Recce Checklist For My VT Clip.

Recce Checklist

Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk.

Things to take:	Complete	Notes
Camera	Yes.
Mobile phone	Yes.
Notebook, pen, PDA	Yes.
Programme risk assessment form	Yes.
Maps/directions	Yes.
Student ID card	Yes.
Brief	Yes.
Checklist	Yes.
Talking to people:	Complete	Notes
Confirm ownership
Exchange details
Explain intentions	Yes.
Discuss fees/contract	Yes.
Editorial policy	Yes.
Are passes required?	No.
Availability and timings	Yes.	Available on the Saturday and Sunday between the hours of 5am and 5pm, and can only film during those hours.
Local events	Yes.	There are no nearby local events anywhere nearby the competition.
Dress code	No.	No dress code, though advisable to dress warm clothes that will not be damaged by mud.
Copyright issues	No.	Shouldn't be any issues with copyright at all.
Children’s details	No.	There should be no children’s identities within the shots as it is mainly focusing on the racing.
Transport/access:	Complete	Notes
Landmarks for directions	Yes.	There are signs directing people to the location within the forest where the competition is being held
Neighbour disturbance	Yes.	There are no nearby neighbours that could possibly be disturbed.
Risk of trespass	No.	It is public grounds, and there is no risk of trespassing.
Internal access	Yes.	The area is open and accessible almost everywhere except for the race track itself.
Vehicle access	Yes.	There is a road leading up to the main focus point of the racing course – including the start and finish – although will be filled with parked cars and vans.
Toilets	Yes.	There are portable toilets on location.
Traffic control needed?	Yes.	Traffic control will already be on site for the competition.
Shelter	Yes.	There is a small marque/tent and there is the shelter of the trees.
Safety for hazardous environments	No.	There’s not much shelter within the area, so it is advisable to sit in the car if there is a hazard.
Tidal waters	No.	N/A.
Boats/safety	No.	N/A.
Camera/lighting:	Complete	Notes
Position of the sun	Yes.	Should not affect the filming at all.
Window direction	No.	N/A.
Power supply	No.	No power supplies on location.
Size of location	Yes.	Wide and open forest with a road leading through it. Should have no problems.
Strobing	No.	N/A.
TV/computer screens	No.	N/A.
Is floor level?	No.	Floor is extremely uneven so care should be taken.
Secure place for kit	No.	There is no place to secure kit so it should be kept in sight at all times or hidden and locked away within the car.
Cables	Yes.	There are some cables around the clocks/timers/countdowns and other electrical equipment needed to time the races.
Smoke alarms/sprinklers	No.	N/A.
Sound:	Complete	Notes
Listen
Traffic/roadworks	No.	No nearby traffic except for cars coming to/from the race.
Aircraft	Yes.	The occasional aircraft passing overhead, but not often and not overly loud.
Electrical hazards	No.	N/A.
Schools	No.	N/A.
Weather	Yes.	The weather could affect things as can be windy/rainy.
Background music/PA system	No.	N/A.
Air conditional/fridges	No.	N/A.
Wooden floors	No.	N/A.
Things for director:	Complete	Notes
Take photos	Yes.
GVs/top shots	Yes.
Cutaways	Yes.
Backgrounds	Yes.
Events	Yes.	No events taking place nearby except for the competition itself.
Additional contributors	Yes.	N/A.
Food/accommodation:	Complete	Notes
Eating	Yes.	There is a small burger van on location that sells
Hotels	No.	No hotels are required as we are only planning to film for one day.

Research For My VT Clip.

What happened?

A family-friendly sled dog competition took place.

Who was there?

Over 300 husky dogs and 100 teams are participating, as well as the support of family/friends and officials from the BSHRA (British Siberian Husky Racing Association.)

Why did it happen?

Huskies are an extremely energetic and lively breed of dog that enjoy sled dog racing. They liven up at the atmosphere and enjoy being around all the other dogs, but as soon as they are harnessed and the countdown for the race begins, they become extremely excited and are raring to go. Sled dog racing is usually thought of to be an arctic sport, usually in colder countries with snow, but it often happens across England too during winter months even though it is not as well known as a sport. BSHRA has been around since the end of the 1995/1996 race season and every year they get more and more people turning up to participate and support the events, as they host a variety of different races from six-dog sleds all the way to junior races.

