Thursday 28 November 2013

Schedule





Shooting Schedule - Three week plan
Time/dates
What you're doing and when



Wednesday 20 November 2013

UNIT 1, 2, 3: Documentary Filmmaking - Assignment 3 updated

RESEARCH DIARY 




        2 BOOKS ON BULLYING -


BULLYING IN OUR SOCIETY 


Author of the book - Cara Acred
Volume - 232 
Secondary research



Risks you run if you bully someone else

On page 22 I found some information informing children that if they bully someone it...

  • Could lead to the bully getting kicked out of school for bullying and hurting another pupil and if the case involves violence, text messages, phone calls or internet abuse and demands for money then the victim and their parents will make a complaint to the police. This means you can be charged with assault or harassment. This could have serious effect on the bullies future. 
  • If you bully someone out school the council or police could give you an ASBO - anti-social behaviour offence. 
And that workplace bullying is more popular than people might think...
  • "Apparently 16,517 workers in 53 countries are getting bullied in the workplace and it affects their performance at work. Employers are responsible for the workers health and safety and should make an atmosphere where people can get on with their job." 
  • "83% of people claim to be victims of physical or emotional bullying at the work place at some point in their career. "



I found this research relevant to the documentary that I am making because it's adding facts that I can use in my project about the statics of workplace bullying and how it's more popular than people may assume it to be because I think people get the impression that bullying only happens in schools and to children. And that it's just something that everyone goes through during childhood, but it isn't it's happening in all stages in life. Also this book gave me an insight into what bullies have to face if they choose to bully someone and how they have to pay the price, weather it be getting kicked out of school, also ending up with no friends because they're cruel once they've been kicked out and punished also ending up with a criminal record and no positive outlook on the future. - I want to go further into this and find out why bullies become bullies, is it something that happens to them in childhood?

"16 pupils a year kill themselves because of bullying, schools say that they had no idea what was going on. But the bullies knew exactly what was going on and so do their friends."

This makes me think that schools should have more awareness of when bullying is happening, they should monitor the children's behaviour and look out for children not fitting in or if they see bullying actually happening and try to prevent it as much as they can. Because these schools had no idea when someone is close to killing themselves, they should try and make a bound with each pupil so there is a form of trust so hopefully they feel they can confine in their teachers.




CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT - attachment, development and intervention 

Author of the book - David Howe

Secondary research



I took this book from the library because it has lots of information about a child's behaviour and development, their mental state as a adaptive and their copying and survival strategy. Also about physical child abuse and to see if this neglect at such a young age can cause a child to become a bully. I want my audience to feel sorry for the bully, even though they aren't doing anything good and their actions can't be justified by this, I want the audience to have an understanding of the child's brain and the things that have drew them to this kind of behaviour, this is how my documentary is going to be different it's not going to be the audience feeling sorry for the bullied but actually the bully. This will hopefully make people realise that they might be having a hard time themselves and that their needs to be awareness that these kids might not be in a suitable home or have responsible parents. 


  • "Social and psychological scientists have always been intrigued by the part of early life experiences that might play a part in human growth and behaviour. Early exposure to violence and abuse has raised theories that children who have experienced this are more likely to attack and dismiss their rivals."
  • "Infants and toddlers raised in environments of neglect are grumpy, irritable and not easily soothed. They whine, cling, fret and fuss longer than other children. When they get to the age of three or four these children develop attention-seeking behaviours and get exaggerated emotions, there are no half measures, no holding back and no containment. Concentration levels are low, easy distracted."
  • "These children during their teenager years are immature, impatient and they begin to get in trouble with teachers (for bullying) and the police. There are constant arguments at home with parents. This is there drive to be recognised and noticed, in order to gain this attention they will clown around, provoke, tease, break rules, sulk, be aggressive, be needy, be seductive and be ill."
  • When the parents of this child do not respond to what their children are feeling, children need adults to acknowledge, understand, explore and explain and respond to their mental states. Neglectful parents fail to respond to these behaviours and the child then gives up, sensing that there is no point. 
"When people of any age, learn that their behaviour has no meaning, the human mind shuts down. It ceases to perceive or interpret information. Without thoughts and feelings that can be shared with others, humans become hollow shells. In this vacuum parents do not perceive the occasions that call for action - so they don't act."

-(Crittenden 1999a: 63)

This quote is acknowledging the fact that bullies become hollow and give up on trying to get the attention from their parents that they deserve and need to develop into a sane person, they give up and their mind shuts down because they feel they have no meaning. Also from my bullet points the research that I have found for my documentary shows that because of this lack of attention from their parents they need it from somewhere else, bullying another pupil will make that person feel better about themselves whilst also giving them attention making their peers scared of them which will lead to them getting things they want because of this power that they have over their victims, they also want the attention from the teachers because they need some sort of adult attention that they don't get at home. They don't see the point in trying in school or any kind of aspect of their life because of the neglect they experienced at such a young age.



