BBC Brand Research

To create an accurate representation of a BBC brand product for my website, looked at the BBC iplayer website to collate an idea of the brand identity and digital convergence. 

Colours 

BBC Iplayer is dominated by colours such as pink, black, and various shades of dark grey and navy blue. This is something I used in my website to create a strong feeling of BBC brand identity. 

Layout 

The layout of the BBC Iplayer streaming sites background design is very linear and created by lots of boxes of colour  which create the sense of brand identity via the use of BBC colours. 

Features

They use both the BBC logo in the top left hand corner and the Iplayer logo directly below. I will use the BBC logo and the BBC three logo and also my own designed "Teen Interest"

Website link

Website link

FINAL LOGO DESIGN

 

Logo Development

My first logo was good but I thought the I with the T in the dot of the I was not prominent enough and could stand out more. I decided to make a few varitations the same logo to decide 

I developed the logo by elongating the line of the I to fill the "teen interest" text and making the T in the dot of the I bolder and larger. However, this design still didn't look perfect. I thought the circle and the rectangle looked too separate and the idea of having the teen interest initials was slightly misleading. 

I decided to tone down the abstract nature of the previous logo attempt by resorting back to the small rectangle for the I. However, I removed the circle of the dot of the I and just left the T. 

After much development, I regressed back to the overall original design with some subtle changes such as making the initials in a bolder font. I decided the circle with the T within had a level of BBC brand identity as it resembles logos such as BBC Radio 1 and other BBC media products 

I decided to further the sense of BBC brand identity by incorporating the classic pink colour which is used frequently on the BBC's streaming service; Iplayer. This was my final design which i decided to use in my NEA

Here it is on my website 

Brief Research: BBC three

BBC REMIT 

The BBC's remit for all its products is to "Inform, educate and entertain". To Conform to this idea, I am basing my Documentary on a subject that is rarely portrayed in the media so will be very innovative to the BBC's audience. Furthermore, as it is something that is rarely visited in the media so it will be new information to the majority of the audience so I will also be informing. 

BBC THREE REMIT

The remit of BBC Three is to "Bring innovative UK content featuring new UK talent to younger audiences of 16 to 34-year-olds" I have explored this idea by setting my documentary as an instalment of a documentary series based on young teenagers who have an interesting or obscure hobby or talent. The way the subject matters of each documentary are the target audience will give the documentary a level of relatability to the documentary 

 

Blog progress 3

https://vimeo.com/474589844

Music Edit

Video Progress 2

Media Project 100 from 4122 16607 on Vimeo.

Music

I will use a combination of royalty-free background music from the internet but it will be altered to fit the tone and length of my documentary. 

The opening music will be a light-hearted uplifting tune which will set the welcoming tone for the rest of my documentary. 

For the main body of the documentary, I will use music which is still cheery in tone but calmer than the original opening title music. And is more lowkey to not overpower the dialogue of the documentary 

Proof of shots

 

Online store Website Screen Shot

 

Website Planning

After careful analysis of the brief, I was made aware of the fact that it was a BBC 3 documentary so I had to modify my original ideas for the website to be more loyal to BBC brand identity (Pink, and black colours). However, I didn't want it to look exactly like the format of the BBC Iplayer website due to it being a co-production with the company Teen Interest. Therefore, I plan to adopt the BBC brand colours when creating my website but using an original format to signify the Teen Interest Influence  

Online Store Products (Teen Interest Logo)

 

Documentary intro

The introduction of my documentary is a showreel of snippets of the 1967 muppet show which is a big part of the topic of the documentary. This will provide a sense of intertextuality to the target audience who will have grown up watching this as a child and will remenise on the nostalgia it brings

Quick fire interview questions

 Quickfire question round (a regular segment of the documentary series)

 

These are the possible questions to be used in the quickfire question segment of the documentary series. I will pick the best 5 to ask myself in the interviews closing moments 

1)    What would you say to aspiring puppet makers who want to do the same thing as you 

2)    Is there anything you would change about your puppetry experience in the past

