Justification/Reflection

This documentary will be appropriate for the film festival held at school and it will successfully hit the target audience of students, teachers and parents. One way we will achieve this is by creating a visually impressive documentary. By taking the extra effort to travel to Auckland city, we will be able capture more extraordinary footage because the city is home to a number of street music performers that are appropriate and interesting to our documentary. The city also sets a nice backdrop for the entire film, with large crowds walking in every direction, tall sky scrapers lining the streets, and colourful lights that will stand out especially when we film at night. To polish our already visually pleasing footage, we will spend extra time in post-production, editing. Extra steps we will take to make this documentary stand out to the crowd are things like colour correction (to really make the colours of the city pop) and using the various exclusive features on “Finalcut pro”, and the exclusive titles that have a professional-looking design.

This will all contribute to the style of the film, which we will try to make as accessible as possible, while adhering to the needs of our purpose. The purpose is to be persuasive, to show the audience the dark side of pop music, the greed and the insincerity of popular music. So in order to give a clear message to our audience (which could include younger audience that maybe lack the ability to interpret abstract film styles), we want to convey the segments of the film in logical order, to minimize confusion. We faced a challenge with our films purpose, because we predict that being persuasive will be harder to achieve than being only informative. Because of this, there was a chance that we could lose our target audience. However, we justify making a persuasive documentary because I think an audience will appreciate our passion for the subject that is evident in the way we make our documentary. For instance, we will use archival footage from entertainers such as Bill Hicks that use powerful and possibly controversial language to get their points across. This shows we are so passionate to get our point across that we are willing to use such intense clips. Rather than accommodating for everyone by not showing a bias, we will produce an alluring display of our own bias.

However to achieve this, the interviews that make up a lot of the content had to be interesting. This was realistic and manageable because the members of my group have contact to some big names in the local and national industry. I had access to Laughton Kora, as I had been taking mentoring from him for over a year, and weekly sessions meant there were a lot of opportunities to film. Briar’s father works in the Times.fm radio, and so his knowledge is very accessible. Thirdly, vox pops will be very easy to manage, as it could be anyone at any time, without much organization. Laughton and Briars dad Dean will be impressive to the audience, as they will be expected a small scale documentary from school kids. They will be surprised to see we have sourced one of the biggest names in New Zealand music, and an important figure in a famous local radio station.

Treatment Update 2

This documentary will be expository. It will speak directly to the viewer proposing an argument to persuade the audience. All content included in the film will work towards reinforcing this argument. There will be occasional omniscient voiceover and the use of archival footage to string together segments. The reason I am using an expository form of documentary is because it is the best way to communicate the idea (of music and the industry) that has importance to me. This is because of the clarity and concision that an expository documentary lends. We will not participate directly in this documentary, because participant documentaries tend to create a personal perspective (of the participating person). I feel as though participating directly on screen would make the film less of an informational journey for the audience, and more of a story of the participant. It would possibly also convey our personal opinions, which is not what I want, I want the documentary to expose the reality of the mus78ic industry, rather than show my personal opinion. However, there still needs to be intervention from the documentary makers. This film will not be an actuality documentary, because we will be manipulating the film to adhere to what ideas we are conveying. An actuality may like the clarity, as we need to hold the audiences hand through some of the images they will see (through voiceover, titles etc.) We will also manipulate the style, which is another factor that varies from an actuality. It’ll have a cool, “finger clickin’” style. This will be achieved through post production editing mainly. We will keep the colours rich and interesting, and try to keep every shot lively and attractive.

You will need to discuss mood, structure, pace and documentary mode(s).
The documentary will have a subtle counter culture mood to it and from time to time the tone may represent society as a dystopia where the media is dangerous and in power to promote the idea that the world sucks without music and soul. This will be achieved by using footage of musicians advertising Pepsi to show the marketing side of the industry, and furthermore emphasizing on these ideas by using footage of comedian Bill Hicks talking about how much money comes into the 20th and 21st century music industry. Showing the reality of the industry through real life advertisement will help convince the audience, bringing them onto my side of the argument that selling-out is wrong. This’ll make the film better because it will show an internationally relevant instance where the music industry is more of a business than an art outlet, rather than sticking to our footage of local New Zealand artists and citizens.

