3.1 Final Storyboard Design

Final Storyboard 

This is this the final storyboard, that we will use to plan our production and to help us in being a guide to what we need to film.

Scene 1 – Interview clip

This will be a short clip of an interview with local MP Christopher Pincher. We will ask him questions about the topic of the HS2 and if it will have any effect on the local area. We are hoping we can use a bit of the interview to make the audience watch until that scene as it is what most conventional documentary's do.

Shots – We will be using 2 types of shot for this interview. A Two Shot, which will capture the interview and Christopher Pincher in the same shot and we are using a shot reverse shot, so that when either CP or the interviewer are talking, the camera can be on them.

Scene 2 – Introduction Graphic

The introduction graphic will consist of a 3D graphic of the UK and the HS2 smashing through houses with bags of money flying out. This introduction is a representation of what other people think of the idea of the HS2.  This will be created using the After Affects software.

Shots – For this graphic to work we will need a long shot of a bridge so the train will be able to go across it using green screen and after affects.

Scene 3 – Intro To the HS2

This will be a selection of different facts about the HS2 and will keep resorting back to the theme of Local and how the HS2 will effect Tamworth.

Shots – ( Mainly establishing shots of Tamworth.) mainly the castle, the shopping centre And the houses as the HS2 will be destroying houses.

Scene 4 – Voxpop section

This will be with different people of the local area as we want a varied opinion of the HS2. We will ask a range of different people who even aren't are target audience.

Shots- these shots would normally consist of two shots mainly with the interviewer and the interviewee.

Extra – We will also be using a mini microphone so in case the sound quality is not all that great we have a backup. 

Scene 5 – The route graphic

We are interested in looking at what route the HS2 will take a showing our audience where it will go in the area near Tamworth. Or we will show where it will go in the Uk.

Edit – We will make this graphic on Adobe after affects

Also during this effect there will be a voice over telling the audience about the route and extra information (maybe about Tamworth). 

Scene 6

This will be a focus on the local area and what the HS2 will do and how it will change the area, More jobs less jobs, More houses, less houses etc..

Shots – this will include techniques like focus pulls, so that the audience can focus on the problems that the HS2 might bring to houses  so that means the focus pull can empathise that.

-Talk about during route graphic

- Add question 3 in here ( From VoxPop )

Scene 7– Ending graphic – After the break.

This will include a scene showing the interview with CP as a reminder for the audience to watch after the break.

Other ideas that may or may not be implemented in the documentary 

Maybe – Add archive footage of old trains, - Also we are going to discuss “ A brief history of Britain's railway line”

Edit – Needs Discussion.

Packington Moor Farm

- Talk about the problems with HS2 and why its closed down.

Untitled Scene

-Go to golf club and play golf

-Talk about the Whittington Golf club

-( Find Out More Information )

-Maybe Ask for the interview.

-This could be in the Route Graphic

Images of the Storyboard:

2.6 Filming Location Planning

Filming Locations 

For our documentary we will mainly be filming in our local town of Tamworth. This is mainly because the town links with the HS2 quite a lot.  Within Tamworth we will be filming:

Tamworth Town Centre

We believe that if the documentary is going to be about what Tamworth thinks about the HS2 and how its going to affect the town, we will need some footage of town. In this case we were thinking of capturing the main aspects of Tamworth such as the Robert peel statue in the picture above, as well as the picturesque main road that is the main hub of Tamworth's community. We will also be walking around Tamworth to see what other things we can film on the day. 

The type of shots that we are planning to get will manly be still shots and the occasional pan as documentaries only use basic shots as it is mostly the voice over that guides the viewer through the documentary. This is not to say we will be only doing those shots, we are going to try and go against the codes and conventions of the camera shots documentaries by doing zooms and maybe a dutch tilt, if it is suitable.

Tame Valley Wetlands 

When looking on Google maps for a good place with lots of green, and that was still in reach, the Tame Valley showed up and we believe that it is a great representation of the wildlife and plant life, that will be torn down to make way for the HS2. So hopefully on the day we film the wetlands will look as good as this so then we will be able to get some great pans going across the lake. 

