Tayla Cookson has chosen to create a 5 minute mock documentary about a fake celebrity for her media project. She was inspired by films like Catfish and This Is Spinal Tap, which use a documentary style with a mix of shots to follow subjects. Her concept is to introduce the fake celebrity through clips of their life and work. For her other tasks, she plans a simple poster with the celebrity's image and a more busy magazine review page. Her target audience is 16-25 year olds and she has researched MTV's style as an example of appealing to youth on social media.

1. MEDIA PROJECT PITCH
BY TAYLA COOKSON

2. WHAT QUESTION DID I CHOOSE AND
WHY?
For my media project I chose question 7: ‘A short film in its
entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or
animated or a combination of both, together with both of the following:
a poster for the film and a film magazine review page featuring the film.’
Some reasons for my decision:
• I have experience in filming as my other A Levels are Film Studies and
Photography, so I know I’m able to handle a camera and compose
a good shot.
• I’m most passionate about this question- which means I will be
interested in the work I’m doing which will mean a better end result.
• I regularly read film reviews, along with posters too; so I could use
some ideas I’ve picked up in past experience.

3. MY CONCEPT FOR THE QUESTION
Basically, I’ve decided that I want to create a short
mock documentary centered on a fake celebrity .
The 5 minute film will allow the viewer to get to know the celebrity (as
they will obviously not know them because they’re fake) by following
them at certain aspects of their life, showing an ‘exclusive’ interview
made for the film, and also showing parts of their work life to reinforce
their status, etc. I want to add many clips and cutaways to keep the
film visually appealing as well as technically interesting.
Target audience:
My product is going to be aimed at 16-25 year olds, anyone above this
age can still enjoy my film but I’m going to give it a youthful look and
colour scheme to keep it new and up to date; I will also incorporate
social networking too, mentioning ‘hashtagging’ as they do on
twitter, so again it will stand out to the younger audience.

4. MY FILM POSTER FLATPLAN
For my ‘mockumentary’ poster I want
the poster to be very simple in style yet
still stand out, so I just want one main
image of my fake celebrity to act as
the focus, it will also be taken in a
photography studio to look as
authentically professional as possible.
In addition the font for my poster will
be pretty basic to coordinate with my
simple style but I will use a bright colour
to keep a youthful look to appeal to
my target audience.

5. MY FILM MAGAZINE REVIEW PAGE
FLATPLAN
Although my poster will have a simple and youthful look; my film magazine
review page will be slightly more busy looking because it will be aimed at a
wider possibly more older audience. It will also have to look quite different from
my first print task as the film magazine is suppose to look like a professional
magazine brand commenting on a film they aren’t associated with .

6. INSPIRATIONS FOR MY IDEA- CATFISH
Catfish is a 2010 American documentary film directed by
Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, involving a young
man, Nev, being filmed by his brother and friend, codirectors Ariel and Henry, as he builds a romantic
relationship with a young woman on the social networking
website Facebook.
I was first inspired by my favourite film Catfish
as I loved the simplicity of someone purely
just following someone with a camera and
seeing what happens.
The filming technique of using a mixture of
shaky shots and steady scenes is something I
can definitely use as inspiration for my own
project because I want my film to have shots
where the camera follows the celebrity
during an action they are partaking in
combined with a fixed camera to create the
appearance an interview.

7. INSPIRATIONS FOR MY IDEA- SPINAL TAP
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock music
mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional
heavy metal music band Spinal Tap. The movie satirizes the
wild personal behaviour and musical pretensions of hard
rock and heavy metal musical bands.
Next, I came across This Is Spinal Tap which
inspired me further because of the humour
incorporated in the film; the mix of dry
humour and sheer stupidity is the exact tone I
want for my mockumentary and it is an
excellent example for me to look at to see
how it’s done correctly while ensuring it looks
natural to the characters and scene.
The filming techniques used in this are also
quite similar to my previous inspiration which
gives me more ideas and assistance on how
to create a professional looking
documentary.

8. INSPIRATIONS FOR MY IDEA- PROJECT X
Project X is a 2012 comedy film directed by Nima
Nourizadeh. The plot follows three friends- Thomas, Costa
and J.B. -who plan to gain popularity by throwing a
party, a plan which quickly escalates out of their control.
My third biggest inspiration is Project X, I was
immediately drawn to this fake ‘found
footage’ movie because of the advertising
style they used- the minimalism of the poster
image, composition and information about
the film create a hype in the public because
of the mystery it creates about the
film, making people want to go see it and
find out what it’s about. The basic bold style
they have went for has a very youthful vibe
and fit’s in perfectly with not only their target
audience but mine too.

9. AN INSTITUTION I’VE RESEARCHED- MTV
For my film, I’ve researched into MTV as I know they have a youthful style
and brand now; which means I could use some of their ideas and use it to
further develop my own. I also feel my show would defintely fit in with their
other shows and would reach my target audience on this channel because
it has quite a large teen following, and actively displays their use of social
net working sites such as Twitter and Facebook; which (as I have already
stated) is something I plan to incorporate in my own project.
Also, one of the inspirations for my film- ‘Catfish’ has their spin off show
(Catfish: The TV Show) broadcasted on this channel, which reinforces my
interest in researching this institution. The documentary TV show has done
exceptionally well and had a total style overhall compared to it’s previous
film; to appeal to the younger generation that are MTV’s target audience.
http://www.mtv.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV