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.

Our Documentary Time Line

As a group we got together and began to make a detailed plan of what we would do in stages. We did it in 5 day steps and made a realistic plan of timing and progress. We included planning time and filming time and towards the end editing time, then the overall evaluation. As an individual in my group it will be important for me to make sure we all stick to the planning and also put equal time and effort in to make sure our final product is a success.

Starting to Plan - Potential Ideas

After doing a quick brain storm of different ideas 3 of them stood out to me. There is so many topics available and mockumentary is also a possibility, however a serious documentary will prove more skilful and educational. Here is the planning of ideas

Fast Food

- This would be an interesting topic to look at and create a documentary on because there is many things to research and discover. I would look at the effects it has on the society and the quality and pricing of food products. I would want to research into statistics and relevant dates of how fast food has evolved and become so popular.

- The only thing with this topic is that there has already been many documentaries on television and it would be hard to create something completely different on the same subject.

Teenage Antisocial Behaviour

- Being a teenager myself it would be a good way to explore the wide range of teenagers who act antisocially. There are certain areas around surrey where antisocial behaviour is common and it would be easy to get lots of footage and create an exciting documentary.

- This topic is often exposed on the news and would be easy to copy from, therefore i think it is best i do not use this to create a final documentary with my group.

Public VS Private School

- This is the most likely topic for our group, there is plenty of private and public schools to look at and research into and nothing has been done like this in documentary form on television before. Being a student at a public school sixth form there are available resources that are easily accessible.

- I will research further into this topic.

Beginning to Think of Ideas

Brainstorming became important to our group because we had to start on a blank canvas with the topic of documentary. We began to think about doing a mockumentary but realised if we took it seriously the chances are we would find it easier to get an idea and plan sensibly and get things correct and completed for the deadline.
We thought of making a preliminary because it would give us a chance to get familiar with how each group member works and how we would work differently for the final, we will do this around a similar subject to what we chose for the final and this may even help us develope a better idea even further.