Who Wants To See An Amazing Pitch?

Our second pitch for 'Dislocation' (on Thursday 27th March), Andy and I played a short version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and this answered questions that related to the pitch. It gave us what the genre was, the title of the film, the setting and time period and would audiences like to see the film.

After our fun teaser, we spoke about more details about the film including the actors and their head shots, the locations, the crew and shooting dates, to name a few. This information can be found below:

Title: "Dislocation"

Genre: Comedy Horror, Magic Realism

Time/Setting: Present day Northern Ireland

Theme: Satire battles redemption. Two Geocaching friends search for an evasive cache deep in the forest. Will they find their surreptitious reward, or will it find them?

Actors:
Josh Sugar - Richard Andrews
Dan Groves - Ryan Sloan
Groundskeeper - Dave McCaughey
Chelsea (Dead Girl) - Hannah Gallagher
Old Man - Patrick Allen

Locations:
Car - Andy's Car
Road Cutaways - Hillsborough
Forest Scene - Hillsborough Forest Park
Graveyard - Blaris Cemetery
Open Field - Hillsborough
Cabin Int - TV Studio (BMC Millfield)
Cabin Ext - Hillsborough

Props:
Binoculars, backpacks (x2), costumes, fake wounds, blood pellets, make-up, fake gun, metal box, cigars (x2) and shovel.

Provisional Shooting Dates: 
7th and 8th April

Intended Audience:
Young adults over the age of 15 that enjoy comedies such as "The Inbetweeners" and "How Not To Live Your Life".

How does it fit into 'Dislocation'?
Set in the middle of nowhere, Dan is a hero; he is cool, slick and adventurous. Josh is a lesser version, always in the shadow of his best friend. He tries to be like him so much but always ends up getting it wrong. When Dan is killed, the spotlight is thrust onto Josh, he is being forced to become the hero that the audience expected Dan to be. Josh is in uncharted territory in this front and centre role; scared, determined and dislocated.

Overall, I'm really happy with how our pitch turned out. Andy had a great idea and I'm so glad that we went with it because it was creative and no-one else had an idea like it. It was memorable and fun with a twist, as well as our tutor liking it because it had an edge but we also gave the relevant information.

Pitching Time!

Thursday (27th March) was pitching time! We had briefly gone over what we were going to talk about in the pitch on the day, just to keep it fresh in our memory. Below is a photograph of Caoimhe and I after our pitch and you can see our t-shirts.

On Caoimhe's t-shirt, I wrote "Vegetarians Do Eat..." because a lot of people think vegetables just eat vegetables so I listed a number of different foods (including vegetables) below this and on the back of the t-shirt, I drew and coloured in a few foods.

On my t-shirt, I wrote in big letters "What is a Vegetarian?". This was my first idea for the documentary; I wanted to dispel the myths and find out from vegetarians themselves what others think when they hear they are vegetarians. So on the front and back, I wrote questions and phases that vegetarians are likely to hear when people ask them about being vegetarian. 

For our pitch we talked about a number of different topics:

The title: "Green Beans and Everything Inbetween", I actually give credit to Pearse for this quirky name because he came up with it and we thought it wasn't a generic name for a vegetarian documentary but it was enough for people to be interested, just by the name.

Subjects: Lindsey Mitchell and Richard Andrews. We spoke very briefly about how we were glad to have a man and a woman involved so we could get two different perspectives. Richard has been a vegetarian since he was born, so he didn't choose the choice to be vegetarian, whereas Lindsey did make the choice so it will be nice getting those two different sides too.

Audience: We want these to go out to a wide range of audiences. We want people to watch this who are skeptical of the vegetarian lifestyle or don't know much about it. We want people who are interested in getting involved in becoming a vegetarian. We want vegetarians to watch and feel like they're not dislocated from society like a select few make them feel.

Research: I feel our research has been strong; we watched a film called "Vegan Love" about a guy who wanted to make a documentary about his best friend who was vegan, and trying to find a vegan girlfriend. I also ordered a lot of resources from the Vegetarian Society including leaflets, pamphlets and posters which I had posted about before. 

Themes: Both our themes and locations are heavily dependent on our questions and our subjects answers. Our themes include whether it is their choice to be vegetarian or not, their lifestyle, the reaction of friends and family, common myths and their experiences eating out and shopping.

Locations: As I previously mentioned, this will be dependent on our subjects answers. For example if Lindsey said to us, she did it for the animals, we would go somewhere like Streamvale Farm and get a few shots of the baby animals. However, if she said she did it for the health benefits, we would get shots of health food shops. A few examples of locations are; Holland and Barrett, St. George's Market, Streamvale Farm, supermarkets.

Interview locations at this point are depending on shooting dates; we have Caoimhe's house and my house down as possibilities but when we know when both subjects can film, a decision on interview locations can be confirmed.

Shooting Dates: We were thinking the 4th or 5th April for Lindsey's interview and 8th April or 12th April for Richard's interview and then going on the 13th April for cutaway shots once we watch the interviews back. We feel this will be much more productive due to time restraints, instead of going to get a lot of cutaways at all different places, at least if we know their answers, we can base locations off them.

I was really happy with how our pitch went; we had an innovative idea with the t-shirts and no-one had the same idea. It stood out, it was memorable and we were able to explain how our original idea started in a more colourful way.

