1. Student Demonstrations

 My first idea was inspired when I saw the news that there would be a student demonstration on 21st November organised by the NUS organisation (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/27/nus-demo-2012). The main focus for the demonstration is to make a stand against the current coalition government against the decision to triple tuition fees, freeze the EMA (educational maintenance allowance) and the education sector taking a huge cut recently. This is a combination of legislations been put through the government over a period of time and with no pension to rely on, the NUS have decided to take matters into their own hands.

The reason I find this topic interesting is because I am a student and it obviously has a huge impact on students looking to go into further education. The main focus of this documentary would be the rise of the tuition fees and whether it was the right thing to do or not and what the solution may be. I personally do have a biased view as I do not think that tuition fees should not have rised but if we were to make this documentary, it would be a non biased where we would film both sides of the argument. The opposing sides would be the NUS organisation as well as getting views of current students paying the fees, or students thinking of going into university but are reluctant for that very reason. We would then have to get the views of the government officials currently in power so preferably an MP that deals with the student finances. Through the editing processes, I would have to to be very careful to make sure that both sides are balanced so we don't create a fully biased documentary. For this idea, the 'voice of God' would probably be the best way to explain this documentary and move things along so it is also vital that we do not have the voice show opinion but instead just move things along.

A lot of this documentary material relies on permission to film certain individuals but this is a problem that is posed with most documentaries. The real worry with this idea is that the march is on November 21st 2012 when the filming is usually shot in semester 2. Also, these marches and demonstrations have tended to become quite dangerous so we would have to run a full risk assessment to try and avoid certain injuries that could occur. Perhaps by having a camera positioned from away from the demonstration but observing whats happening but having a camera positioned in the actual demonstration itself would be better since it draws the audience right into the action. I am also aware that student demonstrations tend to be a very cliched student documentary idea and it has been done a lot before. While this may seem unoriginal, I like the challenge of creating something better than everything done before. I also feel that this is an issue that is current (hence the demonstration march) so it is relevant and therefore should carry a bigger impact over the audience. 

Research:

No Ifs, No Buts:

This is a short documentary that shows the students perspective through the actual demonstration itself and what happened. There are a few good things in this documentary such as the shots during the march. This is similar to what I would try to replicate if we chose to do this. There were a variety of stills and handheld shots which gives the footage a good mix. The interview shots are okay and stick to the safe and tested shot of sitting down with a dark background (a curtain is used). However, there is a lot more wrong with this documentary than there is right unfortunately. 

For instance, content was very one sided and biased as you only got the views of some students who participated in the march and a lecturer and Student Union leader. There was no opposing view so it felt more like a propaganda video rather than a documentary about student demonstrations. Not only that, but the answers they gave were very linear so we can only assume the questions were just as linear. All they talk about is how much fun they had during the march and how they regretted that there was some violence. This light hearted approach is emphasised with the choice of music in the background during the documentary. While the songs may have political meaning lyrically, they hold no emotive meaning to the documentary and it really fails to get its point across. In fact, the point does not seem very clear from start to finish. Are they creating a balanced view on student demonstrations? Advertising it? These are basic questions that need to be answered straight away and this documentary fails to do that. 

This documentary is the exact opposite to what we would do if we chose to use this documentary idea. We would make a balanced documentary with opposing views and with a main focus point to drive the documentary on to ultimately answering that main question: are rising tuition fees the right thing to do?

2. The Life of a Jedi

Jedism is  a religion where people study the force and believe themselves to be Jedi Knights based on the films of the Star Wars series by George Lucas. The interesting thing about this religion is that it did not seem to have a structure to the religion or even a founder. While the films were the main influence to the religion, believers remain insistent that they focus more on the religious principles rather than the plot of the films. This has always been a fascination of mine as creating a religion that is influenced by a film as it is something I have never quite understood it. I feel that the audience we would aim this documentary on would be interested to know what this was all about as well so we can create a link between the makers and the audience. 

