Idea Change

After several days of debating and thinking, I have come to the conclusion that the concept of a documentary pursuing the production of a musical (Hairspray) at my school stood as an extremely challenging and problematic project, mostly down to my deciding to work independently. My research was directed towards documentaries obviously produced by teams, capturing an event from different angles and covering all areas. In my situation, this is obviously impossible, meaning that I was setting myself a stressful and the nonetheless unethical challenge. During filming, I found myself to be extremely restricted due to the unpredicable/unorganized enviorment, with it being a "point and shoot" scenerio. It may be argued that this is what all documentaries are stemmed from, but it must be understood that I was attempting to create a "Mocumentary"...an element of fiction running through an otherwise very real and live setting. Intense planning and organization would therefore be required, too large of a task when working against both a school timetable and as mentioned unpredictable envoirement. The idea of staging/setting up fictional scenerios whilst an actual production was being created implicated the issue that I would be of distruption to the creative process and the staff/cast, something which completely goes against the "fly on the wall" element of documentary making. Due to these issues, I have concluded that a change of idea is of need.

Since I have already conducted research towards the documentary genre, it makes sense to still pursue the same conventional format, but simply change the subject matter. Conducting a brain storm of ideas on the 10/10/10, I eventually came across the idea of pursuing the fictional story of a person with an absurd phobia, putting to work "Mockumentary" to full effect. Due to the project being entirely of fictional content, I can have 100% creative control, even having some sort of script in place to guide me a long (even though the project will be largely improvised) something that was missing in the previous idea. I can also due to this present written evidence of my planning/script to a far greater extent, such as this rough template of direction concerning dialouge and camera movement:

Further Research

Looking for further guidance in terms of what direction I should be aiming for, I decided to look into the "Mockumentary" style of documentary-making to a greater degree, searching for programming of direction parallel to what I wish to obtain. Through past TV viewing, I had known of a pilot-episode show named "LifeSpam", a spoof-documentary exploiting the lifestyles/phobias of particular characters, all of which carry random/comical twists executed in a way mimicking the conventions of documentaries such as Channel 4's "Cutting Edge".

(insert video link)

The raw-uncut depiction of this otherwise satirical extract is exactly the direction I aim to mimic, conveying a coat of realism over an otherwise absurd and ridiculous narrative. The camera merely oversees and is not a presence-truly defining the "fly on the wall" perspective of my project. Much more of contrast to my earlier idea is the style of editing, previously being a high-octane pop promo cutting style; this project accounting a much more simplistic and slower pace-quite the opposite. I must therefore bear much more focus towards camera composition and planning, due to the fact that I cannot use a sequence of frenzied cutting to gloss over gaps or scenes of simply poor quality.

My potential target audience in comparison to my previous demographic has changed to a significant extent. Whilst I previously concentrated on a far younger age range (15-18) I this time will cater towards a much more versatile demographic, being 18-40, evidently the primary age range for documentaries on the likes of Channel 4/BBC1. Due to the humerous context of the documentary/mockumentary however, it may be argued that my audience will include persons younger than 18 (due to the lighthearted content and spoof genre)

Research for Ancillary Task/s

As I have already started both my research and shooting for my main documentary-extract task, I thought it would be wise to begin looking into examples of both a double page spread listings magazine and a newspaper advertisement, as I was slightly confused due to me naturally associating the print production task with the conventional magazine-glossy poster, with this instead revolving around a newspaper..entirely new territory for myself. This "new territory" is even more so unique as a typical newspaper advertisement is sold through a simple image, featuring frequently a white backdrop allowing more concentration on the primary image; relating to the documentaries theme/narrative. I came to this conclusion through coming across multiple examples* of not only actual newspaper advertisements, but examples of A2 student work.

*Please note, I have used examples of Channel 4 programmes due to their frequent production of documentaries, and therefore being the most mainstream of broadcasters to market their docs by use of newspaper advertising.

By looking at these examples, I could see a distinct pattern concerning the use of fonts, images and colours. It appears that there is a noticeable concentration on props, used to convey the theme or subject matter of the documentary, aided by the simple layout and somewhat basic connection/use of images. This ironically will be more challenging to my preperation/post production, as the "less is more approach" departs so drastically from the usual production task. I must therefore implicate a lot more thought to the composition and the actual initial idea.

I have settled on using the concept of using an apprehensive/awkward image of the drama teachers face hiding behind a script (for Hairspray) with an array of hair spray cans (linking to the school putting on the production of "Hairspray" held by students, as well as scissors, hair dryers and scripts)

This study of original/conventional examples has to great extent inspired me to go about drawing up a rough template/sketch of my own newspaper advertisement, revolving around the production of hairspray and drama, possibly with the emphasis on student (correlating with my proposed theme-drama and student life).

