1.7 Topic Research

Topic Research 

As we have now decided that we are going to make a political documentary about HS2, we needed to find out some more information about our topic to make sure we know enough to make a 5 min introduction to the documentary.

As the HS2 is a fairly decisive topic we decided that the documentary needed to be biased, also this followed the conventions of a expository documentary. So this meant we needed pros and cons of the HS2 to make it biased.

To find the information we decided to use the internet and certain websites. The first website we came across was "Economicshelp.org" which had a list of the pros and cons of the HS2. But we didn't want to copy them all so we took a few of the ideas for example:

• Work on the first phase is scheduled to begin in 2017, reaching Birmingham by 2026, Crewe on the left leg by 2027, and fully completed by 2033.
• Butterflies, bats and birds. The Wildlife Trusts say both phases directly affect nature reserves and wildlife sites which could lead to a net loss in biodiversity.

We also used local newspaper / Web , Birmingham Mail , to find out if the HS2 was affecting the local area. After a long search we eventually found a article on the closure of Packington Moor Farm.

Packington Moor Farm was based near Lichfield and as you can see from this picture the HS2 is going to cut straight through Packington moor farm.  So as we found this we imagined there could be more of a local impact. 

We found out via Tamworth Informed that the HS2 will be running parallel to the A5 which is right by houses near Wilnecote, which just happens to be 5 mins from my house. So we all this information we thought about not just focuses on the HS2 as a whole, but maybe adding a more local element into the film, basing the film on what Tamworth think and how the HS2 will effect Tamworth. 

We also used YouTube as a source too, i found a good source of one of the Stop HS2 groups videos which showed us how much people do not want the HS2:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LCqXLVSKqQ 

However the HS2 is not all bad according to the Government, as we found these positive points:

• The line will be used intensively with 15 trains per hour travelling to and from Euston.
• The initial plan is for a new railway line between London and the West Midlands carrying 400m-long trains with as many as 1,100 seats per train.
• They would operate at speeds of up to 250mph - faster than any current operating speed in Europe - and would run as often as 14 times per hour in each direction.
• The first phase of the £56bn railway is due to open in December 2026, with trains to travel at high speed between London and Birmingham before continuing on the existing West Coast Main Line
• The Department for Transport says the project will cut Birmingham-London journey times from 1hr 21min to 49min
• HS2 will create around 25,000 jobs and fuel economic benefits worth over £103 billion to the UK.