3)    What would you like to achieve in the future with your interest in puppetry

4)    What genius of your field would you like to notice you 

5)    Is this a forever endeavor (this is a question asked to every subject of each episode of the documentary) 

6) What has been the most challenging part of taking up your interest in puppets 

7) What is the highlight of being a puppeteer 

8) Have you ever regret dedicating so much time to your hobby 

9) Have you bettered yourself during your journey as a puppeteer and puppet maker

10) Do you recommend your hobby to those who are at a loose end 

    

These questions are the final 5 that I thought were the most appropriate for the interview as they fit the tone and are relevant to the narrative previously 

 1)    What would you say to aspiring puppet makers who want to do the same thing as you 

2)    Is there anything you would change about your puppetry experience in the past

3)    What would you like to achieve in the future with your interest in puppetry

4)    What genius of your field would you like to notice you 

5)    Is this a forever endeavor (this is a question asked to every subject of each episode of the documentary) 

Script

Documentary Script 

 

*Muppet snippet intro*

 

*Panning of puppet rack* - picks up the puppet at the end of the rack while the title credit comes up on the screen

  

Sipped of interview 

 

“the thing I just about puppets is how, if you reach the right person, you can transform their life and inspire them to do anything. Words speak so much louder when they come out of a puppet and children trust them more too Puppets I grew up with watching like Kermit and the great gonzo taught me that I can be whoever I want to be and even though I feel like I’m different and might not fit in sometimes that that’s fine and I can be whoever I want to be. Who else do you know that says when I’m older I want to be a puppeteer (haha)”   

 

“I suppose I’ve never really grown up (laughs) I just want to be a child for… *pause for comedic purposes* forever”

 

Silent clip of myself Sitting down at my puppet making table as the voice-over/interview begins. 

 

“I first became interested in puppets when I was 4??? I saw a puppet/Punch and Judy show in a park a few minutes from my house and I was completely locked in on what I was watching and I turned to my parents and said… (Points to camera) I want to do that when I grow up” 

 

“When I became interested in puppets, I would watch anything to do with puppets on YouTube, tv, and we had an old VHS video player.”

 

(cutaway to pushing in a muppet video in an old video player)

 

“And that was when I discovered the muppets”

 

(Cutaway to the muppet segment. Maybe my Kermit replica I made on my puppet rack)

 

“It was magical. I’d seen punch and Judy, string puppet type marionette shows rod puppets”

 

But this was different. The way the puppets were manipulated and the way they were created. It absolutely blew me away and I have worn out that video. (haha laughs)

 

Jim Henson… he was the one who created the muppets and after this, I was watching everything that he had created. Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, the dark crystal, etc. I was obsessed

 

 

I'd been making puppets since I was first interested but I really started when I was around 14 when I really was desperate for a nice puppet but they are expensive to buy if you want something half decent so I bought some cheap fleece material and downloaded a pattern of the internet and built my first ever full puppet. (LOL back then I thought this was so good) 

And that was my puppet making obsession started. 

*PARENTS INTERVIEW*

 

Mildly scripted but just on the topics to cover.  Mainly improv 

 

Pan across a table of old newspaper clippings and photos of my journey as a puppeteer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Website "extra features" video idea (30 seconds)

 Puppet making Tutorial 

A beginner's tutorial to making a basic puppet in the style of a buzz feed DIY tutorial. With just the hands of the teacher in the shot on a clean white surface with time-lapses and steps on the screen in writing. 

Cut away shot ideas

 Idead For Cut Away Shots 

1) Pannings shot of the puppets I have built in my time being a puppeteer 

2) Close up shots looking through my portfolio of puppets which I have made and news paper clippings

3) Shots of me looking through my puppetry portfolio which contains "memories" reminiscent artefacts to give context for the audience.

4) Wide of me working on a puppet and appearing "Hard ar work"

5) A range of shots that capture me setting up my punch and judy booth.

trailer story Board

The trailer will have to be interesting and eye-catching but not giving too much away to the audience meaning they feel they don't need to watch the actual video so it has to entice and make the audience want to know more on the matter.

