Task 6 and 7

Formal Proposal

Topic: Tattoos

Type of documentary: Mixed

Style of documentary: Informal, Funny, Chatty

Channel and Scheduling: Channel 4, 8.00-8.30pm

Target Audience: 15-40 years

Primary Research: Interviews, school rooms, tattoo parlour

Secondary Research: Internet, books, newspapers, radio programmes, magazines, images, statistics, television programmes

Narrative Structure: Open, single-strand, non-linear

Outline of content: Interviews (tattooist, youth, etc)

Resource requirements: Digital camera, computer (with software), body parts, tripod, video recorder, microphone



Research For The Programme:

Primary Research
- Interviews:
Tattoo artist in a tattoo studio
Doctor in a GP Practice
Preist in a church
General public/people with tattoos
Headteacher in a school

- Filming Locations:
Voxpop in Liscard
In a car
Tattoo shop/studio
Outside
In a library
In school
Living room
Doctors Practice

- Props
Books
Articles
Liazrd man/Tiger man picture
Tattoos/Images of tattoos

Secondary Research
Lizard man
Tiger man
Star-face girl
Miami ink
Prison break/momento
Tattoo magazine
Books/Internet sites on the history of tattoos
Images of tattoos
Henna Tattoos

Task 5

Possible Content for our Documentary:

History of Tattoos - Origin, Creator, The First Tattoo, First tools used, Now and then comparison, Historical people with Tattoos, Military

Designs - Tribal, Animals, Names, Symbols, Cartoons, Famous people, Different languages, Flowers/Hearts/Stars, Cover-ups, Make-up, Deeper meaning

Fear - Phobias, Shame, Needles, Pain, How they affect people and their lives/views, Regret

Opinions - Parents, Doctors, Religious, Atheist, Youth, Friends, The Media - how they contrast

Stereotypes - Emo, Mosher, Chav, Preppy, Indie, Rockers, Punk, Nerds - is there a link?

Copycats - Fans for celebrities (why?), Friends, Relations

Culture - How they relate themselves with tattoos, Do some cultures value them more than others? E.g. Chinese, Arabian, Hebrew, Scottish, Welsh, etc. How Do they differ and why?

Symbolism - Symbols related to religion, Hobbies, Love, Passion, Meaning - where do tattoos come into this? What do the symbols mean? Are any mistaken?

Interviews - Famous Celebrities (e.g. Rihanna, Cheryl Cole, David Beckham, Paris Hilton, etc), Parentals, Teenagers, Young adults, Older adults with tattoo's, a Tattooist (artist), People who have had them lasered off, People with regrets, Anyone related to subjects above. Ask why, how, what it means to them. Pain? Any problems? Voxpops!

Voxpop - Obtain image (i.e. of lizard man) and wander Liverpool shopping area asking opinions - What do you think? Would you do this? Do you know anyone with unusual/shocking tattoo's? Do you have any yourself?

Task 4

Audience Research
Questionnaire:


1) Are you…?
□ Male □ Female




2) What is your age?
□ 15–19 □ 20-24 □ 25-29 □ 30-34 □ 35-40




3) What is your occupation?



4) Have you got a tattoo?
□ Yes □ No



If yes, what part of body do you have it on?




5) What does the word tattoo mean to you?



6) What is your favourite colour?
□ Red □ Blue □ Green □ Yellow
□ Black □ White □ Other (please specify)__________



7) Who is you favourite celebrity/idol?



8) Does your favourite celebrity/idol have a tattoo?



9) What is a meaningful image to you?



10) Are you religious?
□ Yes □ No □ Undecided




11) Do your parents approve/have approved of tattoos?
□ Yes □ No

If no, why not?



12) If you don’t have a tattoo or if you want one, what would you like?





Questionnaire Results:



1) Are you….?

