Coursework Proposal:
Answer the following
questions:
1.
Will you work independently
or in a group? If a group, who will you be working with?
I will work independently,
but I may ask another person to do voice-over work for me or to provide the voice
of Chaplin.
2.
What will the subject of your
documentary be? Explain what key questions you will be asking about the
subject.
Subject: Charlie Chaplin’s
early life and its influence on his career.
·
How did Charlie Chaplin’s
family life affect his film subject matter?
·
How did his early poverty
impact on his story-lines?
·
Did going into the workhouse
help or hinder his creativity?
·
How did his early music-hall experiences
prepare him for his screen-acting career?
·
How did his early experiences
as a Londoner help him as a character actor and help him create the look of his
movies?
3.
Who will your target
audience(s) be? Remember you can have primary, secondary, tertiary audiences
and use proper audience terminology when describing them (demographics like
age, gender, etc. and psychographics like aspirer, reformer, mainstreamer etc).
The primary audience will be
adults (mainly 35+ years) who are interested in film and the arts. I will aim
it at both genders equally, although it may appeal more to educated older males
(based on my own observations of people who attend silent film festivals). The
programme would be made in collaboration with the Open University.
The secondary audience will
be broader. Even younger people know of Charlie Chaplin and the slapstick
elements in the programme will attract them. Once they are watching, I want to
show them more than just the comic side of Chaplin.
The tertiary audience will be
those who flick through channels and stay because of the appeal of Chaplin and
slapstick comedy.
The main psychographic groups
will be:
·
Explorers – seek out new
things and information. This documentary will contain little-known facts about
Charlie Chaplin that will appeal to them. People who are doing Open University
courses may have this documentary as a part of their course-work.
·
Reformers – they seek
personal growth and the BBC mission to inform, educate and entertain (this
documentary aims to do all three) fits them the best.
·
Succeeders – confident people
who buy and seek high quality brands (e.g. BBC 4 documentaries). I personally
think that Chaplin is a high-quality brand himself.
1.
What research of the topic will
you need to do? Remember that your research should show greater sophistication
than your research for the Foundation Portfolio.
The
sources will include:
·
Two books: Charlie Chaplin’s
own autobiography (1968) and David Robinson’s very detailed biography of
Chaplin (1983). Both provide interesting and accurate information about
Chaplin’s early life.
·
A documentary by Kevin
Brownlow (Unknown Chaplin) which describes in detail Chaplin’s various film-making
techniques.
·
UK census website 1891 and
1901. I have purchased access to this site for the purposes of this project. I
will use this to identify locations Chaplin was living and other characters in
his biographies.
2.
What style of mode of
documentary will your adopt? What codes and conventions of the documentary
genre will you adhere to? Will you subvert any of these expected codes? How
will you use film and photography editing tools in a more sophisticated way
than last year? What specifically will you have to learn to do this and how
will this help you to be more creative?
This will be mainly expositional
with a voice over acting as the “Voice of God”. I have filmed some participatory
pieces to camera already, but have not decided if I will use them. Archive
material (film and still images) will be used. Rostrum style (Ken Burns effect)
can be used for stills. I have a number of contacts who are experts on Chaplin.
For the longer documentary (and perhaps this extract) I might be able to get a
face to face interview for a piece to camera. To do this I will need to attend
a film event they are going to e.g., at the London Cinema Museum.
I will to learn how to do the
Ken Burns effect and how to edit sound on Adobe Premier. I used this software
last year for the Film Noir project but aim to use better editing this
time. Having gained experience using
Apple iMovie since then, I would be keen to use a more professional product.
3.
What planning tasks will you
carry out? You can include ant planning but should include what you intend to
do for your preliminary task, and how you will test this on you target
audience.
I will find locations in
London where CC lived and grew up from websites and the biographies and then go
to London to film and photograph a number of them as they appear today. I will
obtain period images of those sites if available from books and the internet. I
will need to find on-line tutorials, or a tutor, to help me use Adobe Premier.
I am uncertain what the preliminary task
involves and need to discuss this.
If this preliminary task is
to make a shorter extract then I could show this to the Arts Award group which
will include educated younger adults, but the views of teachers in that group
will match the BBC4 type of audience (age 35+ and educated).
4.
Minor tasks and potential
distribution – how will you create a clear sense of branding between the five minute
documentary extract and the social media (?website) and poster minor tasks?
Which TV channel would you see broadcasting your documentary and why? How would
you make three productions fit into their house style and appeal to their
target audience?
I will reconstruct a BBC-like
website using their logos (BBC4 and Open University). I will look at a number
of BBC posters on-line and try to copy their style.
I see BBC4 being the
broadcaster. I have previously made a blog that reviewed TV channels and digital
platforms that air and commission documentaries and came to this conclusion.
I feel BBC4 is the best
channel to pitch my documentary to because their programmes are aimed at a more
mature demographic 35+ and they commission niche projects in arts related
subjects, which use archive footage on obscure themes. Documentaries from BBC4
that are similar to my series are:
Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns
Neil Brand’s The sound of
Cinema.
Commercial and digital
platforms and channels are unsuitable for my documentary because their
documentaries are aimed at the mainstream and are more for entertainment value
than to inform and educate.
5.
Practical considerations –
draw up a schedule of when and where you will film your documentary – be very
specific in terms of place and time. What equipment will you need? What
permissions and risk assessments will your need to sort out? Who will you
recruit to help you? Hat problems do you anticipate?
Locations around London will
be filmed at half term – late October 2019.
I will use an HD video camera
with tripod. Any pieces to camera will be done with a lapel microphone to
reduce background noise. Still images will be taken with a digital camera.
Still archival images will be
collected over the next few weeks along with relevant movie clips. These will
need to be downloaded from DVD or the internet and converted into a format for
editing (MP4). I will put images and films on a USB memory stick.
Where images or movies are
copyright, then I will need to seek permissions.
I do not think there will be
many risks travelling to London and shooting on London streets, but I would like your advice how to complete the
risk assessment bit.
I will not need many
recruits, but for Chaplin’s voice I would like to use an older male voice. A
relative or teacher could work here.
Problems: it might not be
possible to match schedules with the experts. I have previously had problems
doing this when making another documentary. Weather might also play a part with
outdoor shooting.
6.
Any other thoughts, questions
or ideas should be noted here.
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