Target Audience

As the film contains sections and issues that address more taboo topics such as sex and drugs, this effects who the target audience will be. While I will try and accommodate the documentary for every audience, the target audience overall would be young adults as the piece relates mostly to that age group. It could also attract the older generation as they might see elements of the bands they used to like in this as it’s based in the late 1970′s when iconic bands like this really existed. 

Genre 

The film will include influences from a few different genres such as, social realism, documentary and rockumentary. The plan and idea for the film means that it is hard to classify the film into one specific genre. Hopefully fans of the social realism genre and doc/rockumentaries will all find something to enjoy within the piece.

Film Synopsis

Set in 1972,73 and 74, the film will depict Vinny Viper’s rise and fall from fame as a famous glam rock performer. The rise element from 72 to mid 73 will include footage of Vinny in his prime, with fans, paparazzi and his displays of arrogance when interviewed by the media. I may include footage from one of Vinny’s vintage performances. An important part of Vinny’s life is his powerful and ultimately destructive relationship with his codependant sidekick Mickey Rich, this relationship will be promenant in the depiction of both Vinny’s rise and fall. The fall element will summarise the last year of Vinny’s life, when at the age of 32 he desends into serious addiction to drugs and alcohol following the shock suicide of Mickey. In this section i will focus on showing, backstage footage of Vinny at his worst and abuse from fans showing his decrease in popularity as everything falls apart around him.

BBFC Rating

Considering the themes and content of the piece, the BBFC rating cannot be too low. I think the rating of 15 would be most appropriate as it would allow me to create something that can contain strong language and mild violence and crude humor, but nothing too graphic or explicit which would make me have to increase the certificate and therefore lose some audience.

Key Marketing Strategies

A radio trailer for my documentary would reach a relatively large audience, and i would want this to be aired at a time when my target audience would be most likely to be listening. A newspaper advertisement for the local press,worded in such a way as to catch the eye of my target audience, should also prove to be a smart marketing strategy.

Production and distribution decisions

Production costs will be kept to a minimum owing to the free loan of equipment and my cast of actors offering their time for free. Distribution will be via upload to the internet using one of the video sharing websites. This, too, is free of charge.

  A radio trailer for the documentary

  A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary

  A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

Each is important for the success of the production, as the small description given in different forms is what will entice the audience to want to watch it. The small piece of information given in say a 30 second radio ad or a small square in a newspaper must be enough to make people interested; therefore it should just contain the most important information, delivered in an interesting, exciting and captivating manner.

In any form, the advertisement must attract the audience in and make the viewer want to watch more and believe it will benefit them if they do. A good example of an interesting advertisement leaving the audience ‘wanting more’, is the television advertisement for the popular documentary film…Supersize Me (2004)…

This trailer works for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the advert opens with what the film is all about – Morgan Spurlock – a documentary film maker embarking on a mission to show the highs and lows of life on a McDonald’s supersize meal diet. This firstly will get the attention of the audience as, at some point, most of the population would have been at his situation at the ‘drive thru’ kiosk at a McDonalds.

 The advert continues to hold the viewers attention with an unusual non-diagetic soundtrack, of what you would normally hear in a sinister horror film trailer. This combination of the two unlikely partners therefore makes the audience question whats to come next?

Then, the mix of unusual camera shots, quick cuts, voice-over’s of his concerned wife and doctors combined with the flashing and recurring image of a sinister version of the ‘Ronald McDonald’ McDonald’s mascot automatically transforming the well known and loved fast-food chain into something dangerous and menacing. The repeating of the words ‘die, die, die’ from Spurlock’s doctor combined with more quick cuts and jumpy soundtrack continue to build tension in the viewer.

It is when the almost, ‘second half’ of the advertisment begins, that we start to see an imediate change in the theme and mood of the trailer. Instantly with a sunny and colourful title shot and a sharp change of music to another non-diagetic soundtrack, but this time very upbeat and friendly. It is now, combined with more quick cuts but projected in a softer manner, combined with overweight people smiling and positive reviews flashing to the audience, that the style is completely changed.

It is only at the end with an ironic twist to this ‘happy half’, that the cheerful soundtrack takes a pause for the viewer to remember the message of this documentary film with Spurlock trying to stop himself being sick after eating one of the SuperSize McDonald’s meals.

Overall, these shocking and scary factors teamed with the happy side, appeal to almost every audience. It is of common interest to almost everybody, as it appeals as ‘real life’ and not fiction. People will enjoy to see the experiment, as well as the shaming of a well known and multimillion dollar producting business.

Although related distantly to my task, i can use it productively as it is an example of a documenary/film combination, showing extreme style and mood changes very drastically and successfully; this in which i aim to achieve in my advertisements for my documentary.

Baudrillard, a French sociology professor, showed anger at the media for simplifying reality to make it more palatable and pleasing for the mass audiences. In other words, blurring fiction and reality to get an untrue and tainted perspective of real life.