Male – 11 Female – 19

Conclusion: There were 11 males and 19 females that took our questionnaire; because there were more females than males this shows that our documentary may be biased towards the female gender of the audience. We will have to take this into account so we don’t overlook the male audience, and as to make sure the documentary appeals towards both genders equally.

2) What is your age?

Conclusion: Looking at the results, the majority of our audience opinions will rely on people aged 15-19. As the next greater quantity of age lies in the 35-40’s category, we have basically got enough evidence to support both the youngest and oldest age, and this will hopefully account for the lack of information claimed by the other ages in between. Taking this in, we therefore should be able to comprise a documentary relative to every person between the ages of 15-40 – our target audience.

3) What is your occupation?

Conclusion: From the pie chart we can see that our documentary will attract a broad range of audiences. This tells us that we must make sure that we keep the documentary interesting for everyone, by appealing to subjects relative their common interests.

4) Have you got a tattoo?

Yes – 10 No – 20

Conclusion: 2/3rds of the participants answered ‘No’ to this question, which could create a problem within how much interest there is from our documentary for our target population. However, there is the 1/3rd of the audience who do have tattoos, showing that significant proportions have got tattoos and that our subject for the documentary may draw at least 1/3rd of the populations attention. Also, taking into account that the documentary is about tattoos and will be aimed at people with them as well as without, the other 2/3rds of the population may still be intrigued, increasing viewers and appealing to a wider target audience.

If yes, what part of the body do you have it on?

(image will be uploaded soon)

Conclusion: The parts of the body which people desire to get tattoos are varied, which allows us to use a greater variety of footage (e.g. images of different tattoos in different places).

5) What does the word 'Tattoo' mean to you?

Conclusion: Looking at the graph we can see that greatest meaning for the word 'tattoo', according to our participants, is that it is a 'picture on a person’s body'. The second most popular answer was a life long memory. Combining both these answers informs us that most people may think of a tattoo as a picture which represents something to the person wearing it, and that different images can mean different things for everyone. Extracting this meaning, we can now go on to portray it in our finished documentary of tattoos.

6) What is your favourite colour?Conclusion: From the graph we can see that most of our participant's favourite colour is red with, the colour blue coming close second. We will incorporate these colours in the documentary as to attract more of an audience to our documentary.

7) Who is your favourite celebrity/idol?

Conclusion: From these results we can draw the conclusion that the most idolised celebrities are Cheryl Cole and Beyonce, which were both recorded to have tattoos. This therefore gives us the preferred option to use these two celebrities in our documentary, as most people recognise them and this will regulate more of an interest to the documentary.

8) Does your favourite celebrity idol have a tattoo?

Yes – 15 No – 15

Conclusion: From the results we can see that in our documentary we will have to explore the issue regarding “Do celebrities influence people getting a tattoo”.

9) What is a meaningful image to you?

Conclusion: From the pie chart we can see that Nature/emotional/family(including background)-related images are most popular when it comes to tattoos and what they mean to different people. This tells us that not every image means the same to each individual audience, and that we should try to use a wide-range of images to portray the subject of meaning, including these top 5 selected images.

10) Are you Religious?

Yes: 6 No: 19 Undecided: 5

Conclusion: From the results we can see that a majority of the population may not be religious, however this does not mean we can not have some debate between different religions and their views on getting a tattoo.

11) Do your parents approve/have approved of tattoos?

Yes – 16 No – 14


Conclusion: From the results we can see another issue we may need to address in the documentary is “Why might parent's feel having a tattoo is bad?”

If No, Why not?Conclusion: These results reinforce the issue about parents disagreements on tattoos. From the results we can plan questions or plan a segment about the different reasons parents give to their children when rejecting them the right to get a tattoo, and why that might be.

12) If you don’t have a tattoo or if you want one, what would you like?

Conclusion: From the piece chart we can see that tattoos are developing and people don’t seem to want the traditional tattoos such as a rose anymore. People are starting to come up with their own ideas about what tattoo they want, whether it is simple imagery or personal meaning, and this is another thing we can discuss in our documentary.

