Narrative and Genre Unit: Writing the essay

Over the last couple of weeks I have been compiling my essay for this unit. So far I have conducted research into Japanese films, the detective genre, culture and morality and narrative. So far my essay word count adds up to 653 so I still have quite a lot to write however I still have a lot to write about!

Commission Unit: Filming at The Grinning Demon: November 8th

On Thursday we went back to Maidstone town centre to film at the Grinning Demon to film some actuality shots and ask Graham some more questions about his business. In this we had Graham talking to us about his business whilst he put comics in plastic sleeves and stacked the shelves, not only did he talk us through this he also talked to us about some of the customers and regulars that come into the store and how much he makes in a day.

Whilst we we filming the shop flooded with customers, which meant that this was one of his good days. We took this opportunity to film these customers whilst they were being served and browsing the shop. In total we had a good day we got a variety of shots and interviews and we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Commission Unit: Filming with Graham: 12th November

On Monday me and Sam went to the Grinning Demon again to ask Graham some more questions for the documentary. These questions included how he felt when he first bought the store, how the store was run when Manny was there and others which are quite similar. As it was near closing time we filmed Graham closing up the store as part of a sequence which potentially could be used as the closing scene in the documentary.

Commission Unit: Creating a Script

Today me and Sam started work on our documentary script. Within this we have included many different sequences and shots as well as different interviews with event organisers and a few of Graham's friends. We will be shooting at the Hammerlock wrestling event on Saturday evening so this script will be a lot of help to us!

By the way the blog for our documentary is  http://grinninggraham.blogspot.co.uk/ anyone is free to follow!

Commission Unit: Grinning Graham

On Tuesday we found out which ideas would be commissioned for this unit. Nine were chosen however mine was not one of them, however I am not disheartened as I get to work on another with Sam Wilder entitled "Grinning Graham". This tells a story about Graham Beadle who runs a local comic book shop in Maidstone and shows how Graham lives his dream by running the shop. Graham used to run pubs but this did not interest him but when the chance popped up to buy a comic book store he couldn't refuse, the documentary will also show what trouble he has run into along the way, what he does in his spare time and interview with people Graham knows. "Grinning Graham" is the story of a man living the dream which is something which has not been done before on the course. I am very pleased to be working with Sam on this documentary as he is one of my closest friends and the subject of the piece is something which generally interests me!

Commission Unit: Pitch

On Monday the 29th the whole class had to present their ideas in front of a panel for the ideas to be narrowed down for commission. The title of my pitch was "All Part of Being a Superhero" and was about Antonio Francis a former Britain's Got Talent contestant. I pitched this Idea to the panel which I thought didn't go too bad. The main let down of my pitch was the fact that Antonio himself was not a reliable character and may not have even turned up! Never-the-less I thought the pitch went pretty well and I feel that I got my idea across okay.

Commision Unit: Idea developed

Last week I altered my idea so it could become a non-fictional piece. I did this by finding a former Britain's Got Talent named Antonio Francis who had the unusual talent of poping his eyes out. Antonio made it to the semi-final rounds before being voted off the show, he now goes to charity events to raise money using his talent. By conducting research into his life and who I could interview and what shots I could come up with I compiled a presentation for the pitch on Monday.

The Idea of my pitch was that most programmes which follow BGT and X-Factor are usually about the winner but what is unique about my documentary is that it shows what happens to someone who doesn't win a televised talent show. Another main-selling point is that it is bizarre and something that people don't see everyday which is a reason to tune in.