Lauryn Poutama

Documentary Formal Proposal

Topic: Piercings.
We will look at how piercings have evolved as a trend from past years. We will discuss the
different elements of body modification such has medical issues, cultural reasoning, possible
occupational barriers and many other features.
Type: The documentary will include relevant interviews, archive footage, narrator (voice of
god), observational footage and reconstructions (if necessary) which allows it to be a mixed
type of documentary.
Style: The style of our piercing documentary will be informal due to the topic being
discussed, although we will include more formal opinions on certain subjects e.g. medical
professionals.
Channel and Scheduling: We are aiming for the documentary to be aired on Channel 4 at
9pm in order for our content to be viewed by the appropriate audience whom generally
watch television after the watershed.
Target Audience: The target audience for our media product is both female and male
ranging from ages 18-45 due to its nature and the topics legal age restriction of piercings,
however we understand our documentarys viewers may drop slightly below the age range.
Primary Research Needed:
This refers to planning for our:
Target audience
Researching potential interviewees
Setting up interview dates/times with them
Planning and carrying out vox pops with the general public
We could interview different types of:
Piercing shops owners/employees
Someone who works in a corporate environment that can discuss the barriers visible
piercings raise when interviewing for a job
Someone who works in an environment where piercings do not raise issues (bars,
pubs, retails)
Medical professional
People with extreme piercings
People with no piercings whom have a negative opinion on the which allows our
documentary to highlight both sides of the topic (negative and positive opinions)
Older generations opinion on the subject
Person whom has a medical issue from getting a piercing
General publics opinion.
Lauryn Poutama
We will also plan and research for the mise en scene of our interviews by looking into
relevant locations, props and lighting.
Secondary Research Needed: This includes the different archive materials, both images and
footage, which we will employ in our documentary. We will also research facts, figures and
statistics that are relevant to our documentary topic, along with researching and deciding
on suitable music/instrumental we will be incorporating into our product.
Narrative Structure: For our piercing documentary it will be non-linear as it will includes
interviews on different subjects and dates. It will also be a single stranded documentary
discussing one particular type of body modification, although it will discuss different aspects
of that one topic. Also it should round up at the end as a closed subject as the aspects we
discuss should come to a definite conclusion.
Outline:
Beginning; open with a voice over giving an introduction to the documentary topic,
addressing the audience, posing questions and identifying themes. Should also
include a title sequence.
Middle/Exposition; different areas of the topic such as occupational barriers, cultural
reasons for piercings, history of piercings, extreme piercings, piercings addiction,
medical views on piercings, different interviews maybe with a medical professional,
piercing shop owner, piercer, extremely pierced people, different cutaways being
used like pans of piercings shop, re-enactments, images of piercings, archive
materials, facts and figures.
End; this will include credits, voice over rounding up all topics that had been
discussed, exposition left open but allot of questions answered allowing our
documentary to be educational or maybe an ending on an interview with a
significant quote from the interviewee.
Resource Requirements
Jib
Radio Studio (to record voice
over)
Computer
Filming camera
Microphones
Premiere editing software
Photoshop
Internet
SLR Camera
Tripod
Track
Blue Screen
Jib