Fictional Reality Twist Proposal

Original Thought (Initial Ideas)

A story about a young woman around sixteen years old talking to a friend or a therapist (adding a therapist could make this story cliche however) about what she's been going through lately. She's fallen out with one of her best friends, she's falling behind in school, she's fighting with her parents, she's just broken up with her boyfriend. As she explains what's been going on, she says how if she was a character in a TV show, it would be so much easier because things on TV are always easier. She then turns into a character on her own reality show and she discovers the real pit falls of some of her favourite shows, and tries to hide away from her problems. The cameras pointing in her face, the sound mics always been hooked up, the director forcing her to face people she doesn't want to; all these problems make her face the real problems she's had to deal with lately.

Characters (Names, Descriptions, Personal Profile, Sketches)

Young woman: sixteen years old, appearance and name hasn't been decided yet, dresses like a normal teenager girl coming into her own. She's had a lot going on in her life so I want to give the impression that she hasn't been sleeping and she's been worrying a lot.

Director: man aged between thirty and forty, stubborn, bossy, wants everything his way. Forces the unnamed teenage girl to call her ex-boyfriend, call her best friend that she's just fought with, even though she doesn't want to. He wants the entertainment and isn't concerned about how she feels.

Friend/Therapist: age unknown at this point, friendly, understanding, good listener, doesn't really say much throughout the story.

Best Friend (who she fought with): very much like the main character, she's been going through a lot but decided not to tell anyone. This comes out and the main character then realizes that she didn't understand why her friend was acting so weird but now she knows and understands, but she's going through the same thing.

Ex Boyfriend: We don't see him on screen, he just hear him on the phone, he doesn't sound like an unreasonable guy, he's a little older than her, she was giving him mixed signals and he didn't want to do that anymore.

Story (Start, Middle, End or Conflict and Resolution, or what happens to whom and what's the result. If a poetic idea, then talk about theme and emotion.)

(This is my first initial idea that I wrote in my notebook. I haven't fleshed out a middle or an ending yet)

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

Genre

I want this to be in the comedy drama genre. I don't want to say it will be completely dramatic because I feel like I would be limited in where I could go with the story if it is just drama, but if I'm able to add little comedic effects to it, the audience could connect with it more.

Audience (Who are they?)

I want my audience to be a range of people. I want to attract young people who are interested in reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Hills etc. and show them parts of the reality world that they may not seen or may not be aware of. I also want to attract people who themselves are going through things in their lives, and feel like they have had new problems hit them  to realize how to fix their original problems.

Why you think this is a good idea (Interest to audience, ease of production, simplicity of idea)

This reality twist on a fiction is a good idea in my eyes because it gives you the best of both worlds. It's not exactly a documentary but it has elements of documentary and things being staged as well as it being a fictional story too. For the production, I will need quite a few cast members and just as many crew members; which sound daunting but if I am able to flesh out the story and make it exactly how I see it in my head, I think it could be an interesting experience for everyone because we will be doing two formats (fiction and technically behind the scenes of a documentary style show).

Vegan/Vegetarian Documentary Proposal

Purpose (What’s my goal?)

My purpose for my chosen documentary subject is not only to inform the public on another way of healthy living but to educate everyone on what they may not know about vegetarianism or veganism and to break down some common misconceptions about these lifestyles.

Audience (Who will be watching?)

I would like a wide range of people to watch this documentary. It would appeal to younger people and their parents and to people who are looking to change their eating habits or maybe just don’t know anything on the subject, and this will give them more information about both lifestyles.

Content (What do I want to say?)

I want people to understand more about the lifestyles of a vegan or vegetarian; I want to be able to show more of a personal side of people. For example, I want to ask who I interview about how people first reacted to their change, why and when they started, how difficult or easy it is to go out food shopping or going out for dinner. I don’t plan on making this a scientific documentary, I’m not going to go into the science of the body or how food works.

Voice (How do I want to say it?)

This will be a documentary piece with the slight possibility of adding stop motion animation. This will all depend on what footage I film and the topics of conversation as well as stories that come up along the way.

Imagery (What do I want to say?)

I want to interview a number of people who are vegan or vegetarian or have been in the past. I would also like to get the opportunity to visit a few businesses who do vegan/vegetarian food and ask them questions such as: why did they decide to make this type of food, is there a big demand for it, how has it changed in the past five or ten years and if any of them or their employees are following the same lifestyle. Before I even start filming, I want to know what questions or how much information the public really know, so I wanted to create short anonymous questionnaires for people to fill out so I can cater the questions they have, to the documentary.

Style (How do I want to show it?)

I want it to look quite smooth, I don’t want it really slow but the only time I can see it going fast paced is if I choose and/or able to get a number of interviews, while editing their interview together, make their answers quite choppy and follow into each other.

Tone (How do I want the audience to feel?)

I want the audience to feel like they have watched a short documentary and they have learned something and they have a better understanding of a different lifestyle to what they may lead. It may also give the audience an opportunity to want to explore more lifestyles like this and possibly go to the businesses that I mention and try out something different.

Platform (Where will it be viewed?)

It will be shown in the Odeon, Belfast as part of the HND Film Festival and once it has been shown there, I plan on putting it on YouTube on my personal YouTube channel for more people to see, my personal Facebook page and my own Twitter page too.

Promotion (How will it be shared?)

I plan to promote this documentary on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and quite possibly, Vimeo, as well as the blog that I am using to keep track of my progress. I may also put it on a number of DVD’s and USB sticks.

Budget (What can I afford?)

I am not exactly sure how many locations I will be visiting, but to get to these locations, it will simply be using public transport, car or walking. I may also purchase some food from the businesses that I go to because I want to see what they offer as well as going in and knowing something more about them.