In terms of making the documentary, we would need to gain permission and make contact with some believers of this religion. We would get interviews with people that are against the idea such as public or stores that have had to deal with the problem of a Jedi wearing hoods in stores. This could create a balanced argument between the two over Jedism but I feel it may be better to create a observational documentary to gain insight into the life of a Jedi and what Jedism really is. We would need to perhaps follow the life of a Jedi and see what they get up to and what their routine is. I feel that this style of documentary would be more interesting because the audience want to know what this religion is and how it would be to live like one. It is certainly what I would want to know anyway but getting interviews with other people may not be a bad idea just to gain a little diversity to the documentary. 

There a few problems that this documentary poses such as the reliability of this one Jedi that we will follow. S/he may pull out halfway through filming and that could really leave us in a tricky situation. It may also be hard to fill a whole documentary with the life of a Jedi as we do not know what this particular person's routine may be because we need to make sure that we grab hold of the attention of the audience and never let go so additional interviews and diversity may be needed. 

Research:

There were no documentaries about Jedism that I could find which is a good thing as it is a niche and original. Therefore, I had to pick something similar and went with a new unusual religion documentary.

The Secrets of Scientology: 

First off, this is a Panarama documentary aired on BBC so is high quality television with a huge budget behind it lasting for a run time of at least 59 minutes. If we were to choose this documentary idea, we would only create a 30 minute documentary. Visually, this documentary is fantastic and contains a variety of shots that link to the content of the documentary. There are a lot of techniques used such as shallow depth of field with different points of focus. In fact, focus seems to be a very common technique used in this documentary so it remains consistent. In some parts, there were also some Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright) short cuts to flick between scenes which was interesting to see in documentary form as it seems quite unusual but in my opinion, it worked well. This is a very well shot documentary and very similar to how I would shoot our documentary.

In terms of the cotent and the argument is trying to conclude, it does it very well. The whole point of the documentary is to try and expose the secrets of scientology and to decimate the organisation and try to prove that the religion itself is in fact a cult. So this is a completely biased documentary with a biased presenter which makes this documentary participatory mode so it actually does very well to try and get the view of the documentary makers across. They got interviews with all the right people, current people in power at the church of scientology, ex members that used to be in power, current believers of scientology and ex believers so we got all views that would make negative perceptions about scientology. Even when there is positive interviews or clips about scientology, the presenter has a voiceover the top that contradicts everything they say.

Historically, this documentary shows the history of scientology in clips with the voiceover explaining various facts and opinions about how the religion came into existence. There is a good montage of clips and if we were to try and create a documentary about Jedisim then this is similar to how I would do it. Music is also a key part to this documentary and they have designed it well to create emotive visual representation and they both linked well. A great example is when they interview the family that used to be believers of scientology but left it and they play sad orchestral music as if they are recalling a sad part of their life. Its very powerful and influential documentary making and could also be considered a form of propaganda to try and convince the audience that scientology is wrong and no one should believe it.

These all could be considered positives in documentary form but in terms of the documentary I would be making, it is a bad example of what we would create. As explained before, ours would be an observational mode documentary focusing more on the life of a Jedi and research into the actual religion of Jedism rather than trying to exploit the whole thing and ridicule it. In terms of visual and sound, then this would be more of the things that we would concentrate on when making this documentary. 

3. Adrenaline Fix

The life of an adrenalin junkie would be an very interesting life to gain an insight into. Constant excitement and constant danger with their life in risk everytime they suit themselves up. Again, this type of life I find fascinating and it would be very interesting find out why they do this and if they are ever worried about the danger and risk involved. So if we were to make a documentary about this then it would be observational just like my second idea about Jedism following the life of an adrenaline junkie and see how they live out their normal life and what injuries have been sustained in the past. Preferably, we would hopefully contact a person who is a family man as well as an adrenaline junkie. This way we would be able to get the view of the family and their views on the matter and maybe be able to get a conflict to get the opposing view much more closer to home. 

