Formal Proposal

Formal proposal for documentary
The topic which we have chosen to film our documentary on is tea. We have chosen to create a documentary on this topic because it is simple as we can get a variety of interviews with ordinary people on their opinions of tea. In this country tea is very popular and the majority of people drink it, which will provide us with easily accessible interviews, where we could ask the interviewees what tea means to them.

After analysing a number of documentaries we decided that we should create a documentary in a mixed style because this seems the easiest to create and I think that this style will suit our topic. We will create a mixed documentary by having a voiceover which corresponds to our target audience, so we will use a housewife to be our voiceover. The voiceover will provide facts for the audience; we will also use the voiceover to anchor meaning to what is being shown on the screen and to introduce some of the interviews.

I think that the style for our documentary should be fast and energetic. This is because the topic of our documentary is simple and if we made our documentary slow and informative, this could result in the documentary becoming boring. We will achieve this style by having music which is fast paced and energetic, we will also have many shots of different teas, which we do fast cutting with in the opening titles. In the opening titles we will use clips of our vox pops saying what their favourite brand of tea is and then use cut away shots of the different stages of making a cup of tea and the boxes of the different brands of tea.

We have chosen to schedule our documentary for the evening on ITV. We came to this decision from our questionnaire results, our results showed that the majority of people watch television in the evening so this would be a good time to schedule our documentary. We also found out that the majority of people who answered our questionnaire prefer to watch ITV. Scheduling our programme in the evening would also attract tea drinkers because most people said that they like to drink tea in the evenings to relax.

Our target audience for this documentary would be housewives because we think that our topic would interest them the most, as they drink the most tea. Our questionnaire research has shown us that they watch television mostly in the evening and this would work for our scheduling because they like to drink tea in the evening to relax, we found this information out from our questionnaires. Our questionnaires also revealed that they all have different favourite programmes. Our research showed us that they rarely watch documentaries and that we would have to try and gain an audience by accident by putting it on after one of their favourite programmes. This would work because 93% of our audience answered yes to, do you ever get roped into programmes before and after this.

The primary research which we need for our documentary is to find interviews with a young, middle aged person and an elderly person. These people need to drink tea quite regularly and give their consent to be filmed. We will conduct the interviews in front of a poster of tea, which will show the audience explicitly that we are making a documentary on tea. The graphics will inform the audience who is being interviewed. It is important that we gain their consent because we also need to film the interviewees make a cup of tea so we can ask to film them in their own home. We will also need to get tea for them to drink. We also have found out which the most tea drinking country is because then with our vox pop’s we can ask them which country they think is the biggest tea drinkers. Then we can get footage of their reactions as we tell them the actual answer. We also found out the fact that tea is the second preferred drink after water. We need to research the origins of tea then we can get archive footage of people saying where they think it is from. This could add comedy to our documentary if the vox pops do not know where it comes from. . We want to inform the audience on how to make the perfect cup of tea, so we will film someone making a cup of tea their own way. To examine why tea is a big part of society we will interview a sociologists where he can apply their theories to tea. To see how well tea sells we will interview someone in a shop and ask them about how well tea sells. If they don’t let us do this then we could interview a local tea room and talk about how popular tea is.

The secondary research which we have collected includes mainly old tea adverts like the PG tips advert with the monkeys and the old Tetley’s advert. Towards the end of our programme we will examine the changes of advertising with tea adverts so we also will get stills of old posters for tea and compare them with new posters. We also might use some footage of people making tea, although we are going to film people doing this we do need a lot of footage so we might use some footage which has already been created, to save time if we need to. We want to inform the audience on how to make the perfect cup of tea, so we will film someone making a cup of tea their own way We need to find a clip from coronation street where they mention tea to prove that it is a big part of society and to use as archive footage. Other archive material which we need includes a Twinings advert with Steven Fry where we can show how stereotypically British tea is.

The narrative structure for our documentary will be explicitly linear with a clear beginning, middle and end. We have chosen to make our documentary with this narrative structure because in all of the mixed documentaries which I have watched the narrative structure was linear. The beginning of our documentary will start with a general overview of tea and saying some facts on where tea came from. Also the beginning will have interviews with people who are involved in tea like stereotypical tea drinkers and cafe owners, giving the audience a general picture of tea. The middle of our documentary contains comparisons of adverts and poses the question, has tea changed over time. Conflict is also created in the middle with the question of which biscuit do you dunk and then clips of the vox pops arguing over which one is best. The end will pose some issues of drinking tea like in our interview with a dentist he discusses how tea can have a bad effect on our teeth. To add emphasis there will be cut away shots of bad teeth, and then the voiceover does a conclusion saying that tea should be enjoyed in moderation then the credits come up on a black video.

