Editing

I have been doing a lot of editing recently. I am finding it quite fustrating to create a narrative for the documentary. Editing is very time consuming, for example putting some party footage between an interview with my Grandma proved difficult. The bit of the interview which is being relpaced with some of the party footage has to be the same length. Extracting the audio also has to be the same size as the party footage. My first attepmt of doing this was very time consuming and the cuts did not look sharp enough. The more i've practised editing, the better and quicker i get at it and i'm learning how to do something different each day.
I have also edited the animation drawings. On photoshop i sharpened the outline of the drawings, this is so the lines are thicker and blacker, which makes the drawings stand out more.
Because editing is very time consuming and the footage i am working with is difficult to cut because the interviewees over-talk which makes it difficult to cut; i am finding it challenging to meet the deadline.

Filming on the 10th of dec

I filmed an interview with my mum and brother. The intention was to create a cook a long session. So my mum teaching my brother how to cook, whilst me interviewing them. The interview didnt quite turn out this way, due to the arrangement of the kitchen and space for the positioning of the camera. However the footage i did film was very useful. I am more relived now that i have opinions of the Greek culture from the younger generation. I liked the set up of the interview. My past interviews have been sit-down ones, this one had more movement and because there were two people being interviewed at the same time, it was much more interesting. Interviews this time round were easier and quicker, as i knew exactlty what type of answers i was looking for. since then i have uploaded the footage onto the computer, i am a bit disappointed about the lighting and at times i think the camera is too zoomed out, which means you can sea the washing machine within the frame, but this could be apart of the mise-en-scene and the audience will be able to easily etablish the setting.

More production work

Last week i interviewed my cousin. The intention was to get a young Greek person's opinion of the Greek culture. Getting the mise-en-scene right was difficult. I had to film in school, so i used a school office. I had to try and make the office not look like a school and more homely. I started to film the interview as a long mid-shot, however i didn't like the way the interview turned out. My cousin looked isolated and the white walls gave a cold atmosphere. I decided to zoom in on her face to create a close-up. I was happier with the way the close-up made the interview look more intimate. Also the other interviews are mid-shots, so by using a close-up i'd be providing different camera positions.

The interview questions were:

• What do you like most about being Greek?
  
• How do you think Greek traditions have changed in your family since your parents moved here?
  
• Would you agree with the fact that your parents are more strict than your British friends parents?
• What do you like about Greek food?
• has growing up in the U.K made you value your traditions less?

Feedback on filming on the 3/12/08

Filming was another success. The interview ended up being shorter than my Grandma's video, which proved helpful as it meant that I didn't have as much footage to scan through;which would have been time consuming.

Since the filming i have uploaded the footage on to the computer and started editing. The editing was easier and quicker than before because i knew what i wanted from the interview. I specifically picked out parts that would tie in with the interview with my Grandma. 

Looking back at the footage, i was disappointed at how the position of the camera looks too straight. However the fact that the eye-line is looking towards the right, makes it seem that the position of the camera is at an angle.

filming 3/12/08

Today after schooli will be going to my grandparents house to film an interview. I will be interviewing my Grandad, i have planned the questions i will be asking him, most of them are similar to the questions are asked my grandma in her interview. The shot list is also similar to that of my grandma's interview.

Shot list:

• Interview (mid-shot), him sitting on his sofa chair
• panning shots of all the family photos
• Long shot of my grandparents together

What i will need?

• Camera
• tape
• tripod
• plate

Editing 2/12/08

Recently i have been apprehensive as to whether i will get the documentary finished. I have good footage but i still need to do a lot more, such as interviews and the cook along. My cousins are hard to get hold of for filming and are quite unreliable , which is fustrating; so for now the cook along idea is on hold. However i still need to go to interview my Grandad which will hopefully be early next wee. This week i hope to have interviewed my mum and a cousin.

Today i have been editing the footage i filmed on sunday and have been trying to piece the documentary together. I have gone through the interview with my Grandma a few times now and have picked out the footage that i will be using. 

The music for the documentary is perfect and i have also being editing that, by making it sync with the opening footage of the documentary.

Filming-30/11/08

On sunday i filmed some footage of my 18th birthday party. I saw this as an opportunity to film a lot of Greek dancing and i got some really useful over head shots of my whole family eating and sitting together around tables. I will be using this footage as snippets that will follow interviews throughout the documentary and at the beginning.

