OCR LEVEL 3: National Extended Diploma in Media: Unit 2 -Assignment Brief for Preproduction and planning of documentary sequence, “A Day in the Life of _____________”; the title sequence and beginning [3 to 5 minutes].

You will start this unit individually and then form groups for your primary research and for production, unit 3, based on the outcomes of your research. This is a triple unit, so for unit 4 you will market your new documentary by producing an advertising campaign and collate audience feedback to assess your campaign. Important: Preproduction portfolios for unit 2 must be produced independently, so you must play equal roles in the primary research stages of unit 2.

Task: 1 [AO1] Research: Give a presentation covering the activities below. There will be a teacher observation

sheet to go with this assessment.

Secondary Research : This must be done individually.

Audio-visual products Using your work on “35Up” and “Biggie and

Tupac” and two other documentaries as examples, explain the key techniques used to make a documentary.

Identify at least four kinds of documentary and explain how they have changed over time. To achieve a distinction aim to identify at least six kinds of documentary.

Print Products

Find examples of print advertising for one of the documentaries you have been working on, annotate

These using advertising theory, and image analysis. Identify the target audience, and how they are addressed. Explain how implied narrative was used to hook the audience.

Use at least four print sources to find out more about Forms, techniques and issues surrounding the

production reception of this genre. To achieve a distinction, find

at least six print sources; two of these can be print outs of articles from the web that have been also printed.

Internet

Find information about two of the above documentaries using the internet. Find out how they were funded, their ownership, and how they were distributed,

Assess how audiences have received the representations within one of the documentaries you studied in addition to “35 Up” and “Biggie and Tupac”. Use quotation from user comments in www.imdb.com as a starting point.

Important: Do not include any downloaded research in your work, but list websites, books, film and TV you used in your bibliography for this assignment.

Primary Research: By now you are in production groups, but this work must be shared out equally.

Find a person you might use as the subject for a new television documentary, “A Day in the Life of ________”

Devise an interview. Plan this carefully using appropriate locations, as well as open and close ended questions.

Visit locations important to your subject, do location photos, and find out about objects, mementos important to your subject. Photograph some of these.

Observation: Observe your subject carrying out his daily routine. For example, if they do Karate classes, watch one of this. If possible, photograph this, and do some audio recording as evidence.

Focus groups: Bring together or interview separately, at least three people who have had, or still have a formative influence on your subject. Try to develop your interviewing techniques at this stage. You should film this and assess your material using what you know about documentary techniques, and MIGRAIN.

Summative:

Product comparisons: Compare two of the documentaries you have studied in depth. Do this in pairs, but make sure your outcomes are individually produced.

Target audience: In your group decide on a target audience for your idea for a new documentary, “A Day in the Life of ________”. Justify your choice using your research and audience theory.

Talent/actors: By now you have chosen your subject, and done focussed interviews on friends, family, employers, teachers associated with the person you will focus on. Decide who you would like to be in the sequence, and justify your choices. At this stage, there should be different ideas presented. You do not have to narrow down your cast yet.

Document your formative ideas and influences using spidergrams, annotated still images and other research materials.

Try to formulate an overall concept for your sequence. These need to be individually produced. Your production for unit 3 will reflect a choosing and decision making process arising out of a good range of initial ideas. Remember that you will be making the title sequence and opening only. These ideas will inform an overall narrative for your production and give you more options at the editing stage for unit 3.

Task 2: [AO2] The Proposal: Do a written proposal, treatment, commercial board, storyboard, and shooting script. At this stage you

need to start your production diary. See under task 5. You will add to this after each activity. The proposal include:

Idea -- theme Purpose -- messages Target audience Justification of ideas -- links with ideology, attitudes, values, documentary form chosen and why

The treatment includes: Description of content including some chosen repetitons, selection with some justification of omissions The Narrative Locations Main subject Others to be interviewed The Commercial board is your mise-en-scene visualisation and contains important media language to

explain: Locations Bird’s-eye-view diagram of a main location Key objects Archive photo(s) Current photo Chosen documentary form Some voiceover ideas Storyboard -- Remember this is important for editing and links strongly with your overall purpose and

concept. However, you will do a revised shot list at the editing stage which will be submitted with unit 3. At least 12 key shots Transitions using form, concept, and screen position edits

Shooting script

Remember this is important for continuity. A copy should be given to everyone on location involved in the shoot. Keep it simple and clear.

At this stage this won’t be the final draft of your shooting script, but it will help you clarify the other sample materials you produce at this stage, so use it to do so.

Outdoor locations shot by shot including timing, dialogue, voiceover and music

Indoor locations shot by shot including timing, dialogue, voiceover and music.

The proposed advertising campaign

-- This will be developed when you do unit 4. You need to be as detailed as possible about your target audience and how you will

encode your product to get a desired decoding process from them. Be realistic about the resources available to you here. Use advertising and marketing theory here. Include: Your target audience:

Do a demographic detailed description of your target audience. Base this on your research so far, list sources, justify. Do a psychographic description of this group. Do a lifestyle profile for your target audience.

** Later you will do audience testing and may need to modify your specified sample.

Timing -- the stages of your campaign and time of year for the launch Mediums you plan to use and in what sequence Proposed links between mediums to be used -- Narrative? Enigma? Visual motif? persona appeal? What hooks and

strategies might you use given the response you are hoping for from your target audience?