Tamworth Train Station 

Now, The train station. Most of the films shots will be shot from here as the documentary is about the HS2 and since the HS2 has not been built yet we need to use the old trains that are still running to represent the HS2 to our audience. But enough though we need to get a lot of train shots, we need the actual station itself to represent, train times for example or when we speak about how many seat the HS2 will have we will record people who are sat down on the train. 

Ventura Park 

Ventura park will be involved in the film when speaking about prices and business as this is where business thrives. Also this makes Ventura park very, very busy which is also a good thing. This means we can record traffic which is good as it can go into the film when mentioning about the environment and how the HS2 can stop congestion in major cities across the UK. 

Tamworth Sixth Form     

One of the key scenes of the whole documentary will be filmed at the sixth form, the interview with an expert scene. Luckily Christopher Pitcher was nice enough to come to us to film the interview. Also any other last minute shots will be shot here or in the Tamworth Town centre as it is a short walk away. Also the Voice over will be recorded here, even though we won't need a camera. 

2.5 The Pitch

The Pitch

This is the pitch that we gave our class to show them what we had come up with after a few months of researching and planning. We also gave the class a presentation to look through, using the presentation software, Prezi.

This is an extended version of what is on the Presentation.

For our advanced portfolio in Media, we decided to create an extract of a documentary, a double page spread from listings magazine focused on the documentary and a newspaper advertisement for the documentary. Our extract of a documentary will be based on HS2 (High Speed Rail 2), the latest proposed improvement in rail infrastructure. Having researched around the HS2, weighing up the pros and cons, we decided to go for the title as HS2: A White Elephant?.

This is because this title isn't biased and is using a literary technique called rhetorical question to get the audience to think about the HS2 before and while they watch it.

We believe a documentary about the HS2 would suit Channel 4. The reason that we would show this documentary on channel 4 is that they show many similar documentaries like Trump: The American Dream' and Coalition. These documentaries are very similar to ours and proves that politic/factual documentaries can be shown on the channel. Also, we believe that if it was shown on channel 4 it would get a greater audience view count than if it was shown on Sky One because most people have access to channel 4 as Sky One isn't part of the standard Free view package whereas channel 4 is.

But why wouldn’t we show it on the BBC? Although the BBC host big documentaries such as David Attenborough’s view breaker, “Blue Planet 2”, we don’t think that it would be a good host to political/factual documentaries as the audience is slightly to old overall and that doesn’t match our target audience which is formally 16-35 years old. We believe the younger generation need to be kept up to date with current affairs. Furthermore, the BBC is under Royal Charter so the corporation has to remain unbiased on political views and as HS2 is largely a political issue, we wouldn't broadcast this on BBC.

Our main product is a political documentary as HS2 is regarded as a political issue. The type of documentary ours will be is in Bill Nichols’ expository mode. This is because it features many of the characteristics devised into to that category. The documentary will feature a 'voice of God' who will control the narrative and will explain what HS2 is, the route it will take, the pros and cons and how it will affect our local area. We will use facts and figures about HS2 to form an argument for both sides. Moreover our extract will feature an interview with a politician on HS2 to get his views. Finally our extract of documentary will inform people about HS2 and educate to help form an opinion on the matter.

In terms of style, our extract will feature linear and logical narrative structure. At the beginning of the extract, we will tell them what exactly HS2 stands for and what it is in case the audience do not know what it is. In the middle of the extract, we will talk about the pros and cons of HS2 as now they have a understanding of what HS2 is. By the end of the extract, the audience will have made up their minds on HS2, if they're for or against it. Our extract will feature many graphics so that information can be broken down into smaller pieces and understood better. As well as this, text will feature a lot in our extract to label important people and places. The extract may feature archived footage to show the HS2 route or show protests about HS2. The editing will be simple but effective. We will enhance the shots we take with colour correction tools on Adobe Premiere Pro, we will include exponential fades on the audio, straight cuts & cross dissolves between clips. We will try create aesthetic montages when editing so that the mise en scene and cinematography looks excellent.