When did it happen?

The first and second of February, 2014, however there are more races taking place on the 15th/16th of February, and the 1st/2nd of March 2014 and then the racing season will resume again in November 2014 because the weather is too warm for the huskies between the months of April and October and it is too dangerous to their health to let them race. All races consist of two days with one race on each, so the dogs are not overly tired out.

Where did it happen?

Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England.

o   Primary research

-  Interviews, surveys, questionnaires, observations, focus groups etc

Interviews with racers show how the dogs extremely enjoy the sport, and get excited as soon as they see the rig and the harnesses brought out. They can only race during winter months as the summer is far too hot for them to go outside during the day, let alone race due to their thick coat.

The atmosphere and support for the events are supposedly friendly and enjoyable, and the crowds that turn up are extremely supportive of the racers and their dogs. They disagree with anyone who states that the racing is cruel, because they live with the dogs and can instantly tell that they enjoy it, and it also uses up some of their energy. According to one person 'their eyes light up as soon as they can hear the other dogs and see the rig and they're just raring to go'. 

o   Secondary research

-  Internet articles, videos, audio, books, magazines, journals

'BSHRA exists purely to administer the annual BSHRA British Husky Racing Championship. As such, it has no membership, no formal committee, but is run by an organising group. The body consists of race organisers with additional people who ALL contribute to the successful running of the series. We pride ourselves on top level competition throughout each classification - remember that people in 20th place are still trying to beat a fellow competitor into 19th place!

ALL our competition takes place between the start and finish lines - the camaraderie at the race site is second to none, even between people competing for the top slot.

Alongside the main championship, we also run Rookie Musher and Veteran Team and more recently, an All-Bitch team Championships in addition to Courtesy classes and occassional junior classes. These serve to encourage people new to mushing to enquire and learn about nutrition and safe effective training methods to maximise the dogs' potential. It also encourages mushers to keep older dogs fit and healthy in the knowledge that their 'elderly' team is catered for as well as competing on a 'level playing field'.

Every race is electronically timed to 1/100th of a second using a state-of-the-art TAGHeuer system - and yes - after 5 miles, a race has been decided by 5/100 of a second!! From our first season, BSHRA has steadily attracted more and more entries year on year for people interested in good competition. Historically, some have attracted a phenomonal 30-40% more than in previous years! The trend has continued into subsequent seasons with most races showing an increase each year. We started with 45 entries at our first race and recently pulled in 143 teams to an event the weekend directly before Christmas!

BSHRA aims to provide a fun day's competition for all Sibes and their owners. The racing season starts in November and runs through to March. For uncomplicated fun and good competition, come and join us; you will be made most welcome.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sled_dog_racing
http://www.huskyracing.org.uk/
http://www.webheads.co.uk/sleddog/index.htm

o   Audience research

-  Demographics, audience classification(socio-economic, age, gender, occupation, education), media preferences, buying/consumption patterns

Target audience of families, specifically animal loving ones with young children between the ages of 8 and 13. It would be trying to encourage them to visit an upcoming event, and support the activities as well as informing people who believe the racing to be cruel that it isn't, as long as the animals are well looked after because they enjoy it greatly.

o   Market research

-  Product market, competition, competitor analysis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/clips/p01b8kl4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-25896311

o   Production research

-  Content, resources (personnel, equipment, set up, cost, viability)

·       Interpret results – collate research, evaluate and summarise the research that you have.

The only real cost of the filming will be the travel costs, however that is being covered. The cameras and sound recording equipment is being hired free of charge by the college, and there are no fees to film at the competition itself.

The research I have shows that sled dog competitions in England - especially in the South East - are not often thought of, and it is considered to be more of an arctic sport than one that takes place here. Some people also have a bad view on the events, as they believe it is cruel and the dogs are forced into racing. When speaking to mushers, however, they have a completely different light and understanding of the sport, and speak of how the dogs enjoy it and it also allows them to use up their large amount of energy that they are unable to do if the owners were to simply walk the dogs like a usual person and breed.

I will be able to film a competition that takes place within the South East, and is hosted by the BSHRA. It is an event that has a good, friendly atmosphere and attracts a lot of people including families. This could possibly attract viewers to visit an upcoming event and support the competitions, as well as showing them first hand that it is not as cruel as many people believe it is.