Editing and filming

Editing and filming have been going quite slowly at the moment, which is quite fustrating.
I have chosen a Greek song called "zorbas" that i would like to use for my documentary. The song starts of slow and gradually gets faster, i would use this song for the opening of the documentary. I have been re-viewing the footage that i have and seeing what i would be useful and what wouldn't. I haven't placed any of the footage in order/sequence yet because i need more interviews and footage. i am intending to film some fun shots of my family and my birthday party on sunday, along with some traditional greek dancing and plate smashing. Next week i would like to interview my mum and the weekend after i hope to film the cook along session with my brother and cousin at my grandparents house, as well as interviewing my grandad.

Editing

I have recently been going through the footage that i filmed last week. I have been noting down what parts of the footage would be useful. I have separated the long 50 min interview into different sections in terms of the question asked. for example "role within the family" or "challenges for greek youths growing up in Britain?" This will prove useful when i go back to pick out certain parts of the footage that i will want to use for my documentary.

I have also been editing other footage, such as the single shots of different photos to use in the opening of the documentary. i have edited each clip so they are 17 seconds long, i am happy with the continuation of each clip and how they look good as quick edits.

I am still waiting on the drawings for the animation at the beginning, which i hope to get by the end of this week so i can start editing them next week.

What do I want from my documentary?

Before filming i started to note down exactly what I wanted from this documentary. This was very useful as it gave me a clear perspective during filming of what i wanted. It also helped when i wrote the interview questions. whilst writing the questions i was looking back thinking if any of them were answering my objectives.

1. Introduce people to a real Greek family.
2. Identify the contrast of opinions between the older and younger people in the family about their culture.
3. Give people an insight into Greek food.
4. Focus on what it is like for a young Greek person growing up in Britain today.

starting production-9/11/08

The start of filming was very successful. I managed to get the interview with my Grandma done, The long shot of her house, and a panning shot of some family photos. I also got some extra stuff filmed that could be useful to put in the documentary, like my Grandma pointing at photos of her grandchildren, which i think will add great comedy value. The interview went on for a very long time,nearly an hour and because we only had one tape, i didnt get to film any other footage that could of been useful.
Before filming are re-wrote the interview questions and planned a shot list:

Shot list

• Interview with Grandma
• Long shot of house
• Panning shot of family photos

Interview questions:

• Why do you think traditions have changedin your Greek family?
• How do you think the younger people in your Greek family see theri culture?
• What is your opinion of Greek food? (Is it important in the Greek culture?)
• How do you feel about cooking for the family?
• Do you think that the younger people in your family are aware of how to cook traditional Greek food?
• What do you think your role is within your family?
• What do you like most about being Greek?

I found that during the interview i didnt stick to these questions the whole time,other questions came naturally, that followed up anything she had mentioned in her answers.

Overall filming was a success, and i have imported the footage on the computer ready to edit.

Looking forward to the next led of filming.

plans for 1st leg of filming

It has been agreed that on Sunday the 9th of November my teacher and i will go to my grandparents house to start filming. The day would consist of filming an interview with my Grandma and using the mise-en-scene of the house to make tracking shots, which i could use in the documentary.
I will need: shot list, storyboard, camera, tape, tracking poles, microphone (boom), interview questions, and tri-pod.

Plannning- the opening

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3y43cyddI

The opening of goodfellas has chracter introductions. I like the way that in this clip the camera moves slowly arounf the room, i think this would be useful to use in the opening of my documentary. I would introduce the main chratacters of the documentary as well as emphasising that the Greek family is big.

Possible interview questions, so far...

Since you moved to the U.K in the 50's do you think there has been a change in traditions within your Greek family?(Grandma)

Do you think traditions have changed in your Greek family? (cousin)

Why do you think Greek food is an important ingredient that brings your family together? (Grandparents and cousins)

Do you take part in the preparation of Greek food at home? (Grandad, cousin)

How do you feel about cooking food for the family? (Grandma)

What do you like most about being Greek? (everyone)

I have been trying to think of questions that could be asked to the Grandparents and the cousins so that there will be a clear comparision between the answers of the older and younger generations. I need to think of more questions for the cousins whilst they're cooking and for my Grandad. However i also understand that during the interviews new topics of converstations may develop which will generate new questions.

Character Profiles

The Grandma:

• will be used as part of a voiceover and interviews
• strong Greek accent,may need subtitles
• close-ups on use of hand gestures
• important because she is the voice of the older generation within the Greek family
• her role is to provide the audience with opinions about Greek culture, which will be more traditional than the youngsters interviewed

The Grandad:

• Used for interviews
• strong Greek accent
• located sitting in an armchair in his house-typical greek man
• His opinion on Greek culture, important to see his male opinion

Young Greek people:

• Will be interviewed and will be completing their task of cooking a traditional Greek dish
• their opinion's on their culture are valued, because the aim is to compare their opinions with the older generation.

