Bluestone Pictures

Welcome to Bluestones Pictures,


In the past, I have used this blog to post about my university experiences, assessments or just my thoughts about London so far, but now I will be using it to promote and keep people up to date on my final year film. At the moment I and my group are in the pre-production stages of our film.

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Documentary Final Proposal

Proposal

Working title: Chasing Progress or Striving Forward

Duration: Approximately 8 minutes

Format: H264, uploaded onto Vimeo

I will be creating a documentary that explores whether teenagers today are feeling to much pressure to achieve goals set for them. During their high school careers teenagers are expected to know what career or area they want to work in by the age of 14. At this point in school they will pick their subject options, which will guide them through the next two years at school, college and for a majority university.

With the pressure of society looming and a need to make her parent proud, I want to follow the life of 14 year old Aaliyah Phillips as she embarks on her final years at high school, Aaliyah is currently in year 10 and after recently choosing her subject options is looking into get her work experience.  Choosing to work in the child care industry Aaliyah is looking to gain experience in a nursery or a school but must first receive adequate education in her chosen area working hard both in and out of school

Following her career path and I want to use a participatory style to investigate what influences her decisions and how they develop over time asking questions as well as observing her day to day lifestyle from school and at home to delve deeper into her mind set to understand influencing factors. I also want to talk to teachers and specialists in this area to gather their knowledge and understanding of the schooling system and how the pupils are coping.

Are we asking two much of teenagers at an age? In a society where social media rules their lives, peer pressure increases and the opinions of older generations often play apart in their lives, are this teens following a path they want or are they fulfilling goals brought on by others?

Understanding that a participatory style may also sway Aaliyah into thinking a certain way I do not wish to exploit her in any way , so I will need to work hard not to push her decisions but to instead ask the right questions to understand her thinking add portray her thoughts to the audience.

Telling a story through memory

Memory of men sticking a cow in a car! 

September 2014, I should of been starting my first day back at college but instead my family decided to go to Switzerland to watch England vs Switzerland.
The memory starts with me and my family sitting in a café in Luton airport, the people I was travelling with was my dad, brother, step mum, brothers girl friend, a close friend of my dad’s and my cousin.


This memory sticks out to me because I hadn’t really grown up around my cousins and my family had recently been getting together more, the particular cousin we were travelling with I remembered but hadn’t really got to many close memories with. But I found he was an open person and easy to get along with, while in the café drinking my coke with my family around me, I was scrolling through Facebook when a video shared by someone else came across my feed. The video was CCTV footage of two men pulling up in a car along side a cow who is grazing on some grass, they get out of the car and leave the doors open. The cow get curious and begins to poke its head in side of the backdoor, as it is about to back out again the two man come back and proceed to stuff if in the back of the car and then drive off with it in the back seat.

After watching the video a few times over and shaking with laughter, I noticed that my cousin was looking at me skeptically from across the table. After looking at the man I didn’t really know I jumped up and went to show him the video. To this day, I will always remember this video as the video that brought us close together.

What Have I Learnt About Documentary Production So Far?

From watching documentaries over the years on TV, I used to think of documentaries as being a presenter feeding information to the audience along with the visuals on screen. But after watching documentaries such as, Talking heads and Sans Soleil I realised that documentaries don't need to have a presenter or 'facts' as such. for example Sans Soleil has a montage of footage from all over the world with a woman reading a man's memories, this way of storytelling instead of the typical David Attenborough style of feeding facts allows the audience to ask their own questions. They were able to see the world without a presenter interrupting the people in these situations, make their own views and perceptions.

I have also seen that documentaries don't need big crews to be there to film and it is often easier to film with the smallest crew possible, documentaries don't need multiple cameras and cinematic scenery to tell the story, it is often the style of the film and the way it is edited that helps tell the story.

Uncompressed story idea

Character Biography:
Name: Tom
Age: 19
Lives: London

We will be filming Tom a skateboarder from London; who is also sponsored by a company, Tom has been skating for around 3-4 years and he has been skating every day since.

Questions:
-You have been skating for a few years now; how long did it take before you became good enough to gain a sponsor?
-Which company/companies sponsor you?
-Have you had any injuries since you started? If so what? and how did it happen?
-Did your injury put you off skating in anyway?
-What are your goals for skating in the future?

