Narrative and genre: Idea development

For my narrative and genre unit i have been thinking about what programme i would like to use for the essay. I have come to the final decision that i will use the documentary programme, One Born Every Minute.
One Born Every Minute is a factual series, based on the reality of what a woman goes through when giving birth. It is based in the maternity unit of a hospital and an average episode is following the birthing experience of 2-3 couples. The gripping thing about this programme is that cameras have been set up in every part of the maternity ward, making sure that the viewer gets to see everything, including the most intimate of moments, for example the first time a mother and father meet their new born.
I am really looking forward to researching this programme and how it is filmed.

Narrative and genre: Lecture notes

The story of narrative.


Every drama, documentary, entertainment, news and reality television series uses a story to communicate. To tell a story they all use narrative devices.
Christopher Booker argues that all stories can be broken down into 7 main plot lines:

• Tragedy- 
• Comedy
• Overcoming the monster
• Voyage and return
• Quest
• Rags to riches
• Rebirth

Tragedy- usually concerns a hero with a fatal floor which causes a tragic ending. Examples such as Achilles and Macbeth. The tragic hero gets 'committed to his course of action.'

Examples of television tragedy drama plot lines-

• Madmen
• Shadowline
• Eastenders
• Red Riding.

Comedy- always a happy ending, typically of romantic fulfillment. Usually involves a hero down on their luck, looking for love in some shape or form. The hero and heroine are destined to be together but a dark force is preventing them from doing so. The story conspires to make the dark force repent and then the hero and heroine are free to get together. 

Example of television comedy drama plot lines-

• Friends
• Scrubs
• Gavin and Stacey
• The Office

Overcoming the monster- the fight against a seemingly unbeatable monster at its core. Only will the hero prevail if they overcome the monster.  Examples of television overcoming the monster plot lines: 

• Dr who
• Supernatural
• The Big C
• Deal or No Deal

Voyage and return- follows archetypal structure of personal development through leaving and then returning. The hero usually enters a time/place/land that they don't understand and must overcome hurdles, villians, before succeeding and returning 'home'. About going on a journey of discovery.

Examples of television voyage and return plot lines:

• Secret Millionaire
• Supernanny
• Wife- Swap
• Undercover Boss

Quest- enables for a large sweeping story and great characters. It allows for you to on a journey to get something (have a focus.) Usually requires the hero to have team or companions with them to help. 

Examples of television quest plot lines: 

• Total wipe out
• The Cube

Rags to Riches- the riches can be either literal or metophorical. the hero will go from rags to riches which is mirrored by the protagonist who moves in the opposite direction. A coming of age version would have rags to riches replaced by immaturity and maturity. 

Examples of Rags to Riches plot lines: 

• Forrest Gump
• Pursuit of Happiness
• Only Fools and Horses
• Weakest Link
• Makeover Shows

Re-Birth- the central character finds a new reason for living and turns their life around. It can be seen as a more optimistic form of Tragedy in which the villian spirals into evil and then at the last minute raises their head and gets pulled out by a redeeming figure. 

Examples of Re-birth plot lines:

• Eastenders
• Trainspotting
• Secret Millionaire

Commission Unit- Draft Pitch

I was asked as part of this unit to make a pitch for my documentary idea. The basis of a pitch is to propose an idea to someone and make them want to use your idea.
The do's and donts when pitching your idea include:


Do's 

• Brave and surprising
• passionate and engaging
• challenge conventions- use new angles
• paragraph ideas together
• pitch top line
• know existing output/opportunities
• dialogue with commissioners
• pith the ideas and not the subject matter

Don'ts 

• Lots of ideas in one pitch
• patronise the editors with gimmicks
• water a idea down too soon
• flog a dead horse
• develop a 'off message' e.g not right time slot. 

This is the draft pitch for my documentary idea: 

Draft pitch

Title: Millennium Mum

Location: surrounding areas, which involve the families lives.

Subject: becoming a teen mum in the year 2000 and what peoples opinions on this are and how they have changed since that time.

Style: interviews, archive footage (videos and photographs) and observational.

Central characters: mother, child and the family and friends closest to them.

Conflict of characters: the difference of opinions people have about girls becoming mothers in their teens and how this has changed over the past 10 years.

Characters journey: this documentary will be based on one mother in her teens who had a baby in the year 2000 and how this has changed her life and the people around her lives. I will mostly be concentrating on the mothers point of view with interviews about how she thinks her life would be different and what things she would change if anything about her life now if she had the chance. I will be adding in archive footage of the mothers life before she had her baby and also archive footage from after she had her baby. More archive footage such as photographs and videos of the child growing up will be included with things such as his/her first Christmas, first day at nursery, all the way up to current day and his/her first day at secondary school. I will also be having interviews from the general public about what they think of teen pregnancies and if there opinion on it has changed in the past 10 years.

I will have information from newspapers and tabloids on screen as well showing how teen pregnancies have been covered in the press over the past 10 years. Also statics of teen pregnancies.   

I have been giving some advice as to what i could add to this draft pitch to make it better. I will do this and then re post my final draft.  