     2 NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ON BULLYING - 


THE DAILY MAIL NEWSPAPER

Author of the article - Mark Duell
Published - 11:48, 14 November 2013 
Title of the newspaper article - "Ginger schoolboy, 14, who dyed his hair brown 'in a bid to stop being bullied' is found hanged in his bedroom by his father"


After reading this article I have summarise this bullying story into 4 bullet points.



  • Simon Walters a teenager with ginger hair was discovered hanging in his bedroom by his dad Nigel in the early hours after he had finished work. He went upstairs because Simon's music was loud and the lights were still on and he wanted to tell him to go to sleep but he discovered that his son had committed suicide due to bullying.  
  • Simon was a pupil at Heath Park School in Wolverhampton, West Midlands and he got bullied for the colour of his hair and to avoid the bullies he dyed his hair brown but got bullied for trying to cover up his natural hair colour, he got threatening phone calls from his class mates and would beg his dad to  go to school with him to avoid getting bullied.
  • Simon became withdrawn from his family near the time of his suicide, he wouldn't talk to anyone and even his gran could tell that he was being bullied because of the way that he was acting. This tells me that victims of bullying often have drastic personality changes.
  • Police investigators found that Simon had researched how to commit suicide on the internet, I think that searches like this should be banned from internet searches, a post on a blog or something would have encouraged him into killing himself.


I found this research to be useful towards my documentary because it's a true story of a teenage boy's life ending at such a young age just due to the fact that other teenagers we're bullying him for his hair colour. The pictures that we're shown in the article also made me see that this boy was a happy child before he was a victim of bullying and has made me realise how much this can affect someone.



"The warehouse worker told the inquest that Simon was also physically attacked by his tormenters and had confronted the school about the abuse, which had been going on for over five months."

In my opinion this quote suggests that Simon was not only been bullied verbally but also physically and his dad that he had a lump on his chest because of where the attackers hit him. It also makes me think that this school wouldn't have been doing a very good job to prevent this bullying if people knew it was happening but did nothing to stop it. This is something that I will include in my documentary, people who witness bullying happening, they know what's going on but just choose to ignore it instead of standing up and facing the serious problem that is in front of them. 




BBCS NEWS ARTICLE


Author of the article - Sean Coughlan
Published -  19 August 2013
Title of the newspaper article - "Childhood bullying damages adult life"


This article is very factual stating that "School bullies were also more likely to grow up into adult criminals." 

This article and is very factual, it tells the audience the negative effect it has on the victim and the bully

  • It tells us that victims of bullying end up having low self-esteem and don't have very good social skills and find it hard to make friends and peers seem less interested in them. It states that when the victim grows up to become an adult they are more likely to have serious illnesses, smoke regularly plus also become obese and turn food into a way of comforting them, they won't have a lot of qualifications due to not being concentrated at school because of constantly getting bullied. They don't end up having a career they just end up drifting through dead end jobs and are less likely to have any friends. 
  • And on the other hand the actual bullies also have negative problems from bullying people, they are more likely to get sacked from their jobs and be in a violent relationship and also be involved in risky or illegal behaviour like taking drugs, fighting and having one night stands with strangers.
  • It shows us that in the end though, bullies are more likely to be more successful than the victims in health and wealth, they turn out being strong and healthy and socially capable but this usually due to their manipulative or aggressive behaviour and they are emotionally troubled.

This research really helped my documentary because it's giving me facts to tell my audience who are watching it and will make them see how bullying seriously effects people. It has also drew my attention to focusing my documentary on the actual BULLY and not the VICTIM, because of how they also are terribly troubled and probably have dark problems in their lives and maybe go from a child bullying in the playground up until he is an adult and the things he does to himself like taking drugs and fighting, having one night stands. I think looking at how dark these people are and how they got this way will be an interesting documentary. 


"We cannot continue to dismiss bullying as a harmless, almost inevitable, part of growing up. We need to change this mindset and acknowledge this as a serious problem for both the individual and the country as a whole; the effects are long-lasting and significant," said Prof Dieter Wolke of the University of Warwick.

I found this quote to be very effective and will probably use this in my documentary to say how it's not something to be taken lightly and isn't a joke, everyone should have the opportunity to live a happy life and not live in misery and with these long lasting effects and the serious damage it can do to someone is shocking and I want to interview people and get feedback on how they feel about this huge problem we have in this world.



         2 WEBSITES ON BULLYING

  1. http://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/effects/

Author of this website -  A federal government website managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services


The websites name StopBullying.gov

    THE EFFECTS OF BULLYING
  • "Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.
  • Health complaints
  • Decreased academic achievement—GPA and standardised test scores—and school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school.
A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a history of being bullied."
SUMMARISE 
The "Kids Who are Bullied" sub-heading was useful to me because it informed me on
  • I learnt that it effects a child's education and they will skip school to avoid being bullied, some of them even drop out of school because they can't cope.
  •   How it effects their mental health and causes them to feel lonely and develop depression, anxiety and loose interest in things they used to enjoy and feel sad and worthless. 
  • I also learnt that children that have been bullied can act violently because they feel like they have to stand up for themselves and by hurting people it will make things better, I also learned that the shooters involved in the school shooting had a history of being bullied. 