…Baudrillard’s theory can be adapted to my chosen brief, as the blurring of fiction and reality i intend to use in my piece aims to give a blury and unsure perspective of whats going on. For example, it is studying the excitment and adrenaline rushes of the celebrity, not highlighting their favourite trip to the supermarket etc.

HYPER REALITY:

Baudrillard claims this illusion is created by Hyper Reality, the merging of reality and fiction. Baudrillard’s theory suggests that we are just living in a ‘copy world’ and do not really care what type of media we receive as long as it stimulates the viewer and pleases them. Therefore the line between fiction and reality becomes less important and hyper reality is chosen over reality.

…My piece will show an amount of Hyper-Reality, as hopefully it will excite the viewer enough to enjoy the fast paced and exhilarating storyline, and forget about the actual amount of reality in the piece.

OTHER EXAMPLES…

-          A life that cannot be (Celebrity lifestyle and influence on the public.)

A good example of this is MTV’s programme Cribs. The programme shows in detail the homes of celebrities that no average viewer could ever afford. It is designed to let the viewer indulge in the hyper-reality, admire what they have achieved, and aim to get it themselves.

…This example of Baudrillard’s theory will definately take place in my documentary. As i will be focusing on an idealised celebrity lifestyle, that most people, not even other celebrities could realistically achieve.

Other examples include, digitally enhanced photos and theme parks. This being because of the altered and obscured combination of reality and features of fiction to enhance it. For example, a model’s photograph on the front of Vogue would never be published not digitally enhanced, because of society being used to and being pleased and stimulated by seeing ‘perfect’ people. This proves Baudrillard’s theory of Hyper Reality; as it is clear that society is happy with the blurred mix of reality and fiction to see what they imagine as ‘the best something can be.’

An example of theme parks, could be the multi-million pound business of Disney, and it’s merge of fictional disney stories with the general public with it’s creation of Disney land and Disney world theme parks. Giving the chance for everyday people to live the life of a fairy tale, not just in the theme park itself, but the hotel guests stay at, this gives an example of Hyper Reality at it’s best. Not only do people get to experience a fictional world in the daytime, but they also get to live the story from when they wake up, to when they go to sleep – the ultimate hyper reality.  

Overall Baudrillard’s Theory realates to my chosen brief in many different ways. Although hyper-reality can sometimes become ridiculous, i aim to include it in an interesting way that keeps the viewer intrigued.

Firstly when searching for the bad, i came across this, a very blunt and rather scary view of Kurt Cobain and his band Nirvana:

When deconstucting this clip, you can break down exactly where this documentary goes wrong…

Genre: The clip attempts to come across as a serious Rock Documentary. However, it is a very poor example of this. As can be seen, this film is simply a fanatical rant against Kurt Cobain and his supposedly satanic lifestyle. There is no balance to the film; just a biased, one sided viewpoint. There has been no attempt to celebrate any part of his life and musical influence making it just a hate video, rather than an informative and interesting documentary.

Locations: The entire documentary is filmed at the one live performance ; there is no variety to keep the viewer interested. This seems a very lazy and an easy way to make a documentary.

 Cinematography: The cinematography used to capture the concert is very good. There is good use of close-ups, two shots and long –shots to capture the feel of the live performance.

 Sound: One song is played throughout the whole of the documentary supplying no variation for the viewer. This teamed with the over exaggerating and negative voice-over makes an overall unpleasant  mix of sound and explanation.

Narrative:  The clip itself doesn’t tell any story at all, it is just a clip of a concert. The narration however, is simply a negative speech against Cobain and his lifestyle.

Editing:  The  footage of the concert is fine editorially. The sound continuity of the concert is also good. However, as the film does not explore away from the concert, there are no advanced editorial techniques.

…In  contrast to the last documentary clip, when in search for a good example of what i wanted to portray, i stumbled across this beauty summarising Marc Bolan’s life and his time in T.Rex:

When desconstructing this, its easy to pin-point where it goes right…

Genre:  An excellent example of work for this genre. The documentary combines both positive and negative recollections of the subject, Marc Bolan. There  are plenty of clips of the subject’s work together with interviews. Together  these combine to give a fuller picture of Marc Bolan.

Locations:   The film has a variety of locations in it which prevent boredom in the viewer. The interviews are a mixture of studio and home based and the film is interspersed with footage of Marc from different times in his life and career.

Cinematography:   Both the footage of Marc  in concert  and the interviews include a wide range of cinematographic  techniques. The concert footage  contains the kind of shots one would expect; extreme close ups, long shots and two shots. The interviews specialise in close ups and big close ups as would be expected  when filming one subject.

 Narrative:  There is no narrator  to the documentary . Instead the film maker relies on the use of interviews, clips and old photographs to tell Marc’s story. This gives the narrative authenticity as only the people who new Marc personally  are relating the events.

Sound:   It is mostly spoken dialogue and live music footage, with non-diagetic sound at some points where the interviewees cannot hear the music. •Editing:  The clip is edited very well, with a series of different transitions of images, from clips, to photographs, to images. Nothing is left on screen for too long, so the audience never gets bored.