Task 3

Our Documentary:

Topic: Tattoos
Target Audience: 15-40 years
Channel and Scheduling: Channel 4, 8.00pm-8.30pm
Title: The Human Canvas

Task 2

Possible ideas for documentary:

Film/Radio - Video games - Race - War - Music - Schools - illness - fashion - Pregnancy - Beauty - Nature - Poverty - Alcohol - Animals - Recession - Teenagers - Technology - Media - Celebrities - University - Obesity - Saturday jobs - Elderly - Food - Cars - Diet - Eggs - Sweets - Drugs - Travelling - Holidays - Disability - Relationships - History - Discovery - Helplessness - Stereotypes - Pastimes - Anorexia - Homelessness - Chocolate - Wallasey - Sixth form - Clubbing - Mobile phones - Murder - Money - Drink - Family - Hair - Nails - Children - Houses - Bikes - Bears - Sleep - Babies - Dinosaurs - Fish - Egypt - Books - Roads - Tables - Pens - Cinema - Life - Sky - Sex - Crime - Natural disorders - Public transport - Wealth - Festivals - Dancing - Penguin - Blue - Waffles - Chocolate cake - Laptop - Shoes - Bags - Make-up - Friends - McDonald's - Bacon - Zoo - Rings - Hiccups - KFC - Sneezing - Shopping - Parks - Wales - Love - Hate - Dress - Liverpool - Pink - Working - Sport - Exercise - Tattoos - Takeaway - Dolphins - Bubblegum - English - Kisses - Jewellery - Beatles - Pringles - Photography - Facebook - Texting - Gigs - Senses - Seven deadly sins

Egypt's New Tomb Revealed

Homework Analysis of Documentary 2:

Type of Documentary: Mixed
Themes: Egypt/Tutankhamun/Tombs/Discovery/History
Narrative Structure: Open/Single-strand/Non-linear

Camerawork:
Intro - pan over images of tombs/coffins/labour(digging)/candle light.
Tracking and panning over Valley of Kings.
Handheld - following man ('fly on the wall' style) and close-ups of artifacts.
Interviews - framed to the left or right. One centre screen. Medium close-up.
High angle and low-angled shots - e.g. looking into/out of tombs, up ladders, H.A of man narrating.
Two shot of men working together and talking to camera and each other.
Extreme close-up and close-ups of coffins and artefact's - detail.
Tracking backwards of man asking camera questions, with name and occupancy.
Close-up on introducing new people - establishing shots.
Track forwards following one man, then sideways to switch to another important man - inventive.
zoom on detail and point-of-view shots when handling artefact's.

Mise-en-Scene:
Coffins, tombs, rocks, Tutankhamun.
Artefact's.
Architectural instruments - establishes occupation involved.
Tools.
Interview backgrounds - tomb walls/above ground by excavation work.

Sound:
Voiceover - male, slight accent. Voiceover and narrator on screen.
Quick pace music - excitement.
Unusual music - relates to discovery (techno-ish).
Eerie music (going underground).
Light music - different images of new finds.
Informative interviews.
Similar music used - sci-fi likeness.
Slow/low music - anticipation (quieter).
Scraping sound match with flash.

Editing:
Dissolves
Cuts
Montages of tomb images
Zoom in on coffins - direct lock on smaller coffin
Superimposed film - people making markings over those found/statue over image/diagram over coffin.
Flash - old-new images and between some interviews.
Negative flash image
Light up of inscription on stone
Blurred film
Lots of reused shots
Cut to adverts before mummy revealed - suspense

Archive Material:
Actuality footage - inside tombs, coffins, Valley of the Kings, excavating, discoveries, following man, etc.
Blue/colour diagrams - underground tomb work, where coffins are situated, timeline. All 3D.
Re-enactment footage - people making marking, statues carrying mummy's to tombs - basically past predictions.
Images of Egyptians.
Image of stone heads (rotate shot).
Old black and white photos.
X-ray images.
Examples of 'mummification process'.