Shot 1 - wide still shots of the fragments of the interview 

Shot 2 - Moving shot of puppets to add color to catch the audiences eye 

Shot 3 - wide still shots of the fragments of the interview 

Shot 4 - moving shot of a table of photos with audio on top 

The final shot - Myself working on a puppet at my work table. This is an interesting place to end the video as it will make the audience of the trailer think "what is the making" and "will I find out by watching the documentary"

Credit - Teen Interest Logo

Story Board

Opening - Shot of the Teen Interest Animated Logo 

Opening - Intertextual references in the form of clips of retro puppet television programs such as The Muppets, Sesame Street, etc. This is used as they are a big inspiration to me as a puppeteer and will be recognized by the target audience and will strike an interest with the youth of today who are becoming ever more interested in retro culture

Shot 1 - Panning across shot as a rack of puppets which I have made in my journey as a puppeteer 

 

Shot 2 - a wide shot of me "hard at work" at my work table. This was a common convention within the documentaries I analyzed for research. During this shot, there will be a voice-over of me giving some expositionary detail of the topic of the video 

Shot 3 - wide still shot of myself talking to the camera and relaying my experiences revolving puppetry. Talking directly to the camera.

Shot 4 - The audio of the previous shot carries on but without the visuals and we have a moving shot across a table of photos, newspaper clippings, and letters I have reviewed. This gives a very reminiscent nature to my video 

Shot 5 - Still wide shot of my parents giving some stories and experience of bringing up a child with an unusual hobby. This is a common feature of the documentary series "Teen Interest" so it is assumed that the audience will be familiar with this segment 

Shot 6 - Back to the shot of myself talking directly to the camera to give some more memories and closing thoughts 

The ending - reprise of the "Teen Interest" logo followed by credits 

Linking my documentary to theory

My Documentary model is going to be based on the two models of the documentary. One is the "expository" and the other is the "observational"

Expository Documentary

It is part expositionary due to the fact that it exposes a certain topic. Also, I plan to have shots with a voice-over featuring myself and a voice-over presenter which will commentate the shot.
These are both techniques within an expositionary documentary

Observational Documentary

It will also be based around an observational documentary because first off it does not have a presenter. Secondly, it is observing the world around the audience and a topic that is somewhat unknown and the audience may wish to learn more on. Finally, it is giving a first-hand experience of something that happens in the world


My documentary will be a mixture between the conventions of these two models

Statement of intent

Product 1

For my documentary, I want to create an informative, interesting insight into an art form that many may not know about. Most people are aware of famous puppets that are present in the media (i.e the muppets, sesame street, etc) but people don't think about the puppet makers or puppeteers, and this is what I aim to expose in my documentary. due to the documentary being such an unusual topic hopefully, it will effectively hold the audience's interest and entice them to watch more. As well as this, I want the video to be visually appealing and not be a regular "dull" documentary. To achieve this effect I will use bright colors where I can (e.g Backgrounds and buttons of the website). through the use of media language, in particular intertextuality, I will require a certain level of cultural competency at the start of the video as I will include snippets from the muppet show (a famous puppet related television show from the 80s). After my audience research, I attained the fact that my target audience is a middle-aged 40-50 age bracket, who will remember the Muppet Show. This use of intertextuality will engage an audience who already have an interest in puppets and will make them watch the documentary to learn more. Furthermore, I will also be paying homage to these Muppets and Muppet performers who inspired me. My documentary will not follow the conventions of a cliche documentary as such. It will not have a presenter who would usually narrate the whole thing. A common convention I noticed in my research of puppet documentaries was that they didn't have external narrators or presenters. In the puppet industry, the puppeteer is often forgotten about as the puppet takes the limelight so the documentaries are often a celebration that just focuses' on the puppeteer themself with no one else to steal the screen time. This is something I will replicate in my documentary. The color palette will be bright and vibrant with the highly saturated colors of the puppets I make. This will create a welcoming, friendly mise en scene for my video. The two social groups the feature in the Documentary will be my parents and I. The documentary is part of a series of short documentaries called "Teen Interest" It highlights young people who have interesting unusual hobbies and aims to let the audience learn more about them. A common feature of the series is to interview the parents to let them share their views on what it was like bringing up a child with unusual interest.

