My Presentation

Documentaries on Prezi

Above is a presentation that I presented to the class describing: the basics of my documentary, what it is about, why I chose to do this topic and how it relates to me.

Music Choice

I have decided that I will want a song that will reflect the mood of the documentary, with its highs and lows. I want it to be acoustic or something easy to listen to so it does not drown out the person speaking or distract the audience from the actual documentary. I'd like it to be motivational in some way or at least fit the feel of the overall documentary.

I have found a few songs that I may use:

• Lacrime Di Giulietta by Matteo Negrin
• Motivational Piano Piece
• One Moment In Time- Whitney Houston (Instrumental)
• Ushio- Clannad (Short) 
• Nagisa- Clannad 
• Ambitious Girl by Wale (Instrumental) 

Letter of Consent

This is an example of the letter of consent I will be handing to people who take part in my documentary.

What is a Broken home?

I have come to the conclusion a broken home is not a family that only has one parent or if it has a step parent it is a family who has lost the communication and ‘bond’ with each other. I have decided this as my definition as there are many views on what a broken home is and this definition covers a the broad spectrum of the term ‘broken home’.

This is a letter of consent to participate in my media study, involving you as the public and your views and opinions of the following questions:

·       What is your understanding of a survivor? (From a 'broken home')

·       What is your understanding of a victim? (From a 'broken home')

·       What skills do you think you need to survive/-overcome barriers to difficulties both in your personal life and school life?

Gender: Male          Female                   Age:………

(Circle appropriate)                                                    (Optional)

Name………………………………………

(Optional)

Overcoming Barriers

Today to help out with the research and how to create this documentary I went to see Rosa from Learning mentors. We spoke for a while and speaking about my personal experience and with some professional views and opinions notes were taken on how to approach the correct question and what I personally done to overcome those difficulties. These notes were only short but this helped in how to link a various of sub topics, like school life and education, and how to ask the appropriate question.

Notes (these were notes taken on my personal experience and how Rosa viewed me or about what I should be asking)

• Decision to focus on education as a means on avoiding the responsibilities or home life
• Not making/ repeating the same mistakes as others around
• Role model
• Becoming the adult and taking responsibilities
• Self awareness
• Survivor or Victim?
• Victim= drugs, alcohol, smoking, negative
• Survivor= got through fine and in control of themselves (may smoke or drink but not excessively), they cried, got angry but they are out of it fine.
• Other people were priority above myself
• Learning from others
• Changing your way of thinking
• Negative or Positive (is there a link with the survivor/ victim )
• A survivor is someone who can cope in the face of adversity
• A victim is somebody who can not cope with the difficulties and turns to something like smoking/ drinking to help them cope

From these notes we developed a series of appropriate (draft) questions to ask the public:

What is your understanding of a survivor? (from a 'broken home')
What is your understanding of a victim? (from a 'broken home')
What skills do you think you need to survive/ overcome barriers to difficulties both in your personal life and school life?

Rough Plan

What am I trying to achieve in this short documentary?

I am trying to change the views of the stereotypical broken family and how if you are brought up in a broken home you can get somewhere in life. I am also trying to show that you should not judge anybody on appearance as you do not know about that person or how saying something will affect them.

What do I want the audience to feel/ gain from this documentary?

I want the audience to think about themselves and possibly change the way they think or view a broken family.
I would like the audience to gain some motivation to be able to do well on life no matter what background, family, difficulties, or religion they are from

How will I get the audience to feel/ gain something from this?

I will do this by asking a range of people a few questions, and then during editing I will weave the answers together into an almost motivational speech from the public. This will hopefully make people realise or see there life in a slightly different way even if it is for a short amount of time; they will hopefully feel better about themselves or what situation they are in, but at the same time they may be able to think about what people from a broken family have been through so they may feel sympathetic but also empathetic and this will hopefully create a small understanding so they will see the life they live as slightly better, or have a greater understanding of life and how to be the best that they can be.

Modes of Documentary

There are several modes of Documentary:

• Poetic Documentary

 A poetic mode of documentary is when it is put together in a way that it is a poem, words may not rhyme and there can be a rhythm or melody in the background. It is common for it to have some sort of harmony, and the poetic video will be put together in a way that all the points and objectives are put across through visuals but also through a clever arrangement of words.
For example the following documentary is about life in Brixton but it is done in a way that it looks at all of the different racial communities and the social diversity but also how they all blend well, it also talks about how the different ages get on and work well together.