Graphics:
Title: Tutankhamun wooden image with 'EGYPT'S NEW TOMB REVEALED' - 'revealed' slightly smaller text size.
Interviews - name of interviewee, e.g. 'Dr KEN NYSTROM' and occupation 'Physical Anthropologist' - written in exact case. Establishes who they are and relation to subject. White type - easy to see.
Informative info about future work at end of Doc. - white type over black background.
Credits: scroll upwards over black background - white type.

My SHOCKING Story: 'I Gave Birth To A Mummy'

Homework Documentary Analysis 1:

Type of Documentary: Mixed
Themes: Pregnancy
Narrative Structure: Closed/Single-strand/Non-linear

Camerawork:
Extreme close-up on unidentified face (glasses) looking at scan. Both from front and behind angle
Interviewees on right or left of screen - Medium close-up or medium shot.
Side-wide shot of woman going into scan, cut to her entering scan(high angle)(match-on-action). Also extreme close-up used.
Close-up of surgery - incisions/stomach/finding baby (stone). All handheld.
Establishing shots - countryside, etc.
Tracking forwards/sideways takes.
Handheld filming (travelling in cars/surgery)
Close-up on fiddling hands (anticipation) and probe.
Slow pan over foetus scans. Extreme close-up of woman's eyes (anticipation). Close-up of dissection.
Zoom in on stone baby - whoa, what? factor. and slow pan (detail). Extreme close-up used for finer detail.
Zoom in and out of stills.
Close-up of adult hand touching babies - meaning/size difference realisation.

Mise-en-Scene:
Interviews - hospital bed, Tree(nature), Family pictures(homely values)
Town and deserted country - establishes surroundings.
Shot of sun breaking through clouds and shining on dark house - spiritualisation (with spiritual music).
Old women interview - light clothes, symbolises purity and innocence.
dusty roads, dead-looking city (significance to dead stone-baby)
Doctors in white coats in front of white light from Windows down a dark corridor - signifies doctors goodness.
Bookcase and scans behind and to the left of doctors interview footage - establishes occupation.
Dark shot of house under horrible cloudy weather - foreshadowing daunting news.
Images of lifeline in background of operation footage (life tracking) - slowly becomes more focused on.
Sunny shots of couples and children in field - connotes purity. complete difference to old lady's footage.

Sound:
Intro - tense music with female voiceover about old woman's story 'crippled in pain'. No accent.
Translation over voiceover (accent matches). Translation finishes before interviewee.
Spiritual music for old woman and stone baby.
Tinkling and religious music (whilst telling of losing baby - mourning status).
Sinister music - twins may be in danger - warning.
Disjointed music on images of probe and news of triplets, etc.
Ambulance sound in background before we see ambulance - sign of trouble.
Very technical music - panic for trouble (quickened), calm for calmness, disjointed for others.

Editing:
Lots of dissolves - matching similar filming (disjointed shots down hospital corridor)
Cuts
Blurred film to connote woman's suffering. Also blurred surgeons in surgery (hide identity) and blurred film of painful flashbacks.
Black and white film of country passing-by.
Pan shot over dark and sinister country with woman's voiceover of sad story (similar to Melanie's confession).
'Perilous surgery' over film of surgical instruments - direct link.
Brightness added to shot of tracking handheld down corridor - turning a meaning into a memory.

Archive material:
Images (x-rays) of 'stone' dead foetus.
Kinetic drawings showing egg implanted in woman - describing and showing what happened.
Re-enactment footage of unidentified woman in pain behind hospital curtain - signify old woman's pain - also alludes to the meaning of the pain and suffering.
Actuality footage: Surgery/operations and finding foetus, images of stone baby, real delivered baby, scans, footage of family in park (happy families).
Re-enactment of being rushed into hospital in ambulance, and of woman waking in pain.
Images of other 'stone babies' and diagrams.
Film of special care baby unit.

