Documentary - Second Group Meeting (22/03/2021)

 Second Group Meeting

This meeting was a catch up with Beth in our breakout rooms to see how we were getting along. We explained our ideas to Beth and she fed back to us her thoughts and helped to guide us. 

Heather and I had had a discussion about contacting organisations such as Sisters Uncut, who are a feminist organisation that fight for those who experience sexual, domestic, gender-based, and state violence (Sisters Uncut, 2021) and who have been particularly vocal with the passing of the recent Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. We decided upon contacting Sisters Uncut, Kelly Tolhurst (the local MP for Rochester and Strood) who voted in favour of the Crime Bill (Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill:Second Reading, 2021), Extinction Rebellion. We also decided to go on social media platforms and try to reach out to people. Beth also reminded us to reach out to those in our circle, particularly those who are passionate about democracy and those who have opposing views and/or are indifferent. 

As a group, we expressed our views on protesting to each other to understand where we each stood on the topic. It was found out that Heather and I were more interested and passionate about the topic than the other members of the group who appeared mostly indifferent. We started to think about the reasoning behind the reasoning behind protesting and began to think about answers to questions. Why do we need protesting? We need protesting as it gives people a voice, especially minority groups, and can evoke change. Without protests where would we be? Without protests, a lot of things (e.g. gay marriage in the UK) would be illegal, the populations' (especially minority groups) voices wouldn't be heard and there would not be debates around many topics and issues. Why are they important? Protest are important as they give a voice to the people and can create change. Why now? There has been a rise in protesting and media coverage surrounding protesting in recent years. 

We decided upon finding archival footage, shooting our own footage and finding footage from social media when it came to content for our documentary. Through doing this, it will allows us to have a range of footage that we can use in our documentary. Archival footage is good for emphasising the historical impact of protesting, our own footage allows us and the audience to form an emotional connection with others who have similar and differing views to us, and footage from social media allows the content to become more intimate as your viewing the events through someone else's eyes and experiencing it alongside them. In addition to this, many 16-24 year olds use social media and often view the world through their use of smart phones, which makes it more relevant to BBC 3's target audience of 16-24 year-olds (Campbell,  2021)

Bibliography:

Campbell, F. (2021) BBC 3 Commissioning. At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/bbc-three (Accessed 23/04/2021).

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Second Reading (2021) Elizabeth II. At: https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/981#ayes (Accessed 23/04/2021).

Documentary - First Team Meeting and Ideas Lab (17th March 2021)

First Team Meeting and Ideas Lab

Our brief for this unit is a ten minute stand-alone documentary that fits in with the idea of '2021 vision' for BBC 3. 

We were put into breakout rooms with our groups to begin to discuss ideas, thoughts and decide upon roles with regards to the documentary. I am assigned as the Producer and Covid-19 Supervisor, Heather Wallbanks the Screenwriter, Derrin Elliott the Director of Photography, Joey Main as the Editor, and Harry Macer as the Director. 

In the breakout room, we came up with a selection of ideas for our documentary and discussed through each one. Our ideas were as followed: how young people live their lives through social media, students in lockdown, how Covid-19 has affected things (e.g. culture, drugs/the increase in the use of drugs), how Covid-19 has affected exams/schooling, graduates finding it hard to find jobs, dognapping and ideas surrounding protests. Upon Beth's feedback, we decided against a documentary to do with Covid-19 as there has been a lot of coverage with regards to this and multiple documentaries have been and are being made. We also decided against a documentary about dognapping as we couldn't see it as being feasible and safe to film. Discussion with regards to a documentary about protesting and the recent Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, kept coming up so we decided that we would do a documentary about that. Some of us, including myself, are incredibly passionate about the subject. The target audience of BBC 3's target audience are 16-24 year olds and they are looking for something that feels "timely and contemporary in subject and/or shape" (Campbell, 2021). Our documentary idea fits in with this as within the last two years, there has been an increase in protests, especially with regards to the Black Lives Matter Movement, climate change and women's rights, meaning that the subject is current. In addition to this, young people appear to be becoming increasingly vocal, with regards to societal issues. 