I found this website to be relevant to what I am researching and I found this website very easy to understand and it really opened my eyes to what kids dealing with bullying have to go through on a daily basis and how it effects them, it was really useful information that I can use for my documentary. 

"Bullying can affect everyone—those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide. It is important to talk to kids to determine whether bullying—or something else—is a concern."

This quote is telling me that it doesn't matter who you are, if your rich, poor, skinny or overweight. It can happen for any reason and you can be bullied without the person bullying you having no reason. People getting bullied can bully people themselves because they want to feel better about themselves and people who see bullying happening but don't do anything...it can happen to them as well. It can seriously affect your mental health and leave you feeling depressed, sad and feel like you have no meaning in life, like everything is pointless and that nothing interests you anymore, getting bullied can strip yourself from your personality and who you are and change your views about life and people. Kids getting bullied can also start to believe that everyone is out to get them, that there isn't a person that cares about them and they just think they are going to get hurt if they engage with other people. It can make kids use drugs and alcohol because it makes them feel differently and numbs their pain for awhile and also they may think that their only escape is committing suicide so they don't have to face another day of feeling sad and depressed and constantly getting bullied. This quote then states at the end that it is important to talk to kids to determine whether bulling or something else is a concern. This is what I'm going to be asking teens and kids in my documentary on bullying, because this quote is telling me how important it is to get the views of people my age and who have previously been bullied.


BULLYING STATISTICS

The author of this website is "BeatBullying is part of The BB Group, registered charity no. 1097631"

Website name - Beat Bullying - sharping attitudes, changing behaviours
 
http://archive.beatbullying.org/dox/resources/statistics.html


  • "69% of children in the UK report being bullied
  • 87% of parents report that their child had been bullied in the past 12 months
  • 20% report bullying others
  • 85% had witnessed bullying
  • (admirably, 82% of them tried to intervene).
Bullying is not the same as disputes and squabbles between equals or friends – though these can and do cross the line sometimes. Bullying is an unprovoked, sustained campaign of aggression towards someone in order to hurt them for the sake of it. The consequences:
It is estimated that at least 20 children and adolescents a year commit suicide because of being bullied – this is a conservative estimate based on documented cases known to us. It is likely that the actual number is higher, perhaps much higher. (These figures also do not take into account the numbers of young people who attempt suicide but survive.)"
SUMMARISE 

From looking at the Beat Bullying - sharping attitudes, changing behaviours website and I have learnt that
  • More than half of children in the UK are being bullied
  • Banter/Disagreements/Arguments with friends are not considered bullying although they can be taken too far at times
  • Bullying is hurting someone and you know that you are hurting them and you are doing it for no reason, just because you want to
  • Bullying can cause suicide and 20 Kids & Adults kill themselves due to being bullied but that is only statics based on what they have documented, there could be more and that's not including people that have tried to kill themselves but have survived.
 I think that this website was relevant to help my research towards my bullying documentary, it was easy to understand and used bullet points to draw my attention to the statistics of bullying and I find that this website had more secondary research as well as finding out statistics.

"Evaluation and monitoring of our work is absolutely crucial to our effectiveness as a charity. It provides the solid factual basis to ensure that we only roll out programmes that are known and proven to work. Beat Bullying takes rigorous, evidence-based analysis very seriously and has a team of researchers and statisticians dedicated to the evaluation of our work with young people."

This quote means that this website looks at how well they are doing as an anti bullying campaign and they try to prevent bullying as much as they can, it has facts that I can use during my documentary using graphics and also they use things that they know for a fact works. They take their jobs very seriously and really try to help young people, I could maybe email someone who works for this website asking them questions which can be involved in my documentary.



PRIMARY RESEARCH

QUESTIONNAIRE ON BULLYING & DOCUMENTARIES  - some people didn't take these questions seriously








Elliot Dugdale


Do you watch documentaries? -Yes


- IF YES which ones?  - stuff to do with paranormal things I.e. Ghosts, aliens, and myths


What do you like about documentaries? - a good documentary is interesting, keeps you watching, and has stuff in it that you want to find out about
What do you think about bullying? - it's wrong


Why do you think people get bullied? -they might be a little different therefore they're made to feel inferior for it
Do you know the effects of being bullied? - People can do some very extreme things when they get bullied, it can even result in suicide


Have you ever experienced anyone else being bullied? - Yes


If you have seen someone being bullied was you able to tell someone? -Yes


If you ever have been bullied what type of bullying was it? - Verbal


Did you tell anyone? - Yep


If so who did you tell? - Teachers

If you were watching a documentary on bullying who would you like to present it? - Boris Johnson


