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media304-blog · 4 years

Text

Proposal

Concept

‘Around the World in Six Months’ is about exploring the different experiences individuals have had during the Covid-19 Pandemic and lock down. Having participants from all over the world such as England, China, Melbourne and New Zealand we are able to explore the impact Covid-19 has had throughout the world. Focusing on individuals' experiences, our documentary will also draw content from archival news footage as we will be able to highlight real time ways each country handled the outbreak.

Ultimately we want to focus on people’s personal experiences during the lock downs and how the outbreak has impacted their livelihoods, mental health and how they have adapted to the ‘new norm’. ‘Social connection is essential to every aspect of our health.’ (South University, 2018) Due to the high pressure environment society is under to keep everyone’s physical health safe and stop the spread by placing countries in Lock down the impact of stress, fear and anxiety is on the upraise due to the unpredictable times society is in. During interviews with each interviewee we will focus on personal experiences of this time drawing from key focus questions:

Firstly an introduction of themselves and the country they’re in.

What was your experience of lock down like?

Has social isolation had an impact on your Mental Health?

How have you adapted to the ‘New Norm’?

What did you do to fill in your time?

Research

We will be using an expository mode of film making to create our documentary. Our interviews will allow people to tell their stories, which we will back up with news footage. The inspiration for the film is to show how bad COVID-19 is and compare countries such as England, China, and Australia. We are aiming to expose the differences around the world, to make it clear how it is affecting the world. One example of an expository documentary is ‘The Dust Bowl’ directed by Ken Burns (2012). This mode is used by interviewing people who have lived through The Great Depression, whilst using footage and photography to back up the interviews. This is a good example of what we are trying to do with our film, because we are also going to interview people who have gone through or are going through a major event. Another documentary that uses an expository mode is ‘Nanook of the North’ directed by Robert J. Flaherty (1922). This film uses text narration as the ‘voice of god’ to expose the subject. This is the inspiration for using text narration in our documentary, to summaries our findings at the end. As well as using text narration for some parts, we are also going to use a voice over as our ‘voice of god’ throughout the film.

Treatment

Introduction:

Each scene will be fairly similar in terms of the positioning of the interviewee. Due to the restrictions of Covid-19 the control will ideally be handed over to the interviewee who will then be interviewed via video-call and positioned in a stance where they see fits best in the environment they are in. Each scene will be split up between the focus questioned below across the three interviewees;

Firstly an introduction of themselves and the country they’re in.

What was your experience of lockdown like?

Has social isolation had an impact on your Mental Health?

How have you adapted to the ‘New Norm’?

What did you do to fill in your time?

Each scene will consist of:

The participants: Who have been affected by covid in four parts of the world; New Zealand, Australia, England and China. They will be sitting in a location of their choice and use a device they have available. Ideally, would prefer a laptop or computer to accomplish a stable mid-shot however will leave this to their discretion. The interview will be conducted in an informal setting allowing the participants to feel comfortable. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic intimate details could be shared. Hence the reason for the informal setting.

Camera techniques:

Depending on the device the interviewee has any special effects or animation will have to be done in post-production as mentioned in the introduction of the treatment camera techniques is restricted and we will have to tidy any imperfections in post.

Framing:

Lighting: We strongly feel that the lighting will be out of our control therefore any glitches or preventative measures we can put in place would be our utmost priority to make post- production a little smoother.

If this can be achieved the participant will sit in a room with natural lighting and ensure the participant has positioned the device in view of their mid facing the light opposed to the camera facing it.

Sound: Due to the nature of this topic background music or emphasised music during the interview will be an inappropriate selection however with the opening scene; a voice over of the prime ministers in these respected countries will be played from their covid updates. The sound of paparazzi lights will assist this followed by new reporters during this pandemic. This will intentionally be in order of the interviewees to allow the audience to experience these countries at the same time introducing where they come from.

Editing approach: We intend to approach the edit in capturing the raw details of the information shared; at the same time structure how the pandemic had similarities between the countries showcasing the covid reports, asking the same questions and capturing the emotions that some of them have encountered.

The editing we will be doing in post production will be transitioning from one interviewee to the other. The opening scene will consist of news reports in a collage form placed freely one at a time in a shape of the world map.

The voice over will be played one at a time with photographic flashes used as a transition between the voices and the pins that will be placed to pinpoint the countries we will be visiting via video calling. We will showcase the diversity of the participants by displaying either their flag or language used from the respective countries followed by an animated pane travelling from one pinto the other.

Rolling credits will consist of photographic images from these countries that will be supplied by the participants to showcase their struggles they encountered or how their townships were affected.

Production design: It is difficult to establish or plan a production design with the conditions we are working with. The majority of our skills will be in post production tidying the interviews and cutting as little as possible to capture the rawness of the interview. In saying this our production design will vary, our predictions are they will be taken in the lounge and this is our preference or a room with no distraction or unnecessary background noise. We will direct or guide as much as possible before filming to ensure the best position at the same time ensuring the participants are comfortable in us doing so. Once the participants and the interviewer is comfortable and frame is appropriate we will conduct the interview allowing breaks when necessary or if necessary.

Overall our aim is to capture the raw emotions these participants have encountered during this pandemic and showcase to an audience not only are they alone in the struggles but also display the struggles this pandemic has caused on a global platform.

Shot List

Interview Shots -

All of our interviews will be conducted via the online platform Zoom. This allows us to communicate internationally. The footage throughout interviews will be a Mid shot as this framing allows us to focus on the subject in more detail. Conducting interviews via video call makes it difficult for us to explore different ranges of shots, although using a mid shot will allow each interviewee to easily frame themselves for the interview.

Animated Shots -

We will be using animated transitions throughout our documentary to highlight key points of information and weave our interviews together. Using animated transitions will allow us to share points of statistics about Covid-19 similar to the way it has been used in the 2016 Film 13th by Ava DuVernay. This is an engaging way to get information out to the audience to back up the archival footage and interviews.

Ethical Issues

The ethical issues that could arise would be consent of the people we are interviewing and permissions to use news footage. To combat these, consent forms will be used, so that the participants fully understand what they are contributing to. As for the news footage, we will make sure that we reference every clip we use and that we have a right to use them. YouTube will be our main source of news clips, which becomes fair use when it is uploaded. We will be double checking that everything we use is in the public domain and that we do not use too much of one clip, so as to follow the rules of fair use. The way we will make sure we are representing the participants correctly is not taking their comments out of context or twisting their words. We will present their stories in the way they presented them to us, making sure to get the right information across.

Reference List

Burns, K. (Producer, Director), & Duncan, D. (Writer). (2012). The Dust Bowl [Motion picture] United States: PBS.

DuVernay, A. (Producer, Director) (2016) 13th [Motion Picture] United States: Netflix.

Flaherty, J. R. (Writer, Producer, Director). (1922). Nanook of the North [Motion picture] United States: Pathé Exchange.

South University (2018). Why Being Social is Good for You. Retrieved from https://www.southuniversity.edu/news-and-blogs/2018/05/why-being-social-is-good-for-you

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