Maeve's A2 Media Blog

A mockumentary is a  a television programme or film which takes the form of a serious documentary in order to satirise it's subject.  Mockumentary productions are often used to analyse or comment on current affairs and events by using fictional settings or parodies in documentary forms itself. Mocumentaries tend to be comedic / pseudo-documentaries. Pseudo-Documentaries shouldn't be confused with  Docudramas  as they are similar however not the same. Pseudo Documentaries are a fictional genre that dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to portray real life events. Docudramas are a genre in which documentaries are mixed with fictional events.  The term "mockumentary" originated in the 1960's and popularised in mid 1980's. Mocumentaries tend to be presented as historical documentaries, discussing past events or pieces following people through various events. I watched a series on BBC called "Life and Death Row" which fol...

In this post I will be beginning to analyse other films in similar genres and look at how the codes and conventions align with our film idea. It will help us when it comes to looking at shot types to use,  This clip is from The Undateables. - Season 2 , Episode 1 STRUCTURE  The general structure of "The Undateables" is one that follows a normal eveyday scenario. It is very documentary styled in respect to the characters don't have any lines and when they area asked questions by the crew their answers are very natural. (above is an example). The character are initially seen going about their everyday life, being followed by the crew and being interviewed or asked general questions about their love life and about their past when it comes to relationships and love.  It then moves on to the office setting when the cast are being informed they've been matched with someone else who has similar interests, hobbies etc. The office styled setting helps make the au...

In this post, I am going to look at particular traits that male and female serial killers may have in common in terms of personality, clothing, mannerisms etc. In a previous post I have looked at some of the main characteristics that are general and common among both genders and the main types of serial killers however I felt like I needed to delve deeper into the mindset of a male and female serial killer.   POPPY "THE POISONER" PARKER Psychologists say that female killers tend to use their gender to their advantage whether it's in the form of sexually luring their target or using their profession (teacher,nurse) to get their victim where they want them.  One of the most lethal female serial killers in history is English-born Amelia Dyer , she was only actually convicted of ONE murder however it is speculated that she had committed  OVER 400. She claimed to adopt and watch children but instead she brutally tortured and killed them. This is a ...

In my previous post, We made a rough draft of our film plan so now we need to start looking at potential locations that are suitable for filming. It is a lot easier to change the locations this year if necessary however it shouldn't to happen but nothing goes perfectly to plan so this is subject to change.  At the beginning of the film, we have the interview scenes with the 2 main characters as an introduction to them. Theses scenes could be filmed indoors and outdoors however to keep in line with the style of "The Undateables" we thought it would be nice to have them walking through a park or down the street or something outdoors. We were talking about having shots of Bobby walking through a park and as I live in outside Lisburn I had suggested Wallace Park or Moira Park or as we go to school beside Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park we could also consider there. These parks are very open and bright so we could easily find a spot where there isn't many people aro...

We decided among ourselves that the best way to come up with a Film Title was to brainstorm all our ideas together on a Mind Map. We broke it down into the main/key areas like kill, poison, date. We tried to come up with as many different ideas as possible no matter how silly.  However, some of the titles we came up with were too obvious like, "In for the Kill" and some have been to o long "Killing Two Birds with One Stone. "The Undeadables" was a firm favourite with all 3 of us. We all thought this was a very fitting name as it is a twist to "The Undateables" just like our film is to the series but it also is misleading to the viewer as it seems to create the idea of vampires or zombies more than normal human beings and therefore was unsuitable for our film. We ended up deciding on 3 titles that we all liked -  The Deadly Dates  Last Dates Come Die with me  We came to the conclusion "Last Dates". It refers to another series th...

