My Pitch

Pitch-

I will be working independently, therefore once I’ve finalised my idea I will need to create a clear plan of what I’m going to do and when so I don’t fall behind. 

The subject of my documentary will be auto immune liver disease, this is a rare disease, that Birmingham Children’s Hospital are currently researching and treating, therefore this is where I will do most of my filming. I picked Birmingham Children’s Hospital above others as it specialises in the liver and due to my condition is a location in which I’m familiar with. I want to interview my consultant, one or two nurses, and perhaps the fundraising team, school teachers, and a couple of patients. All these people have given me permission to film them, and I will ask them all different questions. I will ask my consultant questions such as how many patients they approximately treat a year with auto immune liver disease, the function and importance of the liver etc. these will be different to the questions in which I ask the patients as I will ask them more open questions about their own experiences in the liver unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. 

My primary target audience will be 25-50 year-olds, both male and female, I will target it at all ethnicity groups, all classes, all family sizes etc. as everyone can relate in some way as everyone knows at least one person who has suffered from an illness, I will also target it at patients primarily in the liver unit, this may help them in some way as it can help them to see that they’re not alone, the secondary audience will be people who live or are from Birmingham as they can relate to filming location, it will also be patients with conditions unrelated to the liver, as well as parents of patients and doctors. The tertiary audience will be utopians and reformers, as they both want the world to be a better place and therefore will want to find a solution to cure auto immune liver disease.

I will continue to research filming modes of documentaries in more detail to ensure that I pick the right ones, I’m going to read through all the booklets, leaflets, letters, and documents that the hospital have sent me over the years about the liver and auto immune liver disease so that my memory is refreshed and I fully understand the documentary topic. I want to do some further research and practice on premiere pro and use some more advanced tools in which I didn’t manage use last year. 

I will use the expository mode for sections of my documentary, I will film the liver ward, the outside building of the hospital etc. whilst doing a voiceover, this will probably be how I open my documentary. I might use the observational mode for parts of my documentary but I’m not 100% sure yet, and I will use interviews for definite. There are many codes and conventions of the documentary genre that I want to use such as voiceovers, establishing shots, close ups, interviews etc. but there are also many codes and conventions that I don’t want to use such as handheld cameras, dramatisation etc. and there are some codes and conventions that I’m still not sure about such as text. I want to explore into premiere pro more as last year I just used the basic tools, and I’m thinking about being more creative when editing from one shot to another, I also want to use old pictures of patients from their time in hospital. I want this editing to look quite delicate as they're talking about a sensitive subject. 

I am going to plan filming times, so that I don’t get behind. I want to film way more footage than I need, so that I can pick out the best parts, I also want to produce a storyboard so that I have an idea of what the final documentary will look like, I want to plan what locations I want to film in and I also want to practice interviews so that I’m well aware of how to use them and ask question effectively, this is something that I’m planning to practice in my preliminary task. In my preliminary task I can also practice my editing skills and I also want to see if non-diegetic music will work in some parts of my documentary and if so, what songs would work best. After producing my preliminary task I want to show it to as many people as possible of all different ages and from all different backgrounds so that I can get as much feed back as possible giving me a good idea of what worked well and what didn’t and therefore giving me time to plan and improve my production for my final documentary piece.

I want to create some sort of logo or symbol that I can use on the social media pages and posters. To link the social media pages and posters to the actual documentary I was thinking about placing the symbol in which I decide to use at some point in my video, probably at the start or end of the documentary. I will also come up with a creative name for the documentary which I can then print on the posters and place on the social media pages again linking everything together, I would also like to use the Birmingham children’s hospital logo on all 3 tasks so that audiences can identify the logo and link them, not only together but also to the hospital itself. I would like to air my documentary on the BBC one as it tends to deal with serious issues or perhaps the BBC two, I’m still indecisive. 

Locations in which I want to film at include, the hospital itself, most probably in the consultant’s room and I would like to film short clips around the liver ward, but this is something they said they would need to check. I would also like to film parts in Birmingham city; I might not use this but it’s something I would like to have anyway. I want to film an exterior establishing shot of Birmingham Children’s Hospital. The parts at the hospital I’m planning to film at the end of November for my preliminary task as I’m going to Birmingham then anyway, and the other parts I would like to film during the Christmas holidays or a weekend when I have more time. Equipment consists of a camera and lights (in which I can borrow from a family friend) I would like a microphone but I’m not too sure where I would get one from therefore this is something that in need to look into. I don’t have any major problems at the moment however I am slightly concerned that Birmingham isn’t particularly close and therefore I will need to get lots of footage when I go.