Direction Unit- Idea/research

For research i have been watching a lot of episodes of Desperate Housewives and have been thinking about how the show is so so glamourous. The thing that i thought i would be able to do is make it less glamourous. But not so much so that it ends up seeming like i have turned it into a comedy sketch.

Wisteria Lane

Bree Van Der Kamp

For example i wouldn't want to take it from the glossy and glamourous street of Wisteria lane (above) and then change it to the complete opposite which would be a run down, grimy council estate. Another example would be taking one of the many glamourous characters from Desperate Housewives, and replacing them with the complete opposite, which could be a unclean, dirty woman. 

So to stop this from happening I would just make simple changes that can be noticed but don't take it so far that you can't figure out what the programme i choose was in the first place. I had an idea that i would use the basis of a womens book club and that 4 or 5 women meet up to discuss books at a library or one of their houses and intend to talk about the book they have been reading but instead they end up bitching and gossiping. I will do more research into other ideas before i settle on this one for definate.  

Commission Unit- Idea

I have now made my decision on what subject i will be pitching to make a documentary for. I have settled on the idea of using the basis of a mother who gave birth in the year 2000. I will also be filming a mother who had her baby in her teens- a millennium teen mum. I will outline the basic vision i have for this project below:

Title- Teen millennium mum
Basic outline of documentary- this documentary will follow the story of one teenager mother who had her baby in the year 2000. I will want to be documenting how having a baby that was unplanned has changed her life, and if she would change anything. I will be using interviews of the mother herself and her close friends and family to see what all of their opinions are, also i will have interviews from the general public which will express how people felt about teen pregnancies 10 years ago and how they feel about them now, to see if opinion has changed in anyway.
i will then document the journey of both the mothers life before she had her baby and then the mother and baby's life from the year 2000 onwards, using archive footage such as videos and photographs. Other things i am looking to use is factors and figures about teen pregnancies from the last 10 years. Also press cutting and archive footage of media coverage to show the opinions of the media world.

Direction Unit- Research

I have been doing some more research into which scene i think would be good for my 3 minute drama piece. I have found this scene of three of the main characters getting drunk on the proch of one of their houses and thought it fitted well with what i wanted to show. This is because it shows just how nice the area in which the housewives live is. plus it had comical value and emotion all in one. I think i would be able to change it in certain ways.
I will have to cut this scene down slightly though in order to make it the 3 minutes that i have been given.

Direction Unit- Character description

In todays lecture we learnt about improv and how it is used by actors. One of the tasks set for us was to bring in a description of one of the characters in the drama series we have chosen and we were then given a scenario and had to act it out in the way we think i chosen character would. Here is my character description:Television programme: Desperate Housewives
Character: Gabriella Solis (played by Eva Longoria)
Description: Confident, strong minded, 40 something woman who knows what she wants and how she is going to get it. She knows how to handle herself. Physically small but mentally feels she can take on anyone. Only lets certain people in to see her emotions and more often then not regrets doing so.

Past experiences with women have made her grow strong but also stays weary of the same sex and only lets certain women close to her once they have proved they can be trusted. Gabriella would handle confrontation by going in full force, and not giving other people in that situation a chance to give their own opinion, unless that person knows her weak point, which not many do. She is only interested in her own opinion, and no one elses. A man eater on the surface but deep down all she wants is to settle down and find the right guy to do this with.
Has a good sense of humour but can get a bit too personal for some peoples tastes, even though she doesn't mean too. She sometimes hides behind her sense of humour and cracks jokes in situations which she finds uncomfortable, difficult and awkward.
Very spoilt as a child by her parents and has grown up thinking that she should always get what she wants when she wants it, no matter what it is, this also means that she is a very materialistic person, who is more interested in what a person has to offer her with their money rather then the person themselves. Decides who to be friends with by figuring out who can do what for her.

Direction Unit- Research

I have been putting in some research as to which scene i would like to use for my direction unit of the 3 minute drama of my choice. i have found this quite hard as i want to be able to get across which drama i have chosen to the audience but also change some things such as the locations so that i put my own twist on things. here are a few links of what i have looked at so far and thought would be possible with this:

From 8.05 on this clip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvGNtZ4KGzQ

From 3.39- 5.30 on this clip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUwkjyorZU&feature=related

I have chosen these 2 clips because they both have the 4 main characters from Desperate Housewives in them. 

I will be doing some more research into scenes. 

Commission Unit- Research Commission Unit- Research

'Millennium Mum'
This is another idea i had. The basis is that i have someone i know who had a baby in the year 2000 and i want to show how her life has changed since she had her baby. This would include things such as:

• Archive footage: footage of the baby growing up and certain important events from his life so far. For example, first day at nursery, first christmas, first day at secondary school etc. This would be done using pictures and films. 
• Interviews: with people who have seen the child growing up and how both his and the mums life has changed.
• Future: what they think the future holds and how they feel about how they feel about events that have happened due to the baby being born. 

