Production Update - 30/11/15

In our lesson today we re wrote our script due to some feedback that we received from our first cut. We managed to write it out again and managed to record some of the voice overs that we are going to use for our final production, we still have small parts to write for the rest of our script and then record the voice over, we will aim to record our voice over by Friday because that is the next available time that we are able to record because that is when we are all free to do it together.

Target Audience

Age: 16+
My reason for choosing this as my target audience is because our documentary is quite educational and it involves a lot of information based around drugs and drug abuse which is something that children should not learn about until they are at a mature enough age where they would understand, which is why I have kept the minimal age as 16 because this is the age where you start to properly understand and have a mature mind about different situations, also our protagonist in our documentary was around this sort of age when she started to take drugs, keeping it at this age would also help the audience relate and sympathise with her character as Courtney (our main character) as she was a teenager when her drug abuse took place.

Gender: My documentary does not specifically target one gender as its main target audience, it is aimed at both genders despite the fact that our protagonist is a female, I have no decided to target one gender because drug abuse is not more common in our gender, it can happen to anyone so we have no tried to put any implications in that it typically only occurs within that one gender. However due to our documentary being based around our female character and her experiences the documentary can end up resulting in more interest from females.

Social Class/Social Group: Again like before there is no specific social class that our target audience falls under, because my documentary is based on drugs there is no specific social class because your social class does not stop you from being affected in anyway by drugs. However the general audience that would be watching this would be educated or interested in facts and figures which is based around drugs.

Ethnicity: When we created our plan we did not have any specific target audience in mind, this documentary is aimed at any ethnicity.

Demographics

B= Middle Class, intermediate managerial, administrative or professional. I think that this social class would come under my target audience because its very informative and because it is about drugs, there is no social class that is just people who take drugs, drug usage comes under any social class.

C1/C2= Lower Middle class and skilled working class, supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional, and skilled manual workers. This would fall under my target audience because people of this demographic would have the time when they come home from their jobs to sit down and watch this documentary.

E= Casual/lower grade workers/students, this is my main target audience because, the people that fall under this demograpgic would have the time to watch the whole documentary, and since our documentary is about drugs and they can impact the youth in society, this would inform the students and children watching this about the consequences of taking drugs and our facts about drugs would put them off of taking drugs in the future.

Psycho-dynamics

The main psycho dynamic would be the spectators. This is because the spectator is the person who is watching the documentary, and may be struggling with drug problems or want to learn more about drugs and the effects they have on peoples lives, which is my main target audience. The second psycho dynamic would be collectors. This is because a collector is someone who would visit the documentaries website, which I feel is important because the website would include a lot of information on drugs and important facts, and links to websites, or phone numbers for people to use if they are suffering from a drug problem and are trying to seek help with their addiction.

Production Diary - 20/11/2015

Since my last production entry I have not put a lot of new posts on my blog, this is because my blog is now up to date with my new group. I have put some new posts on my blog such as my target audience and also my first cut feedback.

Over the last month I have captured all of our footage that we need for our final production. We did refilm some of our scenes that we did not think worked well anymore and we changed them slightly and we changed our script a little bit aswell. Due to our feedback that we were given last week about our first cut we have added some new footoage to our documentary which we had not included in our initial pitch, however because we liked the feedback we were given and we thought that it would work well we decided to use these ideas.

We still have a lot to edit becuase we have a lot of adjustments to make because some things did not work as well as we had previously hoped. Our first cut was only 3 minutes long so we still have to put everything together however because we are not using the schools editing software it is a bit of a struggle to try and find time for us to edit together because of our other studdies getting the way and we can only meet up to edit once a week, and it is taking us longer than we had first hoped it would.

First Cut Feedback

First Cut (Link)

We got a lot of response from our first cut, both negative and positive. One of the comments we were given back was about our titles, we had not yet put in our production company title before our documentary started and is something that we are going to put in the next time we edit, moreover we had some text that displayed a fact about drugs, we were told that the paragraph was too large and that because it would be too much for the audience to read we were given the idea of splitting the fact up into two different shots.

