3. THE IDEA
My group and I are aiming to focus our whole documentary on the
topic of online dating. We will be exploring how online dating websites
affect real life dating and how much easier it is to find a companion
online due to vast majority of increasing websites. We will also be
experimenting online dating first hand by creating a fake profile and
filming the whole process. From this we will describe how quickly
people approach you and what reason they approach you for, i.e for
sexual desires or an actual relationship. Within this documentary we will
be carrying out at least 2 interviews between people who have
encountered online dating and ask them about their experience when
using them. By the end of this documentary we hope to find out if
online dating is really the main cause of real life dating becoming
trivialised and out dated, and if most relationships nowadays begin
with a simple ‘click.’
4. LOVE @ FIRST CLICK
This is the title for our documentary. My group and I believed this title is
suitable for the topic we are researching because it clearly symbolises
how people find love; by a ‘click’ of the mouse. We believed that this is
a unique name and correlates well with the topic of online dating and
would attract our target audience into intriguing them to watch the
documentary because of this name. My group and I also thought it
was quite humorous as it is a parody of the traditional phrase of ‘love
at first sight’, whereas now in present day society, most relationships
start from seeing pictures first, then meeting. Therefore we believed
that this title was the most relatable and also the most catchy for our
documentary.
TAGLINE: Dating has never been easier
5. TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience for our documentary will be aimed towards those
aged between 15 to 55. This is because anyone above the age of 55
may not be interested in the topic of online dating, and anyone below
the age of 15 may not be exposed to online dating, therefore making
it unsuitable for them to view.
Although online dating is not a topic that should be discouraged by
anyone and does not have a specific age range, our production itself
may not be amusing for anyone above or below our target audience
to watch. From this, we also concluded that the BBFC rating will be 15.
6. BUDGET
Our budget for our documentary will consist of being very low. This is
because we will not need any props, makeup, costume, nor would we
have to travel anywhere for our location. Therefore, this makes our
budget relatively low and convenient.
However, we may travel around London to capture some cutaway
shots, so this will carry the most expenses, which will add up to be at
least £5 each group member for the pay of their travel.
7. LOCATIONS
Although my group and I will not be travelling far for our interviews due
to them being held in school, we will be travelling to capture some
cutaway shots to place in between our documentary. These cutaway
shots will include things that relate to online dating, such as someone
on their computer, lots of people walking, couples holding hands etc.
We aim to go to busy places such as:
London City: In the city we aim to film lots of cutaways as the
location will consist of various couples and places to visit.
Stratford, Westfield: This is more local for us and similarly, we will be
able to find lots of couples and potentially some easy cutaways to
film.
8. BILL NICHOLS
6 modes of documentary
The Expository Mode [voice of God] This mode is what we identify within
documentaries. It emphasises verbal commentary – often using a
narrator.
• Addresses the spectator directly, with titles or voices that propose a
perspective, advance an argument or recount history.
• Most associated with Television News programming.
• Images become subordinate to the voice-over narration. They serve
to illustrate, illuminate or act in counterpoint to what is being said by
the author.
• Editing in the expository mode serves to maintain the continuity of
the spoken argument or perspective. - this is called evidentiary
The Poetic Mode [subjective, artistic, expression] This mode stresses the
lyrical, rhythmic and emotional aspect of the historical world.
• Sacrifices filmic conventions for example, continuity editing and a
situated time and space, to explore associations between images,
objects and patterns.
9. [CONTINUED]
The Observational Mode [window on the world] This mode attempts to observe aspects
of the historical world as they happen.
• Typically have no voice-over commentary, no supplementary music or sound, no
intertitles, no historical re-enactments, no behaviour repeated for the camera and no
interviews.
• Social actors behave as if no filmmakers were there.
The Participatory Mode This mode involves an interview between filmmaker and the
subject. – this allows the filmmaker to address people who appear in the film, formally –
this is opposed to addressing the audience through voice-over commentary.
• Also involves some participation from the filmmaker as well as social actors – this gives
the audience a sense of what it is like for the filmmaker to be in a given situation and
how that situation alters as a result.
• This is also the type of mode we are carrying out in our documentary as it involves
interviews that specify in our subject. We chose to do this mode as it is normally the
most known type of documentary and also is quite straight forward to produce.
However, the only downside of this mode is finding people to participate in the
interviews, especially if the subject of the documentary is private and hard to discuss.
Although we may come across this issue, we will be able to overcome it by reassuring
our interviewee that anything they do not want to share will stay in private.
Consequently, we will be finding interviewees who are comfortable in discussing the
topic, allowing our production to run smoothly.
10. [CONTINUED]
The Reflexive Mode [awareness of the process] In this mode, the
spectator is the focus of the attention.
• Speaks not only about the historical world, but about the problems
and issues of representing it.
• Documentaries set out to re-adjust the assumptions and expectation
of its audience, not add new knowing to existing categories.
• From a formal perspective – reflexivity draws our attention to our
assumptions and expectations about documentary form itself.
• From a political perspective – reflexivity points towards our
assumptions and expectations about the world around us.
• Both of these rely on techniques that attempt to jar us, and sever our
engagement with the film so that we are forced to think about
filmmaking as a construct.
• Involves Expository; Voice-of-God narration; Images
11. [CONTINUED]
The Performative Mode [filmmaker as participant] This mode of
documentary raises questions about what knowledge is.
• It sets out to demonstrate how the specificities of personal
experience provide entry into an understanding of the more
general processes at work in society.- this is done by stressing the
emotional complexity of experience from the perspective of the
filmmaker.
• Stresses the tone and mood, more so than arguments and
evidence.
• Films primarily address the spectator.
• Calls for an emotional responsiveness from us that acknowledges an
understanding of the event, more so that asking us to gain
knowledge from it.
