Both: Initial Ideas And Initial Treatment

Our group for this A2 project consists of Callum Petch and Kyle Edwards and we are both doing a documentary together.  We have set two deadlines for our project; the film needs to be completed and burnt to a DVD by December 21st and the evaluation of the product needs to be completed by February 14th.

Subject, Length & Purpose

We have chosen to base our documentary on Representations of Women and Sexism in Videogames through the ages (which, in the grand scheme of projects, would be an extract from a TV series on videogames).  It will last roughly 5 minutes, maybe a couple of seconds either side.  The purpose of the documentary is to inform and educate whilst also remaining interesting and accessible to those who don't necessarily know much about or are that interested in videogames.  This fits with our audience of 18-30 year olds with a slight focus more towards women for the extract, given the topic of the "episode".

Style

Our style will be informal but in the "keeping things interesting" sense, rather than being unprofessional or straight comedy.  It will be age-appropriate, as such, and educational for those who are looking to learn.  It will also be argumentative as a way of calling for a better representations of female characters and actual stories as the extract progresses.

Budget

The budget for this project is at a maximum of £40, though we are aiming to keep it as low as humanly possible.  This is taking into account if we need any props, costumes, transport and such that other people don't happen to have or have access to.  Hopefully, though, we shouldn't need to worry too much about that.

Equipment

As for equipment: we will be utilising a video camera, a camera tape or card for recording on to, screen capture software on a computer to record appropriate videogame footage, a tripod to steady the camera and some prop consoles and controllers for specific "talking to the camera" sections.

Genre Theory

John Hartley once said that "genres... limit the potential of a given text."  This means that the conventions of a documentary limit the documentary's ability to be anything but.  We plan to challenge this concept by adhering to certain conventions of a documentary (voice over, file footage, etc.) whilst subverting and breaking other conventions (having a female co-host for a talk about sexism, for example).