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.