FMP Documentary Log - 27th -30th April 2010

Today was the day of our pitches and we made some last minute adjustments to the presentations, when everything was put together we decided to have a quick run through of what we were going to say in the pitch we each had the PowerPoint with note pages and split the PowerPoint equally to explain our documentary idea and all of the codes and conventions we need to know.
As it was a pitch we also dressed smartly as we had to look presentable too. As we were last to go in we had time to go over our presentation, when the time came we went in to present our idea to a panel of lecturers. During this we were also filmed.
After the pitch we were told that we needed to make our overall documentary goal a lot clearer as it was too complex.
I was slightly upset that the idea wasn’t clear enough but we all had another chance to redo it. I made sure that everything that I did for the presentation was clear and changed anything that wasn’t relevant. For the rest of the week our group had to make sure the work flow was even so everyone had a slide to do, we also had to add slides after a lesson with John Branney about slides we needed to include, after this lesson I felt that some of the things that people left out were obvious and was shocked that I didn’t think of it before, so it was a good job we had another chance to do it better and boost our grades.

FMP Documentary Log - 26/04/10

As we were all in today we went over the presentation that had been created, we also discussed what else was needed in the presentation. I sent the presentation to the rest of the team so that they could put into their own slides to explain what they had researched; this was so everyone had their own slide to talk about. I researched for some filming equipment costs and travel costs for the hypothetical budget, channel 4's audience; the top 30 most watched programmes on channel 4 from the BARB website and found out about more vintage fairs. As this was our final day of preparation we managed to complete all of our slides, in my own time I created a logo for our production team and also made sure the PowerPoint was complete as it was vital for the pitch.

FMP Documentary Log - 23/04/10

Today was the day of our mock pitches for our documentaries. I decided to create a power point presentation with the help of my other team member to show what our documentary will be all about. With the research that we had ( OFCOM, Copyright, Channel 4 schedule etc) we started to piece the presentation together and as this was a multimedia presentation visuals were essential so i included pictures of the places we intend to go during the filming of our documentary, Pie charts from the research we had done,(Questionnaires) and information on rules and regulations also a visual representation, which was a clip of a vintage fair we are going to.
We both managed to get most of the presentation done, there was obviously some information needed to complete it but as there was two of us we did as much as we could but we did have some information from the other team members from before when we researched different fairs and also contacted places to go. So I made sure that everyone had some research in the presentation that was done by them. Even though we weren’t all there everyone made sure that they e-mailed work to each other which also helped in the long run if we got stuck.
In the final lesson we had our mock pitches and overall I think it went ok , the presentation did lack some information and needed to be added as it was important for example watershed times and music copyrighting. The mock pitches did help a lot as it made me realise how much work is needed in the pre production stages of producing a documentary.

FMP Documentary Log -19/04/10

This morning the group were told to get into their FMP groups and discuss the concepts and ideas of our documentary in preparation for the pitch on Tuesday 27th April. We came up with a few concepts on what our documentary is all about these are

• How Vintage fashion is affecting society today
• How Vintage fashion is growing
• People’s opinions on Vintage fashion
• The Costs and how it could affect high street shops
• How the industry affects people today

After this I decided I look up the rules and regulations of OFCOM and how we must follow it if we were a real production company making a documentary I also researched the copyright laws and what we would expect when following them. I thought it was good that we had this research as it would help us as we were producing the documentary following the rules you would need to follow if you were in the industry I also thought it was important to follow the rules for protecting under 18's as I feel our documentary would appeal to this age range as well as others.
In the afternoon session we carried on with preparation for the FMP pitch. We went through what we needed for the pitch for example we need a treatment and research to support our idea for a documentary. we learnt that the pitch should be a multimedia presentation and should include footage of documentaries that have a similar style and concept. I created a questionnaire for people fill out with the main question being what type of documentaries people are interested in and what styles make the documentary more appealing to watch. This will then help us decide on how we should film it with the help of researching other documentaries or programmes with the same style and approach. The questionnaire will also help us find out intended target audience.
So far as a group we have a vintage fair to attend in Cambridge where we will be getting footage of the fair in action and also getting the publics views on vintage and why they are attracted to it. I have also decided to go to the local Vintage shops in Birmingham and Kings Heath to ask on how they feel about the way vintage is affecting people and society today. I hope to try and not be biased about it so I could also ask in the more upmarket stores and ask how they feel about vintage clothing and if it affects them.