2. Description
This would be a “fly on the wall” mockumentary where you take a
fictional character and insert a slang term “wasteman”, which this
specific character is classed as, and show how that kind of person
would live his life. I got this idea from watching different comedy
sketches which eventually left me to come across different
mockumentaries such as “100% Bent” and movie “Borat”
This would be an original idea because this kind of youth based
documentary has fully been attempted in a long length realistic
manner. This has mainly been attempted poorly as a parody of how
British youth are seen in some sense whereas a completely new
character is created.
This particular idea would be typically hard to do because it would
entail, such as getting someone to play the part of the “wasteman” and
making up an entire storyboard of what this character would do and
make it all look believable and factual.
3. The Aim
The purpose of this documentary would just be for
comedy as most of the proclaimed facts would be
completely fictional. Also it would be used to look
into the slang term “wasteman” and perhaps give a
new perspective on how it is seen. Typically this
kind of show would be on Youtube as it would be
fairly short and would come in small episodes but it
could also be seen on BBC as a comedy segment
to another show.
4. Conventions
Conventions used in this production would be:
Voiceovers – When the for when the narrator is
speaking
Music – To add emphasis to certain scenes of the
documentary, also to keep it interesting
Interviews – Segments for when the wasteman is
speaking directly to the audience
Astons – If someone significant appears on
screen, an Aston may be used to give info on the
person
Cutaways – For when I want to jump from one
scene of the documentary quickly to another.
5. Target Audience
The Primary Target audience would typically be 16-21 year olds
and typically boys since the jokes and more of the comedy
would be better suited to a slightly more audience due to
language and the actions would be better suited to a male
audience.
I know this because when I handed out questionnaires to the
public, more positive feedback for the idea from the males that I
handed the questionnaire to.
A Secondary Target audience could also be seen from about 14-
16 year olds since whilst some of the jokes may contain
inappropriate comments, the documentary will be typically
immature and better suited to a younger audience who could
appreciate such immaturity, especially a lot of young people
would be featured.
6. Primary Research
For this particular documentary research I pitched
this idea to a focus group of people and let them
voice their ideas on a voice recording. Some of the
more constructive comments were:
“This would be terribly hard but could turn out
incredibly well if done right”
“This idea is awesome, I’m looking forward to it!”
“Sounds good but be weary of the storyline and how
you plan to plot out how this documentary would run
smoothly”
These comments made me think more into how I
would make this documentary work especially since it
would be mixed of factual and fictional statements.
7. Secondary Research
For my secondary research I looked
at other examples of
mockumentaries like Borat and
110% Bent.
I used these mockumentaries as
templates so that I would have an
idea of how to make a
mockumentary look like and still
make it comedic and legitimate.
If this idea were to be picked as my
final idea I could improve upon the
research by going more in depth on
what aspects of each
mockumentary could be useful to
me.
8. Secondary Research
Also for secondary research I looked at productions
that were already created and “Anuvahood” came into
interest, this is because the actors within the movie
portrayed roles that people within my production
would be portraying also. Especially since this was
created and rated five stars in the UK this film could
be researched further to look at some of the
conventions used within the movie to help benefit my
production. An example of one of these conventions
being the very specific dialogue used by all the
characters within the film where they were all
speaking strong colloquialism to each other all
throughout the movie.
Another piece of research that was conducted into the
topic more than the actual documentary itself is that I
looked into the definition of the slang term “wasteman”
used in the UK and I found various definitions of the
word which would prove to be useful since the main
character of the documentary would be expected to
fulfill this role as part of the documentary.
9. Cost To Make
This documentary wouldn’t cost that much in particular to make
but the main thing that would need to be paid for would be the
multiple cameras that would be needed to help film.
The equipment that would be in use would be:
Canon EOS SLR Camera x2 £558.00
New Takstar Stereo Shotgun Microphone x2 £43.90
Trixes 115cm Telescopic Video camera tripod x2 £15.80
Also one would need to hire another person to help with the
filming – making shots are well placed and also filming in a
different angle where the two cameras are both needed to film
the same segment.
Another thing that would have to be paid for in this
documentary would be having to pay actors to pose as the
main character within the mockumentary and all other actors
who may be involved in the events that are filmed.
