Idea

First Idea

My first idea was given to me by my dad and is based on a topic that happened recently (2019). The topic was going to be Prince Philips car crash that happened near the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk. It was suggested that I make a mockumentary on the topic and create a motion-capture "re-make" of the actual crash using toy cars. As well as this, people have gone to the crash site and picked up broken glass and are auctioning it on eBay.

Although this seems to be an entertaining and interesting topic to make into real footage, it is however a mockumentary and I feel that I need to focus more on the realistic and informative side of documentaries to make sure that I am actually learning the codes and conventions that are important in genuine documentaries.

Second Idea

My idea was to be based around a crime, a murder, that happened near the village I live in.

Description of the Murder

This murder happened in 1974, on the 27th of August in a village called Cockley Cley. The victim, a young women estimated to be between 20-30 years old, and between 5ft to 5ft 2 ins in height - to this day, she has never been identified. The reason for this lack of identification is because the body was found with no head.

The body was found when Andrew Head was walking up the track towards Brakehill Farm on Sir Peter Robert's estate. The area this body was found was surrounded by fields and farmland.  (Storey, 2009)

In the village I live in, the murder was dubbed as "The Headless Women of Cockley Cley", however, in Neil Storey's 'Mystery & Murder' book, he used the title "Headless in a Nightie". This is because, the only thing the young women was wearing was a Marks & Spencer's pink nightie.

As well as the nightie, the women was found bound with rope around her arms and legs - as well as this, she was covered with, what was described by the man that found her, a "brown plastic dust sheet". This sheet was later identified as a National Cash Registers dust sheet used for covering data processing machines. It was made by a subcontracted firm in Dundee, alas, the subcontractors closed down in 1968 (6 years before the murder) which meant the lead was not a strong one.

The body was found by a local 19 year old farm worker, his name was Andrew Head. The body was found about 200 yards from Cockley Cley road. It was surrounded by farmland and immediately opposite the RAF Marham rifle range.

With the information that I have gotten from the secondary sources Wikipedia and Neil Storey's book, I will combine it with my own research (speaking to people from my village that where alive when the murder took place, aka my father and grandparents) and visit the village of Cockley Cley to make a expository documentary on the Headless Women of Clockley Cley.

Archival Footage

(oldregistered, 2016)

(Doe, 2018)

The main statement I am trying to emerge in my documentary project is the violent impact or crimes and the lack of solved crimes during the 1970s. My short film will show this in action by exploring the area in which the Headless Women of Cockley Cley's body was found. Ultimately, I want the audience to feel pity towards the women and her family who never got justice from the murderer and to understand that events like this are still happening even with the advanced technology we have due to lack of funding.

The Headless Women of Cockley Cley is an ongoing investigation into the murder of a young women which happened in 1974, her body was found in a field off the track of Brakehill Farm on Sir Peter Roberts estate. Her head was missing and has never been found; police never identified the victim or her murderer. I intend to interest my audience by revealing important information in sectioned parts. For example, talking about one important piece of evidence for too long can become long-winded and boring, but changing to a new piece of evidence will interest my audience much more.

As this is an expository documentary, the one person that is going to in this documentary (more likely not to be shown but instead used as a voice over) is an interviewee. The person in this interview is a man called Raymond Ward, he is 76 years old (which means that he fits in my target audience of people that where alive during the 1970s) and he remembers people in Stoke Ferry talking about the murder.

One of the biggest stereotypes that I will use in this documentary is that the murderer was most likely male and that the headless women found was most likely working as a prostitute due to the clothing that she was found in. The audience need to understand that this murder has never been solved and that my documentary is not an attempt to solve the case but instead an attempt to shed light on the unsolved case once again and see if there is any information that people have missed or misinterpreted. I have pictures of the ropes she was found in, the tree she was found under, the dress she wore and the NCR bag was placed over her as a cover. As well as this, I would like to show the audience that her grave is extremely hard to find and supposedly unmarked as I have footage of me and my dad walking around the graveyard looking for her grave but where unable to locate it (even though we had searched every row and where there for hours).