'Country Life' Beat Sheet.

Project title: Country Life.

Genre: Romantic Comedy.

Date: 12/02/2014.

1. Opening Image (1): 

The opening image would be the busy landscape of a large, American city - such as New York, for example. There would be crowds of people and queues of traffic, and it would just seem like an extremely busy and noisy environment. This would then be contrasted by shots of the peaceful countryside town with only a few people passing what seems like the only few, small shops in the town. There would be barely any cars - if any at all - and it all seems extremely calm and relaxed. These shots would cut back and forth to each other to show the extreme differences between the two locations, and slowly introduce the main two characters and Jason's 'friend' without much dialogue.

2. Theme Stated (5): 

Not decided on 100%, but something about friends and family being more important than wealth, and how it's so easy to lose someone without realising how much they may mean to you.

3. Set-Up (1-10): 

Jason's father dies, and he is told through a phone conversation, asking if he'd like to attend the funeral. He flies back and travels to the countryside to be there and seems to expect to inherit everything his father had, which would in turn solve the debts that he had worked himself into. He seems to make a mess of things, however, and accidentally insults a few people by thinking they are lesser than him simply because they do not live in a big city.

4. Catalyst (12): 

Instead of inheriting everything, the will states that he is entitled to only half of his father's belongings - including the farm itself - but only as long as the farmhand by the name of Anne owns the other half, and Jason stays there to help her run it.

5. Debate (12-25): 

Jason does not want to run a farm, and instead wants to sell it. He is unable to, however, because Anne owns one half of the rights to everything. He knows that moving back to the city without anything at all would only cause him more trouble, however, as loan sharks and repo men have been pestering his apartment for a little while now and this could be a fresh start where they don't know his location.

6. Break Into Two (25):

Jason decided to give the farm a chance and arranges for his things to be moved there, much to Anne's disappointment as she believed that he would simply leave the farm to her and move back to the city.

7. B. Story ( 30): 

Anne's gay friend, Jeremiah, is introduced as her best friend, often giving her advice. He's something of a failure when it comes to relationships and always seems to go after the wrong guys - as much as he can give good advice to other people. Jeremiah also seems to take an interest in Jason.

8. Fun And Games (30-55): 

Anne teaches Jason the ropes of running the farm as she learnt from his father. He struggles with the majority of the jobs, and finds it difficult because of his pampered city life and this often ends him in small dilemmas that she has to get him out of, which leads to the majority of comedy aspects. Jeremiah also adds to the comedy of the film by appearing from time to time and making odd comments and doing the occasional amusing thing or two.

9. Midpoint (55): 

Jason and Anne seem to have fallen for each other at this point, although the loan sharks have found out his new address and are once again sending him threats which he chooses to hide from Anne instead of warning her.

10. Bad Guys Close In (55-75): 

When Anne is out of the farm, the loan sharks show up to demand the money that Jason owes. Not wanting to hand anything over to them, they forcibly take what they can to make up half of his debts, destroying a few items that were precious to Anne in the process.

11. All Is Lost (75): 

Anne returns to find the farm trashed and Jason finally admits to her about the debts. She believes that he was simply pretending to like her so that he could get the money to pay them off, and storms out, wanting nothing to do with him or the farm as she moves back to live with her family a little distance away.

12. Dark Night Of The Soul (75-85): 

Jason mopes around in the farm for a while seeming unsure of what to do - he grew to love both the farm and Anne and does not want to sell it nor be away from her, but doesn't see much of a choice as he cannot find any other way to pay off his debts and therefore debates on selling it like he was originally planning to.

13. Break Into Three (85): 

Jeremiah manages to convince Jason to set things straight with Anne and go after her, and also informs him of the local community who would be willing to help settle his debts in return after all that his father had done for them. He also tells him that he can fix whatever it was that was important to Anne that the loan sharks badly damaged.

14. Finale (85-110): 

Jason travels to where Anne was staying and explains things properly, and tells her that he may have wanted to sell the farm to pay off the debts at first but soon changed his mind once he got to know her and the other people in the small countryside town. Somehow he manages to make her see, and she agrees to come back to the farm with him to try and make things right. As they return to the farm, they learn that the loan sharks are paid off by a combined effort of the townsfolk and that Jeremiah managed to fix the object for Anne, but gave Jason credit for it instead. Jason begins to work on a business idea for the farm to try and give improve the profits and one day pay the townsfolk back.