Planing-Brief outline of documentary

My Big Fat Greek Family uncovers the reality of Greek culture and being young but Greek in Britain today. We meet four young people of Greek origin and learn about their attitudes towards family, food and more about their culture. Channel four will seek to uncover the gap between generations in the Greek culture and how it has changed as we move into a more developed, contemporary society.
The youngsters will be given a task of attempting to cook a traditional Greek dish for them to understand more about the preparation that goes into making Greek food. Will this open their eyes to how much their culture is still very much a part of their lives or will the effect of living in Britain make them value their traditions less?

Planning-animation

I finished putting the drawings together to create the animation. I was very pleased with the way it looks and have come to the conclusion that i will definately be using this animation idea for the documentary. I am now in the process of selecting music that will sync well with the pace of the animation. I like the "Sousta" and the pace of this song works well with the sample animation.

Planning- Testing animation

On Thursday the 16th of October I scanned the animations on to the computer. There was a delay in scanning the drawings because there was problems with the scanner and i had to go to the photography department and use their scanner. This was quite time consuming, however now i know that when i need to use the scanner again it may take a while and therefore i will need to leave myself more time.
I was pleased with how the animations looked on screen. Each drawing was 4 seconds long, which is too long in order to make the animation look good. So i had to shorten each drawing to around 14 mini-seconds; this also took awhile because i was getting used to using the software again, although once i got the hang of it, it did'nt take as long. I only managed to work on two of the drawings as i ran out of time, but the result looked really good and so far i think i am going to stick with the animation idea, seeing as it worked out how i had intended. Although next week i would like to finish it off to make sure this idea is worth considering.

Planning

I have been thinking about how to create the opening of my documentary and have come up with an animation idea. The idea is to draw stick men dancing and plate smashing at different stages and scan them into the computer to then put together to make a sequence, which will hopefully look like an animation. A friend of mine is a talented cartoon drawer, so i would get her to do the drawings. However i understand that this would be very time consuming to construct and edit but i think the result would look really good. During the animation there would be diagetic greek music and the sounds of plate smashing.
At the moment i am working on an example animation to test the idea and see if it works and looks good. Tomorrow i will scan the drawings into the computer.
I hope the idea works as i think it is fun and creative, which will appeal to my target audience.

Brief Outline-(rough)

My Big Fat Greek Family uncovers the reality of Greek culture and being young but Greek in Britain today. We meet four young people of Greek origin and learn about their attitudes towards family,food and more about their culture. Channel four will seek to uncover the gap between generations in the Greek culture and how it has changed as we move into a more developed, contemporary society.

The youngsters will be given a task of cooking a traditional Greek dish in an attempt for them to understand more about the preparation that goes into making Greek food.

Will this make them see that their culture is still apart of their lives or has living in Britain influenced them in valuing their traditions less?

Institutional Research

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/16/tvratings.television1

This article shows channel 4's viewer ratings have dropped, according to a recent survey. BBC1 came out on top, as it got the highest viewer rating out of the five terrestrial channels. This is because the BBC are more diverse. Whereas the main focus for channel 4 viewers is big brother, it seems that channel 4 are relying on their audeinces because of big brother. They need more divers programmes that will attract new audiences. My documentary will provide channel 4 with the diverse programe that they need, which will attract a new audience. As it is informative, interesting and humerous.

Institutional research- Production company

Diverse Productions have produced many diverse, cultural documentraies for channel 4. They are part of The Zodiak Television Company who are one of the largets production companies in Europe. Zodiak develop, produce and distibute innovative content for all screens.

This Production company is appropriate for my documentary, as it has produced diverse documentaries such as "Young Black Farmers" and "Ballet changed my life" these documentaries are away of challenging young people; as well as informing and educating people about something new and interesting, which is what i am intending on portraying in my documentary.

Institutional Research

Whilst researching Channel 4 i came across their ethos and their aims. "Channel 4 is a unique institution that does remarkable things, a fact recognised by the wider industry both nationally and on the international stage. To champion alternative voices and fresh perspectives " This supports my idea of "My Big Fat Greek Family" idea. It seems that channel 4 encourage their audiences to get involved and to show viewers diverse cultures, making them think and compare the differences to how they live their lives.