• Expository Documentary 

 

• Observational Documentary

 

• Reflective Documentary

 

• Performative Documentary

My Story

The inspiration for my documentary

I am an 18 year old girl I have 3 sisters a Mum and a Dad now that's obvious, people see me as your average teenager bubbly, caring and maybe a little careless at times. But let’s go way back. This is my story. (Parts will be missed out for personal reasons)

I was born the 1st of November 1993, and clearly I am not going to remember life as a child, however I remember life from when I was as young as 7. At 7 or 8 years old my parents broke up, for reasons I cannot talk about, before I knew it myself my elder sister and my two little sisters were taken away from my dad and lived with my mum and told we were never allowed to see him again. (For future reference my elder sister Helen has a different farther to me) My mum moved us from what was once home to a new house, we were picked up from school one day and was told 'this is your new house', as if that was not enough for me a woman was also living with us, confused and young you just adjust. So this woman was my mums girlfriend, she was a nice woman we seen her parents as our grandparents; because my mum doesn't talk to hers and obviously I'm not going to see my dads. Me and my older sister didn't get on, if she did wrong I'd get in trouble and if I said it was her she'd then hit me, she didn't really think life was good, she moved out at the age of 14 (I was 10) she then lived with my mums side of the family but this is my story not hers, that is for another time.

Life was good; I guess I made friends with the kids in the street. Well around 4/5 (age 15) years later my mum broke up with her girlfriend and I had the responsibility of kicking her out, not because my mum couldn't but because I was the one who knew how to, I also didn't want to move out of Coventry as I had a boyfriend who was my support through the arguments and fights. Her girlfriend moved out and life was back on track... As you get older the responsibilities get greater; general house chores, washing-up, cleaning the animals, cooking dinners... My mum started to out often, she became tired during the week days after work, I took the role of looking after my younger sisters not because I had to but because I wanted to, the reason she was going out was because she then found another girlfriend...

So I guess I was looking after my sisters, the animals and the house kind of like the foundations of the family doing as much as I could from year 9 onwards, so juggling home life and school life was okay, then it was GCSEs too. Life was still good; in my eyes... I was allowed to have sleep overs and go out. But in return I was to look after my sisters so she could go out (the not so good life).

It wasn't until I was just turning 16 until I asked to see my dad, I was nervous as hell but surprisingly my mum wasn't so bothered. Seeing dad was weird and we went bowling it was good fun, and then after a few visits mum allowed me to take my sisters to see him.

I wasn't so shocked to find out dad had married but was going through a divorce when I first started to meet him, that was what hurt me the most, knowing my own dad had a wedding and I wasn't there to watch him on potentially the happiest day of his life. Well that's his story so moving on... 

Life was finally looking good I was then re-introduced to my dad’s side of the family, and that summer Dad and my Auntie Rose took us to the seaside. Going to see dad was my escape from home, I had little responsibilities but he misjudged me and probably to this day doesn't understand my way of thinking. That's because I would tell my sisters off for doing something wrong; like having silly arguments, keeping in mind that is what I done at home. I had to start reminding myself I am their sister not there mother.

(Fast forward a little- August 2010, just to keep you updated my mum is still with her girlfriend and I am still with my boyfriend from 2008 wow 2 years, such a long time)

Moving swiftly on, my mum then broke up with her girlfriend and this is when life started slipping downhill, I still had the roles of before but they started to become a problem... As if school wasn't enough I was also trying to keep my own relationship with my boyfriend a float, I was soon looking after him and running around for him, throughout the years we were on and off. I never wanted to lose him even if he did treat me like rubbish. I come to the conclusion that I only took so much from him because his mum was lovely and they were there for me throughout everything. This isn't a story of my relationship but of my family so carrying on.

I was late home one night, the next morning my mum had started to shout at me, yes I was late, by about 2 minutes, but that doesn't matter any reason to blame something on me because I screwed up. I had so much anger, disappointment, frustration built up due to a bad couple of weeks at home. That led to me answering back and eventually voicing out, I'm not going to go into the argument partially because I don't remember, and partially because I don't want to, but the words I can vividly remember saying are "Mum I know you're tired from work, I'm tired from school but you have three children waiting at home for you and all you do is go to your room or go straight back out, I understand you pay the bills but you do nothing as a mother, I cook, I clean I love you but I cannot raise your children"

I walked out. I moved into my dad’s and his new girlfriend had not long moved in too.

Life was really looking up, I finished my GCSEs of which I passed all grade A-C and I was just starting my A-levels.

(Fast forward to present/ One year later)

So I'm coming to the end I broke up with my boyfriend October 2011 but it was for the best, I am finishing my last year in Sixth form and looking at good grades, I have decided not to go to uni and carry on with presenting at the local radio station in which I should be looking to getting an apprenticeship with. If that doesn't happen then I am continuously looking for a job or an apprenticeship on the internet. I'm pretty sure it will though. I have a father that may not entirely understand me and his girlfriend may not be my mum, however I know they both love me very much and life is stable which is all I ever wanted it to be, and on the brighter side I have also got an lovely boyfriend and I know they say young love doesn't last, but I'm ready to prove them wrong. Just as I am continuing to prove that a broken family is not a bad place to raise a child, it is just not the best.

Something that helped me through those rough patches was knowing that there was always someone worse off than me. So be great-full for what you have, be yourself and not what others want you to be, society knows nothing, never judge someone on their appearance, there is no such thing as perfect and most importantly remember to smile, it might just make someone’s day.