Intial Documentary Ideas- further planning

I now have numerous potential ideas for my documentary; however I only have so much time and resources to make it. So I have decided to do some further planning that should enable me to see which ones are suitable and consequently come to a final choice. I have put each documentary into relevant categories to organise my planning but also to see which aspects would work and which wouldn’t.

Changing Southbank
Groups
-People involved in the London film festival
-Members of the Tate and other cultural institutions
-BFI employee- Alisha
-Londoners who enjoy the Southbank space.

Spaces
-BFI
-Tate
-Areas along the river (Royal Festival Hall)
-London eye

Visual symbols
-iconic buildings
-Southbank landscape
-clips from Southbank archive

Sounds
-Talking
-Music (composed)
-Theatre (clapping)
-Traffic

I would have access to the people needed in this documentary due to the work I did with the BFI during the summer. However gaining filming permission for the Southbank can be problematic as I would need to go through the local council. Therefore I have decided that this idea will need too much organisation and would result in me needing large amount of limited resources and teacher’s time thus is not fair to other students.

Out to play
Groups
-Parents
-Children
-‘playground community’

Spaces
-Schools
-Dulwich Park
-interviewee’s home/street

Visual symbols
-playground structures
-low shutter speed shots of children playing
-tracking shot of child’s hand running along railings
Southbank archives


Sounds
-playground noises
-children laughing
-ice cream van
-Old nursery rhymes

I was initially really interested in this idea as “out to play” highlight how different it is to grow up in today’s society and it would be interesting to explore why this may be. All the spaces and people should all be reasonably accessible as I know several parents of young children and there is a very family orientated park near where I live. Although I would need to consider how I would arrange this as I live quite far from school. Therefore my filming would need to be completed on the weekends, so I would need my teacher’s commitment. If I was to go ahead with this documentary the sound would be crucial to the over affect and I could either use diagetic sound from the park (however may not be very good quality due to the camera’s we have access to) or I can download sound affects from website: In the end I have chosen not to progress with this idea as I was ultimately more interested in another theme.

Exams
Groups
-A level students
-Primary school students
-Teachers
-Parents

Spaces
-My school
-Primary school
-Interviewee’s house

Visual symbols
-Exam papers
-Children playing
-Clock

Sounds
-School bells
-Clock ticking
-People talking

I came up with this idea over the summer while I myself was apprehensively waiting my AS results. I wanted to examine the pressure that young people are put under due to the examination process. Although most of filming spaces would be achieveable as would mainly be in my own school this was never truly plausible as results come out before school term starts.

Class
Groups
-Upper class/middle class family
-Primarily Abigail’s family

Spaces
-Abigail’s house

Visual symbols
-Family style portrait
-Quills

Sounds
-Classical music
-Piano (Abigail playing)

This idea was based upon my friend’s unusual family who came from upper class background, however now live in state of poverty. As based on someone I knew all access would be very easily gotten. However as I am good friends with her I think I would be too personally involved and the documentary may become biased. This idea would have also needed a lot of commitment from my teachers and having good access to equipment as the family live very far from school.

Disability in the workplace

Groups
-People with disabilities and their helpers
-Employer and businesses
-Charity workers/ organisers

Spaces
-Businesses along Lordship Lane
-The Plough pub- his place of work

Visual symbols
-Close ups of hands
-Shots in interview not focused on face
-Closed shutter shots of pub- time lapse?

Sounds
-Silent?
-Voice over- if so who’s voice
-Classical? Graceful

Gaining filming permission shouldn’t be too problematic as I intend to film where I work. However I would also need permission from the organisation that work with john which may be more complicated. The shots that I intend to take are all rather straight forward as I want to show john in his working environment, its also important that they correspond with the speech from interview.


In the end I decided that I wanted to go forward with “disability in the workplace: A workers profile” as I am strongly interested in the related issues. The filming should be accessible and easy to complete within the time period given. I feel that the theme gives me room to explore and experiment with filming and documentary styles.

Now I need to further think about how I wish to construct the documentary thus which genre and style I will want to achieve. The style of documentary determines which channel it would be most suited to therefore will outline my institutional research.