Another piece of feedback that we got was about our sound, in some shots the music was too loud and in some shots where there was also dialogue it was hard to hear what the people were saying, so now the next time we edit we are going to adjust the volume so that you can still here the music in the background but it will just be a lot quieter than the dialogue which is being spoken. In addition with the theme of sound we had not yet included our voice overs in our video, this is something which we still have yet to do, but we also got some helpful feedback about how we could use the voice overs to read out the text which is going to be displayed on the screen reading out different facts, however not all the text that appears on the screen will be read aloud through the use of the voice over.

As well as the constrictive feedback that we got given my our classmates and teacher we also received a lot of positive feedback about our production. For example, we were told that we had a consistent use of steady shots which helped to make it look like a documentary which you would see on television, moreover we were told that some of our shots were creative and also add to the effect of making it look like a channel 4 documentary, in example the use of when the mother is making a cup of tea.

Another piece of feedback that we were given was that our choice of music which we play in the background is very good and appropriate the clips which play over the top of the music and it fits the genre of our documentary. We were told that our choice of using a school environment to talk and ask about drugs was a good idea because our documentary is about drugs in the youth culture and how the drugs effect different age groups and the knowledge in the youth about drugs.

Overall we got a lot of feedback about our first cut, we have not yet got all the footage yet however due to the fact that had not yet finished completely it has allowed us to receive more feedback and use everything that we will interpret as much of the feedback in our final production as possible.

First Cut

Production Diary - 23/10/2015

I started the new year in a group with three other people and during the time that I was working with that group we had done some filming and a lot of blog work, however recently I have changed groups so that now I am only working with one other person. Since changing groups I have had to update my blog so that it is now up to date with what we plan to do for our production. The blogging phase has gone very well and I have kept everything up to date and tried to complete all my posts so that they are at the best of my ability.

I have also done a lot of filming during the past couple of weeks since I have changed groups and we are now at a point where we have nearly finished filming everything that we need to, to use for our final production. During the filming process we have worked together to change and edit any previous shots that had been filmed and also to adapt our idea. The filming process has been rather stressful as we have used people from outside of our school and it was hard to try and meet up with everyone at our desired locations and film during that same day but I do think that the footage that we have got is very good, although I am still open to suggestions for after our first cut deadline to help improve our final production.

The editing stage of our production is rather difficult because we are not using the software that our school is providing us with (Adobe Premiere) instead we are using IMovie on Lydia's Mac at her house, so it has been fairly difficult for us to edit, although we do talk to each other a lot about how we want everything to look and what music we would like to put over the footage etc. during either the filming stage or when we are school, we have arranged a few dates where we are both free to go to hers and edit our footage so that we can both have input on how everything should be.

Locations

Our primary location will be Lydia's house, we will film one of our talking heads interview which will be with our protagonist Courtney and her Mother.

We will also use other locations such as our school to film parts such as our talking heads interview and when we ask people from the younger years to name different types of drugs. We film at parties and events which will take place in various different locations and at different times.

Production Update - Script

Scene 1: Narrator - Recreational drugs. Mind altering chemicals.
Scene 2: Narrator - Smuggled down the drug ladder from drug lords to street dealers.
Scene 3: Narrator - Leisurely used at festivals.
Scene 4: Narrator - Schools.
Scene 5: Narrator - And in the most popular places....Parties.
Scene 6: Rosin -    I do not see what the big deal is? Drugs have not affected us? Everyone does it?!
             Lucile -   Yeah! I agree entirely! And we're not druggies off their face all the time. We are just kids who like to try out new things and have a good time.

Scene 7: Narrator - And now its time to find out what drugs can do in today's youth culture and how they are perceived.

Scene 8: No dialogue
Scene 9: Title - Ware, Hertfordshire, 20 year old Courtney Smith lives in the small town ware in Hertfordshire, with her mother, Mandy.

Scene 10: Mandy (Mother) - Courtney was always full of spirit and kindness. But, one moment of weakness can cost you the rest of your life.