Shooting First Documentary Footage

Due to the fact that the aim of my main task was to document my schools production of "Hairspray" I had to act with a sense of urgency; being that it was being produced at the exact time of my studies. As a result of this, I had to instantly begin to film the pre-production of the musical, during which the auditions were being held. Although I would comment that this was a rather rushed decision on my half, I could imagine that the recorded footage would aid me greatly in the final project; with the auditions being used in a "previously on...." re-cap.

I would argue however that by filming at such a early time, I was more prepared to undertake the task at hand, and attend to equipment issues which would allow me to create a more polished and quality product. For example, whilst filming I found that the quality of sound would be an imperitave aspect in order to make apparent the themes I aim to express; being secondary education, drama and teaching. The slightest glitch or poor quality sound bite could turn off my target audience (being teens....a severely technically aware generation who take for granted the MTV-Style production/post production of programmes) and even more so establish a poorly contrived piece of media. It is due to this that even with or without the aid of boom mics/shotgun mics, the composition of my shots must be even more severely concentrated on in order to deliver the best quality sound possible.

Research and Study of Conventional Examples

In this lesson, research was undertaken into conventional examples of both music videos, documentaries and promotional packages in order to pick a brief.

Having already created numerous short films for various purposes, I thought it would be wise to explore untouched territory; such being to possibly create a documentary (the ancillary tasks being to create a poster for a newspaper, as well as a double page spread for a listings magazine). With an interest in Reality TV documentary style, it seemed plausible to document the preparation of my schools production of Hairspray the Musical; recording all areas of activity from audition to performance. Ideally, this style would be of large homage to the likes of The Apprentice and Sky One's Grease: The School Musical-where by tasks and challenges are documented by a fly-on the wall camera crew.

I instantly began to look for extracts of Grease: The School Musical which demonstrated a conventional presentation of reality TV documentary editing, cinematograthy and narrative structure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO7UL09AHps

I found that this extract possesed examples of fast paced editing (infamously known as MTV-Style Cutting) such being an extremely conventional form of contemporary reality TV documentaries. Throughout the extract, a wide range of fade-ins, fade outs, white outs, flash frames, strobe lighting, and slow motion effects are used, simply conveying the high-energy style of the likes of the musical "Grease". It is due to this that I must duplicate this approach to editing, making sure to express clearly different emotions through either fast or slow cutting speeds, at the same time creating an engaging and proffesional piece.

The animated logo sequence at the start of the extract is a pivotal display of identifying the documentaries target audience; the iconic Grease logo making apparent it's relevance to fans of the musical, as well as the fact that both the background and the words "Musical" bear resemblance to the "High School Musical" poster; a brand immensely popular with young teenagers.

In order to create a conventional documantary in the style of the studies extract, as well as to identify my target audience, a possibly idea may be to create a similiar template, through a mixture of Adobe Photoshop CS4 and animation through Adobe Premiere Pro CS4-putting together a series of bright attractive colours, and quick flashy movements.

Cinematograthy in the extract is highly stylised, containing a large amount of low angle shots, side views, whip pans and crane shots. Obviously I will be unable to aqquire the funds or the equipment for that matter to use a camera crane, meaning that I must make up for this through severe concentration on the composition of my camera work in order to create equally impressive and yet original cinematograthy. In order to draw a strict relationship between the documentary and the school, I have decided to make low angle-side view shots of the schools street sign an almost iconic presense in my documentary-important due to the need to remind the viewer of the involvement of school students. This will be an essential shot in the development of my storyboard.

Music will play an essential role in the engagment of my general audience and the aim to create the most conventional reality TV documentarty possible. The frequent use of Audio FX such as wooshes, swishes and flashes are crucial to create a relentless and exciting atmosphere in it's presentation; as well as to exaggerate and "spice up" the already stylished camera movements. It is therefore pivotal that I have the correct array of sound FX, as well as making sure that each individual piece is archived correctly on my computer (to make for a smoother editing session).

The use of music from the soundtrack of Hairspray will also be an extremely important element, neccesary to link constantly to the themes of musical and drama.

Introduction to A2-21st June 2010

In this first lesson, we recieved our first introduction to the outline of the A2 course. Primarily situated towards our coursework, we took into perspective the multiple possibilities of media portfolios and use of versatile technologies such as Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, Audacity and Photoshop (all of which extremely familiar due to AS).

After looking into much detail concerning the choice of which coursework I would undertake, I finally settled to make a promotional package for a new film, creating a trailer together with a film magazine front cover and a poster for the film (not choosing to create a website due to my limited knowledge of website creation). I chose this task due to my extensive interest and involvement with filmmaking and the film industry, as well as me being familiar with technology such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop (having used both for around three years).

I began researching into promotional packages of films by searching the typical teaser trailer for a mainstream film, such as the recent fantasy romance adaption "Twilight", mostly due to it's extensive marketing campaign and the release of three trailers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBvOhfL4mYw

I also briefly looked into the above the line promotion of films in magazines, most noticably in the renowned "Total Film" and "Empire Magazine". By looking at both multimedia content, I will pivototally be able to construct a realistic and high standard of work situated to techniques and traits used in the actual industry.