Initial ideas for latest project

Sep 23, 2016
14 min read

My latest project is to do a short documentary, these are my three initial ideas including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and barriers.

Idea 1 - a short documentary about urban exploring in Dorset

Target Audience: The target audience for this documentary for a main age demographic will be late teens and young adults as well as people in their 30’s and 40’s, I have come to the conclusion to have this as a main demographic because in most cases where there is a group of urban explorers, they are around this age, also to my knowledge usually older people are against it because in most cases it is classed as trespassing and is against the law, quite a lot of owners of these properties are quite old as you see in other documentaries about this topic. From a bit of research I have found out that there are urban explorers from late teens from about 17 to 19, to young adults and people in their 30’s and 40’s, for example a popular urban explorer from Leeds called phill D who has a blog with hundreds of thousands of followers got into urban exploring when he was 38 [1], whereas other urban explorers such as the secretly named Dark Cyanide who doesn’t reveal his real name is 18 and has built up a massive following from going around and taking photos of these abandoned places[2].

Another obligatory target audience would be urban explorers themselves who go to these places I want to document within the documentary short film.

There is no ethnic demographic necessarily with this documentary short, there is also no class demographic when evaluating this idea.

Idea: My idea is to make a short documentary film around 2-4 minutes long about urban exploring, urban exploring also known as UE or Urbex, is the art of exploring but not in the conventional way, urban exploring is exploring manmade buildings which have been abandoned and derelict for a number of years, they are all rusted up with mould and cracked glass and most of the buildings have a very urban and surreal look to them. The purpose of urban exploring to an urban explorer is to explore buildings that have been abandoned in the past, they often look at the damage that has been caused within the buildings and the development of the buildings, photography plays a huge part in the hobby[3] as urban explorers take pictures so that they can compare to old pictures and share their experiences with the rest of the world, another purpose is to film their experiences and share that with the world. In this documentary I want to document the different locations that can be explored in Dorset such as the HM Prison Dorchester, The East Weare Batteries and DISTEX Centre in Portland, Ancient Tunnels, Dorchester, Underground Naval HQ in Portland, Royal Naval Cordite Factory in Holton Heath and more, I want to document the history of these buildings and get some good shots of them outside and inside the buildings. For this idea I would also like to document a group of urban explorers who are based in Dorset, I want to get an insight into what they do what they love about it, how they all met etc. and follow them on an explore if I can, I would also like to ask them if they have had any run ins with the police or with security guards/nearly been arrested. I also want to get an insight onto the other side of the legality of urban explorers, I want to talk to possible security guards and police officers as well as owners of these places to see what they think of the trespassing laws which can get you arrested if participating in urban exploring.

Strengths

Documenting the urban exploring based in Dorset and the people who partake in urban exploring has never been done in a short documentary form and I feel like in this form of media I will be able to capture some great footage.
Some of the shots that I will be able to get within these buildings and outside of these buildings will look very edgy and very scary to some viewers which is the look I want to go for.
I plan to have the documentary short film very fast flowing with fast paced editing and fast paced sound work with the clips ordered and audio over the top in form of interviews and music that will flow back to the original interview clip.
The idea of having a difference of opinions shown in the documentary is quite a strength that will be shown throughout the video, although it will not take over all of the video it will still be a great part of it.

Weaknesses

Urban exploring is an illegal activity in the place I was planning to film this documentary in and as I plan to go inside the buildings with urban explorers this could be an illegal film so I would have to be very careful with filming this documentary.
The police and security guards may not be comfortable with being interviewed if I am talking about an illegal subject which they work against.
The documentary may be a bit biased for urban exploring, it’s going to be hard to show two parts of the argument without being biased towards the urban exploring legal argument.
Finding a group of urban explorers in Dorset to interview could be difficult and turn into a weakness.
Capturing what the urban explorers do and fitting it all into a short documentary film could turn into a weakness, because urban explorers do a lot of things when exploring.

