Documentary Research'

In class we watched a very inspiring documentary called 'The boy whose skin fell off', a documentary following the last few months of Jonny Kennedy, a 36-year-old in the final stages of a condition called Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), in which the skin constantly shreds and the body remains stranded in childhood.

After watching the documentary, we brainstormed a the issues which were dealt with throughout the documentary in a very personal way:

• Death
• Suffering
• Afterlife
• Religion
• Disability
• Family
• Relationships/Sexuality
• Abortion
• Indapendence

The last few years have seen lots of documentaries getting a lot more exposure on television and cinemas than other years and I have seen as many of them as I have been able to. However none of them have impacted and moved me as much as this one did. The idea is simple – a dying man with time ticking down makes himself the subject of a film as he tries to do a few things before he dies. The cynical will see a self-focused person trying to get their last shot at fame however they would be way off the mark with that view because the reality could not be further from that. In reality Jonny comes across as unselfish, having suffered his entire life against a challenge that many of us would not be able to cope with. The film is focused on Jonny's work to help others even though he has every excuse not to.

The documentary has many sensitive issues within it and in class we were asked to think about the following questions and write a response to them. Here are my thoughts on the programme:

Do we have the right to see this?

Whilst this documentary has been made to inform people and raise awareness I believe that some of what was shown shouldn't have been. Johnny clearly worked alongside E4 to create this documentary about his last 4 months and therefore I believe it was his wishes for us to see this footage. In some respects his day to day life and obstacles helped to portray the struggle he went through strongly however, some of these 'day to day' things were perhaps a bit too personal to show. For example seeing Johnny in excruciating pain, I personally found really hard to watch as my heart sank at the thought of him having to go through that on a weekly basis. Also, when Johnny's Mum mentioned being asked if she would have had an abortion I thought was a very personal thing to show to millions of people and was perhaps overstepping the line in terms of what they are sharing about such sensitive issues. Finally, although seeing Johnny dead in his wheelchair and viewing his funeral was deeply upsetting and emotional for us as the audience I feel we shouldn't have seen this not for our sake but the families. Us seeing this footage meant that they were not left to grieve at such a sad time but instead surrounded by camera men and crew member, this I felt was particularly insensitive. Having said this and stated some negative points my overall feel is that the documentary was an amazing opportunity for Johnny and other EB sufferers and that it was clearly made with the wishes of a dying man and I therefore agree that E4 should of and did respect what he wanted.

Should they be filming this?

The first time we are introduced to Johnny is in his voice over. The voice over has been scripted so that Johnny sounds as though he is speaking from the grave; to me this is slightly insensitive; however, I think maybe it is the tactfulness of the filming rather than the content. Having said this he may have decided he'd rather approach the touching story in a more informal way. Although my immediate thought was that some of the filming wasn't very tactful Johnny has clearly 'asked us along for the ride' and after seeing a little more I get the impression that perhaps Johnny worked with producers to create this feel as it helps to reflect the way he approached this awful condition. Obviously there are some aspects of the filming that are more upsetting than others (such as: when Johnny gets upset, when he's telling us of the worst parts of his journey and when we see his dead body) however, I think without some of these parts we would not understand fully the terrible ordeal Johnny had gone through.

Was it a valid documentary?

I believe the documentary was very valid. Not only does it help with the awareness of rare condition EB it also helps to promote his charity. Unfortunately, it is very rare that people donate to worthy causes unless they feel some sympathy for the cause; this was shown when £500,000 was raised through the help of the 5 million viewers. This documentary allows the audience to connect with Johnny and I feel that many people will both take something from it and give something back. I personally have learnt a lot about a rare condition that I previously knew nothing about and have acknowledged a worthy charity (DEBRA) through this documentary.

Did they take advantage of the situation?

I definitely think they took advantage of the situation because it is such a rare condition that it would be hard to find someone willing to help to make a documentary and that has put so much time and effort into helping others who have the condition. However, I don't think that taking advantage of it was all bad; through the documentary Johnny not only got to educate and inspire millions with his story but he managed to raise thousands of pounds and promote his charity. Obviously E4 made money out of the documentary but I think the morals and ethics behind using this story for their personal profits are completely thrown out the window when you think of the difference the documentary has made to: the charity through donations, sufferers through educating people about their condition and maybe the most touching outcome, Johnny Kennedy by telling sharing his story at such a hard and emotional time.

Jonny set up a charity called 'Debra', a national charity which aims to help people in the UK with the same genetic skin condition as Jonny suffered from.

The website helps people to understand the condition, shares real life stories, and offers ways in which people can help fundraise for the charity.

Please click the link below to see the charity'ws website:

 http://www.debra.org.uk/

Starting A2 - The Briefs

During our first A2 Media Studies lesson we looked at the briefs of the projects for our coursework. The main briefs which took my interest were:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, no longer than five minutes duration, together with:

• a cover for its release on DVD
• a magazine advertisement for the DVD

An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements, together with

• a radio advertisement
• a web pop-up

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animation or a combination of both, together with:

• a poster for the film
• a film magazine review page featuring the film

Also during the lesson we looked at some past students work and some real media texts. This session influenced my choices out of all the briefs to just the 3 above. In addition, the exervise helped highlight what was high quality work and what was not. Furthermore, it emphasised how my personal skills in organisation, production and research need to progress in order to produce a high quality piece of media.

Analysis of AS Opening Sequence

'When Two Became One'

Our AS opening sequence was a romantic comedy based around two protagonists waking up. There are many things that worked well in our production, however, there are also many things that I would change if we had to do it again.

The first thing I think worked well is our location. We took a lot of time making sure our location reflected the themes of our opening sequence and tried to include as many connotations of a rom com as we could, which we got from our research.

We made Lily, the female characters, room reflect her personality, a creative, tidy, girly character, through props and mise-en-scene. We did the same for Joe, the boy chracter, portraying him as a musical, messy, more boyish character.

Although our original location was Oxford City Centre, I think Woodstock worked well, using a rural setting gave the opening sequence a romantic feel.

Using Woodstock as our location also shows Lily and Joe's middle class background.

Although our location was quite successful, there were a few things that could've been improved, such as, making it less obvious Lily was exiting from a public toilet, which was supposed to look like her flat, and making it slightly closer to where they worked.

I also think our soundtrack and voice over was successful. I thought our ideas were conveyed through the vouce over, helping to introduce our two main characters and making the story line obvious to the audience. To improve the sound of our opening sequence I think we could have added some foley sound.

I think the main improvements that could have been made to our production is the framing and camera shots/angles. There were a few scences which were badly shot, where characters either had their heads cut out of the frame, or were given too much head space. This distracts the audience from the significance of the shots.

We could have also improved the scene where the are walking to work. Where Lily and Joe cross paths, both chracters are situated at the bottom of the frame, and the store names are slightly cut out of the frame, we could have improved the scene by lining up the short more precisely. We also could have used a wider variety of camera angles and shots.

The continuity of our production could have also been improved. The scene where Lily is walking down the stairs her hair is tied up, but for the rest of the production her hair is down. There is also no car when Joe first crosses the road, but when shot from a different angle there is suddenly a car in the scene.

Although we had a few christmassy props in both characters room, the christmas theme generally failed throughout the opening, due to weather and lack of props.

Some scenes also had different colour saturations than others. For example where Lily is coming down the stairs and putting her shoes on, the colour is very light and has an orangey wash over it, whereas, the outside scenes have a natural colouring. This made it obvious that we had adjusted the colouring.

To see my full evaluation of my opening sequence please visit my AS blog: www.camillepierrart.blogspot.com