Commissions (Initial Idea Development) 7

   I have looked at Stacey Dooley's documentaries that have been made for BBC Three. I have looked at her documentaries as she has done a number of documentaries for the channel and it will give me a good outlook to what our group's documentary should aim for in regards of quality standards. Stacey Dooley started her career as taking part in the BBC Three documentary series 'Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts' in 2007. Since taking part in the show she has become one of BBC Three's most celebrated presenters with her hard hitting documentaries for BBC Three. Her documentary topics range from clubbing holidays in Bulgaria to child sex trafficking in Cambodia.
   In her documentaries we see her immerse herself into situations that are happening on the screen. This is an interesting take on typical documentary making because as when she gets involved in situations or even put herself in danger, it puts the audience in her shoes. It is like she is telling a story when she gives her opinion. Also the fact that she isn't forceful towards one answer on the subject. For example, in one of her documentaries about Peru becoming the main supplying of cocaine she shows the negative side to it i.e. what is in the drugs, the local mafia controlling towns and villages, and the positive sides as well such as the money making the cocaine brings for the poor people with no other way of earning income.
   I am not considering having a presenter for the documentary but instead will have the main character talk and show what she's been through, telling her story. It would be hard to find someone to present the show who would delve themselves into the topic, the story and the theme, also it would take the emotion out of the main characters story and make it seem more like an interrogation than an interview. We have to present the interview as the main character telling their story rather than forcing information out of them, hopefully we will be able to achieve this when the interviewing process begins.

Commissions (Initial Idea Development) 6

   I have looked into creative techniques that can be put into the documentary. And one technique I have looked into is an exposition. An exposition is where the first thing you see at the beginning of a documentary is a clip which highlights and shows the main subject and overall theme of the documentary. This technique, when used properly, is a successful tool to draw the audience in to whats happening on the screen.
   A documentary that I have seen which uses this technique well is 'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off'. This documentary focuses on Jonny Kennedy a 37 year old man who suffers from a rare skin condition known as EB which causes skin fragility and ends up giving the carrier of the condition terminal skin cancer. The documentary starts of with the use of an exposition where we see Jonny dead in his wheelchair with his family around him talking about whats happened. This powerful piece of footage successfully highlights the theme and topic of the documentary. This is also aided by Jonny doing a voice over during this which in my opinion was needed to help the audience understand what is happening on screen.
   I hope to create something like this for the documentary, either it be on our main case study or just a montage of clips which will have the same purpose, but this depends on what footage we get from filming. If we get something as powerful that shows a lot of raw emotion then we will definitely be using this technique.



Link for 'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off' documentary.