I will include the following:
• Interview person (Interviewee) contributes ideas on relevant subject to interviewer through questions and discussions. This is important to collect a range of opinions that are relevant and reliable, and the audience will appreciate that. They will also appreciate our interviewees, because they are people of a fairly high status in the industry, Laughton Kora of a famous NZ band, and Dean McGovern who is the Productions Engineer for a large local radio station (Times.fm and the Rock)
• Short opinion interviews with members of the public. This will be used as a comedic break up between the two serious interviews. It will be funny to hear the opinions of public in juxtaposition with the opinions of the professionals. It is also relevant to get a broad public perspective.
• Expert interviewee with special knowledge or status. Again, this is to have a respected and reliable, informal opinion in our documentary.
• Title writing on screen to impart information or develop ideas. To provide clarity in the film, and distinguish what is a title from what is a part of the mise en scene. This is because we will be integrating real life objects as titles, such as the Times.fm logo on a hat as a title for the segment in the radio studio. Having title writing on screen in conjunction with this will compliment it, but also clearly show the audience that this is a title.
• Visual image shot to add interest
• Montage collection of quick cuts to give a strong impression. We will have quick short montages of both a range of musicians in Pepsi commercials, and also with quick short interviews with members of public, showing how they favor image in the music industry. We will do this because it shows the sheer amount of advertising in the media that utilize musicians, and also to show the amount of people on the street who obsess over musicians that are largely driven by image (such as Katy Perry, One Direction and more).
• Archival footage shots from previous productions or shoots. We will use the Pepsi advertising and also Bill Hicks’s stand up shows as archival footage. This shows the real life application of image in the media, and the impact it has on people (such as Bill Hicks) internationally.
• Voiceover person speaks over other images. We will possibly use this, depending on how it turns out. It depends on the sound quality we can achieve, and how our narrator sounds. We would use it just to tie in ideas we are conveying visually, add more structure to the narrative we are making and generally make the ideas more accessible to the audience, by having the voiceover explain them clearly.
• Narration voice that tells the story, fills in gaps, evokes ideas etc – speaker never seen. Same as above.
• Music often used for emotive effect or to add commentary. Music is obviously extremely relevant to the concept, and so it must be used often to enforce the concept. It’ll also complement the visuals well. We plan on either using smooth jazz music to give chilled out mood to shots of the city, or Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz, which has a strong energetic beat that we could time shots to. This would make the shots of the city more upbeat, captivating and interesting. It depends which of these moods would complement the rest of the film as a whole product, which we can decide on once we have gathered all of our film.

This documentary aims to argue a relevant and interesting perspective on music in society, and has a very broad target audience, making it accessible for a large audience. It has strong ideas about society and the tone is very visually appeasing.

Treatment Update 1

This documentary will be expository. It will speak directly to the viewer proposing an argument to persuade the audience. All content included in the film will work towards reinforcing this argument. There will be occasional omniscient voiceover and the use of archival footage to string together segments. The reason I am using an expository form of documentary is because it is the best way to communicate the idea (of music and the industry) that has importance to me. This is because of the clarity and concision that an expository documentary lends. We will not participate directly in this documentary, because participant documentaries tend to create a personal perspective (of the participating person). I feel as though participating directly on screen would make the film less of an informational journey for the audience, and more of a story of the participant. It would possibly also convey our personal opinions, which is not what I want, I want the documentary to expose the reality of the music industry, rather than show my personal opinion. However, there still needs to be intervention from the documentary makers. This film will not be an actuality documentary, because we will be manipulating the film to adhere to what ideas we are conveying. An actuality may like the clarity, as we need to hold the audiences hand through some of the images they will see (through voiceover, titles etc.) We will also manipulate the style, which is another factor that varies from an actuality. It’ll have a cool, “finger clickin’” style. This will be achieved through post production editing mainly. We will keep the colours rich and interesting, and try to keep every shot lively and attractive.

You will need to discuss mood, structure, pace and documentary mode(s).

The documentary will have a subtle counter culture mood to it and from time to time the tone may represent society as a dystopia where the media is dangerous and in power to promote the idea that the world sucks without music and soul.

