Creative Practice Blog

For the b-roll, the main focus would be at a hospitality venue, showcasing the hospitality services through the form of making drinks, serving others, customers enjoying themselves, the general venue and so on to be used as b-roll footage. Ideally, the location would also serve to be used as an interview space for my documentary subjects if permitted. I reached out to multiple venues, attempting to contact independently owned bars/student friendly areas that would be more lenient with filming. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful due to filming permissions and the legalities it would involve regarding customers of the venue.  Email to Old Bar about filming permissions

I realised that despite my conversations with people about the subject and the documentaries viewed, there was still not enough discussion on the subject for me to feel properly informed and comfortable with the topic I would be interviewing others about. I decided to expand my research to listen to podcasts, where the speakers voiced their own opinions as well as the opinions of their listeners. I found this to be really helpful as it made me consider extra points in my subject I hadn't thought about before, expanded my views as well as provided me with more thought provoking questions to ask in my own interview. A lot of the podcasts involved race as an issue within society and how it affected their pretty privilege. Although this was a really interesting and important issue, I realised that with the limited time I had to create an engaging short there would not be sufficient time to include every issue and be able to represent every group affected and would have to narrow it dow...

I began sourcing and looking for participants I could interview for my documentary.  My requirements involved characters who: Worked in the hospitality industry Had strong opinions on pretty privilege Had experienced benefits/discrimination based off their appearance Would be open about the topic and could be a confident speaker in front of the camera I reached out to numerous people and asked for their general opinions on the subject. It was a slight struggle as although most of the people I spoke to agreed pretty privilege definitely existed, they did not have much of an opinion on the matter.  I eventually sourced two females working in hospitality who had strong opinions on the subject with experiences both negative and positive they were willing to share on camera.  During this time, I was also attempting to find someone in a higher position (management) with more knowledge on employing workers in the hospitality sector. This would be incredibly beneficial to me as i...

This week I  booked a s upervision meeting with my professor to talk about documentary and final idea, regarding casting, research. Below is the drafted rough idea of my chosen documentary idea and what to include/ask questions about in my supervision meeting to continue developing this idea. Serving Pretty Privilege MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE DOCUMENTARY:  - Bring light to this matter, explore the issues, impact it has on society -Mix of researched facts and statistics with emotional opinions, past stories  -Expository and observational format Documentary Strengths: Interesting topic that is debatable and open to different views, suits a large audience, not too spoken about. Documentary  Weaknesses: Could perhaps be hard to collect strong, contrasting opinion from people.  Takeaway Notes From Meeting -Focus as well on the effects on what it's like to work in places in hospitality, not just the recruitment stage, make it a human interest story,  -Around 2 peop...

I began a more in depth dive into researching my documentary subject. Firstly, I did a basic search to see what was already published in terms of content which mainly resulted in blog posts, articles or interviews (both factual and opinionated). I then compiled a list of topics within the subject  to develop my research in. Below are my notes of the information from the articles I found interesting and could benefit my documentary. Article by Allure Magazine, Janet Mock (2017) ARTICLES READ: Is ‘pretty privilege’ actually a thing? We're still talking about it—here's why  (My Imperfect life,  Sagal Mohammed, 2022)  Do YOU benefit from 'pretty privilege'? (Daily Mail Online, Stephanie Linning, 2022) Being Pretty Is a Privilege, But We Refuse to Acknowledge It (Allure, Janet Mock, 2017) Attractive women brag about ‘pretty privilege’ and the insane benefits they get (New York Post, Andrew Court, 2022) Pretty privilege at work: why do ‘attractive’ people earn more and fac...

This week I further developed my ideas before narrowing it down to one, below is a rough draft of my notes on how I could go about generating ideas as well as potential topics I would base my documentary on.  In my brainstorm I wrote down what would be the main focus in the film as well as the potential issues I would need to overcome.    Brainstorm/Rough Notes THINGS TO CONSIDER: -Check current events/affairs -Look at local stories in leeds -What theme do you want to focus it on (political, celebrity, trends, social media, informative documentary on a relevant medical issue, etc) -How can you link it back to the present time -Documentary style: cinematic but what? Fun, formal, serious? What is the tone? -Target audience (demographic), something universal (deliveroo takeout driver for example, or uber driver (struggles for example) DOCUMENTARY IDEAS The backseat of the uber driver/The uber driver’s backseat -The struggles of an uber driver, their daily job role -Also fact...

This week I began to watch documentaries for inspiration and give me ideas for what I could create. I watched a couple from the documentary submissions chosen from Short of the Week  and took notes on certain elements that stood out from each piece on either interview or camera techniques.  DOCUMENTARY SHORTS https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2021/12/23/rat-tail/ RAT TAIL A lot of b-roll footage and archive footage in relation to the story Mesh of current, present footage and past footage Helps the audience connect more to the protagonist who is also the narrative of the story Use of music to bring the video together Remaking old memories to show the audience (as if they too are active and participating in this moment)  https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2021/09/13/night-ride/ NIGHT RIDE Interviewer is involved onscreen, interviews his mum and actively participates on camera (but only follows behind her, not actually performing anything, just watching). Makes the documentary a l...