Generic research: TA3- Best of British- Barbara Windsor

I chose this documentary as it is looking back in time just as my documentary will, and looks very personally into Barbara Windsor's life. I plan to make my documentary quite personal too.

Planning: shot list

From my rough plan for the contents of my documentary, I started to realise what shots I would need and visualising them in my head, so I created a shot list to be able to film my documentary more efficiently and save time having to go back to different locations unnecessarily. My shot list is not very detailed as I have not chosen the exact location for these scenes to be filmed, but I do know roughly where I would like them to be filmed. This also helped me create my storyboard for my documentary.

Planning: mindmap of my documentary

To start planning the details of my documentary, I made a mindmap of characteristics that I wanted my documentary to have. The characteristics I have listed are:
1. Smooth camera movements
2. Relaxed, informal interviews.
3. Narration over visual clips.
4. Personal.
5. Each development of a component and addressing the people should be about 45 seconds.
6. Landscape shots to illustrate a change of location.
7. End on a rhetorical question- how different will life be for teenagers 10, 20, 30 years from now?

From making this plan, I started to have an idea of how my documentary will be planned out and what it would look like. This will be further detailed in my storyboard. I plan to have four aspects of technology covered in my documentary; Internet (including social media), TV, music (as an influence on social aspects), and  DVDs+CDs+tapes as an evolving physical piece of technology. I have highlighted the aspects in my rough plan as they can move around in terms of what order I put them in, because this plan is only rough and in note form.

Generic research: technology and teenagers

I found a blog ran by college students that is about how technology has impacted teenager's lives and the positives and negatives of technology on teenagers nowadays. I learnt the following things from this blog, specifically the impact of the internet on teenagers.

1. Teenagers can become addicted to the internet, and with further research I found that the addiction has physiological symptoms upon withdrawal. Internet addiction is formally called internet addiction disorder.

2. Students can complete online education programs, some even allow students to complete their degree earlier.

3. A positive about easy internet access for teenagers is easily accessible job applications, and jobs can help improve their skills and develop independence and time management skills.

4. A point that has both advantages and disadvantages is communication across the internet. The advantage to this is that teenagers are becoming more social and widening their social group due to being able to communicate with friends 24/7. An example of this was in a documentary I textually analysed called "Child Of Our Time", which looked at how technology impacted teenagers they had studied for their entire lives. One female teenager called Mabel had always been antisocial and did not have many friends at a young age. However, at 16 she had a wide social group and was always communicating with her friends via her phone and in real life. It improved her social life greatly. Unfortunately, being able to widely communicate with people all over the world is that some people are victims of cyber bullying and internet crimes involving money and other situations. This is incredibly dangerous, especially for young people who are not aware of the dangers. Teenagers can especially be harmed by this as they are often vulnerable or may be unaware of problems that can arise from sharing details online.

5. A negative of the quickly evolving internet is instant messaging, which leads users of instant messaging to create slang words and abbreviate words. This can also lead to bad grammar and improper use of certain words.

Generic research: TA2 - Child of our time

I chose this documentary to analyse because its topic is similar to mine, so I can see how this topic was approached by another documentary maker, and see what aspects of this topic were covered.

In conclusion, this documentary has lots of conventions that are traditional to documentaries and I will be following these conventions in my documentary, such as panning shots, landscape shots and interviews.

Generic research: teenagers interacting with internet in 2017

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/screenagers-documentary-examines-impact-screens-tech-kids-development/story?id=36703516

This news article is about a documentary called 'screenagers', and talks about how teenagers during the 21st century struggle to be without their phones. I searched for this documentary and found the website for the documentary  .
This is an expository documentary as the documentary maker is seen and heard, as well as being shown as an expert in their field (the documentary maker is a physician).