I will include the following:

• Interview person (Interviewee) contributes ideas on relevant subject to interviewer through questions and discussions.
• Short opinion interviews with members of the public
• Expert interviewee with special knowledge or status
• Title writing on screen to impart information or develop ideas
• Visual image shot to add interest
• Montage collection of quick cuts to give a strong impression
• Archival footage shots from previous productions or shoots
• Voiceover person speaks over other images
• Narration voice that tells the story, fills in gaps, evokes ideas etc – speaker never seen
• Music often used for emotive effect or to add commentary

This documentary aims to argue a relevant and interesting perspective on music in society, and has a very broad target audience, making it accessible for a large audience. It has strong ideas about society and the tone is very visually appeasing.

Concept Update 2

Present a brief outline of your documentary.

My documentary will be documenting the impact of music on the city and it’s community. It involves montages of the city at night, smooth jazz music, shots at local bar music, interviews with organizers of small gigs, the performers and the audience (and possibly random citizens) asking what they think the importance of music is in their society. It will then have an antagonizing perspective that music is not enough to make a living for people to survive, and leave the audience with the question of the importance of passion over making money

What is the purpose(s) of your documentary?

It will be an attempt to persuade the audience into understanding the importance of the music, and also to expose the local Auckland music scene and how it functions. This is because I think the importance of music is underestimated in society today, with the media producing countless replicas of Top 40 entertainment, art has slowly slipped through the cracks and has been forgotten. Our society has then reflected the attitudes evident in popular music; the partying, the sex, the recreational drug use and a general shallow way of life. I think this is a problem, so I plan to make this documentary give the message that it can be deeply gratifying to indulge in the artsy music scene, and furthermore it is a good way to discover yourself and build your own character. This should interest the audience too, by showing them a side of music they possibly have not seen, and could inspire them to make changes to themselves.

Explain the ideas/messages that you wish to explore in your documentary.

To show the importance of music (and art) in a community where business and commerce is so apparent, and that there is more than just the Top 40 scene. (Further explained above)

Explain how your documentary will appeal to the target audience.

It will focus on blending pleasant imagery (city lights, cool and calm drives through the city, atmospheric bar performances, happy audiences, clapping, smiling people) with music and the idea of music in the city. This should appeal to anyone who has the ability to see, but furthermore it will target everyone who considers any aspect of their life dull or boring, and give them a breath of fresh air. They’ll be interested because it is capturing moments of magic in the city we live in, but it is also informative enough to provide a new outlook that will also capture their attention. This includes the audience that will be at the film festival, school students, family members, friends and generally all members of the public.

Consider practical details – what does your documentary involve in terms of:

Time: I would like to have a lot of night time shots, which may clash with the school time we are offered to film with. I will have to solve this by utilizing out of class time.

Research: I may need to research the income of musicians, and other aspects of their lifestyle, like working a day job in conjunction with music, however it should be easy to do this at any point.

Personnel: Will need someone to drive crew to the city, sound person, camera person, and interview respondents. I have only considered parents and other family members, or bus.

Locations: City mainly, gigs at bars and small venues (such as the open mic night at the Wade Hotel in Silverdale). I will need to plan ahead to get into these. A lot of the gigs are monthly, so I will need to take whatever opportunities I can at whatever time they come.

Equipment: A good quality camera to capture the night scenes well, tripod and any stabilizing equipment, a mic for interviews and performances, car. Charlie and Briar, who are most likely going to be in the same group as me have a lot of equipment we could use. I have nothing.

Releases: Permission to film all the interviewed people, performing people, permission to film in bar and at gigs. These will just have to be written and printed whenever

Graphics and Special Effects Using Adobe After Effects I could add colour enhancing (using curves) to bring out particular visuals. Other than a general visual enhancment, the documentary will remain fairly basic regarding effects. This must be done on an out of school computer

What problems might you encounter and how might you solve them?