Graphics:
Title sequence - images of human body(diagrams), newspaper stories and 'My SHOCKING Story' (written in case used).
Interviews - only displays name of interviewee, e.g. professor______, Dr________ (capital at beginning of each name, lower case for rest). Only displays names for doctors/professors - not for subject people.
Credits: running upwards over black background. simple.

Codes and Conventions of Documentaries

Narrative structure is varied - most are single-strand and non-linear

Camerawork:

• Varied shot types and movement to keep the audience interested.
• Handheld camerawork is used for actuality footage where necessary.
• Interviews:
  - Close-up or Medium close-up is conventional
  - Big close-up and extreme close-up can be used
  - Stationary Camera (tripod)
  - Eye-line is roughly 1/3 way down screen
  - Framed to left or right of shot.
• Establishing shots used
• Pan and zoom are used when filming still images
• Point of view shot sometimes used to position the audience in the action

Mise-En-Scene:

• Behind interviewees - either relevant to the subject (e.g. chromakey) or anchors their job/relevance to the subject.

Archive Material:

• Archive material from a variety of sources e.g. films, TV programmes, newspapers, magazines, websites, music videos - from other media.

Graphics:

• Graphics used to translate where necessary.
• Name and relevance to the subject/role of the interviewees - usually two lines. First line clear, second in italics. Anchors who they are and their relevance.
• Credits - scrolling, all archive material is credited.

Sound:

• Voiceover used to link everything together - Standard English/Age and gender relative to either audience or subject/emotionless - statement of fact.
• All questions are edited out.
• Music is used relevant to the topic.
• Interviews - no background noise (or kept to a minimum if unavoidable).

Editing:

• Questions are edited out of interviews.
• Editing creates pace.
• Cut - most common edit.
• No editing effects used unless relevant. Dissolve is used.
• Cutaways are used frequently - relevant to what is being talked about.
• Fade to black/from black sometimes used.

"That Thing" - Lara Croft

Analysis of Documentary:

Type of Documentary: Mixed
Themes: Representation of gender/Feminism/Popular Culture
Narrative Structure: Closed/Single-Strand/Non-Linear

Camerawork:
Interviews - framed either left or right of screen ~ Mid-shot, medium close-up, close-up, or big close-up(inventor) used.
Tilted frame (inventor)
Close-up on Angelina Jolie on 'naughty' - cheeky smile.
Handheld
Tracking
Point of view shot
Zoom/Pan

Mise-En-Scene:
Green lighting - front projection, over interviewee.
Chromokey (green or blue screen)
Back projection - behind interviewee.
Put inventor in a computer screen.

Sound:
Sound effects: gun shots
Music from the game (soundtrack)
Voiceover - asking Q's (male, young, accent, standard English).
Change to Madonna song when mentioned
Dance music - popular culture

Editing:
Superimposed imagery - man over film/game
Speed-up motion
Montage of clips
Match description to image
Cut

Archive Material:
Shots of game (Tomb-Raider)
Film extracts
Interview with Angelina Jolie
Fan email - images - competitions - official history.
Cultural mags
Nike advert

Graphics:
Man in laptop screen
'Lara Croft' words.
Titles of interviewees and relation to subject matter. Sans serif/white/lower case.
Credits over clip of game

Marketing Meatloaf

Analysis of Documentary:

Type of Documentary: Mixed
Themes: Marketing/Music Industry
Narrative Structure: Single-Strand/Non-Linear/Closed

Camerawork:
Handheld
Low angle - Radio City - Pan down to entrance full of people - establish location
Point of View shots (behind-the-scene exclusive outlook)
Low-angle shots of meatloaf - signifies importance
Interviews - positioned either left or right of camera, close-up/medium close-ups
Detail shots - e.g. close-up on meatloaf's monster nails.
Rotation shot
Close-up on press conference of meatloaf
Pan-overs of albums.
Side-shot handheld of conference with Meatloaf after accepting Grammy - authenticity (watching as an onlooker ourselves)
Wide shots/Pans/zooms of stills