With our idea, we also had to think about the angle we are taking and what is new in it (Turrell, 2021). Some things that we had to keep in mind were the perspective presented, the contributors and choosing them (ensuring that they were engaging and in some cases controversial). We struggled to get to the deeper meaning of the angle and what we were trying to get at, which was frustrating. In order to tackle this, we are going to have a conversation with Beth to gain an outsiders opinion as to what she thinks we're getting at. 

Bibliography:

Campbell, F. (2021) BBC 3 Commissioning. At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/bbc-three (Accessed 18/04/2021)

Turrell, B (2021) Documentary Lecture Series. [Online 17/03/2021].

 

Documentary - Talk with Kate Misrahi (26/03/2021)

 Talk with Kate Misrahi

Specialist factual and documentary producer and director Kate Misrahi gave a talk over zoom, mainly with regards to writing a script for a documentary. 

With regards to talent/contributors, Kate stated that it's a good idea to draw up a list of contributors and/or the type of people/organisations you'd like to contribute. Building a rapport and communicating with contributors is of great importance to gain a greater insight and gather more information/more of what you need. Those with a direct insight are often more interesting contributors and can bring more to the documentary. 

In addition to contributors, a lot of documentaries also use archival and/or stock footage. Kate suggested when taking a look at this footage, look at it forensically so that you know what is going on within the footage, what commentary you will use within the script, and use it to help guide some of your research. Contacting others for footage can be a great way to gain more coverage and can sometimes be quicker than collecting archival footage. It was suggested that we contact people (e.g. friends, family, organisations, people on social media) and ask for any footage they have. A good way in which to go about doing this is through social media as most people use smart phones to document their lives and things that occur in society. 

When it comes to writing the script, it was mentioned that initially, you should conduct research surrounding the content/ideas for the documentary and take notes from your communication with contributors, starting to put the two into a script. The initial script is known as a 'shooting script', which is an outline/pre-script to guide the cast and crew. Kate informed us that after the coverage has been shot, the script will have to be re-written around the commentary and what's been said, especially in the interviews, as things are likely to have changed. I learnt also learnt that it's important to keep in mind that a script is useful, but don't be constrained by it, especially considering the fact that things will usually always change. 

Moving forward, I will be trying to use the advice that Kate gave along the way in my work. 

Bibliography:

Misrahi, K. (2021) Talk with Kate Misrahi. [Online 26/03/2021] 

Documentary - Talk with Jack Cocker (17/03/2021)

 Talk with Jack Cocker (17/03/2021)

Documentary maker, Jack Cocker, conducted a talk with us over zoom to help us gain some insight into the world of documentary making as well as how his work and career. 

Jack pointed out throughout the talk that you have to constantly be thinking why and have reasoning behind what you're doing as commissioners like to have a reason and often ask questions like "why them?" (Cocker, 2021) and "why now?" (Cocker, 2021). This piece of advice is useful as you're made to think about and explain why you have chosen to do something rather than making a decision and not knowing why you have made that decision. I will use this when going forward as I believe that it will help me in looking back at the things that I have done, the decisions I have made, and the decisions I am going to make and thinking about the reasoning behind them, ensuring that I don't drift too far away from the work at hand. 

When it comes to the talent/contributors, Jack emphasised the need for good characters. What Jack meant by this, is looking for characters who don't change in front of the camera, who have a good personality, who are interesting, and who would potentially appeal to an audience, amongst other things. In addition to this, Jack explained to us that personality of a documentary and film maker has a big role to play. Likability, respect and a clear vision are at the forefront, and can help you get further in life and with your work. People are more likely to work with you again if you are likeable, have respect, and hold a clear vision. It was also mentioned that charm is useful as it allows you to potentially gain access, work, build a rapport etc. however, it isn't essential. 

Another important point Jack made, was to ensure that you think about continuity throughout, especially when cutting as you want to make sure that the action matches. I will try to continually think about continuity with regards to this unit and future work so that my work is completed to a high standard. 

To conclude, I found the talk that Jack Cocker gave extremely useful and will be trying to incorporate what he put forward to us in my work going forward. 

Bibliography:

Cocker, J. (2021) Talk with Jack Cocker. [Online 17/03/2021]