A2 Media Studies | Practical Brief: Initial Ideas

Brief overview

The brief I have chosen to participate in is the documentary brief and the person I am working with and I have agreed on this and have discussed on what we will be doing in the documentary. The documentary genre is likely to be the observational genre as mentioned before and the documentary is planned to be set in a secondary school giving the audience a view on what a Southampton-based secondary school is like.

I will be working with Tom Hayward as the other member in this practical and we have decided on what roles we both will be having throughout. I will be covering cinematography and mise-en-scene whilst Tom will be covering the editing and sound in the video we are planning to make. Our influence for this documentary has mostly come from Channel 4 documentaries, specifically Educating Essex and Educating Yorkshire as analysed by Tom and I.

Brief - Discussed ideas

We have discussed several ideas regarding the documentary that we want to do and some of these ideas that we've discussed consist of the following:

• To film in a classroom and see what footage comes out of it.
• An interview with some teachers that work at the secondary school.
• To aim to make the documentary professional such as the likes of what Channel 4 have achieved in their documentaries - though should not provide a negative light on the people in the scenes.
• Interviews with some of the students at the school to reveal their positive views on the school.
• A variety of camera shots and movement (e.g. establishing shots to establish the setting and scenes).
• Use of both calming and fitting music to show the audience that the sound fits with what the documentary is about.
• Use of a voice over which will provide a description about the school and what it's like.
• A narrative to provide the USP to the viewing audience of the documentary.