Viewing the contrast between how right and how wrong my own documentary could go when adapting this style, i now feel more confident that i will make the right choices when making my own film.

Glam Rock 

Wikipedia Definition:

“Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a style that developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s that was “performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots.” The flamboyant costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a campy, theatrical blend of nostalgic references to science fiction and old movies.

Largely a British phenomenon, glam rock visuals peaked during the mid 1970s. The most famous exponents of the fashion were Marc Bolan and T.Rex, Gary Glitter, and Slade.[1] Other influential British and American performers include: David Bowie, Sweet, Wizzard, Roxy Music, Mud, Mott the Hoople, The Glitter Band and The Tubes.”

My main influence for the character has been taken from the (1998) film Velvet Goldmine,

starring, Ewan Mcgregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Directed by Todd Haynes and written by Todd Haynes and James Lyons; Velvet Goldmine gives a unique insight into the eccentric world of glam rock. Sex, drugs and glitter, are the main priorities of main character Brian Slade. That of course and his genius music. In the film, he and fellow carcrash glam rock star, Curt Wild, join forces in becoming the rock power couple of their time, along with Slade’s wife reluctantly following in their shadows.

 The main story surrounds the highs and lows of Slade’s career and how it affects the people around him, and this is what i would like to portray in my own piece.

Researching for influences of the celebrity documentary style i found that the following may also be helpful when exploring the style, voice-over and story of my fictional celebrity. This first example of a short but sweet John Lennon documentary, getting straight to the point, and full of facts:

This link also proved to be helpful, linking to many of these short documentaries on different celebrities, i can gain influence from all of these:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BroadbandTVSpotlight?view=videos

Another influence for my piece is the 1984 film ‘Spinal Tap’.

Directed by Rob Reiner, this fictional example of a rockumentary, shows aspects of what i would want to include in my own piece. By taking elements of real rockstar lifestyle, and documentaries of it’s time, a hyper-reality is created, sometimes leaving the viewer in doubt whether it is serious or a joke. The style of the rockumentary shows the ups and downs and highs and lows of a bands career, but combining a serious story line with many jokes; lovingly mocking 70′s and 80′s glam rock and rock star culture showing pastiche.

An extract from a new documentary TV programme

You must produce: an extract lasting approximately 5 minutes, alongside 2 of these 3 options:

• A radio trailer for the documentary
• A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary
• A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

I have chosen to create a short fictional documentary on celebrity culture, using a fictional celebrity.

I’m aiming to portray the style of Jacques Peretti and his “What really happened” series examining car crash celebrities and their interesting lives. I aim to make it around 5 minutes as it will be a brief overview into their lives rather than an in-depth insight.

This clip shows a vague example of what i would like my short documentary to consist of. Beginning with a detailed voice over on the character, with varied clips of them living in the public eye. 

I will take a back seat role within the documentary making my fictional character the star, and myself analyzing them and their lives. I want to use a varied mix of voice-over, dialogue, diagetic sound, quick cuts and different scenes to achieve the fast, sharp edgy look of documentaries such as this. I would like to make it fast paced and exciting to keep the attention of the viewer, and to keep in line with the general mood and atmosphere of the celebrities life. 

I will also take influences from general channel 4 documentaries as i like their general style and dialogue: 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/tags/documentaries

Particularly taking influence from documentaries such as:

The Princess And The Gangster: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-princess-and-the-gangster  

AND

Michael Jackson What Really Happened: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/michael-jackson-what-really-happened

In their general informative style and sense of mystery relating to the topic they are discussing.

My preliminary task firstly enabled me to get an insight into media and what the course had to offer. With an introduction to simple camera shots and cinematography, i set sail to make the production of my life. Unfortunately it was not as amazing as i’d hoped for, but nevertheless it gave me basic knowledge and practice of how to make a simple media piece, whilst attempting to show camera shots, simple dialogue, cinematography and mise en scene. Despite the appalling mistakes of scaffolding, story line and  background music, this was all valuable experience gained.

The assessed coursework piece challanged me and Victoria as, together, we began to storyboard a rough idea and listen to various songs for inspiration. Eventually we agreed on the idea of a trailer for a film set in an underclass area focusing on young teenage characters and how they behave stereotypically. After analysing artists like Dizzee Rascal, we decided his song ‘sirens’ would be perfect as the soundtrack, a song about youth culture, police and crime. After storyboarding we came up with the main characters, and on filming made sure the mise en scene was appropriate using costumes, and a school setting. Editing was quite a lengthy process, ensuring that the cuts were appropriate and what we wanted in our finished piece.

Time managment is one area i will try to improve on in A2, as some days we poorly planned when filming might happen or ran out of time, i would also spend less time choosing a music piece as last time we spent the majority of our time making a piece of music and in the end used an existing song anyway. I would also make a priority ensuring the pieces of film were in the correct sequence so as not to get confused with the order at a later date.