Do you like human interest documentaries? - Yes




Questionnaire summary 

1. Four out of five people said that they watch documentaries 
2. Everyone said that bullying shouldn't be taking place
3. Everyone said that people get bullied because they have low self esteem and seem weak to the bully. The bully trying to get approval from their peers (peer-pressure) and want people to like them. Being different and not fitting into the popular crowd, the way they dress, their personality or what their interests are. 
4. Four out of five people say that they know the effects of bullying
5. Everyone has said they have seen someone being bullied
6. Three out five people said they told someone about the bullying they had witnessed
7. Three out five people said that they told Teachers. One person said it's better not to tell anyone because the bully will get even more mad, so it's best to support the victim. 
8. Who would you like to present it? Everyone who took it seriously...said that they would want a person who has experienced bullying themselves and know what they are talking about. 
9. Three out of four people said that they had been bullied themselves and it made them feel worthless.


SIMILAR DOCUMENTARY 

WHO KILLED KEVIN?
This documentary is about a man called Kevin who committed suicide due to bullying in the workplace. The film is created from  a film maker called Beverly Peterson, in this documentary she explores bullying and suicide. We find that Beverly is also a victim of bullying in the workplace, I think this is a good way to hook an audience into the documentary because on my questionnaire people who took it seriously and answered without a sense of humour said that they would to someone to present a bullying documentary with someone who has already been through bullying themselves and know the effects it causes. 

The documentary allows the viewer to explore puzzling pieces of the suicide story one clip at a time. With alternative views playing side by side, the viewer can reach their own conclusions aided in part by reading the memos, emails and news reports as they are referenced. It is a brilliant use of technology and shows how complicated human relationships can be when explored in depth. 

Its hooking an audience because it's an interactive experience and the experience is allowing the viewer to explore scenes, documents and interviews with Kevin's family, co-workers, workplace bullying and goes through how we define workplace bullying and how do we define workplace bullying?  This documentary goes all the way back to his childhood pointing out things that could have triggered his suicide choice aswell as workplace bullying. It's hooking the audience also by keeping people guessing on who killed Kevin, from listening to different people's points of view and opinions. 


TREATMENT

Who is your target audience?
-My target audience is for teens and adults, I am going to inform all ages that any type of bullying is wrong because bullying doesn't just happen to children it happens to adults at work aswell. 
My target audience is going to use popular music to hook the teenagers into this documentary, use popular themes that interest teenagers such as Facebook via their mobile phones and cyber bullying that these teens and by also make it interesting for adults. My age range is not for very young children because I don't think they will understand the sympathetic view to the bully aswell as the victim. Everyone who answered my questions are teenagers and they watch documentaries and would like to see someone who has been bullied present it. I can do this and it will draw awareness to anti-bullying about how it's bad and shouldn't be done at all. 

How will my documentary be better than other documentaries? Plot/synopsis: Detailed outline of what will happen in the documentary and what we will learn? 

-My documentary will be better than any other documentary because it will a film/story at the start and then involve real interviews with children that have been bullied and also adults that have been bullied and the effects that it has had on them. I also want to interview adults that were bullies as children and if they regret it and also interview people that have witnessed bullying but haven't done anything or have done something to stop this bullying.

I want to draw my attention towards the bully and not the bully and go into detail on how troubled and dark these people are and that they go from children being cruel to their peers and grow into adults and have negative problems later in life like getting sacked from their jobs, being in violent relationships, being involved in drugs, one night stands with strangers and yet being manipulative to get by in life. Coming across as strong although they are emotionally troubled, it will have facts and statics like a normal documentary but I want them audience to feel sympathetic towards the bully by going into detail in how they turned out to be this person. What happened in their child life? sexual abuse, hard family life etc. 

I want my documentary to have shots of a playground and children being bullied (staged) and also popular music with shots of cities and adults rushing to work. And a voice over talking about not everyone who is bullied is just a child in the playground, people also get bullied as adults going to work. Have interviews with people who have been bullied child/adult and how it effects them and how it's effected them in later life. And then I want to interview a bully, then show a rewind of the child at the start of the documentary getting bullied, then pause on the bully. It will then rewind further and show the bullies home-life and there neglect and abuse they get. Then show a diagram of the brain and show how neglect effects a child's brain and how it eventually leads them to tease children due to their mental state. And these's kids should be afford support from school and counselling. Otherwise if they don't get help they could cause the victims to kill themselves by bullying them to the point the victim gives up on life. And if the school bully doesn't get help they can END UP LIKE THIS...and then show a troubled adult bullying someone in the workplace, taking drugs, being in trouble with police, abusive relationships and how it effects adults getting bullied at work. 