Product 2

For my website, I want to reflect on the puppetry industry context in the visual aesthetics of the website. For example, having a fur fabric border background (inspired Being Elmo documentary website). I will feature hidden links on the website that lead to interviews with myself giving some more detailed, tutorial information on the puppet characters I have made. These will act as easter eggs and will offer the audience that looked at the website something else that the documentary didn't feature. Furthermore, users of the website with a refined knowledge can access a special set of features that others can't. There will be a visible feature video of how to make a quick,  simple, fully functioning puppet at home.  In order to make a sense of brand identity, the color scheme of the website will be predominantly based around the puppets that are seen in the documentary. Finally, I will have a page of merchandise for T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and hats. That follows the same color scheme as the website which further anchors a sense of a brand identity due to the cross convergence of color and style.

Planning First Ideas

1) I would like to start the documentary with a time-lapse of myself building a puppet as the presenter introduces the documentary. This will give good expositionary detail of the film and gives the audience a taste of what the documentary is going to be about from the very beginning.

2) When talking to the camera and telling my story I will set up an array of the puppets I have made in the background to add colour and create the uplifting tone I desire. I will be situated in front of the work station where I build puppets to give the video an authentic feel and really immerse the viewer into the puppet making world 

3) I have many old photos of old newspaper cuttings, photos as a child and more recent ones. I will put these into a slide show and play that over some of my narration.

4) in the documentary "Being Elmo" which I analysed. There were sections that cut to Kevin's parents both sitting together at the kitchen table talking about Kevin as a child with a cup of tea and this created a very welcoming and calming image. I am going to replicate this kind of shot with my parents who I will film reminiscing on stories of my puppetry as a child and I will cut the best bits and feature them throughout the video.

Generic research Website research 2

I discovered a documentary that fit in with the subject of my documentary, puppets. Its called "Being Elmo" and its the life story of the puppeteer Kevin clash who is famous for his role as elmo in seseme street. Luckily this dcumentary also had a website to accompany it. This documentary was found on netflix

With consideration of the language used, I observed that the website features alot of things that create a strong sense of brand identity.

From the opening page we get a huge sense of brand identity. The outer boarder is red which both is the colour of elmo, kevins most well know character, but having watched the film, i know that kevin belives elmo symbolises the "love in everyone" the red of the boarder conveys this idea and gives it a very welcoming and loving sense about it. The grey behind the text creates a strong sense of brand identity because the Netflix thumbnail picture has that colour predominantly featuring in it.

The review section on the website creates a very positive representation of the documentary and features lots of positive language to describe it such as "Marvelous" "Extraordinary" and "touching"

In the same way as black fish documentary, Being Elmo has a photo section that gives some images that dont feature in the main video which give the watchers of the official video someting extra for discovering the website. It also has pictures that do feature in the documentary so the watchers of the documentary will recognise those moments in the film and feel remenicent.

Finally the website creates digital convergence via the use these social media links on the fore front of the websites home page.

Generic research: website research

None of my documentaries were accompanied by online media websites so I analysed this website for the popular netflix documentary; Blackfish.  Its about the inhumanity of sea world and how they treat and capture their whales.  I was specifically identirfying the cross platform convergence and how they have created brand identity.


1)

 The first thing you see as you open the website is this page which instantly creates a sense of brand identity because this is the thumb nail picure for the netflix documentary. We get the sense that this is the logo. There is lots of dark space in the picture that gives it an earie sense and immitates the dark tone of the documentary. 

2)

When you enter the website this similar "Blackfish" logo in the same font with the shadows either side of the word. It is at the top left hand of the screen to further anchor the brand identitiy. 