-I may not be able to get the required releases (listed above), or permission to film at all. This would mean we would not be able to include some segments that were essential to our plan, and we may have to reconsider how the documentary will be. We currently have a backup for Laughton Kora (Jimmy Christmas, another NZ musician), for Dean McGovern it would be one of the music teachers who is more readily available, and there should be no need for a contingency for the vox pop segment.
-Bad sound could ruin certain parts. We will try hard to avoid this, by checking our sound equipment thoroughly and doing tests. If we do have an inconsistent or inaudible clip, we may have to consider re-filming or replacement. If that is not possible, we could synthesize, download or record an alternate audio take to put over the clip.
-The people I plan to interview may have no profound opinion, in which case we may need to consider using our contingent interviewees (Jimmy Christmas and the music teachers). We will try to avoid this by constructing an interview that encourages interesting answers, by both using open ended questions and questions that hint towards a specific idea.
-I personally do not have immediate access to equipment, so I will need to borrow equipment. If Charlie or Briar are absent when we need to film, I could be useless. To avoid time wasting, I will always work to better my written/theory content. However, good communication will remain between group members to minimize any absences that could affect production
I also do not have a full license, and will need to find someone to drive passengers. We will most often use the public transportation system which is limited but generally reliable, so we shouldn’t encounter any problems with it.

Concept Update 1

Present a brief outline of your documentary.

My documentary will be documenting the impact of music on the city and it’s community. It involves montages of the city at night, smooth jazz music, shots at local bar music, interviews with organizers of small gigs, the performers and the audience (and possibly random citizens) asking what they think the importance of music is in their society. It will then have an antagonizing perspective that music is not enough to make a living for people to survive, and leave the audience with the question of the importance of passion over making money

What is the purpose(s) of your documentary?

It will be an attempt to persuade the audience into understanding the importance of the music, and also to expose the local Auckland music scene and how it functions. This is because I think the importance of music is underestimated in society today, with the media producing countless replicas of Top 40 entertainment, art has slowly slipped through the cracks and has been forgotten. Our society has then reflected the attitudes evident in popular music; the partying, the sex, the recreational drug use and a general shallow way of life. I think this is a problem, so I plan to make this documentary give the message that it can be deeply gratifying to indulge in the artsy music scene, and furthermore it is a good way to discover yourself and build your own character. This should interest the audience too, by showing them a side of music they possibly have not seen, and could inspire them to make changes to themselves.

Explain the ideas/messages that you wish to explore in your documentary.

To show the importance of music (and art) in a community where business and commerce is so apparent, and that there is more than just the Top 40 scene. (Further explained above)

Explain how your documentary will appeal to the target audience.

It will focus on blending pleasant imagery (city lights, cool and calm drives through the city, atmospheric bar performances, happy audiences, clapping, smiling people) with music and the idea of music in the city. This should appeal to anyone who has the ability to see, but furthermore it will target everyone who considers any aspect of their life dull or boring, and give them a breath of fresh air. They’ll be interested because it is capturing moments of magic in the city we live in, but it is also informative enough to provide a new outlook that will also capture their attention. This includes the audience that will be at the film festival, school students, family members, friends and generally all members of the public.

Consider practical details – what does your documentary involve in terms of:

Time: I would like to have a lot of night time shots, which may clash with the school time we are offered to film with. I will have to solve this by utilizing out of class time.

Research: I may need to research the income of musicians, and other aspects of their lifestyle, like working a day job in conjunction with music, however it should be easy to do this at any point/

Personnel: Will need someone to drive crew to the city, sound person, camera person, and interview respondents. I have only considered parents and other family members, or bus.

Locations: City mainly, gigs at bars and small venues (such as the open mic night at the Wade Hotel in Silverdale). I will need to plan ahead to get into these. A lot of the gigs are monthly, so I will need to take whatever opportunities I can at whatever time they come.

Equipment: A good quality camera to capture the night scenes well, tripod and any stabilizing equipment, a mic for interviews and performances, car. Charlie and Briar, who are most likely going to be in the same group as me have a lot of equipment we could use. I have nothing.

Releases: Permission to film all the interviewed people, performing people, permission to film in bar and at gigs. These will just have to be written and printed whenever

Graphics and Special Effects Using Adobe After Effects I could add colour enhancing (using curves) to bring out particular visuals. Other than a general visual enhancment, the documentary will remain fairly basic regarding effects. This must be done on an out of school computer

What problems might you encounter and how might you solve them?

I may not be able to get the required releases (listed above), or permission to film at all. Bad sound could ruin certain parts. The people I plan to interview may have no profound opinion. I personally do not have immediate access to equipment, so I will need to borrow equipment. I also do not have a full license, and will need to find someone to drive passengers.

