DOCUMENTARY - IDEAS LAB - CRITICAL REFLECTIONS.

TAZ, KATIE AND CARLA 

IDEAS LAB

Before the ideas lab came around I had two ideas to bring to the table ..

                                                                      CARLA

• 1. A documentary about documentaries - This was to explore major broadcasting companies and find out what and how things have changed over the past 20- 30 years in regards to online and on a channel, looking at 'Gorilla' doc's and the benefits and finding out if this has had an impact on peoples jobs and careers within a network station or has this created more jobs, is journalism relevant and how is research the same or different for those who studied the trade for years in school/college/university - to make a career in/on Tv - now YouTube is a massive platform is it still relevant ?

WHY?

I wanted to look at this because I thought I would have a great inside opportunity to talk to some key players from different channels because I have a few connections and Documentaries are a huge part of my viewing life - my niece is being filmed for a BBC show 'Child of our Time' as she has been since the day she was born and will be until she is 21, so I have a few connections I could have really explored there.

WHY NOT?

In this case, it is just empty promises, I can pull off what I want to in a sense that I will spend every waking hour trying to get what I want until I get it, but this is a group project and we need to split the responsibilities fairly and that would be a lot of pressure on my group and wouldn't want to risk 'burning bridges' with our potential employers if we got it wrong.

    

• 2. Vanity Vs Death - Now this idea was very similar to my last 'Script to screen' final project message about how social media is less important to the people who have a short life expectancy. 

WHY?

I wanted it to be like the pilot I did for BBC some 9 years ago with 'Beauty and the beast' when a small film crew followed me asked me questions about my make-up and how long it took me to get ready (I was in my 20's)  and I was considering getting surgery in the future, the film crew never revealed the purpose of them filming me doing my make-up or the question s until they introduce me to a guy called Adam, he was a twin who had a genetic disease which causes for his skin to keep growing layer by layer everyday, when I saw him I cried my eyes out, the camera stayed on me although I wanted for them to stop filming. We spent 3 days together, we shared a day in my life, a day in his life, then we did the conclusion interview, this changed my outlook on life and I know it would have a had an impact on the viewers, this is why I was keen to do this idea, the shock factor and learning something and not taking life for granted.

WHY NOT?

Finding the balls to ask people who are terminally ill or have a short life expectancy,  to do a project like this without having past experience in this would be tough, although I said I had balls in finding people this is on another scale! and the time frame we have is not enough time to get the stories that we want, although time is created by us for us, I think this will be an emotional challenge for my group because they are younger and I don't want to mess with their mental state of mind (I hope I said that correct)

                                                                      KATIE

• 1. History, fact or fiction - Katie explained untrue facts that she had seen online of accounts that have happened in the past such as Tudor or Elizabethan times, she mentioned an authour called 'Philippa Gregory'. katie wanted to explore separating and researching the 'fact from fiction' about real accounts that happened in the past. Online, people believe whatever truth because it's online. 

WHY?

Because history is great and I would love to explore the truth behind the fake, it happened every day and people are really gullible to this idea that if it is in black and white on a website then 'it must' be real.

WHY NOT?

It isn't so much 'why not' it's the 'how?' with this one, I love history but how can we make this relevant and fit into a documentary format? we could combine the 'vanity' idea with the history idea?

WHAT THEN?

Myself and Katie discussed (Taz was absent) that it may be a good idea to show something positive about online fashion and make-up that includes historical figures, Katie talked about the 'K's' (For copyright reasons I cannot mention with a reference and haven't got one at hand) and how they have made a household name for the world to follow them and their fashion/makeup tips, then we talked about how the Queens/Kings of the far past also did the same and it wasn't social media to blame for the negativity that the world faces today because even without the WWW the world would still be informed of the latest fashion or style but would be informed in a different way.

Kings and Queens in the past had portraits done but I am sure that they didn't want the artist to draw every flaw that they had in that portrait! or it would be 'off with your head 'scenario'. A very interesting angle to look at but we still needed to talk to Taz.

                                                                       TAZ

• 1. Media Poser/Exposure - The lives of people who make a living off of Instagram or any social media platform but anyone would pass them in the street and not know who they are.

WHY?

These people are very much the typical 'Person next door' and it is to make the audience realise that these people are still human but they make a living off the platform that the social media has given them.

WHY NOT?

What will we prove that hasn't been done before? there needs to be more bone to this one subject although I think it is an amazing idea we need to have a conclusion, an issue that surrounds this stigma of online and 'real life' so to speak.

WHAT THEN?

We can put all these idea's together and come up with something that touches all the issues that we want to cover, what are these issues?

• Do people online believe all they see or hear?
• Is it important to have a platform online to promote products
• Have images always been spread the same way for vanity purposes and is blaming social media a cop out?

We have a guideline to an idea we just need to research this further.