Documentary Commission Unit: Project Update

Script for commission...

PIX	Sync/Comm
Opening sequence – Introduction L/S presenter on high street + C/U mobile phone	Sync: Presenter “With the birth of the noughties came the birth of a new form of communication, now widely known as text-talk…”
Title Sequence – Animated phone sequence
M/S of presenter in the Maidstone Museum (Library)	Sync: Presenter “The way people have communicated has changed over thousands of years…”
M/S Secondary school teacher in a classroom.	Secondary school teacher “The way a students use of the English language has changed…”
Youth intro – different phones which spell out “youth view”	Music
C/U of public youth on the high street.	Youth gives general view.
M/S of presenter in Maidstone Library (museum)	Sync: Presenter “ The first book ever to have been written is of course the Bible…”
M/S  of the public youth breaking down a sentence into text-talk/ rebuilding a sentence.	Sync: Presenter “Are you any good at text-talk or do you write out the words in full?...”
C/U of secondary school teacher breaking down a sentence into text talk/ rebuilding a sentence.	Sync: Presenter “Do you think you could work out what this sentence means?...”
Middle aged intro - ? (We’re thinking of something)	Music
M/S of a middle-aged business person in café.	Sync: Presenter “Now we all say that text-talk was created by the younger generation but …”
M/S of a university lecturer in their office with the Presenter.	Sync: University lecturer “The English language itself is constantly changing because of how multi-cultural we have become…”
Older generation intro – cups of tea/ werthers originals which spell out “older is wiser”	Music
M/S of an older person 50+ on the high street.	Sync: older person “I can’t understand why the youth of today think it is clever to text all the time?”
Montage of M/S of the general public on the high street.	Sync: Presenter “ would you like to decode this for me?”
M/S of the Presenter on the high street, concluding shot.	Sync: Presenter “Either you love it or you hate it but either way text-talk is here to stay…”

Documentary Commission Unit: Project Update

Sadly my idea for a documentary did not get commissioned, instead I am now working with Dan Baugh and Matt Doyle on Dan's idea of The Joy Of Txt. This was his winning pitch...


The Joy Of Txt


The vast amount of technology that was introduced and embraced during the ten years that form the noughties is immense in comparison to every previous decade. Various forms of the introduced technology have led to people communicating in very different ways, many of which it would now be difficult to imagine day to day life without. One such form of communication is the use of text messages sent from one mobile phone to another. As this form of communication grew more widely used a seemingly endless list of specifically intended abbreviations, acronyms and combination of symbols was created that would later be broadly known as text talk.
My intention should this subject matter be commissioned for creation is to explore a number of interconnecting elements that the use and understanding of ‘text talk’ has had on the way that people communicate. These elements will include the social and academic impacts, generational opinions, professional opinions and posing the questions in order to discover and structure a well rounded view as to what the public as a whole think of the use of text talk in regards to whether it is a good or bad element of communication. Ultimately leading to a discovery of whether if normal people living in Briton are even bothered by its use or believe it to simply be the next eventual stage of the progression of the English language.

The way that I intend to present this to the audience would be through a mixture of interviews with professional individuals such as linguists, teachers and possibly representative from the English dictionary. I would also be keen to include a section where people that are aware but not necessarily frequent users of text talk would attempt to decode or interpret the meaning of pre set phrases written in text talk form which should keep the commission light hearted rather than hard hitting.

We've had some thoughts on this and so far we have been able to plan this...

10 minute documentary – The Joy Of Text

1)      Introduction

2)      Background

3)      Secondary teacher interview

4)      Public interview youth

5)      Public interview middle aged

6)      University lecturer interview

7)      Public interview older

8)      Decoding

9)      Conclusion

Hypothesis – Question we want to answer – Is texting being used to exclude people? (has it become a cult)? Is it affecting academic behaviour?

Element – 3 proper interviews (public), visible interviewer/presenter (makes it more relaxed and fun). Title sequence – Different phones showing the title “The Joy Of Text”, The Matrix introduction? Actuality – talking to the public. Archive is better to be recreated. The story will come out of the question.

30 seconds of something before the title sequence – 15-20 second title. 1 min of in depth background which leads onto the first interview secondary school teacher interview  and then youth interview. Presenter break up.

Youth breakdown of a sentence, teacher breakdown the same message.

(Break ups – something to do with the generation)

Interview middle aged public (business section)

University lecturer interview

Public interview older person

Original decoding segment.

Conclusion.

217 million texts a day in the UK. 6.5 billion texts per month in the UK.

When did phones come in. The advance in technology. How did it happen? Is it a good thing?

Direction Unit: Project Research

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Character Profile

BUFFY
She is a blonde, feisty, 15 year old girl who is struggling to keep up with school work whilst battling vampires and demons and general teenage-angst. She is THE vampire slayer, she believes in right from wrong even though she is inlove with a vampire - Angel.
She wants to do well in school and life but her job has to come first.
Her parents are divorced and she moved to Sunnydale (the Hellmouth) when her mum applied for a job at the Sunnydale Gallery. She loves her dad but knows he wo't commit to being a full-time parent. She sees Giles (her Watcher) as a father figure and turns to him for advice whenever she can.

WILLOW
She is a red-headed 15 year old (obvious virgin).
She is the class swot and wants to achieve the top academically and of course will. She is very loyal, especially to her friends (Buffy is her best-friend ), She is secretly inlove with Xander who she has known her whole life (only Buffy is aware of her feelings for him though). And she hates drawing attention to herself. 
Her parents are quite strict so she has never had a boy in her room.
She wants to fight vampires and be more like Buffy but comes across as more as a piece of bait rather than a hero. She ends up assisting Giles in the library on most occassions. 

XANDER
He is the typically hormonal 15 year old boy.
He is the class dweeb - typical misfit - he isn't a jock but could be if he wanted to be, he isn't a geek and knows he never could be. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows-up, he prefers to live in the moment and wants to enjoy high school (even though he knows he never will).
His best-friend is Willow but he doesn't realize that she loves him. He fancies Buffy so is extremely jealous of Angel (Buffys boyfriend), he tries to be tough to impress her, failing every time.
He hates Cordelia (the prettiest girl in school) but fancies her too, they are having a secret relationship.
He has a very relaxed home life so he can get away with whatever he wants but he doesn't because he believes in right from wrong.

GILES
He is a very reserved and well spoken 30 something.
He works as the librarian at Sunnydale High School, but his real job is to be the Watcher of the vampire Slayer (Buffy). He cares for her deeply and loves her like a father would, although sometimes it seems he is more like Yoda to Buffys Luke Skywalker.
He loves his books and seems to have an infinite supply of them but he has failed to master the idea of the internet. 
He has a slight crush on Joyce Summers (Buffys mum) but hates anyone knowing too much about his personal life both past and present.
He studied at Oxford and believes there is no-one who kows more about demons than he does.