Too Poor for Posh School (Existing Documentary)

Renowned for producing the finest statesmen, including Churchill and Nehru; writers like Richard Curtis and Anthony Trollope; and numerous captains of industry, Harrow is one of the last remaining all-boys boarding schools in Britain and one steeped in history.
Yet access into a world seen as the preserve of the super-rich really does come at a price: over a whopping £28,000 a year in school fees. But for those who can't afford the fees there's another way in. Each year, two boys from far less wealthy families are offered the chance of a scholarship.
The Peter Beckwith Scholarship is targeted specifically at families who'd never be able to pay for such a privileged education at a boarding school. The means-tested scholarship can pay up to full fees for a boy's entire career at Harrow, and two years at a prep school before they join Harrow at 13 years old. All in all it's worth close to £200,000.
The scholarship was founded and is funded by multi-millionaire businessman Peter Beckwith, himself a Harrovian and the father of former It Girl Tamara Beckwith. So far he's paid for 37 boys to go to Harrow.
In autumn 2009 Harrow granted Cutting Edge access - for the first time - to film the annual selection contest. It all happens on a single day in November.
The documentary follows the journey of three of the 11 shortlisted boys as they undergo a relentless day of tests and interviews. The parents of 10-year-old Krishan and 11-year-olds Numhan and Tumi can only wait in hope as their sons compete for a prize that will change their lives forever.

Filming at Reeds

Due to a misunderstanding in the group I was the only member who missed out on a day of filming at the other location that is Reeds School. This was a huge shame and occurred as a lack of communication causing complications between the rest of my group and myself.

This would have been a good opportunity for me to input my ideas, however because I didn't go with them to get the footage I am hoping to help out when it comes to editing. I trust my group to have got some really good quality filming and am looking forward to start the editing process and getting more footage from around Heathside School that I can join in with.

Practice Interview

Meg and Nick practising the interview techniques.

Here is a still shot from a video our group took a few weeks back in order to get good experience on the type of questions and compositions that we can use for the final thing. The positioning of both interviewees works well as it created a good two shot allowing the audience to see clearly what is going on / being said. Hopefully we will all gain more experience as we film the interviews for the final documentary and all of us will develop further skills in filming and editing.

Adam and myself did the filming for this while Meg and Nick volunteered to be in the footage.

Decided Location

We have managed to find a place to replace St. Georges and as a group we ae happy with the change. We are going to be filming at Reeds School in Cobham.

As you can see the school grounds are extremely spread out. We will only have the oppurtunity to focus on the sixth form area however we will be making sure we gain as much footage and information about the school itself when we go there to take location shots and film for the final documentary.

The school isnt as local as St.Georges so this will make it more difficult for us to arrange dates to film however we will make sure we get it done in time leaving vital time for editing and producing.



Listing Magazine Research

Before creating my own double page magazine spread i created a powerpoint on previous existing listing magazines that are still popular among society. Looking at what magazines there are available, what they look like and how they are all set out inside, using this research will help me when i come to create my own for the ancillary task.

Listing magazines

My group decided we will create the double page magazine spread together and do the advertising posters as an individual task, these means we can use eachothers research and start creating templates. In lesson i created a template for the task and noticed there was alot missing here is an image of what i had created.

Location Change

After planning for and asking numerous times for permission to film around St.Georges College they declined permission due to safety reasons, this means as a group we will need to quickly find elsewhere to film and make sure this does not effect our final documentary.

Due to all of the planning we have already done this may cause some trouble, we can keep it all the same however making sure we transform the plans to a different school yet still creating the same effect and to a high standard.

There are other local private schools around our area that would also be appropriate, these include:
- Halliford
- Reeds
- Sir William Perkins
- Gordon's
The only issue with many of these schools is that they are either all boys or all girl schools apart from Gordon's but they would not let us film on their grounds anyway.

Story Boards and Beginning To Film

Storyboard

I drew out a quick plan using basic imagery to help the group sort out a possible order for the footage when it comes to filming and editing.

The first thing we did was film a short journey going into each school from the car. This creates a nice point of view shot that the students will experience every day they go to school. We did this because we thought it would be a nice way for the viewers to feel more involved and is a different way of showing the location.