The Presentation Document link:

https://prezi.com/p/yqrkhkzj7xz3/ 

Or Below are screenshots of the media pitch we gave to the class:

2.4 Documentary Examples

Documentary Examples

The Russian Revolution is a historical documentary about the battle between the royal Romanovs and Lenin's Ulyanov family lead to the Russian Revolution which was fuelled by the hanging of his brother due to terroristic acts he committed. This documentary was written and directed by Cal Seville and is available on the online streaming site Netflix.

The documentary begins with archived footage of a church bell being destroyed and pictures of Jesus being burned. This symbolizes how Christianity was being persecuted during the Russian revolution. The director, Seville uses archived footage to give historical knowledge to the audience about the revolution. Accompanying the archived footage, there is a voice-over, commentating and narrating the story of the revolution. Furthermore, the authoritative voice-over persuades the viewers that the narrator has specialist knowledge on the subject. The documentary includes many interviews of authors that have written about the Soviet Union, Lenin & Stalin. The interviews with experts tells the audience that the information being presented has been researched and authenticated. Text accompanies the interview in the bottom left hand corner, illustrating to the viewers who the interviewee is and their occupation.

In terms of editing, the editor has used many J-cuts where the sound of 2nd clip is heard whilst the 1st clip is playing. It allows the audience to get a feel and better understanding of the environment. Between each shot, the editor has gone for straight cuts instead of using effects to give a serious tone to the documentary. This shows that it can hit a certain type of audience, which i believe is and older type of audience around 40+ and mostly can be watched by men, mainly in the ABC1 social class.

Exploring the historical type of documentary, we decided that this type of documentary would be hard to obtain footage with our given resources, time and money. In addition, historical documentaries rely upon lots of archived footage and the specification only allows 20 seconds worth of archived footage therefore we would not be able to create an extract of a historical documentary.

Rooney: The Man Behind The Goals

Rooney: The Man Behind The Goals is a 2015 BBC documentary about England's all-time top goalscorer. Wayne Rooney has given cameraman unique access to his home and personal life for the first time. The title suggests that the documentary is going to explore Rooney's personal life and how it affects him as a footballer. This documentary is in the mode of Bill Nichols' participatory as the filmmaker (Gary Lineker) and the subject (Wayne Rooney) interact and allow Lineker to address people in the documentary rather than comment on Rooney's life.

The documentary begins with a horizontal tracking shot from a car of football pitches. This suggests that these were the pitches that Rooney used to play on when he was child, since this documentary is about the story of how Rooney got to where he is today. The filmmaker then uses a cutaway to archived footage of Rooney playing for England then back to the tracking shot. The editors may have incorporated this to show how far Rooney has come from playing on a Sunday League pitch when he was a child. Furthermore, archived footage can give a historical knowledge to viewers who un-knowledgeable on the subject. The editor then uses a 'J cut' where the sound of cameras taking pictures scene is heard before the actual scene. This gives viewers a better understanding of the environment that Rooney lives in. J cuts and L cuts are used often in documentary film making.

The director uses the hook technique to make the viewers watch the whole documentary. The hook in this documentary is snippets of interviews with former teammates, managers and opponents such as Cristiano Ronaldo. By using these superstars and former managers, viewers will want to know what they say about Rooney.

This documentary has been made to honour a great footballer and has some sub-messages within the documentary such as hard work gets rewards. Furthermore, the documentary is trying to communicate with audience to inspire them; whether the audience is child wanting to become a footballer to an adult wanting to do better for themselves. So if we were to make a similar documentary we would have the right audience but i don't think we could create this type of documentary which has a rather large budget. although if we did it wouldn't be the best.

Banking on Bitcoin

Banking on Bitcoin is a documentary which appears on the online streaming site, Netflix. The documentary Banking on Bitcoin covers all basis’ from its roots to its future as a cryptocurrency. The title of the documentary is an example of play on words as it suggests Bitcoin is the last resort of monetary systems because the existing ones are failing. This documentary is directed by Christopher Cannucciari and is on Netflix.