15. Final Image (110): 
The final scene of the film should be once again cut back and forth between the contrasting environments of the city and the countryside, but this time Jason's 'friend' is alone in the city looking miserable, and Jason is with Anne in the countryside looking happy. The last shot should be of some kind of advertisement in the city for Jason's new - and now somewhat successful - business that he began to start on the farm.

Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.

Blake Snyder is a screenwriter who wrote 'Save The Cat', which is a useful book on scriptwriting and writing for the screen. He approached scriptwriting from a commercial point of view, and wrote what the audience wanted rather than to tell a story.

There is a very specific set of expectations from audiences when they sit down to see a film, and he believed that this beat sheet can be used to match every top 250 except from 'Momento', and that the further you went from the sheet, the less the audience would be interested in the film.

The numbers in brackets are the timings within the film in minutes, and Snyder believed that if you differed from this the audience would get restless.


The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.

Project title: 

Genre: 

Date: 

1. Opening Image (1): 

The first thing you see, which should hook the audience and drag them into the universe that the film is set in. It's extremely important within the film.

2. Theme Stated (5): 

Theme isn't always linked to the genre, but it can be. Friendships/war/life/death etc, and Snyder believed that a character should always verbally state the theme of the film at this point in the film. For example, in Spiderman, Uncle Ben says 'with great power comes great responsibility' and this is the main theme of that film, and also the message portrayed to the audience.

3. Set-Up (1-10): 

About ten minutes are needed to establish what the world where the movie is set is like. Introductions to characters/places/relationships etc should be made during that time, and how things are before the events within the film should be made clear in the first ten minutes. There's an idea that there should be six things that need fixing with the main character and/or their world, and these things should be shown within this time.

4. Catalyst (12): 

The thing that happens that shakes the main character's world up quickly, and gets the story going. Can be very obvious or also very subtle, but it should not be much sooner or much later than this otherwise the audience would have too much/too little time to make sense of the world of the film and it would not work properly. It can also be called the 'call to adventure'.

5. Debate (12-25): 

The story needs to slow slightly between the catalyst and the second act of the film. If the catalyst is the call to adventure, the debate is whether or not they'll accept the call or not, and wether they will or won't do it. It's after we know what the story's going to be, but it's before the main body of the story.

6. Break Into Two (25):

The second act of the story begins here. The second act is where most of the things within the film take place, and where things are different from the beginning of the film, being up in the air slightly. 

7. B Story (30): 

A b story is another, smaller story happening in the background of the main storyline - such as a best friend character with their own little storyline. If you plan to include a b story, then this is the time to do so. Also, if you want to introduce another important character then this is the last chance to do so. It's not the main story of the film, but it's another backstory in the background to carry things through, and every 'best friend' character in a film has their own b story. Introducing them any later would mean that the audience would not have enough of a chance to get to know them.

8. Fun And Games (30-55): 

This is the reason why people bought a ticket to see the film. If a film is meant to be incredibly gory, this is when most of it would happen. During Die Hard, this is usually when Mclain starts to fight the terrorists, and during a romantic comedy this is when there's the most of the laughs and misunderstandings between the characters. These are also normally the parts that are shown during the trailers of the film. 

9. Midpoint (55): 

The midpoint is half way through the second act. The audience would start to get bored during this time because it doesn't have the excitement of the first act, and the fun and games are usually over, so the film needs a bump to keep the audience interested. Raising of the stakes, or the introduction of a ticking clock/time limit usually works well - for example, a bomb, someone moving away or something needing to be completed before something bad happens makes things more interesting and makes the things that happen afterwards seem more important.

10. Bad Guys Close In (55-75): 

The bad guys that lurk in the background for the most of the film now start to make a move, and the good guy(s) may begin to lose control of the situation. If the villains were a bit of a joke for the first part of the film, the tides suddenly turn and they suddenly start to seem more serious. It doesn't literally have to be a person, but could be the environment, the weather, starvation/dehydration or a disaster could also be classified as a 'bad guy'.