Treatment

This documentary will be expository. It will speak directly to the viewer proposing an argument to persuade the audience. All content included in the film will work towards reinforcing this argument. There will be occasional omniscient voiceover and the use of archival footage to string together segments.

You will need to discuss mood, structure, pace and documentary mode(s).

The documentary will have a subtle counter culture mood to it and from time to time the tone may represent society as a dystopia where the media is dangerous and in power to promote the idea that the world sucks without music and soul.

I will include the following:

• Interview person (Interviewee) contributes ideas on relevant subject to interviewer through questions and discussions.
• Short opinion interviews with members of the public
• Expert interviewee with special knowledge or status
• Title writing on screen to impart information or develop ideas
• Visual image shot to add interest
• Montage collection of quick cuts to give a strong impression
• Archival footage shots from previous productions or shoots
• Voiceover person speaks over other images
• Narration voice that tells the story, fills in gaps, evokes ideas etc – speaker never seen
• Music often used for emotive effect or to add commentary

This documentary aims to argue a relevant and interesting perspective on music in society, and has a very broad target audience, making it accessible for a large audience. It has strong ideas about society and the tone is very visually appeasing.

Possible Interviews

Laughton Kora is a musician currently doing international work for big label top 40 musicians and even Kim Dotcom’s latest “music” project. He is also doing band mentoring at Orewa College, so we have access to him every monday after school, making him a good option to use in our film provided he accepts it.

Jimmy Christmas is from the band Luger Boa in New Zealand. People from our school have worked with him before and so he should be interested in helping out

Dean McGovern is the father of a student at Orewa College, is the Production Engineer and Scheduler for the Rock and Times FM, and so he is a good person to interview for a educated perspective in how the industry works

Gypsies, if there are any gypsies in town, they would be perfect to talk to about their lifestyle and what they think is important, art or business.

Music Lecturer at a university, for a completely new perspective.

Concept

Present a brief outline of your documentary.

My documentary will be documenting the impact of music on the city and it’s community. It involves montages of the city at night, smooth jazz music, shots at local bar music, interviews with organizers of small gigs, the performers and the audience (and possibly random citizens) asking what they think the importance of music is in their society. It will then have an antagonizing perspective that music is not enough to make a living for people to survive, and leave the audience with the question of the importance of passion over making money

What is the purpose(s) of your documentary?

It will be an attempt to persuade the audience into understanding the importance of the music, and also to expose the local Auckland music scene and how it functions.

Explain the ideas/messages that you wish to explore in your documentary.

To show the importance of music (and art) in a community where business and commerce is so apparent.

Explain how your documentary will appeal to the target audience.

It will focus on blending pleasant imagery (city lights, cool and calm drives through the city, atmospheric bar performances, happy audiences, clapping, smiling people) with music and the idea of music in the city. This should appeal to anyone who has the ability to see, but furthermore it will target everyone who considers any aspect of their life dull or boring, and give them a breath of fresh air.

Consider practical details – what does your documentary involve in terms of:

Time: I would like to have a lot of night time shots, which may clash with the school time we are offered to film with.

Research: I may need to research the income of musicians, and other aspects of their lifestyle, like working a day job in conjunction with music.

Personnel: Will need someone to drive crew to the city, sound person, camera person, and interview respondents

Locations: City mainly, gigs at bars and small venues (such as the open mic night at the Wade Hotel in Silverdale)

Equipment: A good quality camera to capture the night scenes well, tripod and any stabilizing equipment, a mic for interviews and performances, car.

Releases: Permission to film all the interviewed people, performing people, permission to film in bar and at gigs.

Graphics and Special Effects Using Adobe After Effects I could add colour enhancing (using curves) to bring out particular visuals. Other than a general visual enhancment, the documentary will remain fairly basic regarding effects.

What problems might you encounter and how might you solve them?

To not be able to get the required releases (listed above), or permission to film at all. Bad sound could ruin certain parts. The people I plan to interview may have no profound opinion. I personally do not have immediate access to equipment, so I will need to borrow equipment. I also do not have a full license, and will need to find someone to drive passengers.