[Setup Unit 7] - Project Proposal

From an early age, I grew up around games, my fist game being ‘Quake III’ at 2 years old. Ever since then this has been one of my main hobbies, and is something I was able to implement into my AS and A2 coursework alongside my other childhood hobby, Lego. Taking inspiration from various games I enjoyed and grew up with - I was able to create a myriad of sculptures using Lego as a structure. My original plan for Art Foundation was to have the entire year build up to my final major project which would consist of an interactive installation, representing an abandoned science lab/office, that people would be able to explore and have the option of trying to work out what happened via the mise-en-scene. However, I later decided against this idea and opted for something related to digital videos I have been producing progressively more frequently.

I would like to create a video for my final major project in the style of a mockumentary - something almost entirely scripted like any other film or TV show, but is intended to appear entirely real. ‘The Office’ is one of the most famous and most successful examples of this, proof being that a portion of the people who watched it originally assumed it was a real documentary before its popularity rose and it became common knowledge that it was a mockumentary written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

I have been developing my video editing skills, creating a variety of videos, and I wish to develop this further. Some examples of my previous work include videos which act as a visual form of annotation combining music, images and video clips and others being informative tutorials on specific subjects. The tutorial video which was to be used by A Level students that was one of my first forays into using humor in my videos - moving away from the intense and oppressive atmosphere I aimed to create with previous editing work. While attending an event known as the Sci-Fi Weekender, I had the opportunity to film the goings on behind the scenes, in contrast to the video created for the same event last year - which was aimed towards being in the style of a promotional video. The documentary video produced for the Sci-FI Weekender this year serving as a form of preparation for the mockumentary that will serve as my final major project.

To develop these ideas further for my final major project, I will create storyboards and draw out a plan of each scene. I will take influence from the comic books artist William Simpson, who also storyboarded Game of Thrones whom I had the pleasure of meeting at The Sci-Fi Weekender where I gained most of my influence. However, while I would like each scene to have a structure, I would like a lot to be improvised in order to keep it feeling real and spontaneous. I will achieve this by scripting scenes out, as usual, however giving the actors and actresses free reign to add whatever they feel would help enhance the scene.

I expect my final outcome to be my own take on the mockumentary genre, focussing on the goings on of art foundation class, over the course of a day. Each scene will be separated by a timestamp, representing the progression of the day, with the first scene showing the class members entering the class, and the final scene showing them leaving. The primary inspirations will ‘The Office’ and ‘Life's Too Short’ - both mockumentaries are written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. ‘Life’s Too Short’ will be the source of inspiration for the slightly more outlandish and humorous scenes, while The Office will provide some reference for keeping it feel grounded and realistic.

One of the issues I will likely face during the filming process is the risk that people may not want to be filmed so I will have to plan around this, focusing primarily on those who are okay being on camera. I also need to make sure people will be able to act out the scenes without too many mistakes, as this will significantly increase the time spend filming – which means I will have to create a plan in order to stop scenes taking too long, so I know how long I should be spending on each scene. This will also help with peoples schedules, so if one person is only going to be in one day of the week, I will have to film all scenes that focus on them on that day.

Being in the style of a documentary, I would like to use both steady and hand held footage, which will add different levels of intensity to certain scenes - as well as this, I will need ambient / idle footage, in order to establish the setting for each scene. This is something used in The Office between scenes.

I hope that my final major project will result in a documentary style film that will not only work as a time capsule, presenting events that have occurred throughout the year in a comedic manner - as well as being a relatable and interesting insight into the year - however being shown in an exaggerated fashion, similar to mockumentaries such as The Office.