Group 4

Lauren Binns. Fran Jarvis. Ruth Wilkinson. Katy Roberts.

A DAY IN THE LIFE.

“A documentary is the creative treatment of actuality”, John Grierson.

We found this quote very interesting and took it as inspiration for our project. We feel this quote sums up the fact that the claim of truth and authenticity that documentaries are meant to follow may not be necessarily correct. This is why for this project we have decided to do three documentaries. We want to focus each documentary on the same person, showing the representation of this person diff erently in each documentary.

PROJECT INSPIRATION

Whether we do or don’t have an inner self; because the media can manipulate footage to be what ever they believe either consciously or subconsciously does it even matter? The media is forever hegemonic to the company, elite person or elite nation and they can spin-doctor any form of media/text to support them. We want to portray how documentary's can manipulate the audience into subjective view points of their own desire. This can be done through the editing, lighting, questions and color coding.

OUR DOCUMENTARY AND HEGEMONY.

We plan to create a Participatory Documentary on Disability, and our focus will be on Deafness.

There will be a mix of subtitles and voice over to guide though the diff erent modes. We shall be adding subtitles which is of course standard practice for media aimed at people hard of hearing.

The target audience we are aiming our documentary at is middle class, Channel 4 viewers as well as the deaf community.

We plan on immersing ourselves in to a disabled persons life, to observe and reflect on their situation in three diff erent modes of fi lming and editing. In turn creating three separate subject view points on them as a person and their condition.

RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTARY PLAN

We have decided to focus on representation of the disabled, and have picked a deaf student, named Hamish, to be the subject in our documentaries. Hamish is 21 years old, very popular, good looking and fun. He also has a disability. Hamish was born deaf and wasn’t given a Cochlear Implant until he was 12 years old. Since then he has studied hard in a school for deaf children, called Mary Hare, getting good results and making many friends. He then took a gap year where he travelled to various places in the world, by himself, giving him the confi dence to be who he is today. He is now studying Press and editorial photography.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HAMISH.

We plan to gather information regarding his actual condition, how it was discovered and how it was treated.

Question people in the medical profession linked to Hamish throughout his life, by speaking to people from the Nottinghamshire NHS Trust and his former Deaf School.

We will include old family/school photographs and interview and meet with his past and present tutors.

We want to get the view of Hamish’s disability from his families point of view, to find out the struggles they will have had to face whilst bringing up Hamish. As well as giving an external insight in to who Hamish really is, from people that have known him for his own life.

HAMISH’S BACKGROUND RESEARCH.

We want to show how documentaries can be manipulated to show the creators subconscious or conscious viewpoint. We aim to project deafness in three diff erent lights: Hamish is to be portrayed as a; Victim, Hero and a Everyday normal person.

We want to create confl ict between the opposing ideas of Victim and Hero for example: Heroic being bright and strong and Victim being dark and weak. As well as the struggle of disability vs. normality.

We want the audience to feel like they have a deeper understanding of people with hearing diffi culties and to give an opportunity for the viewer to understand the power of the message that the media will give.

Its all in the coding…… Three documentaries in one, each coded by lighting, fi lming, questioning and editing techniques. To portray Hamish and his Disability/Ability. To highlight the power of the documenter and the ideas and media behind it.

WORKING HYPOTHESIS & INTERPRETATION

In the fi rst documentary we want to show Hamish as the victim. We aim to do this by questioning him on life before his hearing aid and how he coped with not being able to hear for the fi rst 12 years of his life. We will ask him how his school life was, if he felt he was at a disadvantage, and questions to do with whether he ever got bullied. We want to make the documentary quite sad and allow the audience to feel sympathetic towards Hamish, they will hopefully be able to form personal relationships with him. This documentary will be a good form of escapism (as most media) because it will hopefully make the audience recognise that their own life could be worse. It will fi lmed using bluey/darker colour grades to denote sadness and the feeling of being alone.

DOCUMENTARY ONE ‘THE VICTIM’

In the second documentary we want to show Hamish as the hero. We will question him on how he is helping other people to overcome their diffi culties and the work he is doing in disadvantaged countries. We want to discuss how he has made it in the ‘hearing world’ even though most deaf people have their own community and don’t do associate much with people that can hear. He has travelled to various countries and come to university despite his disability. As well as the fact that Hamish is always the person that people go to for advice, we want to interview his friends to find out what they think of him. Filmed with Yellow and bright camera footage, happy scenes and archive photo’s and footage of Hamish striving through life, succeeding at everything he does.

DOCUMENTARY TWO ‘THE HERO’

In the third documentary we want to show Hamish as a normal person, only mentioning that he is deaf but focusing more on his life as a student and how it doesn’t eff ect his life.

For this mode we shall give Hamish his own camera for the day, so that we can follow his life through his own eyes and his own perspective.

This will be presented using neutral colour tones, a mix of warmer colour codes.

DOCUMENTARY THREE ‘BEING DEAF IS NOT AN

ISSUE’