Scene 11: Courtney (Ex Drug addict) - I was at a party all my friends were there, it was at a mates house so I felt safe. My mates had brought over some drugs and gave me some, they told me it was safe and that everyone else was doing it so I should too, and then more people started to turn up and more people were bring more drugs and were dealing it to me and once I had started it was hard for me to. This occurred like every weekend until one night were I collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

Costumes + Characters

Characters

• Amy Church (Courtney Smith) - Recovered drug user, Paralysed and was an aspiring ballerina 
• Lydia's Mum (Charlene Greig) - Concerned Parent
• Rosin Perry - Drug user
• Lucile Fiorentino - Another drug user

                                     
This is Amy, playing the character of Courtney, the character of an ex drug addict. We have kept the costume for her character fairly casual but dressed well, this is because we want to show that she has got over her addiction, however she is still working on getting her life back on track. 

This is Charlene, the mother of the ex drug addict, Courtney. We decided to give her character smart clothing and mature, this was because we wanted to portray that her character is very intellectual and understanding about her past experiences. 

Production Update - Production Schedule

Production Update - New Pitch

Production Update - New Production Plan

I have decided to change groups for my production. I will now be working with Lydia Shaban and my new pitch is about drug use in the youth and society today. This will be in the form of a docusoap/talking heads styled documentary and will consist of interviews with young people and will be about their knowledge of different drugs and about the different ways in which drugs have an impact on people and society.

Production Update - Animatic

Production Schedule

Our Script

Me - Alan

- My name is Alan, and I am the manager of the Non-corporal entity Association. My job is to find locations for us to investigate, and make sure our equipment is up to date. I have a gut feeling that we are going to be big! This is where our career begins!

Ashleigh - Lucy 
- My name is Lucy, and I am a medium. My job is to advise the team on any supernatural activity, and to communicate with the lost spirits. H-hello?,,,who's there?,,,oh hey there...oh not much, just sitting in an interview, how about you?

Molly - Raven
- My name is Raven, and I am the technician. My job is to monitor the recordings that the equipment gives me; like the thermal and EMF readings. I just love the supernatural, its like...My life.

Harry - Grant
- My name is Grant, and I am the head cameraman. My job is to make sure the cameras are in the optimun positions to get the best footage. I am pretty much just here for the money really. (Interviewer - You know you are not getting paid?) What?!

My Documentary Pitch

Pitch - Link

Product Research

Ghost Hunters

Produced: Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes
Ghost Hunters is aired in a wide range of locations over the globe, they go out and find different locations which are believed to be haunted and although it is based in the united states there are some episodes where they leave the states and travel to other countries.

This programme is aimed at an adolescent age group and also adults, or anyone who is interested in the ghost/thriller type of genre. This is because this programme contains elements of horror and can be very jumpy. Moreover some of the content that is shown in the programme can be disturbing to some viewers which is the reason why this programme is not aimed at a young audience.

Storyline of the Programme:
"This one-hour weekly docu-soap from the creator/executive producer of "American Chopper" follows a group of real-life paranormal researchers as they investigate haunted houses throughout the country, encountering every type of imaginable haunting. Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, plumbers by trade, head up TAPS -- The Atlantic Paranormal Society -- a group of ordinary, everyday people with an interest in getting to the bottom of your otherworldly disturbances." Reference - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426697/ 

One production technique that has been used in this programme is talking heads and is used throughout the whole of the programme, this is used to interview the investigators about what had happened, these interviews are shown throughout the investigation side only. However there are other aspects of talking heads that have been included, for example talking heads is used when the investigators travel to each location (normally two in one episode), this production technique is also used at the end of the each investigation when they reveal all the evidence that they found during the investigation. There is a slight use of direct cinema in this programme however it can be argued that the events that go on during the production could be staged.


Overall I think that this programme is fairly successful because it address its target audience and can be very interesting to find out all some of the facts about different locations. I also think that the use of the production techniques is effective because it hooks the audience keeping them watching until the end. The use of two different locations which they investigate I think is also a very effective method as it keeps it interesting, not just in the same location for 40minuets because there is not a lot of actual paranormal activity that occurs within the investigations it is mostly about the drama between the investigators, so the use of another location to investigate is a very effective way to keep us watching.

I think for my production we will use some of the ideas that have been used in this programme, for example, the use of the talking heads to invterview eachother on whats going on, we will use this a couple of times during our production before we go to our location and during the investigation. I think we will also use the idea of having multiple cameras set up throughout one location to create a sense of isolation, although most of our filming will be filmed hand held and instead of the documentary being dramatic and based on conflict between each character we will try and make it comedic.