In the beginning we will have a montage of people making tea, drinking tea, stereotypes of tea and products of tea with non-diegetic music over the top which would act as our opening titles. Then we could start with the voiceover talking about the origins of tea and how it came to Britain. Then we will use vox pops of the public talking about where they think tea comes from. The voice over could then say how important tea is to British people and says some facts which we gained from our questionnaire or found ourselves. Also there are some clips saying how they think we are the biggest tea drinking country to support our research and to point out the obvious. Then to shock our target audience the voice over talks about how Britain isn’t actually the biggest tea drinking country and the camera shows shocked reactions from members of the public. The camera will then cut to someone showing the audience how to make the perfect cup of tea step by step. The issue of tea being a social drink is then brought up by the voiceover and some archive footage is shown from a soap, like Coronation Street of someone offering a cup of tea. Then some clips of the Vox pops saying what they think of tea being a social drink which will show a generation divide between the young and old. To try and explain this, our interview with a sociologist will connect tea to sociological theories. After this interview the camera will cut to an interview with a supermarket worker, where they will discuss how well tea sells and herbal tea will be mentioned. The voiceover will then talk about herbal tea and say some facts on it; this is all voiced over a Twinings tea advert with Steven Fry. The voiceover introduces our interview with an elderly person where they will talk about their tea drinking habits and their memories of tea. To link with the elderly generation we will show archive footage of an old advertisement of PG tips when they used monkeys. Then the voiceover introduces the interview with a young person where similar questions will be asked but different answers will be recorded which will explicitly show a generation gap with tea. Then more archive footage of two tea posters with the voiceover commenting on the difference of the two posters. When we show clips of the vox pops which we filmed with some of the different answers from the different generations will back up this point. The voiceover then introduces the middle aged person who shows a resolution between the two generations and clips of them saying similar things in both arguments. At the end the voiceover concludes that times are changing and tea will mean different things to different generations. The next part of the documentary will show a montage of shots of religious items like churches and bibles, as the voiceover says how it has helped religion. We will then interview a Catholic priest as he talks about how tea has helped his church make money with coffee mornings and shots of one will be shown as he is talking to act as cutaways. Before the advert break a close up shot of a cup of tea with the program title, Milk and Two Sugars, super imposed over this, this will also be shown after the advert break.

The middle will look at how big tea is in this country and focus on what it means to different people. The section begins with lots of shots of people drinking tea and patriotic pictures which are ironically linked to Britain. Vox pop’s of people saying how many cups of tea they have a day will back up the aim of the middle of the documentary. The voiceover then poses the question of which biscuit should be had with a cup of tea and there are a montage of shots of biscuits as the voiceover says this. This will add conflict to our documentary and keep the audience interested. The vox pops will give evidence to this as they say which biscuit they have in their tea and shots of them are used as cutaway shots. Then to back up this point we will use archive footage of Peter Kay’s stand up where he talks about dunking biscuits as it has an obvious link to our documentary. There are shots of people drinking tea in various places like in the car, in a shop, and in the street which will show how tea is a big part of people’s lives. Whilst these shots are taking place the voiceover talks about how tea is everywhere in this country and even has taken over the workplace. The voiceover then introduces a builder and gardener who begin to talk about how tea is a big part of their job. The camera will link between both interviews and cut between the two. We will also include a reconstruction of someone offering one of the interviewees a cup of tea whilst they are on a job, which will be used as a cutaway. Then the voiceover introduces an interview with a person from another country in where they say the differences between people’s tea drinking habits in their country and in this country.

In the end our documentary looks at some of the negative effects tea can have on teeth and makes up a conclusion on tea. The end starts with a voiceover talking about negative effects that tea can have on your teeth and shots of people drinking tea are then replaced with shocking images of bad teeth which are the result of tea. An interview with a dentist then reveals the negative effects tea can have on your teeth, with images of bad teeth used as cutaways. To conclude the voiceover talks over shots of people making tea and says about how much people enjoy tea. The voiceover goes on to says the fact that we should be careful because it could be harmful to our teeth. The credits roll up as the voiceover stops.