Friday 29th October

Today we had to come up with 3 ideas for a behind the scenes documentary. I had an idea to follow an independent film-maker. I thought this would be a good idea considering most of us on the course could potentially be successful independent film-makers. However, unfortunately this was not possible due to other commitments.

We were put into our groups and had to decide the best option to film a behind the scenes documentary on. I am in a group with Esther Moore, Harry Symes and Edem King. Esther had a great idea to film at the Unchosen film festival in Bath. It had unfortunately already started by the time we decided to film but was still going on for another couple of weeks so gave us some good opportunities to film and possibly with some big name directors, Nick Broomfield and Ken Loach.

We discussed how we would like to portray the documentary and what direction to take it. A few of the things we had to consider were:

• Our target audience
• How much time we have to shoot
• whether we were going to specialise or go general?
• A production schedule
• Are we going to use graphics?
• Will we use a voice-over and commentary?
• Will it be presenter-led?

We decided that our target audience would be around 18+ as the festival itself is based on subject matters that some people may find distressing. However, that does not mean that we are ruling out anyone watching the documentary who is younger because we are trying to focus more on the actual organisation of the festival. We also decided that this would not be presenter-led and that we would rather have the organisers themselves talking through what happens, so as to have them telling their own story. We want to make this documentary something that they may be able to use online for promotional purposes and to spread awareness.

Esther then lead proceedings to try and organise permissions to film through her contact and one of the organisers Trisha Davidson. We had to act fast as we had an opportunity to film in 5 days time, so it all seemed very rushed and a little hectic but luckily we were granted permission. At such short notice I was unable to book out all of the equipment that we needed but managed to get a Sony A1, a manfrotto tripod and boom mic. An interview was confirmed with Kelly Prince, an organiser of the festival for Wednesday 3rd.