Opportunities

One or two cameras, the cameras I will use will either be Sony HXR’s, Canon DSLR’s, GoPro’s or Black Magic cinema cameras.
Tripods for the cameras
Some quality recording kit such as the TASCAM DR-100 as well as some high quality microphones such as Beyer, AKG D130 or I will use a microphone extension lead for the camera and use one of these microphones or the camera microphone without the recording device, the extension lead will be a BNC cable
Some lighting equipment will be required such as the Flolight, Lasolite reflector or some Arri 2K light kits.
Access to the green screen studio in college for some possible interviews with my urban explorers.
Possible access to the audio suite in college to record a voiceover or to get a voice actor to record a voice over for me
A group of urban explorers who go around and do exploring in Dorset, in will use these to interview and use footage and sound from the interviews in my documentary
A possible crew of about 3 to 4 people to help me out on the shoot with recording sound and lighting.
Access to the Adobe creative suite including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects, these will be used for editing the final documentary short film

Threats/barriers

The danger of going into these abandoned places are pretty high, there are a lot of risks which would have to be assessed before shooting this documentary, risks such as unstable buildings, tripping over and injuring yourself on all of the broken artefacts within these structures, this could injure myself and my crew, this could threaten my entire shoot but I would probably go to the locations before shooting to evaluate the safety of them for me and my crew.
Urban exploring is an illegal activity in this country because it is classed as trespassing, this could threaten my shoot because there is the risk of getting kicked out and even maybe arrested with me and my crew, I would also be with the colleges camera equipment and my crew would be in danger as well as my urban explorers, to avoid any of these risks I would definitely ask permission from the owner to film there and also let the local police know that we are filming there, this causes less risk to us when we are shooting and will also be able to use more professional camera equipment if the legality of the filming is brought up.
Trying to convince the owner of urban exploring spots in Dorset to film there legally with permission could be hard, this is due to most of the hot spots in Dorset being owned by the army and other establishments such as Ministry Of Defence which are usually quite secure, I will not know until I start sending out a few e-mails and recceing the different locations I plan to film in.
Finding a group of urban explorers in Dorset who are doing an explore soon that I can tag along with around the time I want to film the documentary may be a threat but in order to avoid this I will definitely start looking as soon as possible for a group of people on urban exploring forums or social media pages to interact with, I will then try to contact the owner of the establishment and get full permission to film there.

Idea 2- A short film documentary about the conspiracy chem trails

Target Audience: the main target audiences will be fans of conspiracy theories like this, conspiracy theories about government corruption and new world order.

From an ethnic demographic view point the topic of chemtrails is a big conspiracy in America and American people can get very into the argument on the topic both for and against chem trails conspiracy theories.

From an age demographic this documentary would probably be quite varied but for a primary age demographic it would be adults from about 40 onwards this is because the debate on chem trails have been going on for a while and people from the older generation know more about it than younger people, older politicians as well as activists are the main people who know about it and tend to care more from an age group. Although I’m not completely ruling out younger people as an audience because the documentary is quite open to all ages, the younger audience would be into this documentary at an educational view point.

Idea: The idea is to create a short documentary about the conspiracy theory behind chem trails. Chem trails are the trail of clouds that billow from an airplane streaking across the sky, and although some consider the streaks beautiful against a blue sky others are very concerned about them, concerns such as they exacerbate global warming and that the government are putting bio chemicals and harmful substances in the air, some people believe it is a way of population control or just a corruptive government[4]. In this documentary short I will be debunking the conspiracy behind chem trails I will be researching into them, I will be interviewing people who saw a weird could formation over the air of Bournemouth as well as interviewing civilians who believe and are in dis belief about the conspiracy about chem trails, I will also interview scientists and hopefully some people who have seen what the government are doing with the chem trails in aeroplanes, I want a mix of opinions in the documentary and I don’t want it to be biased at all.

