Planning the Interviews

As a group we have written down a huge amount of questions that we felt were appropriate to ask. Many will be irrelevant in the end and may not be used and some we may film and cut out when we come to edit the interviews.

Some of these questions include:

- For Teachers 

• Do you enjoy teaching to the students in your school?
• Would it make a difference if you worked at a private or public school?
• Do you find that students are better behaved when in uniform?
• Do you think the teachers make the most of the facilities available?
• Are there any parts of the school that you think need improving?
• Does paying for education actually make a difference to how students learn?
• Is it unfair that private school is so expensive when students that cannot afford it would benefit from a better education?
• Is the location around the school suitable?
• Are there enough things for students to do as extra curricular?
• Does the school support every student equally?
• What does a normal school day consist of?

- For the Students

• Do you enjoy the school day?
• Is it easy to get on with everyone in your classes?
• Do you think money can buy better education?
• Do you enjoy wearing a uniform?
• Are the teachers strict enough or too strict?
• What is the general atmosphere at school?
• Do you find the breaks long enough?
• Are your lessons used to full potential?
• Do you think there are enough facilities?

There will be other questions we come up with during group discussions and filming periods. Adjustments will be made every day.

Location Shots

HEATHSIDE

It was obvious to us that taking location shots would help us plan where and what we are going to film for the final piece, by taking and examining the images we can therefore go into further detail and make observational comparisons. Being students at Heathside School we took these images from around the school grounds and plan on doing the same thing around St Georges College as the next step in our preparation.

Here we have: 

The entrance sign to the school.

Quiet Playground - surrounded by the Design Technology classrooms.

 The benches and bins in the quiet playground. (Ramp facility in the top left corner for the disabled)

 The long jump and sand pits.

 The outside area of the combined and concreted tennis/netball/hockey court.

 Inside of the courts.

Sports field with students using it.

 Students doing cross country training around the field.

ST GEORGES

Developing and Planning into the Final Idea

We have all the ideas written down in basic form and today we had a large discussion about ways in which we can make the documentary stand out and be interesting for our audience.
Agreeing and disagreeing are what helped us figure out ways in which we would carry out the project.
It became immediately apparent that we would need to go around each location and make a few discoveries and discuss how we could create footage on certain aspects of the subject.
We took a walk around Heathside and took photographs and are going to decide what parts we will include in the final documentary.
The next thing we want to do is practice filming interviews as this is an important thing to get right for the whole documentary to work and come together properly. We will take it in turns to film and ask questions so we can each get some experience before beginning the final production.
Creating well worded questions will be important because it is vital that we get interesting answers out of our interviews that will help support our topic and keep the documentary interesting.

Magazine Article Planning

As well as creating a documentary, i am also creating a magazine article individually. I have created a powerpoint on my research of similar magazine articles as what i want mine to be similar to.

Final Idea

As a group we came together and decided on the idea of public V private school.
- This idea came from the fact that one of our group members Meg was a student at a private school before she came to our public sixth form college.
- The two schools we are focussing on are: Heathside School (where we are all currently studying) and St Georges College (a local private school where Meg used to study).
- We will be looking at the comparisons between the following things:

• Uniform - how smart or scruffy, if it is strict and whether the students like the uniform they have to wear.
• Facilities - this is a varied point to analyse because it involves classrooms, sporting facilities, canteens and school grounds.
• Teaching - teaching standards is often different and by interviewing the teachers themselves we can get an idea of how it feels to be a teacher working at a private school and a public school.
• Behaviour - this is a general reflection on how well a school is doing, if the students are well behaved the school is generally successful whereas if the behaviour is not great this will always reflect on the school in general.
• Exam results - including the GCSE exam results over the recent years, these can be compared and help build a good argument between public and private schools.

public vs private

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Mark Scheme

Mark scheme

As an individual I feel that looking at the mark scheme in detail is a better way of knowing what to do when it comes to fulfilling the project. I will refer back to this when i need to.

Camera Angles

Close Up: 
This is often used on objects of significance to the narrative to show that is has an importance to a certain story, could be a book of some kind or a letter (if it is done with a close up the audience can read the words and then understand). If it is used as a facial close up, it can focus on emotion of characters and this will intensify how the audience feel towards certain people.

Establishing Shot: 
This is a simple shot often outside, that indicates where action will take place, so if it is outside a shop then before the action in the shop happens to open up the scene there will be an establishing shot of the shops name/logo.

Low Angle Shot: 
The camera will be placed below the actor looking up on them, this can make an object, person or building seem a lot larger than it actually is, this has the effect of letting the audience know how powerful, intimidating, strong or imposing the certain thing is.

High Angle Shot:

Taken from above a person, object or anything else to make it look less significance, often represents withering authority and can draw attention to the setting and shows importance of the environment that surrounds the insignificant object.

Wide Angle Shot:

Showing a wider view of a scene, this allows people to take in a setting and things in the setting usually have some representation towards the narrative, the wide angle shot means more characters can be involved in one and it often shows people as a team.

Framing Shot:

Using a piece of set or scenery to frame a shot, corridors, windows, doors and many other things can be used to frame and if things like this aren't used then the scenery will often surround a certain object to frame it, this shows significance and individuality of either a person or an object.

Point of View Shot:

The camera shot is set as if through the eyes of the protagonist or character, it follows movement of a person and it see's things as if being looked at from someone eyes, this establishes what they are seeing and when it is switched to the next shot as a close up showing the reaction, we can then understand why they react in such a way.

Two-Shot:

When the camera involves two people in a shot. This doesn't really add an effect it just allows the audience to see two people and what they are doing and if there is a contrast or similarity between then each character can emphasise the opposite characters look or being.