Factual Programme Production Television: 2014

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Research

Existing Animal Documentaries

Before making my documentary factual, I had to research some existing animal documentaries; so using the Internet I went onto YouTube and found two documentaries in which I thought was appropriate and best fitting for my documenatry proposal.

I have chosen this BBC Nature Documentary because, I thought the series of camera shots were most impressive and stood out to me because the sequence in which the footage was arranged made the narrator fit perfectly. It has inspired me to capture the essence of a wildlife documentary so it draws in the readers attention. This is exactly the way I want my documentary to look.

This documentary is similar to the one above, although it has more of a historic story behind it which is interesting but also a tad bit boring which isn't what I want to go for. However, again the camera angles are very precise, which gives the documentary a very sharp, sophisticated look to the footage which draws the audience in and this is what I want to achieve in my wildlife documentary.

Thursday, 4 September 2014

Pre-Production Techniques

My production is a small documentary which could be carried out by any freelance documentary film maker or be scaled up to be produced by an independent factual producer in example Nine Lives Media. Its an observational documentary about the wildlife in which is both educational and interesting.

If I wanted my advertisements to be shown on live television, I would have to consider the financial side to things for example; How much it would cost to rent out a camera? I researched how much its would cost and the asking price from www.manchesterz1hire.com is £65 inc VAT per day. Transport? Depending on how far away Manchester Z1 hire is away from the desired location to shoot the footage could be relatively expensive, if you were to order taxi it would cost you around £25- £40 at Call-A-CAB taxi company depending on the location. The paper work that is needed within finance in creating a factual programme would be a budget sheet and a check list to organise how much money you have to spend on each part in creating a factual programme. The things that you would have to pay for within a factual production would be paying for location, equipment, transport and production crew, they would also pay for interviewers and journalists but not usually interviewees.

Contributors taking place in my documentary factual will be just myself as documenatry is made independently, however if I had chosen to use interviewees or actors the paperwork in which I would use when keeping account to the contributors would be an Actor's release form. This will have their name, signature, address and what part they will be taking in the factual production. If BBC were making a television production, they would look for contributors by creating advertisements in news paper articles, and would get in contact by emailing a casting agency.

My documenatry will be a student film so I will be able to collect the facilities which are needed from my college, if I was not able to gather any facilities from my college, for example if they were all taken by other students on my course I would be able to go to the facility house called Northern video Facility Ltd. The facilites I need for a documentary factual would be H2 recorders, cameras, lights and editing studio. When having to film a factual documentary without having any available facilities, there are many different facility houses all around Manchester and the UK in which you can hire out in expense.

BBC get fundings from TV licences so documentaries can be funded by a larger organisation which will allow short factual productions to air on television. Some factual productions might be given sponsorships within linked to advertisements or sponsors of programming on commercial channels like channel 4's Jamie Olivers 15 minute meals sponsored by Sainsbury's. The paper work that is needed within finance in creating a factual programme would be a budget sheet and a check list to organise how much money you have to spend on each part in creating a factual programme. The things that you would have to pay for within a factual production would be paying for location, equipment, transport and production crew, they would also pay for interviewers and journalists but not usually interviewees.

My documentary will be following all of Ofcom's broadcasting regulations and the law which will ensure no racial stereotyping and there is to be no bad language within the production. I will need to fill out release forms, to stick to Copy right regulations as I will be using music from artists for my documentary, this is to avoid any legal situations. If the BBC did a tv production then there will be contracts and release form to agree that this production is allowed to use any sources which might be visible to the audience.

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Proposal

Documentary Proposal

Subject Idea:

For my documentary factual, I will be creating a wildlife documentary about a range of different animals. I will be exploring the animals habitats, diet and common facts, which I will then film the animals and edit so that my footage will be in order with a clear spoken narrator just like a documentary on tv.

Style:

The style of my documentary will be an interpretation of BBC Nature Documentary and Deadly crocodiles in the river nile , which is predominately aimed at males but can be either sex, perhaps middle class people from the ages of 25 to 40+.

Format:

The format of my documentary will be both observational because I will be creating a wildlife documentary, exploring the animals life and learning a lot about each different animal as well as see how they live.

Genre:

The genre for my documentary will be formal and educational with a twisted of entertainment for my viewers, it will be a special interest as well as informative.

Target audience:

My aim is to appeal to an audience of both male and female viewers from the ages of 25 to 40+ as I think my audience will be interested in the wildlife.

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Quotes

Fairness

Reah (1998) "Conflict is established between groups and individuals who have never met, or encountered each other in anyway. The 'Opponents' of the readers have their actions described in ways that imply their hostility towards these non-existent groups. The description of these opponents are generally negative, either through direct description, or through the words used for their actions."

The quote above is about how news creates conflict, whether it be between political parties or the general public. To elaborate further the Daily Mail are subjective right wing perspective, where as the Guardian are subjective to the left wing approach.

Edit Log

Editing Log

To add text to my documentary I had click on the "T" which allowed me to change the format, font, colour, size etc. I then decided on whether or not I wanted the text on a blank frame or over a background and I made the decision of just a blank frame which I wanted to finish the end of my documentary with a credit frame.

Before I could start making the documentary, I had to collect all the footage I had shot and upload it onto final cut which allows me to put the footage in chronological order in which I wanted my documentary to be shown in. Using final cut I was able to add graphics and sounds to my documentary so that the footage looked more professional.

I chose the song "wild wild life" by the talking heads because I thought it would suit my documentary and make it more interesting. For this I had to upload the song file onto final cut and edit the 3 minute song in order to fit over the chronologically arranged footage.

In order to cut irrelevant footage in which I had collected I used the slice tool then used my curser to click the part I wanted to cut so it split into two parts which then allowed me to place piece of footage any where I wanted or just simply delete it.

Using Final cut I was able to change the filter of my footage for example, in the top left corner you'll see and image of two lions; in which I have made the brightness higher which has brighter greens and yellows.

Sunday, 10 August 2014

Evaluation

In the making of the documentary factual Away with the wildlife, I had to take into consideration of whom I wanted my target audience to be, so I wrote up a proposal for my documenatry which you can find on my blog. Its then followed up by some more preproduction work.

After doing the paperwork I then had to start thinking about what I wanted to film and how I wanted to film it in order to capture the essence of a documentary. I had to set up a camera so that I could begin to film the movement of some of the safari animals. Once I filmed the animals, I began to edit them on Final cut which allowed me to rearrange the footage and put it in the order in which I wanted it, cut parts out, add audio and graphics. By using audio and graphics it made the footage look more like a documentary.

Although I edited my documenatry the best of my ability, I should have stuck to my criteria I think the documentary itself would have been filmed a lot better so that it wouldn't look as jumpy or delayed as I know I could have created a better documentary.

In the future when making a documentary my main concern would be to choose something that is easier to create and more so that I can relate it to some of the existing documentaires on the television today. Using survey monkey I set up an online questionnaire to get some research 50% said that it wouldn't be aired on the television because it doesn't look professional and the timing is delayed. 20% said that it appeals to the audience that its aimed at however the remaining 30% said that it needs improving.