This documentary idea would be quite simple to organise as we just have to find the subject and get permission to follow him around for a period of time. Depending on what kind of stunts they do (whether free fall or organised events) then we would have gain permission to film at these events by the organisers themselves. Obviously as with most documentaries, a lot of the content we film depends on the reliability of the subject and whether they would drop out halfway through filming and so on. Budget would obviously be another issue as we would have to live with them for a period of time so we would have to budget ourselves carefully. But I am confident that we would be able to work around these problems and create a good documentary documenting the life of a adrenaline junkie. 

Research:

The Rule of Insanity: The Story of an Adrenaline Junkie (http://vimeo.com/24881381)  

This documentary runs for about 13 minutes and there are some positives and negatives to come from this piece. This follows the life of one specific adrenaline junkie and concentrates more on the life story that this person has gone through within context to his adrenaline physical feats. First off, the story this documentary goes through and the message it eventually evokes is really good as we as the audience feel a sense of beginning, middle and end. While the content seems a bit linear, for the length of the documentary and the point, not much else was needed. 

However, technically it was not that impressive. Some of the shots seemed quite amateur with the framing all wrong and the zooms were not smooth and were too start and stop. There was not a wide range of shots used either and there was no play with focus and it all just seemed like no one really cared about that, just to capture the moment. The texts that appeared in between the footage seemed a bit out of place and slowed down the pace of the documentary. If they wanted these inserts of text (as they did contain vital parts of the story) then some music could of been put over them to help carry some of the emotion of the situation across to the audience. Alternatively, they could of scrapped the text altogether and used a 'voice of God' narration. Either way, both these techniques would of improved these sections a good deal. On the subject of music, the documentary seemed quite empty of it. The only parts that did include was the beginning and the end but the whole middle with these breaks of text in the middle just seemed a bit odd and out of place.

If we were to create this documentary then it would be vital to have a situation to document an adrenaline junkie that has a kind of conflict between his family about the  situation considering that he did sustain serious injuries from this subject. An overall message at the end of the documentary that even with a disability, everyone should try and do what they want and do not let these things get in your way as an excuse might be vital as well. Two things that 'The Rules of Insanity...' did very well but we would shoot this technically better and edit it so that the audience feel more involved in the story and the people on screen. 

4. Kung Fu Fighting 

This documentary idea that I came up with would be following a subject as they start Kung Fu training and the spirituality of the culture. In terms of the subject, it would probably be one of the production crew and I would volunteer myself to do this. The culture has always interested me and to be able to protect myself but only to use it to defend and not harm people is something I have looked into before. This documentary would be following the journey of the subject as they learn the culture and style of fighting and the hardships and struggle he goes through. The ending would be him entering a Kung Fu competition to test his skills against the rest of the beginners as the documentary builds itself up to that point to see the evolution of the person. It would be expository mode as we follow the subject with voice of god technique and look into his past and what made him take this up, his present situation and where he sees taking Kung Fu will do to him for the future. 

When contacting people, if I were to be the subject then there would be no problem with me dropping out and my family and friends will all be willing to help as well. The only problem can could arrise is contacting the Martial Arts school and if they would be happy to let us film there for a period of time over semester 2. We would also have to get permission from the competition but everything else should be fine and this would be a very easy documentary to shoot in terms of availability. 

Pinfall: A Professional Wrestling Documentary

 I think it is pretty obvious that 'Pinfall' was a huge influence with this idea. The structure and overall story this documentary tells is exactly how I envisage this idea being. The one outstanding element that shines from this documentary is the journey the subject goes through to reach the goal at the end. It shows the beginnings and how he changed his diet, his workout regime and the training he went through. They got the right interviews, it paced very well and satisfied the audience with a resolved ending. While there are definitely more similarities rather than differences, there are certain things that we would have different. With Kung Fu and learning the style of the art, we would also concentrate on the spirituality side of it and study the culture and keeping your mind pure. This would mean taking part in meditation and cleansing the body and doing everything that the normal trainees and masters do. This would also show (like Pinfall) how difficult it is to become a full Martial arts master. Anyone interested in Kung Fu would like to watch this documentary just like anyone that is interested in professional wrestling would be interested in watching 'Pinfall'.