Permission

We had to get permission to take the cameras and tripods away from school for filming so my mum signed it and we were free to film to our hearts content

Casting

After planning all our shots and different camera angles we have been able to cut this list down as obviously finding 6 students who are all free at the same time in the middle of their A-Levels could have been a problem. In the interview with the female victim, we are going to try and make an effect using lights so that you cannot see her face, only her silhouette like this (leaving her to remain anonymous):

(picture from http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.45-volumetric-light.png)

We actually thought of this before thinking of the amount of actors we would need but we then realised it had more than one advantage. It shows our camera skills but also means that we can use the same girl for the reconstruction and the interview. The name of the actress is Lydia Whittle. We knew we would be able to trust her as we used her last year in our media coursework and her GCSE and A-Level drama experience clearly shows in the filming. (Picture of Lydia below)

We couldn't find another girl who was free to film on the day we want to so I said I would act as the female friend as it it just a tripod shot. (Myself pictured below)

We had already decided we wanted to use Elliot Williamson for our attacker as he also acted in out media coursework last year and was very good. We decided that he should be used for the reconstruction and not the 'real footage' as the CCTV footage which we were going to shoot was only taken from ahead and as he was the best male actor we had we thought it would be best to use him to his full advantage. (Picture of Elliot below)

Matt Burge said that he would act out the CCTV footage as it is just going to be a walk around the carpark so although he is in our filming group, he wont be missing out on much as it is just going to be a tripod shot. (Picture of Matt below)

The final two people we needed to cast was the person who will intervene in the attack and talk about it in an interview, and the person who will intervene in the reconstruction. Because we have already planned our shots we know that the rescuers face wont be seen and also it will be dark so we will be using the same person for both. Anish Godwin Patel is the actor we chose. (Picture of Anish below)

Deciding on Casting

After properly deciding on our them of a Crime Documentary we realized that the topic we wanted to do it on was very personal so it was difficult to find somebody who wanted to share their story. So instead, we looked at various attempted rape stories and made our own, not in an attempt to miss-portray events but to raise awareness of what can happen to young girls.
These are the actors we are going to need:

1. A female actress playing the victim in the interview
2. A female actress for the reconstruction
3. A female acress playing the friend in the interview
4. A male actor to play the attacker in the CCTV footage
5. A male actor to play the attacker in the reconstruction
6. A male actor playing the rescuer in the reconstruction
7. A male actor playing the rescuer in the interview

Making the Final Decision on Theme

Today our group made the final decision that we are going to do a documentary on the attack of a young girl at school. We spent quite a lot of time on the BBC Crimewatch website looking for some inspiration and also to see how the majority of them are set out. One particular film which we liked was the 'Hayes Attempted Rape'. They used reconstruction, CCTV, interviews from close family members and lots more which we were thinking of which is good because now we know were on the right track. The pictures below are screen shots from the film on the BBC website. Click on an image to enlarge.

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Teen Cribs

After making 'Testing out... Interview Techniques', we realised that producing a documentary on Bipolar Disorder would be too challenging and sensitive to make as humourous so we decided to try out lots of different topics. This was one that we have made into a proper 'short' because we think we might like to use it for our main piece. 

Testing out... Interview Techniques

Unfortunately there was a problem with the computer we did this film on and by default is says 'Directed by Amy Michael', something we couldn't change.. It was actually made by myself, Matt Burge and Olivia Cope. 

Testing out ... Camera Angles

Testing out...

In last weeks lesson we had a task to make a mini documentary on different interview techniques. It really helped us decide what we liked and what we were not so keen on so we decided that it wouldn't be our last. we thought of the idea of making a mini series of documentaries on all sorts of things and we decided to call it 'Testing Out...' The second one we made was about all the different types of camera angle and they will both be placed on our blogs when fully completed, along with a montage of audience feedback to the 'Testing Out... Interview Techniques'.

Our work so far

At first, the idea of doing a test for our media sounded like a fun, hassle free challenge but we soon discovered that the style in which we intended on doing it in was going to be harder than we imagined. The style we wanted to achieve was black humour, a sort of mockumentary but as we did further research into Bipolar Disorder we discovered how sensitive it is and how it could upset certain viewers who are familiar with the illness or have family members with it. Because of this we have had to rethink our idea slightly and come up with something more serious. So, in conclusion, doing this test turned out to be a good idea because could have ended up making a really big error and now we have enough time to correct it.

Reseach into Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depressive illness) is a brain disorder that causes random and extreme changes in mood and energy levels. The changes in mood differ alot from the mood swings that everybody else experiences now and again. They are severe and very obvious. The illness, however, can be treated.

It is uncommon for Bipolar disorder to start in childhood and in most cases the symptoms will start showing from teenage years to young adulthood. It is also uncommon for Bipolar disorder to only start showing symtoms later than this. A study taken shows that at least half of all cases start before the age of 25.
Although the symptoms for Bipolar are easy to spot if you know what your looking for and may seem obvious, it is not easy to spot at the start as the symptons could look like seperate problems depending on how the person is reacting to them.
The phrase used to describe the two different personas that a person suffering from Bipolar disorder will go through is "mood episodes". A 'manic episode' is when the person is in an overly joyful and energetic state and an extremely sad or hopeless state is called a 'depressive episode'. Occasionally, their mood can reflect both a depressive episode and a manic episode and this is called a 'mixed state'. Whatever state they happen to be in, it can change instantly and they can suddenly explode for no reason.

The information which i used to write this post i found from these websites
http://www.kimandry.com/bipolar-disorder.html
http://www.psychotube.net/page/3/
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder/complete-index.shtml