Strengths

It is an unbiased documentary about the subject chem trails which will attract a bigger audience because I’m not trying to expose anything with chem trails or trying to disprove the theory I’m just researching and showing people’s opinions about the topic.
It is educational and will show the history of chem trails and what they are supposed to do and what people think of them this will hopefully drive in a bigger audience.
I plan to use a lot of footage from chem trails which support the evidence from opinions and also the expert opinions from scientists will hopefully back it up as well.

Weaknesses

It’s going to be hard to make a documentary about this topic because it has already been done lots of times before, although I am having a different of opinions and interviews with locals who have experienced strange things as well as experts in science it is going to be quite hard to make it engaging and to keep the audience glued to the screen as much as I want them to.
It’s going to be hard to show both sides of the argument equally and to not go down the illuminati style documentary road which is a bit cliché and stereotypical.
I am going to have to find an interesting way to present this information to people because quite a lot of the information is facts and figures which can come along as quite boring to some people which is something I don’t want to output.

Opportunities

One or two cameras, the cameras I will use will either be Sony HXR’s, Canon DSLR’s, GoPro’s or Black Magic cinema cameras.
Tripods for the cameras
Some quality recording kit such as the TASCAM DR-100 as well as some high quality microphones such as Beyer, AKG D130 or I will use a microphone extension lead for the camera and use one of these microphones or the camera microphone without the recording device, the extension lead will be a BNC cable
Some lighting equipment will be required such as the Flolight, Lasolite reflector or some Arri 2K light kits.
Access to the green screen studio in college for some possible interviews with the people I interview from different opinions of the chem trails conspiracy theory.

Threats/barriers

A possible threat would be having the documentary too political to the point where it is exposing the government and breaking down the government because that’s not what I want this documentary to be like.
If my interviewees cancel on me this could interrupt the shoot and make the whole thing go badly, to avoid this I will probably get more footage than I actually need to avoid this problem from happening.

Idea 3- A documentary short film about an urban explorer as an individual and urban exploring as a whole in the area of Dorset

Target Audience: The target audience for this documentary for a main age demographic will be late teens and young adults as well as people in their 30’s and 40’s, I have come to the conclusion to have this as a main demographic because in most cases where there is a group of urban explorers, they are around this age, also to my knowledge usually older people are against it because in most cases it is classed as trespassing and is against the law, quite a lot of owners of these properties are quite old as you see in other documentaries about this topic. From a bit of research I have found out that there are urban explorers from late teens from about 17 to 19, to young adults and people in their 30’s and 40’s, for example a popular urban explorer from Leeds called phill D who has a blog with hundreds of thousands of followers got into urban exploring when he was 38 [5], whereas other urban explorers such as the secretly named Dark Cyanide who doesn’t reveal his real name is 18 and has built up a massive following from going around and taking photos of these abandoned places[6].

Another obligatory target audience would be urban explorers themselves who go to these places I want to document within the documentary short film.

There is no ethnic demographic necessarily with this documentary short, there is also no class demographic when evaluating this idea.

Idea: My idea is to make a short documentary film around 2-4 minutes long about urban exploring, urban exploring also known as UE or Urbex, is the art of exploring but not in the conventional way, urban exploring is exploring manmade buildings which have been abandoned and derelict for a number of years, they are all rusted up with mould and cracked glass and most of the buildings have a very urban and surreal look to them. My idea is to get in touch with an urban explorer based in the Dorset, Wiltshire or Hampshire area who goes around to different urban exploring places in the area. I plan to get a bit of an insight into what an urban explorer does and what the purpose of urban exploring is from a view point of someone who has never done it before, I will carry out different interviews with the urban explorer and other explorers he/she is with at the time of exploring. I plan to follow the urban explorer into the structures they go into and get some detailed and surreal looking shots of the structures to make the structures look like the hidden gems of Dorset. I also want to get an insight from the illegal side of urban exploring with interviews from the owners of the properties that get explored as well as interviews with the police as well as a public opinion.