The documentary begins with a complete black screen, with an upbeat soundtrack playing in the background and fades into a handheld shot of a man getting out a elevator. The handheld shot is documentary convention and gives a sense of realism as if you were there. The screen fades to black and titles of the director slide in then straight cuts. A tracking shot is used to follow the man out, opening the door of the building to exit the building, entering the public eye. By shooting the clip of him opening the door, it can be seen as a metaphor for bringing Bitcoin into the open. The cameraman continues to follow the man using a tracking shot and zooms into his ankle when he talks about his ankle tag, this immediately tells the audience that the man in question is a criminal out on bail. Titles come up naming the man and his occupation, the man is called Charlie Shrem and he is the CEO and cofounder of BITINSTANT. This suggests that his crime is most likely money related like tax evading as many rich people have been caught via the Paradise papers rather than violence related.

The next scene begins with an animation showing how the exchange of 1 Bitcoin to dollars has dramatically increased in 4 years. An animation is a common convention in documentaries to explain a topic simply and quickly. Also, this animation emphasises how far the cryptocurrency has come since it was created. A timeline animation succeeds this animation. This suggests to the audience that the documentary is going to follow a chronological order and pick up on the most important parts of Bitcoin’s history until the present day.

Cannucciari uses archived footage from a news television station about the Wall Street crash/08/09 global recession. Archived footage is used by directors to add historical knowledge to the given subject. The directors have used this archived footage to suggest to the audience that the current monetary system is a failure and potentially foreshadows how Bitcoin can help overcome the problems. Following the archived footage, a voiceover is played over the top of cinematic shots of Wall Street, protesters of capitalism and fumes, talking about the global recession. Voiceovers are usually authoritative and are used to make viewers think that voiceover has specialist knowledge on the subject. The cinematic/slow motion shots and the focus pulls may be used to suggest that capitalism is failing and new system is ready to takeover. A background sound track is playing; the tempo starts slow and begins increase. The fast tempo has connotations of hope, further suggesting something positive is about to succeed. A low angle slow motion shot is used when a man is posting question about why governments control central banks, a close up of a different man talking about the government’s stance on innovation followed by a medium shot of a man talking about how it is a monetary revolution. The direct speech from these members of the public are suggesting Bitcoin is the answer to the problems of the current monetary system. The low angle shot is used to make the subject in this case the man powerful, authoritarian and important suggesting he has specialist knowledge on the subject. The mise en scene in the close shot has the sun rising, the connotations of the sun rising is hope further suggesting Bitcoin is the answer to the current monetary system.

This documentary is in Bill Nichols’ mode of expository because it uses facts and figures to present an idea and uses interviews with experts to consolidate the idea. The meaning of the documentary is to inform the audience of the presence of Bitcoin and what it is to persuade the audience that Bitcoin is the answer to monetary policies.

We could make this type of documentary as it focuses on a particular topic and gives the audience an introduction on a quite modern topic, which is difficult to understand so, it can be quite similar to our own documentary as this is what we are trying to achieve in our own documentary

2.3 Script Draft 1

Script Draft 1

This is the first step in making our documentary a expository documentary. This script will

be for the voice over for the documentary. In Which Dan will provide the vocals for.

Scene 1: Intro

Interview with Christopher Pincher the MP for Tamworth

Scene 2: Intro Graphic

No voice over needed

Scene 3: Info about HS2

Camera – A Range of different Camera Shots in the town of Tamworth and shots of different trains. Types of shot: Pan, Establishing

“The Hs2, Britain's Answer to a rail system that challenges locomotives like the Japanese bullet train and Elon Musk's supersonic train. Or could this be the rail that Breaks Britain.”

“The High Speed Rail, is the long awaited improvement to British railways linking London to Birmingham in phase 1 and in phase 2 it links Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds. This is the second high speed rail after HS1, that links London to the channel tunnel.  (Film a moving train, Film train station logo.)

The HS2 project will cost at least £56 billion. Work on the first phase begins at the end of the year and will arrive in Birmingham by at least 2026, so that’s almost 9 years, if it manages to maintain its building schedule.