I find Primary Research to be better when working on a documentary because you get real life stories and facts from real people and getting the information yourself is far better than getting it from somebody else and being able to speak to people in a similar situation or have personal stories dealing with the certain subject you are documenting makes the audience feel like the film maker really cares about this subject and it would open up more peoples eyes about what point we are trying to get across. 










Research diary

secondary qualitative data 

2 books

2 websites

2 magazines/newspapers or journals - information that I will collect will be on my topic - my target audience, something to help you prove who your audience is. 

Books on how to make a documentary, how to get organised and what kit you might need.

How to set out your diary 

Books - get a quote from a book (write the page no and authors name underneath it) and then summarise what the quote means in your own words, this shows that you understand what you just read. 

How useful was this research? Is it relevant, biased? easy to understand? will it inform your documentary? 

Find a section from a book that is useful to you and summarise it into 3 or 4 bullet points. This is presenting research in a different way 

Websites
The websites that you use has to be academic/relevant 

Find a section from a website that is useful to me and summarise it from 3 or 4 bullet points. 

Was it relevant was it biased was it easy to understand and how useful it was 

Find a quote from the website, need a link, title of the page, the author of the site, what does this quote mean in my own words? and how useful was this website 

Magazines/newspapers/journals

find a quote from a magazine article or a journal, author of the article, the title of the magazine/paper/journal and the date it was published. 

get a quote and say what it means in your own words and how useful was this research

Read a section of the article and summarise it into 3 or 4 bullet points, pulling out key information and how useful was this research? 

Ask my target audience if they watch documentaries - send a questionnaire out 

Do you watch documentaries 

No - why don't you?

Yes - what do you watch? 

How old are you? 

What are you interested in? 

What do you know about bullying?

What do you think about bullying? 

What do you think the main reasons people get outcasted and bullied? 

What would you like to see in a documentary? 

Do you know how bullying can effect a person?

Would you watch a documentary on bullying

Treatment - 

What is in it and how to set it out

Who is the target audience for my documentary? 

Age, gender, interests

Analyse other documentaries that are similar to yours, for the things they use to hook their audience, what do they do to draw an audience into the documentary - pull out details from the documentary and how they hook the audience for example, what camera they use, graphics, music, interviews etc.

How are you going to target your audience 

How will yours be better than other documentaries for young people? 

Plot/outline - this is where you explain the layout/format (participatory/observational) of your documentary - are you going to be in the documentary or is it just going to be all voice over? 

What my audience is going to learn? 

Ayalyse other docmentaries for the things they use to hook their audience, primary research - send interciews questionnaires

Wednesday 13 November 2013

RESEARCH METHODS - Unit 3


Qualitative Research 
Qualitative Research is investigating people's personal opinions. You can find this type of research from looking at documentary reviews, to get an understanding of what the general public thought. If you watch a documentary and look at positive reviews and take the good things the critic has said about the production, you can then use these techniques from the previous documentary film maker and use it to your advantage and let it help you and inspire you whilst creating your own documentary. Although people's opinions vary so it's important that you stick to your own opinion and don't fully take someone's opinion on board and create a documentary the way they want it to be, because not everyone has the same point of view.

Quantitative research 
Quantitative Research is investigating numbers and data. Looking at audience figures, how many people were tuning in to watch a documentary that was broadcasted on the BBC. How many men and how many women saw this? Which gender did it appeal to more? Also DVD Sales and Box Office Sales. This type of research is easily a huge advantage because these are facts, they aren't just someone's opinion. Finding out if a documentary was watched by millions of people would be great for a documentary makers advantage because they could take inspiration from what's popular which is easy to analyse from graphs and charts. Although this type of research is a much more narrower and perhaps superficial dataset and doesn't take into account the emotions, feelings, insights, motives, views of the people viewing this documentary into account. They might have watched it, but it doesn't mean that they enjoyed it, that's why it's important to get both types of research.

Different research methods...Primary and Secondary

Primary research is collecting information by yourself and NOT getting it from the internet, books etc. For example primary research is a collection of surveys, questionnaires, interviews and observations. 

Secondary research is getting information from collected data that somebody else has already documented. You can find this type of research in books, magazines, journals, newspapers.  It is a useful method because it allows the researcher to identify a topic that has easily accessible research.  


Production research


Production research is the about the content, the story and what the documentary is going to be about and what kind of sources of information that you might you need, for example people to interview and researching the best kind of data needed for this, which is primary research. To find production research you will be using qualitative and quantitative data and it also research methods such as primary and secondary. Finding out what's the best type of equipment to use whilst making a documentary is quantitate research because it helps us get facts and statistics about how to create a documentary with the correct equipment giving us a professional look to our footage and gives us a better understanding of equipment. We also need to know how many pieces of equipment we will need and how much this will cost, we will also use quantitate research for this. This type of research is also used for finding out who is qualified to be our crew members aswell as using secondary research. When finding out who the cast members are and which people we want to interview during our documentary, this is qualitative research because we are researching people's opinions and beliefs on the subject of our documentary. I will also be using secondary research to find documentaries and it's reviews that it has received from magazine arctile, website pages and this will give us a better insight into what a successful documentary needs to contain to get positive feedback from viewers, although a disadvantage is that these reviews might vary from one persons opinion to the other. So we won't fully depend on this type of research as it can also be unreliable to find out what makes something successful.