Name: Raymond Ward
Job: Retired
Role: Provides information about the murder, such as how popular it was and potential fowl play of a boyfriend or 'client' (the word client backs up my stereotype that she might have been a prostitute)
My interview with Raymond Ward will seek to establish the lack of media publicity and information gathered from this 1974 murder, due to the small amount of information that Mr Ward knew - even though he had driven past the crime scene and saw the forensic team and even lived in the village near Cockley Cley - my point of no one knowing what happened to her will be clearly shown.

My short film will start with establishing shots of the area the headless body was found, followed by shots of the village of Cockley Cley. After these shots I was planning on describing the evidence that was found wrapped round the body along with some stock footage of the NCR register to show to the audience what the bag she was found under was actually for - I will also mention that it would be impossible for the person who murdered her to have worked at a NCR vicinity because they where no longer in operation at the time of the murder.

I would like my short film to end by telling the audience that after hours of searching the Swaffam graveyard that she was re-buried in, we could not find her grave. This will be a good lead to the statement that this case will remain unsolved and that it is likely that she will never be identified. I would like this ending to have a sorrowful effect on the audience as it will leave them feeling as though the police and public people could not work well enough together to be able to identify or report a missing person.

Now that I have researched this idea, I can see that it is one that I no longer feel interested or dedicated to. Although I have already started filming the footage for this documentary and have done interviews and paperwork for it, I still feel that I would be unable to complete and edit this documentary due to my lack of interests to the topic.

Third Idea

My third idea was to make a documentary entirely on the history of paint brushes. I think this would be an interesting topic as many people use paint brushes for a living or when engaging in creative activities but I have never heard anyone speak about where they came from or who invented them. A similar interesting topic would be: who invented painting? The obvious answer to that question would be 'cavemen' however, they did not use paints, they used natural pigments which where limonite, hematite, umber, charcoal and burnt bones (Center, 2019). However, the earliest oil painting was suggested to be made by Asians, not Europeans, in the 15th century. The earliest use of acrylic paint was in the 1940s which combined the use of watercolours and oil paints. Although, this doesn't provide an answer to the question anyway as this is more than likely false: so lets just say that it was probably the cavemen.

The paint brush however, has been a part of humanity since before recorded history and where first made with sticks, bones, split palm leaves and wood shavings. As time went by, the paint brush changed a lot and so did the materials that where used to made it. These materials changed to bamboo for the handle and animal fur for the hairs (the type of animal varied depending on the stiffness and softness wanted from the hairs at the end). 

If I where to make this documentary, it would be a participatory documentary because I will be taking part in creating my own painting whilst speaking about the aspects of making art as well as talking about the history of paintbrushes. I would not like to use interviews in my documentary as there is no one who is caveman or was around in the early 20th century that could provide any information about how paint brushes where made or looked after. Although I could interview an experienced historian on this project, I feel that - much like the Headless Women documentary - I would be unable to interlink my research and script with the information that they have told me. 

Archival Footage

(Channel, 2017)

There is information such as the materials that are used to make the paint brushes ("inserts the hairs into a metal band called a feral made of nickle plated brass"). As well as the step by step guideline of how the paint brushes are made, there is also a visual guide that I would like to use as stock footage every now and again so that the audience understand what is happening as I explain it.

(Ross, 2010)





This footage is of Bob Ross teaching his audience how to properly clean a brush, I would like to use this when I am describing appropriate care for brushes. I will most likely be using the first example of Bob Ross "beating the devil" out of his paintbrush as he also supports my research of painting making you happy - this is because he is smiling after he does this action and also says that cleaning your brush in this way makes you less stressed and more happy.

After looking between my second and third ideas for this project, I have decided that this idea is the one that I will be producing into a finished product. I have decided to do this because this documentary appeals to me much more than the crime idea, although I like crime, I felt that the lack of information that people knew about the case made it difficult to get enough compelling footage for my audience to see. Whereas, I know that I can do aspects such as painting and making paint brushes to be able to entertain and aim to reach the requirements of this project.