11. All Is Lost (75): 

The worst thing that could happen to the good guy happens now. The bad guy does something really bad here, and the good guy cannot stop it from happening. Something close to the good guy gets dragged into the situation where they have been trying to prevent it from happening, or someone important to the main character - like a mentor or best friend - is killed off here. For example, this is when Darth Vader kills Ben Kenobi during Star Wars. If a character has desperately not wanted to be left alone for the entire film, this is the point where they find themselves alone with their worst films or a break up would happen.

12. Dark Night Of The Soul (75-85): 

This is how the characters deal with the 'all is lost' situation. This is where the band splits up, for example, and all get normal jobs or their reaction to the worst possible thing ever happening. This could be someone reacting to a death of someone close to them, or what they do after a relationship breaks up, even.

13. Break Into Three (85): 

This part is the third act, and is how things end up at the end of the film. It includes some of the chaos of the middle act too, but things get fixed within this act. The hero turns around during this part and changes his mind to overcome the 'dark night of the soul' and they are suddenly determined to make things right by finding their inner strength. Like someone trying to find their love after they have broken up with them and moved away, or someone standing up after being beaten in a fight and tracking down the villain to finally end the battle.

14. Finale (85-110): 

On Save The Cat, this part is broken down into five smaller points, but in simple terms this is the big finish. Any problems faced by the characters should be overcome, and this should happen in an escalating way so that the character faces the smaller problems before the bigger problems within the film - like killing the henchman before they kill the main villain of the film.

15. Final Image (110): 
This is the last thing that the audience is, and sums up how the world is now that the story has been told. It is the thing that the audience take with them and remember as they leave the cinema. If it's exactly the same as the opening it may feel rather pointless to the audience, like the character has accomplished nothing during the film - unless they can now see a different side to this same shot within the opening.

Blank Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.

The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.

Project title: 

Genre: 

Date: 

1. Opening Image (1): 

2. Theme Stated (5): 

3. Set-Up (1-10): 

4. Catalyst (12): 

5. Debate (12-25): 

6. Break Into Two (25):

7. B. Story ( 30): 

8. Fun And Games (30-55): 

9. Midpoint (55): 

10. Bad Guys Close In (55-75): 

11. All Is Lost (75): 

12. Dark Night Of The Soul (75-85): 

13. Break Into Three (85): 

14. Finale (85-110): 

15. Final Image (110): 

Proposal and Treatment For My VT Clip.

Killjoy Productions.
South-Essex College,
Southend-On-Sea,
Luker Road,
SS1 1ND.





Dear whom it may concern,


I am writing to discuss the idea of a local news story that could be used within the [NEWS SHOW]. It is something that is a cheerful news story, but is also rather different and not reported on every day.

The idea is to follow a local sled dog team up to a sled dog competition held by the BSHRA (British Siberian Husky Racing Association). The team consists of two dogs and live in Pitsea, and the event itself is held in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk on the 1^st and 2^nd of February, 2014.

Focusing both on the local team participating, as well as the competition itself, it’ll be a news story that can interest the whole family and perhaps get them interested in visiting on the second day of the competition seeing as the races are rather obscure and aren’t widely known, even though a huge amount of people and dogs turn up (around 100 racers and over 300 dogs).

It’ll also be a cheap news item to document on, as there is no entry fee to spectate and most people seem to be rather happy to talk about the racing to others and show their dogs off to the cameras. It’ll fit in nicely with the rest of the news programme and also be a rather family-friendly VT clip.

Yours sincerely,

Nicola Sinclair.

Killjoy Productions.

South-Essex College,

Southend-On-Sea,

Luker Road,

SS1 1ND.

  

Dear Sir or Madam,

We thank you for taking an interest in the VT clip about the sled dog competition. We are writing to inform you of our treatment for the clip, which includes the budget, contingency plans, the list of our planned cast and crew and also a more detailed description of the production.

Expanding on the original idea stated in the proposal, we will be following a local sled dog team from Pitsea to a competition in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. The majority of competitions are held between October and March during the year, otherwise the weather is too hot for the dogs to cope with, and most of these competitions are held in forests around the Suffolk area, although also branch out to South Wales and Scotland on occasions. The VT clip will give information about this particular competition on the first day of the competition on Saturday the 1^st of February, although will encourage people to visit the second day of racing on the Sunday as well as the other racing days coming soon after this particular race.

