Factual Proposal

1. Proposal
1
Student Name and Number:
Millie Smith 394155
Project proposal title and date:
Free as a Bird
Main area of activity
I will be working in a video format, creating a factual documentary.
Target Audience
My target audience is young adults and teenagers aged 16-24 as well as people who own pet
birds/are against them being kept as pets. I hope to target these audiences with my product as my
documentary will discuss the ethics of keeping pet bird through interviewing bird owners and
hearing their points of view. I hope to change the mind of those who think it’s unfair and affirm
those who own birds. I will target this audience by discussing these topics and answering the
question: “Is it fair to keep birds as pets?”. In order to target a younger audience, I will use
conventional techniques in Netflix and BBC documentaries as these are also targeted at a younger
age demographic. This includes creating a sense of relatability in my final product, making my
documentary more laid back in nature whilst also telling a story. Despite having a target
demographic in mind, I hope to appeal to those who wouldn’t normally be interested in my chosen
topic. I’ll appeal to this audience by including aspects of loneliness and the want for
companionship (then finding that in animals), something that almost anyone can relate to.
Rationale:
Throughout this year I have developed my skills and knowledge around media production and
editing. Earlier this year I did my Year 1 FMP project, creating a film poster and trailer. I learnt
several video editing techniques from this experience and was able to further develop my skills
using premiere and become more confident with the software. I learnt a lot about using adjustment
layers as filters as well as colour correcting clips, through my experiments I was able to explore the
usage of recolouring light sources too. I learnt a lot editing my film trailer and the skills I developed
can be applied to this project when editing my short documentary. Specifically, learning how to
colour correct effectively will aid my editing in this project a lot as it’ll make my final product look
more refined and professional. I also worked on my adventure project this year, although I mainly
worked in pixel art animation as I was creating a video game, I still learnt some valuable
techniques I can transfer over to this project. I was able to gain an understanding of how to use
after effects to create more complicated text effects that can’t be achieved in premiere pro. I can
transfer these skills over to my documentary in order to create some interesting typography effects
in my final product.
Project Concept:
My project is based on birds and owning birds as pets. I want to create a short documentary
looking into more detail on what it’s like to keep domestic birds, if they’re happy, bird’s
mannerisms, and overall: learning facts about birds and getting to know the ones featured in my
documentary alongside their owners. I hope to explore the ethics of keeping birds in cages and
approach the project from an angle that keeping birds as pets is okay and ethical. I will try to shed
a positive light on owning pet birds, hopefully changing the viewpoints of those who are against it
whilst affirming bird owners. Bird ownership tends to be looked down upon, so I hope with my
documentary I can spread awareness and show the companionship between the pet bird and their
owner. I will be interviewing 2 bird owners of different age ranges to compare their answers and
inform the audience on what it’s really like to own a bird. I will explore the positivity that comes with
bird ownership and the challenges too, I hope to convey that it is fair to own birds if they are
healthy and happy.

2. Proposal
2
In order to develop research for my project I should investigate pre-existing documentaries and
analyse their techniques and the common conventions used. Comparing pre-existing products will
aid me when finding common conventions and techniques I could possibly apply to my own
project. I will also need to conduct research on my target audience, I can look at products with the
same target age demographic and compare this to products with an older target audience and
uncover the techniques used to appeal to a younger audience.
How will the project be evaluated and reviewed:
When in production I will have an ongoing reflection diary to review my progress, what went wrong,
what I could have done better, and what my plan is for my next day of production. I believe
keeping a reflection log will better me in the production stages as I can improve as I go and have
something to look back to when progressing further with my final product. I will also have a self-
evaluation once my product is complete highlighting my project overall. I can reflect on what went
well and how I could improve my project so I can apply what I’ve learnt from my mistakes for next
time. I can also review my final product and talk about how it could have been improved. I believe
having ongoing production reflections as well as a final evaluation will help me develop good work
practice for my further studies in media.

3. Proposal
3
Bibliography:
1. The Retirement Gamble. 2013. [documentary] Directed by A. Rath; M. Frederick; M. Gaviria.
America: WGBH.
2. Parrots in the Land of Oz. 2008. [documentary] Directed by D. Parer; E. Pare-Cook. America:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation; WNET New York.
3. Our Planet: Jungles. 2019. [documentary] Directed by H. Cordey. America: SilverBack Movies
4. Dancing with the Birds. 2019. [documentary] Directed by H. Cordey. America: All3Media
5. The Social Dilemma. 2020. [documentary] Directed by J. Orlowski. America: Exposure Labs;
Argent Pictures; The Space Program.
6. The Dark Web - Black Market Boom. 2019. [documentary] Directed by P. Tiemchaiyapum.
Singapore: n/a.
7. Bad Influencer: The Great Insta Con. 2021. [documentary] Directed by Z. Desai. U.K.: Minnow
Films.
Week Specific Tasks
1 Production  film interview 1
 get some cut away footage
 sync audio and review footage
 colour correct clips
 cut out unnecessary parts, fixing up the footage
 continue to colour correct and organise footage
2 Production  finish off editing 1st interview, syncing, colour
correcting
 cut out parts I want that fits my final plan
 create a title logo
 film interview 2
3 Production  edit interview part 2
 colour correct, get parts I need, etc
 start editing everything together
 continue to colour correct and organise footage,
get a rough-cut structure with necessary effects
and techniques
4 Production  create a full coherent edit, make sure everything
transitions smoothly from visuals to audio
 start finalising edit, adding any extra effects or
graphics
 final effects or colouring
 adding final details