Proposal

My main persuasion in my documentary will be to show people that technology is not the only important thing that is changing. We spend the majority of our days on our phones or computers and i would like to show my audience that other creative aspects of life have changed too. As well as this, I can convey that art is not a simple process nor is it down to the artist to hold the creativity. Artists would struggle painting if they didn't have paint brushes so I would like to show the process that people have to go through to get the products they need to make a piece of art. In life I believe that technology isn't the only thing that matters and that when people participate in art they become more relaxed - which is good for your health. My short film will show this in action by exploring not only the difference in era of paint brushes, not only how modern paint brushes are made but also satisfying painting techniques and other ways that people can relax when taking part in these activities. The main conflict is between whether or not people who spend endless hours on social media will actually put their technology away and take part in these activities. Ultimately, I want the audience to feel less stressed and compelled to spend more time in creative activities rather than being self-conscious and agitated online and with others and I want them to understand that technology is not the most important thing in the 21st century. This short film is about paint brushes, their history, how they are made and taken care of and how they can help people to relax.

There are no characters as this is a participatory documentary and there is no interview in these types of documentary, however, there will be stock footage of Bob Ross the artist. Bob Ross will be helpful in my documentary as he talks about how to appropriately wash your paint brushes. As well as this, he talks about how washing paint brushes is his favourite part of painting and it makes him smile. I think this will be compelling to my audience as I talk about how art can be relaxing and fun. I feel that Bob Ross is worthy of special attention and significant in my documentary as people knew him as a care-free and great artist that not only did art but took his time to teach people how they can do and enjoy art too. The voice-over in this documentary will be done myself.

The beginning of my short film will start off with a fact about the amount of different types of paint brushes followed by another fact about the two types of hair that is used in the making of these paint brushes. This will then lead on to information describing the only two types of paintbrushes that existed before the 19th century which where made by cavemen and Asians. I am doing everything as chronologically as I can, which is why I explain what the early paint brushes used to look like and be made out of before moving on to the new early 20th to 21st century paint brushes look like. The important story development appears about a quarter to half way through the documentary when I describe how the modern paint brushes are made through the use of stock footage and pictures of the new looking paint brushes that are a clear difference in model compared to the old ones (which are also shown). It is likely that I will do a side by side photo of the old paint brushes and the new ones to show to the audience how different they look.

The most common style of filming I am going to do is time-lapse. This is because painting can take a long time and I will be unable to complete an entire painting within 3-5 minutes - especially since I want to use multiple examples of painting in my documentary. I will be using low key lighting in my documentary to show any shadows that will cast against paintings so that they look more realistic. Especially since my documentary is not about science fiction, the shadows will allow the audience to be more immersed in the documentary and this way they will feel more compelled to try painting instead of feeling that it is all impossible and a fantasy.

I want to end my documentary with a rhetorical question along the lines of "now that you know the equipment is not that scary, would you give art a go?" or "now that you know the creativity behind paint brushes, will you pick one up and get creative?" however, I could end it without a rhetorical question and instead make the audience feel slightly self-conscious instead by saying: "from now on, consider putting the technology away and do something creative instead".

I believe that I am qualified to make this film as I have been doing art for at least 8 years of my life and have gotten a C in GCSE Art. I feel that this is a wide topic to discuss and I enjoy discussing it. As this is a topic I enjoy, I will be interested in getting it finished on a more personal level and I feel that it is required of me to try my absolute best at making this documentary a good finished project.

How has my research helped develop my idea?

My research helped developed my idea as it allowed me to build the script for my voice-over. Researching into the history of paintbrushes meant that I could plan what I was going to say in my audio/ visual script when describing how the modern paintbrushes are different compared to how they where made before the 20th century. My research into documentary modes allowed me to plan my documentary to follow the conventions and techniques of a participatory documentary - for example, the lack of interviews follows the conventions of this documentary mode as it is not trying to persuade the audience to be on one side of an argument.