The idea of the news programme is, of course, family friendly news and the VT clips included in the show would reach a wide range of people, and so this would be more focused towards animal lovers and the younger audience – although perhaps the older audience may be interested too. It will be informative, yet entertaining, and will keep the audience engaged within the report by showing both interviews with sled dog racers as well as clips of the racing itself.

Budget:

We should hopefully be able to budget the production extremely cheaply. There is no entry fee to the competition, and the only things that will need to be paid for are food, drinks and travel. I will be able to film the report by myself with somebody who is volunteering to help me out, and so I would only need to consider them and myself within the budget.

I am able to bring food and drink from home, however, and so I don’t need to spend any money on that, and the volunteer is able to provide transport to and from the location without any additional fees,

The equipment hire has no fee as I am going to be hiring the sound recording equipment from the college, and therefore I will not need to pay for those. Also, we are not using any props or any costumes in particular, and so that does not add to the overall budget, and we are using all public places so we will not need to pay to film there. All this will save money greatly and allow things to be an extremely low-budget production.

Contingency:

We are going to keep another £10 to hand just in case there are any problems during the shoot and we need to pay for something – such as more food and drink, or travelling for longer than expected/taking different routes to locations because of traffic, etc.

If my volunteer is ill on the day, or has had to back out due other commitments, I will keep a list of people who would be able to step in on short notice on the day so we will be able to keep filming and stick to our deadlines. We will also make sure that we have extra equipment in case something breaks, or if a tape/battery runs out during filming.

If we have issues with the weather, we should hopefully be able to shift the timings of the shoots slightly to work around it, as it is being filmed in a forest and therefore there would be some shelter from the trees. However, we are able to return on the Sunday in case the weather seriously takes a turn for the worst and we are completely unable to film. This means that we’d be able to continue filming on a different day when the weather isn’t quite so bad.

Yours sincerely,

Nicola Sinclair.

News Programme Rehearsals (2)

This afternoon was the other two groups' turn to rehearse, which included my group. At first, it was Chloe and Lesley's group, in which I am a runner. At first, I helped out with random odd jobs such as taping wires down to the floor to avoid people tripping up, for example, but then they needed someone to step in for a presenter role as Deanna wasn't in, so I said I would.

Most of the time I simply had to sit around where Deanna would have sat, participate in sound/lighting/camera checks and read out their current script alongside Chris who is the other presenter when everything was ready to do so. I felt slightly uncomfortable sitting in front of so many cameras, but I didn't mind so much today seeing as I knew that nothing was final and it wasn't being recorded, however I did say I wouldn't mind stepping into the role again just in case it happens again and one of the presenters aren't in for some reason or another.

[PICTURES ARE TO COME.]

During the second half of the lesson, it was my group's turn to rehearse. Things were running smoothly at first, and we got the set layout sorted and figured out, as well as considering things such as the blue screen for a virtual studio during one of the shots that we may use. The set layout didn't really change at all, and things were sorted pretty quickly.

As we came to rehearse properly, however, we felt as though there wasn't enough on the script to work with. We tried talking to Connor, who was our script writer, however he seemed to feel that the script was enough, and we tried to rehearse with what we had but it didn't work out properly and the hour and a half rehearsal didn't quite go to plan.

Before the next time we rehearse, we're planning on properly talking to each other and helping to write the script if he is struggling to think of what to put, and also we'll make sure that we have at least one VT clip to try and test out how that would run and look during the news show, and also give the presenters and crew a chance to see how things will need to be adjusted during that short space of time to be able to cut straight back into the studio in a decently looking way.

I completely forgot to take pictures of the set layout during the second half of the lesson, although the set barely changed from the original design we came up with before and so there's not much of a problem with it.


We also changed a few of the job roles round in the lesson, the new list is:
Producer: Nicola Sinclair.
Director: Jemma Land.
Floor Manager: David Neale.
Script Writer: Connor Sadler.
Art Director: Ashley Hodges.
Vision Mixer: Ellis
Sound 1:  Frankie
Sound 2: Deanna
Lighting: Joshua Bates.
Lighting 2: Maddie
Camera 1: Chloe Pearce.
Camera 2: Lesley Cross.
Camera 3: Rory
Presenter 1: Steff Preston.
Presenter 2: Chris.
Runner: Corey.
Runner: Joe

Docummentary Conventions.