I will need to do a lot of research into the history of this story and make sure that i can get enough archive footage and people to interview so that it is interesting. 

Commision Unit- Reasearch

I have had another idea for my documentary. It is based around the invention of Big

Brother in 2000 and how it has become such a world wide phenomenon. I would also include things such as the amount of CCTV that is now in our day and age and how this has had a almost controlling effect on how society is today.

It would include things such as how we cannot go anywhere without being filmed, whether this is with us knowing or without us knowing, and how it has almost become a daily routine that we find ourselves being filmed for security purposes.

This would be linked to Big Brother by showing how people are now willing to be filmed in order to make a name for themselves and how other television programmes have followed in this direction.

I could then bring in YouTube to this arugment explaining how people have now started posting videos of themselves or friends in the hope they it will become a viral hit and make them famous.

I stilll have alot of research to do for this idea but once i have started i think i will be able to make something out of it which gives information but also shows the lengths people will go to, to become famous.  

Commission Unit- Research

For the commissioning unit of my uni course we have been asked to make a 10 minute documentary about a subject that happened in the years from 2000- 2009. I have had a few ideas for this and will explain them briefly below:

• The invention and introduction of Youtube-  in February 2005, YouTube launched. This meant that for the first time ever people could use one site to upload, share and watch other users videos. This made a instant viral impact on the internet and soon became a huge sensation all over the world with people becoming famous from videos they put up. When first launched it was disliked by entertainment corporations as they thought it would bring all sorts of copy right infringement with it. But since being brought by google it now has over a billion hits per day. 

• Opinions-  This idea would be to have several people talking about the main event in the noughties that meant the most to them, whether it would be a personal matter or something that hit headlines worldwide. 

• Becoming a teen mum in the 00's- I have some friends and relatives who became mum's in the noughties. But for this subject i would like to focus on the teens who became mums and how it changed there lives. 

Direction Unit: Research

I have been thinking about my chosen drama for this unit and how i am going to adapt it to fit my way of directing. I have decided that it may be a bit too much of a change to go from having a original scene in Desperate Houswives that involves a very glossy life style and very glamourous characters, to having a scene which is set in a dingy council estate with characters who are the complete opposite.
Because of this i have decided that i will need to re think what my scene will now involve and do some more re-search into this.

Direction Unit: Research

I have been thinking a lot into what drama television program I am going to use for my 3 minute shoot. Although many ideas came into my head about certain dramas i have watched previously, I have decided to settle on the American drama series, Desperate Housewives.
It is based around the seemingly beautiful, rich, wealthy and perfect neighborhood of Wisteria Lane. it follows the lives of 5 main female characters and the story of their lives is told through the eyes of their dead neighbor. It premiered on October 4th 2004. 

Because the whole idea of this project is to put your own twist on a program of your choice I came up with an idea to take this program from its glossy, glamourous setting and transferring it to a run down council estate. This would mean that i would keep all of the same dialogue but just changing the setting and characters to almost the complete opposite of what they are in the original scene.

I have been doing research into the Desperate Housewives series that have been aired and found that the scenes which portray the show the best are the ones of the main characters sitting around in one of their luxurious stately homes enjoying high priced wine/champagne, expensive foods and a bitchy gossip. I am hoping that very soon i will have narrowed my scene down to the one i think is the best for this unit. I am looking for a scene which can still be translated into a complete opposite of what it originally was but with still being able to understand which drama it was originally.

Direction Unit: Lighting practice.

This is the link to the project that i did with Hennie and Maddie today.

It focused on being able to use different types of lighting for different moods etc and how this can add to the story. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EzStBifl3Y&feature=channel_video_title

I enjoy this task as it gave us a chance to get to know how to use the lighting equipment for when it gets to our own filming.

Direction unit: Directors workshop

This is my attempt at being a director for 20 minutes!
The task was to film a scene which involved two strangers passing a note from one another.
I did enjoy some aspects such as bringing my idea to life and getting other people to see my idea.

Back to uni I go!

Today I had my first lecture back back at uni for my broadcast Media course since we split for summer almost 3 months ago! I have to say it was a lot to take in but I'm up for the challenge as always!
The project brief was based around this unit focusing on Direction. Simon my lecturer explained that we would be expected to make a 3 minute episode of a drama of our choice but making it our own. This meant that we would have to undergo all the jobs and tasks that a director would do. Such as the prep, which would include looking at and making decisions on all of the following:

• The script
• Cast and crew
• Context
• Design
• Sound design
• Schedule 
• The shoot
• Post production                                                                                                         

Simon also explained that directors are split into 2 different catergories:
The Author
A director who is very specific ad knows exactly what they want. Still colaborates on ideas but the vision is still very much the directors. Examples of Author directors are:

• Scorsase
• Cameron
• Coen
• Hitchcock
• Nolan

It is thought that an author directors work is more recognisable then a conductor directors work.

The Conductor
A director who trusts people to bring their own ideas to the table. The the conductor of a orchestra or choir. Examples of Conductor directors are:

• Doug Liman
• Jon Faureau
• Katheryn Bigalowe