3)

The web page has links to its social media platforms which is a cross media convergent. However, They have been altered and are black rather than their usual colour. This is further anchoring the brand identity and creating consistencey. The website is heavily dominated by the colour black and this is a artistic touch to further that. 

4)

The website features a gallery section that are extra shots that dont feature in the film which gives the person visiting the wesite an added gain from those who dont

5)

these are all the areas you can visit in the website

Generic research summation

As part of my summation of the generic research, this is a final list of the conventions I will be using as part of my documentary...

. Voice-over narration
. Slide show of old reminiscent photos (camera panning over a table of them)
. Shots of me working on a puppet with the voice over on top
. A jingle at the start and end
. interview with parents to give their story (this is a common feature of the series to interview the parents of the child with the hobby to tell what it's like bringing up a child of that way)
. Plug the next episode
. In-person narration (sitting down in front of the camera)
. Artistic shots e.g time lapses

Audience research summation

Over the research, I have gathered a lot about the audience which I will be catering for. The people most likely to watch a documentary are in the older age bracket. middle-aged and up. They mainly will only watch documentaries on the television rather than looking for them on media platforms such as youtube, Netflix etc. They are also more likely to watch a documentary as part of a series rather than a stand-alone which supports my plan to make a documentary as part of a sucession of a mini-documentary series about teen agers with interesting hobbies. Finally, they are drawn to an accomplished presenter who they value the opinions. To accommodate this I will use a forward going and confident actor to be the face of the documentary to replicate a famous personality.

Audience research focus group

Audience research from JosephPeek2

Revision Of Pitch

My original pitch is no longer the subject matter of my documentary. I initially decided to base it on government funding cuts for school subjects that fall in the creative category. This however changed due to the fact that it would require a lot of scenes (almost all scenes) to be filmed in the school environment which the examiner's report stated lower-achieving students featured too many shots in a school setting. Also, I decided it would make more sense to utilise my passion for puppetry and use this to my advantage because it's different and unusual which would make it engaging to the audience. My pitch on the puppet theme has not changed too much. I have gathered a greater understanding for some of the shot types and conventions of documentaries like the one I choose to create. For example the use of overlapping narration over shots of someone being "hard at work", frequent featuring of old photos to create a nostalgic feel and finally a generally calm mood through the use of gentle dialogue and calming background music.

I still plan to have the two social groups that are interviewed being my parents and them giving an account of when they knew I was going to be a puppeteer when I grew up. And the other being myself giving my life experience accounts.

I am still doing an episode from a series that encapsulates teenagers with unusual hobbies called "Teen Interest" I will have a Narrator/voiceover who is not me to introduce the episode and do some links but the talking will predominantly be my own voice.

I will have wide shots of me working (making puppets) with the voice over on top which is inspired by the textual research 1 and 2 from my investigating

Textual Analysis 2

I discovered a short documentary called "Man With Puppet" This short documentary video tells the story of a man called Robbert Brock who owns a small puppet theatre in Lancaster called "The Hole in The Wall Puppet Theater". This was a very useful video to analyse because it is the chosen topic of my documentary. It has a very relatable story to my own so I got a lot of inspiration from analysing "Man With Puppet".

The video created as very old fashioned style due to the media language visual semiotics and the audio. The documentary opens with some close up moving shots of Robbert Brock with a black and white, sepia filter on the camera. This is accompanied by some old fashioned 1920s music. Puppetry is an extremely old tradition and this is anchored to the audience by this opening sequence of audiovisuals.

Shots

Research - John Grierson

John Grierson

John Grierson was the founder of the British documentary film movement and its leader for almost 40 years. He was one of the first to see the potential in motion pictures to shape peoples views and attitudes towards life and to inspire the use of filography for educational purposes. 

Textual analysis 3

"Black Sheep" Documentary Analysis

I wanted to attain a broader understanding of documentaries and styles of documentaries so, for my final textual analysis, I decided to watch a documentary produced by the guardian called "black sheep" this focus' on a young man who experienced lots of racism in his community growing up and how this has affected him as a person and how he views the world.