Audience research

Audience research is quantitate data because it helps to give us an idea of the amount of people that will be watching our documentary. Audience research has multiple different groups and advertising companies stereotype people, for example suggesting that males 16-30 like to go to the pub and have a pint, watch Dave and watch sports on TV. These stereotypes are obviously not correct but you can get audience research that is very detailed and you can find out about their personal life. The way you find audience research is by finding out their social economic status, psychographics, regional identity, age, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, religion and if they like mainstream things or alternative different things. These are called psychographics, which puts people into different categories. This type of research helps us find out who our target audience will be and who we will be trying to appeal to. When we decide what the plot to our documentary is we will be able to find research for what audience will be interested in watching it and find out what else would appeal to them and try and involve it in our documentary. Using secondary research I will research existing documentaries that our target audience have already enjoyed, and see what appeals to them in those documentaries. In this situation the use of secondary research is much better than primary research because it will give us a more detailed idea of our target market. We should also use some primary research and create a questionnaire to find out what appeals to our target audience, like what their interests and hobbies are. By doing this it will give us a better insight in how to create a popular documentary by putting the things they like in our production. 

Marketing research

Using market research helps us to find out our competition and see whats already been created and documented. It also shows us successful documentaries and documentaries that have similar content to our documentary. Using market research we can find out why were our competitors documentaries successful by looking at the their target audience, style, content and the film maker and presenter, we do this by using secondary research. It also reveals advertising placement and how our documentary should be marketed, by using viral videos, trailers, billboards, trying to figure out what kind of data works best and which sells a film more. How previous documentaries have gained a large audience through their marketing techniques. To market our documentary we will be using qualitative data and quantitive data, by finding a similar documentary with content close to our ideas we will research how they marketed their production to their target audience. Qualitative data will give us a better understanding about successful techniques that documentary makers use to reach their audience in a professional way. Qualitative data will tell us how many marketing techniques we will need to use to help us to advertise and reach a wider audience and this will be using secondary research because it will be information that has already been documented about how much a successful documentary film was marketed. Using primary research we can use our own original ideas on how we want to market our film, but by doing  this it could make it less successful but it could help us as we aren't doing something that hasn't already been done by a successful documentary, we might think about creating hand made advertisements like posters and billboards and pictures in magazines, newspapers. When we come to research this data in order to make our documentary a success we will be using a wide range of research techniques.


My conclusion is that there are positives and negatives to each different type of research, this is why it is important to balance out different research techniques and use them all in different ways when creating our documentary and not just focusing on one type.   

Friday 8 November 2013

Unit 1 - Pre Production Techniques


 Time


  1.   What is a shooting schedule? A shooting schedule is a detailed plan that gives us all the information that someone would need whilst working on a film. The assistant director creates the schedule and then gives it to the production manager who then manages the schedule. The shooting schedule has details about locations, technicians, special effects, actors, vehicles, animals etc. anything that is related to the production of the film. It also contains a timeline which says which states, where and when the production resources are used. The schedule can have changes in the pre-production stage. But once established, everyone involved has to respect it. No change is effected in the production of a film without regard to shooting schedule. An established format of shooting schedule is followed and is given to the producers and everyone else involved in the film.
  2.  Why important to have a shooting schedule? How long does it take to use music or clearances to get pro-mission to use it? When using music in a documentary you need two different licences, a publishing licence and a recording licence. A publishing licence, this is from the people who own the copyright to the piece of music for example the lyrics and composition. And a recording licence is from the artist who performed the version of music that you want to use. You also have to contact the owner of the copyright of that certain song and wait to receive a response within 10 days. Also it's important to have a shooting schedule because it keeps the cast and crew aware on what's going to happen daily whilst filming. 
Personnel 


  1. Form a documentary/ies of your choice, look at the credits, research the crew members (cameras, sound, researchers etc.) what have they worked on before, what qualifications/experience do they have? The documentary of my choice was The Most Hated Family In America. 
The crew was members were... 

Produced by 


Stuart Cabb...series producer
Emma Cooper...assistant producer
Nick Mirsky...executive producer
Geoffrey O'Connor...producer
Louis Theroux...consulting producer


Cinematography by 


Geoffrey O'Connor


Film Editing by 


Rob Kuhns


Second Unit Director or Assistant Director 


Mike Godfrey...first assistant director


Sound Department 


James Baker...sound recordist
Bob Jackson...dubbing mixer


Camera and Electrical Department 


Geoffrey O'Connor...camera operator


Editorial Department 


Tom Caruso...assistant editor
Simon Graham...on-line editor



The producers have worked on other Louis Theroux documentaries before this one and Stuart Cabb is the owner of independent production company Plum Pictures. Geoffrey O'Connor who did the cinematography is an Academy Award Nominated writer and director as well as a cinematographer. Basically everyone who was apart of the crew for this documentary is well known and are extremely talented in what they do that's why they got to work for the BBC. It's important for the BBC to get the right crew because it's going to be seen by a lot of people and they want to keep up their professional image. 