Channel 4 say that they want "to challenge people to see the world differently," my documentary could live up to this, in terms of showing people a culture that is different to theirs.

Channel 4 takes pride in the fact that it is well known for it's "diverse programming." My documentary would suit this institution as it will offer information about a topic that is thought-provoking and interesting, as well as extending people's knowledge on what they already know about Greek culture.

The Communication Act of 2003 states that channel 4 "includes programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value," My Big Fat Greek family supports this in the way that it is informative, educating people about a different culture, but at the same time will attempt to "demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity," which appeals to the younger channel 4 viewer.

Product research

I recently watched two documentaries to give me an idea of the conventions that are used. I created a table to take notes on, the headings were: Soundtrack/music/voiceover, Narrative style/tone,choice of shots, titles/credits, editing, Use of set-ups (situation), Location/ backdrops of interviews.

The Tower
BBC 1 documentary about the displacement of people and their homes to make way for a new regeneration project that involves new, modern, swanky apartments.
The documentary followed the lives of 3 very different people and how this regeneration project would effect their lives. I liked the intimate approach of following these people, as they are all in the samw position, but changes this project will have on their lives is very different.

• The orchestral, low-high pitch music; builds up getting louder during the transition to the next shot- I think this would be useful in my documentary, because the technique infroms the audience the change from one topic to the next. In my documentary i would like to use typical greek music.

Diagetic sound of people talking or being interviewed were edited as voiceovers used during location shots and long duration shots.

• The narrative style had a formal introduction to the documentary, with a very serious tone. very informative
• The beginning of the documentary consisted of a serious of shot duration shots of "The Tower" and high abgle shots of the location of the tower.
• The titles and credits were very brief. only one scene was used for the titles and was very short,2-3secs. Quite dull colours, black background with white font.
• 1-4 second shots, whilst documentary is beginning(quite short). The shots match what the voiceover is saying. The shots go on longer than when the person finished talking, to see their emotions.
• People were being interviewed whilst carrying on with what they were normally doing, so they were talking to the interviewee at the same time- I like this idea as it adds to the realness of the documentary.

Domestic Violence-(In America)

• This was more of a real life documentary, following the cops around America's homes chasing up domestic violence.
• The doc begins with long duration shots of the sub-urban neighbourhood, which is used to set the scene- this could be useful in my documentary, maybe to show shots of greek stereotypes e.g dancing etc

Each of these documentaries were very different. I liked the way The Tower follows the lives of different people, however this would be difficult to re-create due to time and valibility of equipment. The Tower's documentary had a very long informative introduction, this would be something i would consider doing as it is easier to gather the information i would need.

I have more documentaries that i am waiting to get hold of and watch, these documentaries will hopefully give be a clearer idea of other conventions i could re-create.

Product reasearch: How to get my message across

I have been thinking about what i want to achieve whilst making this documentary, therefore i need to be successful in getting my message across. i have been looking at various websites and noting what they do to make their documentaries successful.
Here are tips the Film-Street website offer when wanting to putting your message across:

• Interview people In some documentaries the filmmaker is part of the film. He or she may be seen interviewing people and we hear what they think about what is happening.
• Use a voice over or narrator A voice over or narrator can set the scene and give more background information.
• Stay behind the scenes In lots of documentaries we don't see or hear from the filmmaker, but it is important to remember that we are still hearing their version of what happens.

Channel 4 have good advice on narration skills and because i am thinking of including a voiceover, they have useful tips on how to make it good.
1. Never describe what's going on in the pictures
2. Use words that are simple and easy to understand.
3. Keep sentences short.
4. Facts in commentary - leave the emotion for sync.
5. Do not express personal opinions (unless you are a subject of the film).
6. Less is more.

-

Audience research results

Q.1 The most popular T.V channel watched was channel 4. Therefore the documentary will be aimed at a Channel 4 audience and will be in the style of a channel 4 documentary. I was intending on creating this documentary for channel 4, so i have started doing some institution research.

Q.2 Documentaries and comedy were the most popular genres if T.V. I intend on making this documentary slightly humerous with a mocking tone,as this is what a channel 4 audience likes to watch.

Q.3 Last documentaries watched were: Blue Planet, Wife Swap,Sex education with Anna Richardson, Breast Feeding, "Threads"-about ethical trade in fashion, Earth wars: Climate change, Who do you think you are?, LAX Files-The Game and Star wars reunited.

