. There was a few people that did mention the seriousness of a documentary, and how the animation twist may not work well with it. Some other answers said that it overall was a good concept for a final major project. 


7. Would you watch this documentary?
12 out of 13 participants answered yes, they would watch this. The one that answered no, said it was simply because they are to "shallow" to be interested in a documentary like this, which is fair enough :)


The next stage is changing some pieces of my idea, taking in consideration what people gave me back through the feedback forms...

First Stages: Mind-Mapping Ideas.

FIRST STAGES: MIND MAPPING IDEAS

The first stages of starting the final major project, consisted of creating mind maps and research of potential ideas to use. 


I researched animation at the very beginning, because I figured that animation is one of the mediums that I have rarely used. I researched Muto Wall Animations, this artists work is unreal, it's very creative and it's inventive as well. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4 - a link to one of Muto's Wall Animations.


After exploring animation, I wanted to expand my concepts and research, which I began looking at documentaries. 


I thought about relating it to people near my age (16-24) I wanted to think about something that would interest them, or would have some kind of relevance to them. This is when I thought about drinking and nights out. As soon as a teenager hits 18, there weekends consist of pubs, clubs and booze and there summers consist of that one mental summer holiday to one of the party islands. 


So, I researched television programmes like Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, which gave us a documentary insight to the lives of teenagers with there parents reactions. I thought about other channels that have covered documentaries, which is when I thought of Channel 4, when they had there documentary, "The Family". This programme consisted of cameras put up around a families home where we saw what an average family got up to day in and day out. 


Programmes like this interest me, knowing what other people do of there normal day, intrigues me. 


My idea was to do a documentary based local version of these two programmes mixed. I thought about aiming to go out on a thursday, friday and saturday night over the course of about 2 weeks, and film teenagers, on a night out, having interviews, filming there good to bad state of the generation itself, and potential fights breaking out and people passing out. 


I wanted to make it unique, this is when I thought about adding the animation twist. As an example, I used the programme "teen mom", the style of this programme is laid out how I intended my documentary to be laid out. The beginning bit is hand drawn animation, and in some scenes they used hand drawn animated characters, it makes the programme more related to teenagers and gives it a personal touch. This could make the skill level higher for my FMP. 


Creating the pitch board with all these ideas, was the next stage...