Documentaries are often filmed in a number of different styles and ways according to what they are trying to show during the film. For example, expository documentaries are designed to inform and educate people but the camera crew themselves are invisible to the audience, whereas during interactive/reflexive documentaries involve the film makers during the shots, and they usually aim to provoke reactions from the subjects and the audiences during the documentary itself rather than simply showing the facts.

However, there are some conventions that run throughout most documentaries. The majority of the time, facts and issues are focused on rather than a narrative, although occasionally - such as during documentaries that focus on something such as a musical band's journey to fame, they will have a slight narrative during the film. Most documentaries are non-fiction and are based on true events, with the exception of mockumentaries which parodies the ideas of normal documentaries to amuse the audience instead of displaying facts.

All the shots and footage used within the film is generally linked together in a way that keeps the viewer engaged and entertained, and both found and shot footage are often included to do so. For example, during the Bowling For Columbine documentary that we watched, Michael Moore used both footage that he went out and filmed, as well as clips from news programmes, adverts, television shows etc. A lot of interviews are used throughout this documentary, as well as during others that aren't completely fly-on-the-wall documentaries.

During most documentaries, voiceovers are used to explain to the audience the facts, or what is happening during the film, and also text can be used to relay these facts too. Text is mainly used to show locations, times and dates, although can be used to relay other information too. Depending on what is happening during different shots of the documentary, both digetic and non-digetic sound can be heard. Say there is a voiceover explaining the scenario on screen, for example, there is normally no digetic sound heard, although if it is an interview there can be.

Protagonist Diary Entry ('Country Life'.)

'Country Life' - Jason's Diary.

His diary would most likely be written as an online blog. Probably only running for a year or two until he has other problems in his life to deal with, although would be filled with confidence that he will become a successful millionaire within a short amount of time after moving to the city, although this never happens and his finances actually take a nose dive downhill.

Names and locations wouldn't be hidden - and instead would be made clear, seeing as he is so confident about the way things are going. It would be extremely optimistic, however there would also be a number of ranting journal entries about various things that annoy him throughout the day.


The diary entry of the most important day of their life before the events that take place in the film would be the day that he moved to the city, despite his father frowning upon the idea from the very start. Jason himself believes that he'll become rich and famous almost instantly, and has big hopes and expectations of the city, and doesn't particularly realise that things won't turn out exactly the way he planned.

It's also the day that his father hired Anne to help on the farm now that Jason will not be around.



Diary Entry.

1st of January, 2005.

'New Year, New Start.'

I apologise for my lack of blog entries over the last couple of days, things have been rather hectic with the move. You know how it is. Boxes and boxes of things to be packed, and then somehow finding away to ship everything over to the States. It's expensive, but I know it'll be worth it. There's nothing left here on this farm anyway. If it survives for longer than another few weeks I'll be surprised, with the way things are going. 

He tried to convince me to stay again today, just before I stepped foot in the airport. He offered me a lift there and I knew there should've been more behind the 'I just wanted to see you off' explanation behind it. I told him not to worry, and that if he ever needs anything I'm just a phone call away. Or an email. Perhaps an email would be better, though I doubt he knows how to use a computer… Although he did mention hiring someone to help around on the farm once I'm gone. Perhaps they could teach him if they can somehow get through that stubborn head of his.

Anyway. It's currently 7am. I'm sitting in the airport surrounded by others that are waiting for the same flight as I am, which happens to be delayed by an hour due to the snow. It's ridiculous, really. You'd think that they're more prepared for the cold weather. It's England, after all, surely we should be used to the wind, rain and snow by now? At least I won't get any of that in New York. Once I'm there, it'll be a straight run to the top and nothing to stop me.

I know what you're thinking. 'How do you expect to get rich so quickly?' But trust me, I have a plan, and a very good one at that. It'll work - I just know it. All I have to do is get out there now, that's the struggle… Damned airports…

Actually, saying that, I think that's the boarding call for the flight now. Families with children and the needy first, of course, but soon enough I'll be able to afford business class travel, and there'll be no more of this nonsense.

But I should probably wrap this up now before I have to rush. I'll write again when I land on the other side - there'll no doubt be even more waiting around for my bags and things like that.

Posted by Jason Giles at 07:13.