Story Boarding our opening sequence

We made a story board of our opening sequence which I then made into a powerpoint using pictures I found from Google images which represent the kind of shot we would like to use.

Openings

Another idea we talked about today was to have different shots of CCTV cameras with a voice over explaining a bit about CCTV in Britian. We discussed whether we should use music over the voice over or just use the noise of the street.
We started to plan what would actually be in our documentary, and wrote a list of people we would want to interview, issues we wanted to discuss and shots we could use.

Experimenting with openings

We thought about different openings we could use, and I came up with the idea of making a 'Big Brother' (channel 4) style opening. This would include short shots of CCTV angles, cameras and CCTV screens. The original Big Brother opening features shots of people in the Big Brother house, and I thought we could instead include shots of the general public on the highstreet, zoom into our bedroom windows from the outside to show the real world under surveillance.

I experimented with different ways we could include our title into the opening shots, and made a short example video which we could use at the end of our opening sequence, just before we go into the actual documentary.

If we did use this idea we would have to write to the person who wrote the Big Brother theme tune to ask if we could use it in our opening sequence.

Researching

I started to do some research into the topic of CCTV cameras in Britain. I found that there was lots of information to look at, as it's a very controversial topic at the moment.

Here are some of the websites/articles that I think we could find beneficial:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6108496.stm

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-george-orwell-big-brother-is-watching-your-house.do

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1

Interview Technique Practice

We decided to experiment with different interview techniques:
-Anonymous
-Participatory
- Formal

We found that each of these techniques had a different effect, and made a big difference to the way the audience would recieve the information. The anonymous style was very personal, and makes the interviewee's reponse seem more honest and trustworthy than some of the other styles. The formal interview gave the impression that the interviewee has had time to maybe practise what they are going to say, so it seems a little more contrived. The participatory style makes it seem like the interview is on the spur of the moment, and it doesnt look like the interviewee has had time to prepare their answers so their response seems quite honest.

Documentary Ideas

Today we brainstormed some ideas for our documentary. We came up with a couple of ideas:

-'Big Brother' Britain (exploring the issue of CCTV cameras around Britain and their pros/cons)

- A documentary looking into how much teenagers are influenced by celebrities (airbrushing etc)

We made spider diagrams for both ideas:

Eventually we decided to use the CCTV idea as we thought this would be the most interesting and entertaining for the audience as it is a controversial and relevant issue.

Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers

Recently, I watched a series of documentaries on Channel 4 called 'Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers'. It followed a group of Amish Teenagers from America travelling to the UK to experience England's culture, and socialise with typical English teenagers. Some of the teenagers were on Rumspringa, which a period of time where 18 year old Amish teenagers are allowed to go out and experience life outside the Amish community and can then decide whether or not they still want to be Amish.

I particularly liked the different styles of filming that were used throughout the series. Lots of different techniques were used to show the situations from as many different angles and view points as possible...

Formal Sit-Down Reflective Interviews

Each episode included sit-down interviews with the Amish people, which were all recorded when they arrived home from their trip and filmed in front of a backdrop with the interviewer behind the camera. These showed them reflect on the experience featured in that episode and allowed them to express their opinions in detail. These interviews are more in depth than the ones taken at the time in England, as they have had more time to prepare answers and think about the positive and negative parts of their trip.

Video Blogs

Some shots of the Amish teenagers speaking directly to a personal camcorder are used. These were recorded in England and showed the teenagers immediate response to the day they'd just had. They feel more personal, informal and honest than the sit-down interviews as the person is by themselves whilst talking directly into the camera, which makes it feel like they are speaking directly to the viewers at home.

Stand-up interviews

There were some stand-up interviews which were filmed at the time and show their immediate response to the situation, and usually took place on location, during or straight after an activity.