Interview: Character Description and questions

Because of the circumstances of the character, I know I won't be able to interview this person but if I had the chance; these are the questions I would ask.
Character Biography:
Name: David Smith (name has been changed)
Age: 30
Lives: Stoke On Trent
Currently: In Prison

David Smith is a male from Stoke On Trent who, at this time is currently in prison. At home he has a a job and a house a young child (who is looked after by his mother), David is in prison for multiple reasons but the most recent and prominent reason is for getting in to a fight and beating a man into a coma with a golf club.

David had a rough childhood with abusive parents, he was eventually put into the foster care system without any of his siblings who still lived at home with their parents. After being kicked out of all the schools in the local area in year 9 he was left without any qualifications and started taking drug and mixing with the wrong people. He has a violent can be very violent when angered and this anger began to show from a young age and once tried to hit his mum with an axe and hammer before being stopped by a neighbour, his fathers violence could be a root cause of his own violence as his father often beat him,sometimes his siblings and he once witnessed his father hit his mum over the head with a house brick. His mother didn't work and his father stopped working while David was still very young after the local coal mine closed down and he never got another job, instead David would be at home while his father had his friends around and took drugs.

While in his late teens he was back in contact with his family which later lead to more trouble after he was with his father when he petrol bombed his sister house because he didn't like her boyfriend. Although David didn't initially get arrested for this crime he got into more trouble with drug and alcohol and committing other crimes he was put into juvenile detention before being moved into an adult prison when he was old enough. While he was in prison he joined some educational course and gain qualifications in construction, joinory and plastering and also started a course with the Open University studying Nutrition and sports science, and was able to get some jobs working in construction and plastering after his release.

After being released from prison in his mid twenties he got a girlfriend, a job and a house with a mortgage and a year down the line he found out his girlfriend was pregnant. After this relationship broke down he moved out and began living with his family again, minus his mother who had died a few years earlier of pancreatic cancer. Even though he was on better terms with his family they still often fell out and after a few months he was kicked out again after having an argument with his dad over his younger brother. After being kicked out this time he drifted from home to home, from friends sofa's and various new girlfriends, he quit his jobs at a factory and ended up moving from job to job. He eventually found out he was bipolar but refused to take advice or his medication. After a year found a new girl and moved in with her and her children while he went through his court cases, before being sent down in November 2015.

Questions:
-Do you believe that your fathers violence, that you had witnessed growing up impacted the way you behave and deal with situations?
- Will you decide to seek help for bipolar when you are released?
-Do you think that the environment you were surrounded in while growing up affected your ability to deal with family life once you had settled down with a house, girlfriend and a baby?
-Do you struggle to maintain relationships with people in day to life, for example, friends and work colleagues? Why is that do you think?
-Do you think that the people you mixed with impacted you behavioural patterns?
-When released from prison will you seek out and try to reform relationships with  your family?
-Do you think that your bipolar hindered your ability to see the world in a clear way?
-Do you believe your drug taking effected you bipolar and temper?
-After being in prison for a second time; do you think you will be able to stay out of trouble or do you think that patterns from the past will re-occur?
-Has being in prison taught you anything useful that you could use upon release?
-While in prison the first time, you gained some qualifications and started another, how come you didn't continue on you nutrition degree after your release?

Documentary Production: Initial Proposal

Proposal

Working title: Chasing Progress or Striving Forward

Duration: Approximately 8 minutes

Format: H264, uploaded onto Vimeo

I will be creating a documentary that explores whether teenagers today are feeling to much pressure to achieve goals set for them. During their high school careers teenagers are expected to know what career or area they want to work in by the age of 14. At this point in school they will pick their subject options, which will guide them through the next two years at school, college and for a majority university. 

With the pressure of society looming and a need to make their parents proud, I want to follow the lives of a group of students ages 14-16 as they chose their career paths and investigate what influences their decisions and how they develop over time. I also want to talk to teachers and specialists in this area to gather their knowledge and understanding of the schooling system and how the pupils are coping.

Are we asking two much of teenagers at an age? In a society where social media rules their lives, peer pressure increases and the opinions of older generations often play apart in their lives, are this teens following a path they want or are they fulfilling goals brought on by others?