Generic research: Bill Nichols

Bill Nichols: 6 modes of documentary
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling
This article explains what Nichols' theory is and what the 6 modes are.
The 6 modes are:


1. Poetic- Does not use continuity editing, instead arranges the footage to evoke meaning through tone and sound.
e.g.

2. Expository- constructs a certain point of view for the audience.
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3. Participatory- the subjects interact with the filmmakers via interview and other forms.
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4. Observational- uninterrupted filming.
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5. Reflexive- relationship between the filmmaker and the audience, as opposed to the subjects and the audience.
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6. Performative- a personified view over the lens, the audience seeing the topic from a subjective type of view.
e.g.

Generic research: development of technology timeline

To make a documentary on the evolution of technology and its effect on teenagers now compared to 30-40 years ago, I need to know when impactful pieces of technology were developed.

VHS: early 1977
CD's: 1982
DVDs: 1995
YouTube: 2005/2006
iPhone: 2007
Kindle: 2007
Spotify: 2008
Social Media:
- Facebook- 2004
- Twitter - 2006
- Instagram - 2010
- Snapchat - 2011

Generic research: TA1 of 19 kids and counting

TA1 19 kids and counting. from Pernille Brown

This documentary is one of my biggest influences in terms of documentary styles and techniques, due to its mode of documentary and narrative mode. I also like how shots of the location help move the program into the next scene.

Audience research: focus group

Target audience-

I have chosen a few people that are teenagers, and a few that were teenagers during the time period that I will be focusing on in my documentary, probably the 70's and 80's, possibly the 90's.

Ella Chapman- Media student at sixth form
                      - Uses technology everyday, including her phone and macbook.
                      -  Mainly uses technology for schoolwork, but uses her phone daily for social media and messaging friends and family.

Katie Pearl - Media student at sixth form

                   - Familiar with a range of technical devices and uses technology frequently.
                  - Mainly uses her laptop and phone to play music and watch tv on, plus to complete school work.

Paul Brown- Was a teenager during the 70s and 80's

                   - Not familiar with technology and struggles to use new devices such as iPhones.
                   - Only uses his phone to call family members, mainly uses his iPod classic to listen to music from CDs.

Paula Harrison: - Was a teenager during the 70's and 80's
                          - Familiar with some technology like iMacs but not completely confident with technology such as iPhones etc.
                         - Used to use her laptop for work, but now uses her phone and laptop for leisure.

Generic research: defining modes of documentary and hybrid genres

1: Expository conventions
- Voiceover addresses the audience directly.
- The narrator may be heard but not seen, or may be seen and heard, shown as an expert in their field.
- Editing is used for continuity.
- Attempts to persuade the audience a particular point of view, often by appealing to logic and the idea of a common-sense response.
- A variety of footage, interviews, stills, and archive material is assembled to support the argument.

2 Observational conventions
-  Location shooting- hand held cameras.
- Long takes dominate.
- Synchronous sound recording.
- No voiceovers.
- No interviews.
- Documentary's maker's presence hidden.
- Subjects pretend that they are not being filmed.

3 Participatory or interactive conventions
- Documentary maker/crew interact with the subject.
- Interviews dominate but tend to be informal.
- Long takes dominate.
- Voiceover, usually by the documentary maker.

The term 'popular factual programming' is a way of referring to the new television formats that combine elements from several genres such as soaps and game shows, making these documentaries hybrid genres.
An example of a hybrid genre show is 'Location, Location, Location' which has elements of games shows, in which correct actions leading to successful endings, but also has characteristics of soaps, as drama between the hosts or the families being shown around make the show entertaining to watch. However, it does differ from most British soaps because most soaps focus on working class people, whereas 'Location, Location, Location' mainly stars middle class people.

Generic research: writing a treatment

Writing a treatment - A2 media documentary (1) from Pernille Brown

http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/portuges/papers/How_to_write_a_documentary_treatment.pdf
This is a website link we were given to aid us in writing a treatment for our documentaries.

Planning: Second proposal

While I was trying to think of more detail to add to my previous idea, I came up with another topic to create a documentary about. I am fascinated with the proliferation of technology, and I focused on technology's impact on teenagers 40 years ago compared to today as I am a teenager and I am familiar with technology, and aware of how much it has impacted my generation. I created this proposal on this idea, but it is yet to be approved or rejected.