We have now come to the definite decision on the film having a similar theme to "The Undateables" for serial killers and murders. We have roughly discussed a beginning, middle and end for the film which are found below. As it's still in the early stages of discussions it is in minimal detail and there will be some slight changes and updates made throughout the next few days.  BEGINNING - Narration over shots of the characters going about their every day activities. - Short intro about love and finding love - introducing what the film will be about.  - Interview styled scene with Bobby talking about his approach to love, why his love life has failed in the past, what he is looking for etc. - Few shots of Bobby walking through park/making tea/watching TV etc - presenting him as a normal person (little do the audience know what he is really like).  - Photos of victims/weapons in the background of the shots inside photo frames. - Shot of worker in the match makin...

This post is just a follow up on ideas that we have explored in more detail. For the last few days, we have bounced about with different ideas and looked at what scenarios we could put a Serial Killer in. We had talked about the idea of a Job Centre and played about with how we could incorporate these together. We had got on really well and sort of decided on a beginning and middle of the film - the idea was that the Serial Killer was going to go to the Job Centre specifically for Serial Killers in search of a new victim as he was struggling to find one on his own.  The main jist of the story was that the main character was a male Serial Killer going to a Job Centre to find new victims. The opening scene will be a shot of the character entering the jon centre, then an over the shoulder shot of them opening the doors of the office. The following will be a match-on action shot of them walking through the doors and into the waiting room that will have a few other Serial Killers also...

As our film is about Serial Killers on a date I decided to go and do some research about the particular traits and clothing of Serial Killers that may be distinctive and make them stand out from others. There seems to be 5 main traits that some of the Worlds most notorious murderers have in common that have been analysed by criminologists and psychologists. 1 -  POWER JUNKIE Serial Killers usually have an affinity with POWER even when they have been caught and know that the chase is over. They are intent on exerting some sort of control over the people around them and they often hold back pieces of crutial information to gain attention and assert a warped sense of authority.  Ian Brady (who was convicted of killing 5 children with accomplice Myra Hindley ) withheld the location of a victim's body from the Police which many believe was an attempt to assert power and control over the investigation.  2 - MANIPLUATOR Noticable vulnerability and the need...

 BRAINSTORM  We decided that it would a good idea to sit down as a group and discuss all our individual ideas to come up with one overall idea. This involved us sitting down together and talking about all our different views and opinions of the storyline we had thought of. We all had a few mutual ideas as well as our own inputs that we were able to develop as a group and as a result came up with the bullet points below.  We talked about inspiration and short videos/films we could use and we all had the same idea of a series called 'The Undateables.' This series follows a 2 people who have been set up by a dating agency. As this is similar to our idea we thought it would be good to use as our inspiration and to loosely follow along shot types etc.  Below are some bullet points of ideas we have came up with throughout the class of our film. We now have a clear idea of what we wish our film to be about and how it will look/ play out.  Photo frames througho...

 RESEARCH  For our film we decided to look at short films that have been created throughout the last few years and take inspiration from the genres. We came across many genres like comedy, horror and drama but there was one in particular that stood out for us. Throughout the year last year we had always came back to the idea of wanting to due a crime styled film based on documentaries we had already watched. However, we didn't follow this theme last year as we didn't have the experience with cameras, editing , mise-en scene etc. Now we have the experience that we gained from last year we are more confident in taking this theme forward into production. We decided we wanted to research Serial Killers and in particular, ones within the UK and Ireland. Many came to the surface throughout the research process that had happened while we were alive (since 2000s) so these all act as potential storylines. Below are articles, links and potential stories we are considering taking ...

This year, for our Year 14 project, we have been given the task to product a 5 minute Short Film. For Our Year 13 film, we had chosen the very controversial topic of homosexuality and combined it with the teenage audience we had aimed our film for to create "The Secret." This year we decided to look at other big topics to see what we could use as inspiration. A massive topic all over the news at the minute is Gun Violence, Gun Laws and Mass shootings in America. We all came to a mutual agreement about this largely talked about topic and decided to develop on this topic.  Stemming from the idea of murder/shootings, we explored the areas in which we could incorporate this into our production. The first thing we thought about was school shootings however we decided that it may be too difficult to do in the end in terms of writing a script and finding a location etc. We then did more research into different stories and newspaper articles about Serial Killers from the U...