To become a Film Producer you should have a degree in Business or Film Studies, they need to have a good understanding of how films work and how they make money. Producers have control for the whole films production, they also bring together the whole production team. Cinematographers usually need a Bachelor's degree in Film and Cinema and they might go back to university to receive a Master's Degree in Cinematography. To become a Film Editor you should have a degree in Media studies, TV Broadcast/Journalism or Communications in Mass Media and you have to be able to use multiple editing software systems. To become a Sound Mixer you must have a degree in Sound Technology, Audio Engineering, Acoustics and Music Recording and have knowledge about Media, you can get qualifications from doing short courses like National Film & Television School (NFTS), National Short Course Training Programme. And to become a camera operator there isn't any specific qualifications that are required to work in this role, although film schools and training courses offer a good basic grounding in the skills and knowledge required and lots of Camera Operators have studied for higher level qualifications. The most useful courses offer practical experience and may also include work experience placements. Relevant courses include City & Guilds courses, BTEC, Foundation degrees, first degrees and postgraduate qualifications in media, film and TV production or cinematography.

Louis Theroux wrote, starred and he helped produce this documentary. He is an award-winning, British-American TV journalist, renowned for his bizarre style of journalism, he has a degree in History.  He has multiple different successful documentaries, he had a TV show called Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends where he interviews people such as survivalists, black nationalists, white supremacists and porn stars and finds out about how they live their daily life and why they do the things that they choose to do. Also he had a TV Show called When Louis Met...this is about him documenting British celebrities and seeing their day-to-day business, interviewing them about their lives and experiences. He also has a wide number of documentary films he has made here is a list...

Louis and the Brothel

Louis, Martin & Michael

Louis and the Nazis

Gambling in Las Vegas

The Most Hated Family in America

Under the Knife

Behind Bars

African Hunting Holiday

Law and Disorder in Philadelphia

Law and Disorder in Johannesburg

A Place for Paedophiles

The City Addicted to Crystal Meth

America's Medicated Kids

Law and Disorder in Lagos

Ultra Zionists

America's Most Hated Family in Crisis

Miami Mega Jail

America's Most Dangerous Pets

Extreme Love: Autism

Extreme Love: Dementia

Twilight of the Porn Stars
 

Finance


  1. Where do you get money from to make a documentary? If your an independent film/documentary maker there are a few different ways to get money to make your production. For example getting donations is a way to get money to go towards your documentary, you could do this by a fund raising event etc. Although the donation might not necessary be money, it could just be people/volunteers willing to help out as much as they can. You can find crew and people donating equipment that an independent film maker might not be able to afford. You can also use government money because film grants exist but you have to pitch your idea to be able to gain this money and it doesn't come easily. You can also get money from investors, raising money can be hard but it can be done. You need to have a realistic and have a budget, and do research on other documentaries and see how much they cost to produce and market. The information you find will help to develop a clear business plan for your project. Investors will want to see a business plan, an approximate timeline for recouping their money and a synopsis of the documentary and actors/participants attached to the documentary and the cost per point of the documentary they will be investing in.
The BFI funds films and they support film makers in the UK, they fund script development, film production,short films, film export and distribution, cinemas, film education, culture and archives, festivals and audience support schemes. 

  1. How did the documentary you have watched get funded? The documentary I watched was The Most Hated Family in America, it was funded by the BBC because it's a BBC documentary film, written and presented by Louis Theroux who works for the BBC. My chosen documentary was easily funded by a huge broadcasting corporation unlike independent documentaries. 
  2. How much is it to clear music or clips from other TV/film companies. There isn't a clear answer for this because it depends on what your making and which company you work for. You can have to pay up to $4000 a 1 minute to use other clips in your TV/show and it can take up to 10 days to get a response, so don't contact the owner of the copyrights unless you get a response. 
Locations

  1. Where was the documentary you have chosen filmed? The documentary I choose was filmed in Topeka, Kansas the film studio was 

    Regal Hollywood Stadium 14,

     

    6200 SW 6th Ave Topeka. And most of the documentary was based around the Westboro Baptist Church
    . To film in Topeka they would have to get permission or notify the appropriate authority. They would also need Public Liability Issuance and they would have informed the local Topeka police department and got the legal requirement to film in an religious building. 