Q.4 Genrally the topic was what was liked most about the documentaries. From this i need to ensure that my topic is interesting, humerous, factual and entertaining

Q.5 What wasn't liked about the documentary: No real conclusion, exploited family too much, presenter is annoying, wasn't that factual. From this it is clear that my documentary needs too be factual as well as entertaining and that instead of a presenter a voice over may appeal to the target audience instead.

Q,6 Big Families and Tasty Greek food were the most popular things associated with Greek people. This is good because this is exactly what the documentary will be showing, so i know the documentary will be giving the target audience what they want to watch.

Q.7 From the questionnaire it is clear that the Mum does most of the cooking in the household. This is something i want to explore in my documentary and to find out whether it has always been that way? and will it change?

Q.9 The target audience want to see Greek history-more about the Greek culture, Big humour, Plate smashing, An inside look at Greek living, what makes Greek families different to english families, traditions. All of which i will do my best to include in this documentary. These answers have given me an idea as to what people know about Greek people, hopefully after watching the opening of this documentary they will find out something different.

Questionnaire questions

Q.1 Are you male or female?
Q.2 What ethnicity are you?
Q.3 What T.V channels do you watch?
Q.4 What Genre of T.v do you watch the most?
Documentaries Comedy Chat Shows Reality T.V Current Affairs Music Shows Other
Q.5 Have you seen any documentaries lately? If so what was the last documentary you watched?
Q.6 What did you like about the documentary?
The style of the doc Topic Soundtrack Other
Q.7 What didn't you like about the documentary?
Q.8 What do you associate with Greek people? (circle as many as needed)
Not a lot Plate smashing Traditional dances Big families Tasty Greek food other
Q.9 Who does most of the cooking in your family at home?
Yourself Mum Dad You and your mum Sister Brother other
Q.10 Why do you think this is?
Q.11 What would you like to see in a documentary about Greek families?

Audience research

This week i have been thinking a lot about what i want to get out of my audience research and i have been writing questionnaire and organising a focus group. During the focus group, which will take place tomorrow (16/8/08) i will give a presentaion. The presentation will show to documentaries from diverse productions that were filmed for channel four:"Young Black Farmers" and "Indian Finishing School." After these have been shown i will ask the audience questions,which i have prepared about what they liked and didnt like etc. Then i have created a slide about my documentary "My Big Fat Greek Family" and i have given a brief description about what the documentary is about, then i will ask questions to the focus group about what they think. This will then lead me to asking questions about food and Greek families.

Product/Audience Research

There is a new fly on the wall documentary for channel four called The Family. I decided to research the making of this documentary because i wanted to find out more about how channel 4 went about making their documentaries. I found out that channel 4 is taking a new approach to filming; Jonathan Smith the director of The Family quotes "I'd become convinced that the detail and intimacy of our approach could capture something new about family life." I like the idea of the "intimacy approach" for my documentary, as it provides the audience with entertainment as well as real and genuine opinions about greek food. Jonathan Smith goes onto say "There would be no director asking people how they felt and the place of long interviews would be taken by conversations between members of the family." This would work well for my audience research as well. As well as getting feedback from questionnaires, i could get general feedback from what my friends think about greek food etc, by them talking amongst themselves. This approach will give me a genuine, overall outlook.
I would like to,if i could,it may be difficult due to regulations with camera equipment; but to leave the camera in the room whilst my friends are cooking the greek meal. In a way it would be like spying on them, this would give that "intimacy approach" I was hoping for. Like Jonathan Smith did with The Family: "So instead of wandering around the house with a camera crew, we would sit in the cottage next door where we created our gallery and watch life unfold."

development of idea

Whilst visiting my grandparents over the weekend I thought i'd use the opportunity to think and talk to my grandparents about greek food. I had the idea of getting my grandma to write down the ingredients of a typical greek dish and instructions of how to cook it e.g yemesta. i could get her to cook it,bring some in as a sample for my friends to taste and to see what it should look like,before they attempt to cook it. I also videod her with my camera,in the kitchen,explaining how you cook and prepare yemesta, i thought i could use this as a voiceover whilst my friends try to cook it. she is speaking in english, but with a stong accent,which can be hard to understand; sometimes she trasfers to greek-i thought i could add subtitles,which is sometimes a convention of a documentry and at the same time her talking adds to the typial greek traditons i want to portray.

