Imogen Polycarpou TV Production Blog

Finding the presenter: We put up an ad on Casting Call Pro. Below is what was advertised Risk Assessment   Contact Numbers and Roles 

Bill Nichols Bill Nichols tried to set out types of documentaries in reality - Issues and concepts of documentary ('Introduction to Documentaries) Documentary modes: Expository: VO narrator, nature documentaries, we never see the narrator, godly figure take everything they say as fact  Observational: fly-on-the-wall documentaries, documentary where you have no talking head shots, let action unfold  Interactive: guy who did it is featured in it, transparency in selection process, clear construction/mediation, if you have a message, story to tell  Reflexive: meta-fictional, story about the story, documentary about making a documentary  In Nichols 1994 edition of his book he also added: Performative: documentarist as star, documentarist becomes the star ( Bruzzi feels that performative makes the selection process all the more obvious) Stella Bruzzi Other Research  Ethical issues with documentaries:  might not want to give per...

Name: Jennifer Siebel Newsom D.O.B: 19th June 1974 From: San Fransisco, California Best known for:  Miss Representation  Awards:  Nominated for Best Feature for 'The Invisible War' (2012) - International Documentary Association  Won Best Achievement in Female Filmmaking for 'The Mask you live in' (2015) - Las Vegas International Film Festival  Nominated for Sundance Film Festival Award for ' Miss Representation' (2011)  Newsom has only done two documentaries. Both of these two documentaries connect with each other as one is about the female representation of women in media (my favourite subject) and her recent one is how men are subjected to stereotypical standards and what it takes to be a man.  Miss Representation (2011)  7.7 IMDB  Synopsis:  Explores the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America and the limited portrayal of women in the media and what it means to ...

Name: Michael Moore  D.O.B: April 23rd 1954 From: Michigan  Best known for:  Rogen & Men Sicko Awards:  1 Oscar  43 Awards  27 nominations Below are the 3 movies which I decided to watch and analyse.  Roger & Me (1989)  7.5 IMDB  Synopsis:  Pursues GM CEO Roger Smith to confront him about the harm he did to Flint, Michigan with his massive downsizing  Sicko (2007)  8.1 IMDB  Synopsis:  Its compares the American health care industry with other countries, and HMO horror stories.  Where to Invade Next (2015)  7.1 IMDB  Synopsis:  Goes around different countries and compares them to America I usually analyse each movie separately but because Michael Moore has the same technique, I decided to put it all together.  Colour: - warm colours = they are not bright because he talks about serious matter but at...

StoryVille Episode Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite Producer: Gabriela Cowperthwaite Writers: Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Eli B. Despres and Tim Zimmerman Synopsis: It concerns Tilikum, an orca held by Sea World and the controversy over captive killer whales Even though I analysed this documentary for my script I wanted to analyse it for my research as well.  When watching it, it starts off with Voice over and archive footage of what happened (v.o is the telephone call to emergency).  It then goes on (which I though was smart) and shows and advertisement for Sea World = shows glory, happiness, once in a life time opportunity.  Another thing which I enjoyed was the fact that all the people that were interviewed for the documentary were ex-trainers for Sea World. The technique it then uses is a montage of the trainers saying where they come from (all over the US) A lot of archive footage was used especially when showing the incident or the shows from t...

BBC Program  Narrator - Stephen Fry  Producer - Verity White  Series Producer - Mark Brownlow  Executive Producer -Michael Gunton When I started watching the documentary I was fascinated with the whole design of it. The colours, the technique and the sound design.  It opened with an overview of all the animals it was going to talk about (with VO giving a quick description) and CRYSTAL CLEAR images, which made me speechless.There technique was done so that they could show the audience what its like to live in that world. How small animals feel against big animals, therefore they had to get down low to capture all this.  The tree plays a key role in the documentary, as its used to change topic. it is done with a tracking shot and light coming through all the leaves.  Colours: warm/brown (dark colours)  Sound Design: each sound of every animals is amplified through effects but also the sound ...

My position in my group is the Producer and the script writer. Being the script writer, I wasn't 100% sure how to begin my script so I did extra research and decided to analyse the the beginning of a few documentaries. BlackFish  8.3 IMDB It starts with the original emergency phone call of when the incident which says what happened and then archive footage is used.  They then go to begin the documentary with interviews of trainers at Sea World  Planet Earth  9.5 IMDB  I enjoyed watching one of these episodes which was about Mountains.  It begins with a cold mountain then moves onto hot mountains which then connects to volcanoes. It then moves on to the animals that live on top of these mountains.  I liked the way that everything somehow connected with a majestic flow and you didn't notice how it went from mountains to volcanoes to animals.  What I did for our script: I decided for our script to begin ...

For this unit, we have to make a 10 minute documentary on doorstep wildlife and nature for Channel Eden. Since its supposed to be for a specific channel I decided to further research on the channel. What is it: - Digital television channel - Available on Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable, TalkTalk PLus TV, BT TV and TVPlayer. - Wildlife and nature channel which but recently has moved into more scientific programmes Our time slot for our supposed show it 8pm, so I checked out what is playing during that time, which is as follow: Human Planet  Worlds Wildest City  Both of the above are wildlife and nature based. 

Our first workshop with Helen was Interviews. I was shocked a to how time consuming it can be and complicated in the aspect of making sure the person you are interviewing answers the question correctly. As practise I was the person being interviewed and it gave me an insight into how much pressure the interviewer has. For the afternoon session we went into groups and had to do more practise with lighting,sound and camera shots when interviewing 2 people. 4th April 2016 was our sequencing workshop. This day, we had to film cut aways for the interviews we did.  Ida and I, decided to edit the work together since our group got changed.