Practical Brief Essay

My practical will be a title sequence for a fly-on-the-wall documentary based on the lives of Londoners. The title sequence will last approximately 40-50 seconds and will include typical conventions for a documentary. I will be working in a group of three and am going to be responsible for the camera work and filming. There are several codes and conventions I need to include in my title sequence to fulfil the audience’s expectations. Shots of London signposts and famous landmarks will be shown to set location and give a clear indication of where the documentary is set. Several shots of people looking very glamorous will be shown to represent the luxurious lives these Londoners are supposedly living. This relates to the ‘Empirical Method’ that suggests that the audience are active participants in transaction with the media. They watch such shows for diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. Audiences have a great enjoyment in watching the lives of others and a desire to be something there not (want of a better life) and the curiosity of watching how other people live their lives as a way of comparing your life and relationships to theirs. This documentary would be targeted at mainly females, as I believe they are seen to have more of a desire for a glamorous and luxurious lifestyle. A wide range of social grades would find a documentary of this kind appealing, as those who live lives nothing like this would find this interesting because of curiosity and a wish to live a dream life. Whilst those who live similar lifestyles would be interested to see how they are portrayed and seen be others. This would especially appeal to that of a lower social grade (c1, c2), as this is a very idealistic way of living that they would all aspire to live. Shots of very classy shops (such as Harrods), places to eat and hotels will be presented to give the audience a taste of what they are going to see and also what to expect from these London lives. A couple of the shots will include the typical documentary technique ‘wobbly camera’, i.e. walking through a busy street. This will represent the following of the lives of ‘normal’ people in London. This will not only give the audience a taste of what is to come but also assure the audience that what they are seeing is real and gives a sense of actuality. The only written code that will be used in my title sequence is the title of the documentary, which will also be portrayed as a logo and something to recognise and link the documentary with in the future. Extreme close ups will be used on a couple of shots to focus the audiences attention on a certain things i.e. diamond necklace or fancy cars. Wallpaper shots will be used to show the busy streets of London and capture stereotypical associations with London i.e. red buses and black taxis as well as capturing people of London walking through the streets. This will show to the audience that the documentary really is taking place in London and therefore the rest of the documentary will seem more believable. Also some of the shots of the Londoners will be taken at a low angle to represent status and make these people appear important, raising an enigma and making the audience want to carry on watching to find out what is so good about their lives. The duration of most shots will last 2 or 3 seconds and will be fairly fast moving to match the audio and feeling of the title sequence. The sequence will begin with a London signpost to set location and then cut to the famous landmarks i.e. London Eye, Canary Wharf, then there will be various shots of the people and places in London. The audio that will be used over the title sequence will be high-tempo to match with the busy atmosphere and lives of the city. To capture these shots I intend to include in this documentary, I will go into London and film the people, famous landmarks and way of the city. I hope to capture the idealistic way of living through typical shots that represent a rich and glamorous lifestyle and use typical documentary techniques i.e. wobbly camera to present these shots as reality.