Research of diverse productions etc

Whilst looking at Divers Productions website, it is clear that the documentaries they do for channel 4 are very similar,in that they use traditions of religions or they play on history by involving youngsters of today to experience these traditions. Documentaries such as Young Black Farmers and Indian Finishing School. I was thinking that i could get youngsters from my greek family and get them to cook a traditional meaty greek dish, this may involve cooking octopus etc, or i could get my friends to do it and interview them about what they think about cooking greek dishes and how different it is to that way they cook their traditional dish. I think this would be quite humerous as well as informing people about the preperation that goes into cooking greek food.

Possible audience research questionnaire questions

• What do you think of Gorden Ramseys F Word?

(options...) humerous Boring

informative Good T.V

• What do you expect from a channel 4 documentary involving food?

(options...) Boring to be inspired to cook

choose not to watch them other...

• What would you like to see in a channel doc about food and family?

Humour Traditional values good soundtrack interesting other...

• What do you know about Greek Families?

Not much Nothing They are big Plate smashing Dancing Tasty Greek food

• Have you had any Greek food before?....if yes what is your favourite Greek food?
• Do you know anyone Greek?

Channel 4

I have been thinking about what channel i would like my documentary to be aired on, and i was thinking channel 4, as their average audience age is between 16-34 and i would like my target audience to be between 21-27, because it is in the average age range and i am hoping to create a doc with a humerous tone, which i think will appeal most to this age group.
Channel 4 is part of the Commisions Act of 2003 which states that channel 4 "appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society" therefore i think that the target audience would have gone to university as they would be fully aware of the "diverse community". The target audience would also be for Greek people of this age group as they would be able to relate and laugh along with it.

I was on the channel 4 website and came across food docs on channel 4. The most popular were Gorden Ramsey's F word and Come dine with me, both of which have a mimicking humerous undertone,which is what i aim for in creating this documentary.

My Big Fat Greek Family and Food idea would be suitable for channel 4 for its promotion of a cultural background incorperated with humour and food.

My family

Now i have a general idea,i have been thinking which family members i could use in this documentary. I have some humerous,loud characters in my family whom im sure would be more than willing to get involved,which is useful. Also,my uncle owns a bar and my grandparents used to own a cafe,my other grandparents used to own a resturant. Interviewing them would reveal their opinions about the importance of food.
I was watching some of My Big Fat Greek Wedidng the other day and noticed that alcohol is also an important aspect of greek food and is the key ingredient to liven up a greek family event,i could interview my uncle for his opinions.
I would still like to target a younger audience, therefore this is where quite a lot of my cousins will be useful....

New Idea

I found this video which reminded me of how important food is in the Greek family,it is everything. I could interview the grandmas and ask them why it is the women's job to cook and whether they enjoy cooking etc and then i could interview the grandads and ask them what their opinion is on Greek food and why the choose to leave the cooking to the women....

Development From Teacher Feedback

As a result from my teacher's feedback on my documentary ideas, i feel that the family documentary would be the best idea to go ahead with, however i will not rule out the travel documentary completely;as my teacher suggested it would be good to have the travel doc as a back-up,therefore i will still film some footage in New Zealand.

Seeing as i am intending on featuring the family doc on channel 4, i think that it would be more suitable if i made this documentary quite 'humorous', as i feel that this would be best suited to the target audience. Therefore i have been researching some 'humorous' family documentaries you tube.

I like the idea of the beginning of this video.It introduces the family and then has a wide shot still image of the whole family. i think that this is a good introduction to the documentary as it introduces straight away that this is a documentary about family.

Day 1-blog created,initial ideas

Today i made my blog.
At the moment i would like to make a documentary. I am not sure what on, although i have the idea of doing a type of travel documentary or a documentary about my "big fat Greek family". I have been thinking what channel i would like to air the documentary,either channel 4 or BBC1.

Travel doc idea:

This summer i am going to new Zealand and Australia with my brother. i was thinking of capturing some footage out there and use some of this footage along with some footage from Peru where my friend Charlotte is going for the summer. I could interview my brother and Charlotte, asking them questions about their experiences and why they wanted to go to these countries.

"My big fat Greek family" doc idea:

I was thinking of doing a documentary which focuses on the traditions and culture of a big family. Aimed at teenagers/adolesense from 18-21 and aird on channel 4, i could interview different family members putting accross their views and opinions about what it is like growing up with a close-knit family,where everyone is involved with everyone elses business. It would be formal, but at the same time making it seem playful and joky.

HOWEVER: i need to do a lot of research on documentaries and i do like the idea of doing a music video but i dont have a clear idea of what i would do for a music video,which is why i am swaying more towards the documentary idea.