Lucas Higham proposes a documentary film titled "Cycle Away" that will explore why people are obsessively passionate about cycling. The target audience is sport enthusiasts, with interviews of young and old cyclists. Footage will include interviews with avid cyclists as well as someone opposed to cyclists on roads. Higham will research existing cycling documentaries and conduct audience research. The film will use narration and focus on interviewing his father, an avid cyclist, to understand the obsession. Progress will be logged and the completed project will be analyzed by Higham.

1. Proposal
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Student Name and Number:
Lucas Higham - 370986
Project proposal title and date:
Cycle Away - 29/9/21
Main area of activity
Video – documentary film
Target Audience
Sport enthusiasts – interviewees will be mixture of young and old to draw in the primary younger
audience and to get a variation of answers from different backgrounds.
I will try and draw in a broader audience by making it relatable to people who don’t cycle – most
people find cyclists annoying, especially on the road. I will interview someone who disagrees with
cyclists on the road to draw that audience in and make them understand why people cycle as they
are probably asking the same question- why do people cycle on the road, professionally? You can
still ride a bike without taking it out of the house.
Rationale:
I learned how to organise a production well, pre-production will be essential in planning the film. I
know how to set up a camera, that can be planned in pre-production. These camera skills will help
me understand how to set-up for a documentary which is different to what I’m used to. I’m also
familiar with lighting set-ups, I’ll have to adapt and learn new techniques when it comes to the
interview.
Making a documentary is an exciting prospect for me, I’m able to test out new skills to make
something I’ve never made before. For example, the three-point lighting. I know this is also used in
narrative films, but I’ve never explored it fully. It’ll be useful for me to try out in an interview
situation and when I go on to make my next narrative film, try out that lighting technique- expand
on it, use different colours, experiment.
Project Concept:
I will be tackling the question of why people cycle, why do people endure brutal conditions while
riding their bike? They make riding their bike, their life. They become obsessive. Why? I’ll interview
obsessive cycling fanatics and people who are confused why people cycle, they oppose cyclists. I
want to evoke a curious tone, an investigation. I’ll employ a narration throughout the film, helping
set the tone and the point, direction of the film.
I’ll interview various experts, but the film will mainly focus on my dad, an avid cycling fan but dotted
in the intro and conclusion it’ll have other cycling fans voicing their opinions. I’ll at least record
these interviews, I’ll see how it works in the edit, I’d preferably like to use interview footage as
these people have given their time for me and this project.
The research will consist of looking at existing documentaries, researching the audience, the
specific topic I’ll look at showing how brutal cycling can be.
Visually, my film will have nice looking shots and creative ways to shoot certain scenes. To
heighten the drama, I will use close-ups on dramatic moments.

2. Proposal
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How will the project be evaluated and reviewed:
I will log my progress through diary entries and the occasional vlog when I need to talk about a lot,
once the project has been complete, I will analyse it, picking it apart in a video. I will talk about
what went wrong, sections I didn’t include, behind the scenes videos.

3. Proposal
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Bibliography:
1. Higham, L. (2021) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on PENDING)
2. 16 – 25-Year-olds. (2021) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on PENDING)
3. Fogol, B. (2017) Icarus
4. Herzog, W. (2005) Grizzly Man
5. Higham, M. (2017) Pictures of Haute Route
6. Chin, J. (2018) Free Solo
7. YouTube.com
Week Specific Tasks
1 Production • Going to cycling championships, interviewing
cycling fanatics and B-roll
2 Production • Filming interviews, B-roll – focus on my dad.
Going out filming him on his bike
3 Production • Begin editing, construct a rough edit
4 Production • Evaluate the edit, make changes where needed