You can just contact the police on their website and ask them for permission to film a documentary in this area, informing them that they were going to be filming the families whilst they stand outside dead soldiers funerals etc. To film in the church they would have to go to the address 3701 SW 12th St, Topeka, KS 66604, United States or ring the phone number +1 785-273-0325 and ask for permission to film in this religious building.
2. What did they have to do to get permission to film there? They asked the the Phelps family, if they were happy with the BBC filming them and ask if the State's government if they were allowed to film on their streets for a documentary. And when they are filming in a certain place like Westboro Baptist Church ask the owner of that building for permission to film there. 


3. Make sure you have commented about why you get permission. You must get permission to film because they are owned by people and they have to decide if they want their property being filmed. 
Facilities 

From the same documentary, find out what equipment they might have used, any specialist kit that they needed.    

  • Cameras
  • Tripod/Dolly's/Cranes

  • Lights/Back lights, key lights and fill lights

  • Sound

  • Microphone
  • Mixers and DAT records

  • Transport

Because this documentary was funded by the BBC and the crew were all highly qualified and professional in their jobs they would be supplied with the best equipment for the bullet points I have mentioned. 
  1. What camera, sound, editing equipment will you need to make your documentary, what are the technical specs of these? For making my own independent documentary I will need to use a hand held camera like a SONY GV-HD700 which is £38 to hire a day. 
     And I would also need to edit the footage on a Macbook on Final Cut Pro. 
    This would cost be 13.40 per week. I would be able to hire this when i've got all my finished footage and edit it for a week. 



    Depending on which lights I would want to use for my filming, the price range could go from £35 to £50. 

    The price range for microphones go from £6.00 up to £64.00 for microphones, I would do research on which microphones are better for my documentary and hire the ones relevant. 


    The price range for a Tripods/Dolly's/Cranes goes from £5 - £18 a day


2. What are the costs of hiring? Camera £38 + MacBook + £13.30 + Lights £50 + Microphone £64 + Tripod £16 a day = £181.30
3. Why is having the right kit important? It is important to have the right kit because you want your production to be at it's best quality and you don't want to waste your money and time and you need to be serious and passionate about what your researching and find out what's the best equipment to use for a documentary. 

Materials 


  1. From a documentary you have seen what archive or materials from the other films/programmes have they used? who would they need to get the clearance from to use this footage? To be able to use other peoples footage from films they would have to pay to use the clips and would have to talk to the copyright holders and get a license. The documentary I have chosen doesn't show any other materials from other films and programmes because it is based around a family and why they do such hateful things. Although another documentary that I've watched that uses music and clips from other people, is Super Size Me in this documentary they have used popular music such as Queen's song Fat Bottomed Girls and other relevant songs regarding weight and fast food. The song's tie in with the documentary and also they use artwork of McDonalds clowns and children that are rather disturbing and put you off eating at the fast food restaurant because they make it seem evil. Also the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated they have used clips from films and comparing them to other films with similar content that have been given a higher rating. They also interviewed the producers, actors and directors of these films, which they gave the permission to use their film clips in this documentary, they would have contacted the copyright owners for every film used and get clearance for those clips. In both documentaries they interviewed the correct people they needed to interview, in the Super Size Me documentary there was interviews with doctors explaining what this kind of diet and food does to your health, also interviews with companies that work for fast food chains that are promoting the business, but the facts from the doctors tell us that McDonalds seriously damages your health. And the interviews with This Film Is Not Yet Rated are against the MPAA which is what the documentary is trying to make the audience grasp and understand how hard it is for film makers, and with those interviews you can realise how hard it is to get your film out there.
Clearance for films...





"PRS for Music is a UK copyright collection society and performance rights organisation undertaking collective rights management" This organisation represents the rights of over 100,000 members in the UK.They license organisations to play, perform or make available copyright music on behalf of their members and those of overseas societies, distributing the royalties to them fairly and efficiently. They promote and protect the value of copyright. And royalty free means that you try to use copyrighted material without having to pay royalty fees. You should try to find things that are royalty free so that you do not have to pay out an extra amount of money to be able to use specific music or clips.




  1. Have they used popular music, who would they have to get the clearance from? If you want to use popular music in your film you would have to contact the copyright holders and get their approval If there's a certain piece of music you want to use you need to contact the publisher to investigate who owns the rights to the music. And it's very important to note that film makers spend a lot of their budget on buying rights, so it's better for your pocket if your making an independent film to use your own music or free music.
  2. What is a clearance/copyright, and who do you pay to get one? Once you transfer your idea from your mind to some form of media (written, video, audio, etc.) it is copyrighted. But, if you want to prosecute someone for copyright violation, you need to register it. There is no charge to sign up to Copyright Licensing service. 
Contributors


  1. From a documentary of your choice, find out who the contributors were, who have they interviewed? 
The people getting interviewed were the family who picket the funerals of soldiers in protest against an America that tolerates homosexuality. And their names are Steve Drain, Fred Phelps, Jael Phelps, Megan Phelps-Roper, Rebekah Phelps-Roper and Shirley Phelps-Roper and pastor Gramps.