This example of a documentary adopts a more serious tone than what I want to achieve in my documentary but I wanted to broaden my understanding of documentaries as a whole so watching Watching this example is very useful

 
How Tone Is Created

. Regular blackouts between passages of a speech by the narrator of the documentary

. The very close up shot of the narrator of the documentary which creates a very personal and up-close experience for the watcher. It makes you feel as though you are being personally addressed.

. Very narrative speech, constant relaying stories from his childhood.

. Talking to the camera with a completely black background behind the main focus with lots of shadow in the shot to create a negative tone.

. Only one account of all stories conveyed in the documentary.

. Non-famous actors playing the people in the documentary. For example, the man who the documentary is based on, his mother and father, the racist group in his community etc. The shots are constantly cutting between his narration and acted out scenes

. Simple orchestral string music in a minor key to set the tone and to create an unsettling atmosphere constantly throughout the video. The music moves with the motion of the video. For example, the video becomes more intense at moments when there is a scene in which actors a re-creating a fight scene so the music moves with this motion and becomes more driven and intense.


Language - The language used is very colloquial and less formal than expected in a guardian documentary. This reflects his culture and celebrates it as he is clearly proud to use it.

Representation - We experience a negative representation white people as they are exposed for their rascism, violence and drug use throughout the video.

What can I take from this documentary?

I was inspired by the constant use of music throughout the documentary. I would like to use this technique but using positive sounding music to give a more uplifting feel to my video.

I would like to use the narrative storytelling aspect of this documentary in my final product and feature stories I have experienced and interesting, unusual things I have experienced as a young puppeteer.

Much like the background set (pure black sheet) of the narration shots set the tone of the documentary, I will use a similar technique but I will flip this technique and have items and artefacts behind me that will create a positive exposition to the film.

Research 1 - Documentary models

There are six main Modes of documentaries. They were discovered by Ben Nichols they include; expository, Observational, participatory, Reflexive, performative, poetic I am going to explore and research all these.

Expository Documentary

. Used to expose a certain topic
. A documentary where you have shots with a voice-over telling you what is going on in the shot
. A prime example is wildlife documentaries

Observational Documentary

. Observes the world around them
. giving a first-hand experience of what happens in the world
. It is completely just to be observed by the audience
. Normally this type of documentary can span up to over a decade
. It does not have a presenter

Participatory Documentary

. Involves the creator of the documentary present in the camera shot rather than being off-screen
. The camera is often handheld
. They engage with who they are talking to
. They are often thrown into the action of the documentary
. For example prison experience documentaries

Reflective

. When an actor does something that is staged
. This style of documentary is used to catch the reaction of the general public
. Very experimental
. you can often see the camera crew
. very creative and open

Performative 

. Interviews with people often relaying life stories, experiences
. The filmmaker gets involved and shows their view on the topic.
. Often about an investigation or search that doesn't lead to a satisfying result.
. Directs the audience in an emotional way often

Poetic
. Subgenre
. very creative and experimental
. Focusing on experiences images and creating a sense of feeling
. It often has music
. Very simplistic

Textual analysis 1

My Life With Puppets - The Journey of puppeteer Ronnie Le Drew

For my first textual analysis, I chose to analyse a documentary of a famous puppeteer called Ronnie Le Drew who has worked as a puppeteer for over 60 years. He has worked on things such as Rainbow, Labyrinth, The Muppets and the sooty show. The documentary is an account of him talking about his life from a child interested in puppets to a renowned puppeteer. I really relate to the story demonstrated so I really wanted to analyse this documentary and use inspiration in my coursework. It has a very similar format to how I wanted to present my documentary.

Shot types i would like to replicate myself

Genre -  Biography 

Language - Formal and sophisticated language in a

Target audience - Older generations that grew up on the television shows he worked on or puppetry fans who want to get into the business

Representation - Positive representation of males, he is a very well-spoken, and engaging person to listen to and he provides a positive representation of men working in the television and film industry.