FINAL MAJOR PROJECT. By Joe Cox

1. UNIT 4: Working to a Brief in the Media Industries UNIT 26: Factual Programme Production Techniques for Television UNIT 31: Designing Idents for Television UNIT 32: Stop Motion Animation Production FINAL MAJOR PROJECT.By Joe Cox

2. Ideas for Documentary Topic • How do Southend United F.C support the community? • Why has mod art and culture been so popular for generations? • What was the best album 00/10? • How serious is gang crime in the UK? • How did the recession begin? • How can England win the next world cup? • How difficult is it to play the guitar?

3. Final Decision… How do Southend United F.C Support the Community? Why did I chose this idea? I am currently using my study day as an opportunity to go on a work placement at Southend United's Roots Hall. This work experience requires me to make a documentary to a near professional quality as mandatory. To me this made perfect sense to use the documentary from my work placement as my FMP final production.

4. Pre-Production Research PRIMARY • Questionnaires • Focus Group • Mind Map • Evaluating my research (also helped me learn about my target audience.) SECONDARY • Internet • TV • Research into Bill Nichols Methods. • Research into internet documentaries, TV documentaries, DVD docs. • Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Literature and leaflets.

5. Why did I do this research? I completed this research for the same reason I research into all my projects before beginning production which is to get a better understanding of the task in hand. By looking at different documentary styles, Bill Nichols theory's of documentary mode and watching documentaries for myself I have gained a better understanding of the documentary world and have given myself the chance to produce my own documentary to a near professional level. Another important reason for research is to understand how your target audience feels and what they would watch personally in terms of content. By completing qualitative and quantitative research such as questionnaires, focus groups and creating graphs to evaluate my research I can come to a conclusion on what topic to make my documentary on and what content I should include to make a successful production. All the research I do benefits me in helping me achieve the highest grades on my final major project.

6. What I Found… My research enabled me to get a much better understanding of the task in hand. Now I’m in a position where I’m looking to start filming, I feel so much more confident than I did initially when the task began!

7. Where did I look? • Channel 4 Dispatches - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/ • YouTube - www.youtube.com • AOL Videos - www. Aolvideos.com • Top Documentary Films - http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ • Google Video - http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?hl=en&safe=off&resnum=0&q=documentaries&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv# The above web links above are only some of the places I looked when researching , I also used books, newspapers and magazines to get more results.

8. Other sources of research Alternative searches:

9. Programming… After having a meeting with the people in charge of me while I’m on my work placement , we come to an agreement that the documentary would focus on the community work the club does and how the club supports the community in general. There are many different programmes set up in the community so I knew it would be difficult to feature every activity. Being faced with this challenge I come to the conclusion of breaking the documentary down into ten different areas… • Introduction • Health • Disability • Education • Sports Participation • Social Inclusion • Environmental • Impact on the Community • Key Achievement 09 • Ending By doing this I can feature information from every angle the club is coming from in the format of a documentary.

10. Filming… I am planning on getting footage from the ‘Blues Body care’ health class, ‘Make Every Player Count’ for the less able, the ‘Blues Multi-Sport’ soccer schools, ‘GOALS! Life Skills ‘ educational classes, a Southend United ‘KICKZ’ Social Inclusion scheme and something on ‘Going Green with the Blues’ the environmental recycling programme also set up by Southend United F.C. These are some of the programmes set up in the community to help the town become a cleaner, healthier and happier place for people to live and visit. I also want to include some informational interviews from some of the clubs community workers and from some of the people who benefit from these programmes. By gaining this footage and also some direct shots of the stadium I know I can produce a documentary that indicates what the club is doing for the community and hopefully this message will grab the audiences attention immediately.

11. Editing… One of the most important factors of a production are editing techniques. Once I upload my footage to one of the college Mac’s the editing techniques I use could either make or break my documentary. I want to edit my footage so that the final product gives the audience a direct message through what they see alone. I want to fade and jump cut my footage so it exposes all the communal work done by the club and get rid of extra footage where the camera has been running or other footage that may be irrelevant. Because of the type of documentary it is and how I going to use a lot of medium shots so when it comes to editing I can improve the quality without having to use a lot special affects. I want to do this because using the raw footage in this way will portray the realness and the facts that I want y target audience to take in. I want to try and keep the documentary modern yet basic and simple so people can exactly how muck work the community staff are putting in.

12. What is an Expository Documentary? Referring back to my Bill Nichols (historian and film theorist) research I come to the conclusion that my documentary falls into the category of expository. Being an expository documentary this means my documentary includes… • Authoritative voice-over commentary • Series of images that aim to be descriptive and informative • Voice-over addresses the spectator directly, offering a series of facts or arguments that are illustrated by the image track • Aim: descriptive and informative or provide a particular argument • Effect: direct and transparent representation e.g. Coalface (Cavalcanti, UK, 1935)

13. Why is my Documentary Expository? My documentary will include all the bullet points from the previous slide. I will control the documentary with edited voice-over commentary that at some points will be recorded separately to the sound included in the video. The footage I capture during the filming process will be intended to inform my audience directly displaying the message that I’m trying to get across which is how do Southend United support the community?

14. What is an Interactive Documentary? • Referring back to my Bill Nichols (historian and film theorist) research I come to the conclusion that my documentary falls into the category of interactive. Being an expository documentary this means my documentary includes… • Makes the filmmaker’s presence prominent and interacts with people and the events being filmed • Interviews, which draw out specific comments and responses from those being filmed • May not attempt to offer a ‘balanced ‘ view by juxtaposing one point – of – view with another • Filmmaker may not appear on screen • Sometimes questions are heard , sometimes not (edited out) • The filmmaker plays the role of the mediator in these films • The audience can see what affect the interview is having on the interviewee • The power relation is evident here • Shots and scenes (as well as stock footage) are often used by the filmmaker to make a point

15. Why is my documentary interactive? My documentary is expository and interactive because it has content from both Bill Nichols methods. I will be on and off the screen at different times interacting with people when I am on screen and using voice over commentary when I’m not. Similar to a Nick Broomfield documentary my documentary will be a mixture of both.

16. Codes and conventions • Authoritative voice over • ‘REAL’ footage of events • Technicality of realism – Natural sound and lighting • Archive footage • Interviews with professionals • Use of texts/ titles • Sound – Diegetic and Non – Diegetic • No ‘Set – ups’ • Visual coding – Mise – en – scene (relavant)

17. Conclusion… In conclusion, from the research I have done and now I’m coming to the end of my planning and pre production I have now realised that documentaries take a lot of planning and time to be successful. There are a lot more technical aspects that make a documentary than I initially realised. I have thoroughly researched my documentary topic, film and documentary theory’s and documentary’s in general to get the best understanding I can and eventually achieve the highest grades I can possible. Another thing I would like to achieve from this assignment is to put myself in a position where my work has improved constantly throughout the run of this course. I could potentially study documentary film and series documentary in the future at university and possibly be involved with this area of media when I’m at work. Saying this I am now confident I could work on a topic like this again successfully.