(Film Builders? Or construction site? And close up Handing over money?

HS2 Ltd say this is not just about delivering a new railway but providing huge economic, social and environmental benefits to the UK. The government assumes that the fares structure will be in line with that of the existing line and HS2 could generate sufficient demand and revenue without needing to charge premium prices. It estimates total fare revenues of up to £34 million over a sixty year period.

One of the government’s goal is to stop congestion in major cities, like Birmingham and London and want the HS2 to reduce this. The HS2 will have around 1100 seats per train and will be carrying an estimated 26,000 people per hour. Furthermore the journey time from Birmingham to London will be reduced from 1hr 21mins to just 49mins due to the operating speeds of up to 250mph that surpass any other conventional trains at this current time. (Film traffic, on train or people or even a train station).

Ministers also claim the London-West Midlands section alone will create around 40,000 jobs However this could all sound too good to be true as HS2 protesters, Stop HS2, say that (Film the house by Tayte’s) The midlands would actually lose out to London on the job front as they would claim 70% of the 40,000 jobs created around the HS2 Stations. Some protesters suggest we should renationalise and update the current rail infrastructure. (Maybe having archive footage of Stop HS2 campaign when this is said.)

“The HS2 has many advantages, however equally it also has many Disadvantages”

“For Example”

Scene 4: Voxpop

In this scene, we will ask questions to the general public in Tamworth about their opinion of HS2 from a question bank.

Question 1

What do you think of HS2?

Question 2

If you had one word or phrase to describe HS2, what would it be?

Question 3

Do you think the local area will change?

Question 4

Do you think HS2 should be a priority or do you think the government should focus on sorting the NHS or Brexit?

Question 5

Do you think HS2 will be affordable or is it for the middle/upper class?

Question 6

When/If the HS2 is constructed how much would you think that a one-way ticket form Birmingham to London would cost?

Scene 5: The route graphic

Dan - The route will begin in London and go straight up to Birmingham cutting through a lot of picturesque countryside and towns

During the making of the rail many different sized businesses will be affected like Whittington golf club, but we will discuss that certain topic later.

The HS2 will race through the countryside going past many towns and hamlets like, Buckingham and Banbury respectively. The line then starts moving onwards towards Birmingham travelling near towns such as Leamington Spa, Marston Green and Coleshill before cutting across and reaching its first proposed stop in Birmingham. On the left leg of the ‘Y’ shaped project the line will run towards Manchester, the track cuts through Middleton, Whittington and Lichfield. Then on the right leg of ‘Y’ shape the train line travels towards Leeds as it runs parallel with m42 near Tamworth. (Add shot of M42 near STOP HS2 house.)

Earlier we mentioned Whittington golf club which is one of the businesses affected by the HS2 in a major way. The line runs straight through the clubhouse destroying a number of holes along the way. Although a number of holes are going to be destroyed the golf club is doing everything it can to preserve its 130 year history, and fortunately with extra funding can now remake the missing historic holes that are going to be demolished by the HS2.

(Add shots of the golf club holes, us playing golf. Archive footage of the holes that will be gone.)

Scene 6: Local Area

Film shots such as Tamworth Castle, Ventura Park, Tamworth Market

How it will effect Tamworth.

Now, our hometown, Tamworth. As we already know the HS2 is not directly stopping in the Tamworth area. The closest it will stop will be in Birmingham. But that does not mean that it is going to Affect Tamworth in a major way. Firstly Tamworth, mainly residents living in the Wilnecote, Hockley area will gather a lot of noise pollution as the HS2 is running directly across the A5 dual carriage way. This is going to bother a lot of new residents who have recently moved to the new houses in that area not just the noise pollution it is also going to be a lot of visual pollution;, and there are even signs of residents not wanting the HS2 at all, (Show STOP HS2 house).

Scene 7: CP

Insert clip of Christopher Pincher

To finish off on the first part of the documentary here is an interview with the Tamworth MP Christopher Pincher.

As this is only the First Completed drafts It wont be quite perfect but hopefully in the coming weeks a

final product will come and be better.