Strengths

Documenting the urban exploring based in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire with the people who partake in urban exploring has never been done in a short documentary form to my knowledge and I feel like in this form of media I will be able to capture some great footage.
Some of the shots that I will be able to get within these buildings and outside of these buildings will look very edgy and very scary to some viewers which is the look I want to go for.
I plan to have the documentary short film very fast flowing with fast paced editing and fast paced sound work with the clips ordered and audio over the top in form of interviews and music that will flow back to the original interview clip, this is a strength because all of the post production will definitely add to the feel of the overall production.
The idea of having a difference of opinions shown in the documentary is quite a strength that will be shown throughout the video, although it will not take over all of the video it will still be a great part of it.

Weaknesses

Urban exploring is an illegal activity in the place I was planning to film this documentary in and as I plan to go inside the buildings with urban explorers this could be an illegal film so I would have to be very careful with filming this documentary.
The police and security guards may not be comfortable with being interviewed if I am talking about an illegal subject which they work against.
The documentary may be a bit biased for urban exploring, it’s going to be hard to show two parts of the argument without being biased towards the urban exploring legal argument.
Finding a group of urban explorers in Dorset to interview could be difficult and turn into a weakness.
Capturing what the urban explorers do and fitting it all into a short documentary film could turn into a weakness, because urban explorers do a lot of things when exploring such as risk assessing the area, making their way into it, planning the explore and exploring.
Organising filming and meeting with my explorer/urban explorer could be a weakness which I will definitely overcome with early planning.

Opportunities

One or two cameras, the cameras I will use will either be Sony HXR’s, Canon DSLR’s, GoPro’s or Black Magic cinema cameras.
Tripods for the cameras
Some quality recording kit such as the TASCAM DR-100 as well as some high quality microphones such as Beyer, AKG D130 or I will use a microphone extension lead for the camera and use one of these microphones or the camera microphone without the recording device, the extension lead will be a BNC cable
Some lighting equipment will be required such as the Flolight, Lasolite reflector or some Arri 2K light kits.
Access to the green screen studio in college for some possible interviews with my urban explorers.
Possible access to the audio suite in college to record a voiceover or to get a voice actor to record a voice over for me
An urban explorer or a group of urban explorers who go around and do exploring in Dorset, in will use these to interview and use footage and sound from the interviews in my documentary
A possible crew of about 3 to 4 people to help me out on the shoot with recording sound and lighting.
Access to the Adobe creative suite including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects, these will be used for editing the final documentary short film.

Threats/barriers

The danger of going into these abandoned places are pretty high, there are a lot of risks which would have to be assessed before shooting this documentary, risks such as unstable buildings, tripping over and injuring yourself on all of the broken artefacts within these structures, this could injure myself and my crew, this could threaten my entire shoot but I would probably go to the locations before shooting to evaluate the safety of them for me and my crew.
Urban exploring is an illegal activity in this country because it is classed as trespassing, this could threaten my shoot because there is the risk of getting kicked out and even maybe arrested with me and my crew, I would also be with the colleges camera equipment and my crew would be in danger as well as my urban explorers, to avoid any of these risks I would definitely ask permission from the owner to film there and also let the local police know that we are filming there, this causes less risk to us when we are shooting and will also be able to use more professional camera equipment if the legality of the filming is brought up.
Trying to convince the owner of urban exploring spots in Dorset to film there legally with permission could be hard, this is due to most of the hot spots in Dorset being owned by the army and other establishments such as Ministry Of Defence which are usually quite secure, I will not know until I start sending out a few e-mails and recceing the different locations I plan to film in.
Finding an urban explorer/ a group of urban explorers in Dorset who are doing an explore soon that I can tag along with around the time I want to film the documentary may be a threat but in order to avoid this I will definitely start looking as soon as possible for a group of people on urban exploring forums or social media pages to interact with, I will then try to contact the owner of the establishment and get full permission to film there.
Meeting up with my explorer and organising filming locations as well as getting to the different filming locations will definitely be a threat which I will try to overcome but it will definitely be a threat.