Mise-En-Scene:
The Music Biz magazine - opening.
Brit awards posters with dates on, behind film stars (time awareness)
Interviews - metres moving up and down (sense of urgency), recording studio
Hard rock cafe poster - establishes location
Marketing screen (being watched)

Sound:
Opening - bouncy music
Voiceover
Matched music to film - e.g. positive music for good times, Dark/sinister music used for bad times (e.g. dramatic soundtrack used when meatloaf's bankruptcy is mentioned).
Sound effects - e.g. heartbeat (serious facts)
Different Meatloaf song's used frequently
Diegetic talk in production of music video

Editing:
Superimposed image of man talking over a film screen of meatloaf playing - visual stimulus
Lots of Dissolves
Cuts
Flash of image (matches YMCA music)
Shot reverse shot
Juxtaposition
Stills

Archive Material:
Clips of famous people walk-bys.
Clips of interviewees being interviewed by someone else
Clips of Elton John
Clips of media workers - bored - already rehearsed
Awards evening clips/concert clips
Virgin Records
Many pans over stills of words 'meatloaf' and song names.
Music video clips
Newspapers (e.g. 'The Independent')
Top of the Pops
Magazine front covers (e.g. KERRANG!, Q, Sunday, Vox, etc. - Rock audience)
Posters
'Singles Chart'

Graphics:
Moving images/film fit into music magazine space (portray stories involved)
Graphic CD shot (many angles used)
Lake - reflective image
Credit strip at finish
Stills

The Devil Made Me Do It

Analysis of Documentary:

Type of Documentary: Mixed
Themes: Religion/Good vs Evil/Spirituality/The Power of the Media
Narrative Structure: Single-strand/Open/Non-Linear

Camerawork:
Close-up/Medium close-up of interviews on the whole and framed to left or right of shot.
Manson Interview: low angle (signifies power), lighting from one side - half face lit/dark (signifies good/evil)
Slow pans across town - day and night, sense of being quiet and deserted.
Shots of deserted Streets.
Lots of shots of religious iconography
End of Prog. - shots of busy streets, teenagers chilling out ~ contrast to previous shots.
Press conference of Marilyn Manson(MM): We are the observer of both MM and journalists. Documenters are impartial to what is happening.
Shots of Manson's gig - observer
Handheld - actuality footage.
Creative camerawork - tracking.

Mise-En-Scene:
Interviews:
Police - Office, at desk, hat on desk near camera - in his environment
Veronica's father - in white & blue room, signifies purity and calm (or victimised)
Old significant man - books and images of holy people - his actual background.
Other:
Contrasts between MM and what he stands for - e.g. the sequence of him buying MacDonald's is hypocritical.

Sound:
Voiceover-Narrator - Male, quite young, Standard, English, No clear accent
Voiceovers used to translate Italian - English with and Italian accent, age and gender matched visuals.
Music - reflected the subject matter/mood. Traditional Italian/Religious music (choral) or dark/sombre music.
Sound effects, e.g. Heartbeat/Whispering.
Marilyn Manson Music.

Editing:
Cutting/Cross-cutting
Montage
Fade to Black/Fade from black
Created pace (few second shots) and mood
Slow Motion
Juxtaposition of images and sound (Religious music over film with swearing, atheist teenagers).

Archive Material:
Marilyn Manson concert footage (actuality footage)
MM conference(actuality footage)
MM material
Newspaper
Music Videos
Italian news (nun, etc.)

Graphics:
Subtitles over music videos
Credits over film of fans leaving
During interview - subtitle of name, job and how they are relevant to story. Anchors meaning and relation to topic.
Dates appeared on screen - to anchor when something took place
'The Devil Made Me Do It' title - Celtic cross used (Gothic overtone)
Translation subtitles