Pre-Production Unit: Idea Development

I have developed my ideas for pre-production in several ways:

- Commissioned an illustrator to do drawings for the pith document.
- Investigated marketing potential
*Blog
*Behind the scenes footage
*Downloadable content (Posters, Wallpapers, fundraising packs)
*Gallery
*Biographies
*RSS Newsfeed
*Trailer
*Email mailing list
There is additional scope for marketing through:
*Grassroots word-of-mouth via cast, directors and producers performing Q&A’s nationwide immediately after screenings
*Premiering the film at a gala charity event
*Marketing through mobile devices

- I have discovered that in 2010, Help for Heroes that co-insided and concluded with the opening of a memorial. The concept is identical to my idea but they used 10 ex-milltary personel and they they cycled the 100 miles route that Haslar and Sparks took on their escape, known as the Frankton Trail, as a relay. And it wasn't to any extent televised.

Dissertation Unit: Idea Development

Having looked at

"Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film"

I was able to establish in 1939 the dominating film genre of World War II: The 'Bugle-call Film" from Nazi Germany-

"The Film maker's task: as to the faithful, to stir the blood, building determination to the highest pitch; as to the enemy, to chill the marrow, paralyzing the will to resist" (p.139)

And In Britain:

"The start of the war bought a concentration of bugle-call films. The GPO Film Unit became the Crown Film Unit; war films were its task. Thier purpose was similar to that of the German Films, but the styles were different." (p.144)

The 'Grierson Boys' (as mentioned in recent BBC Four Doc, "The Documentary Film Mob") were season film veterans eager to aid the war effort. This includes Humprey Jennings:

"He believed that the task of the documentary filmmaker was to capture the distinctive 'legacy of feeling' of the nation. In trying to capture and communicate this legacy, Jennings made considerable, and highly distinctive, use of images familiarly associated with England and Englishness, 'public' images whose power is essentially cultural and social, the result of centuries of accretion of significance." BFI Screenonline

Dissertation Unit: Idea Development

Looking at "Introduction to Documentary" By Bill Nichols, I discovered a principal mode of documentary Film making which applies to my dissertation:

THE PARTICIPATORY MODE
Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode welcomes direct engagement between
filmmaker and subject(s) - the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded
The filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often
celebrated Often coupled with archival footage to examine historical issues.(p.31)

Examples include:
Shoah (1985)

I also looked into issues surrounding Goverment Sponsored film by Connie Fields, The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980)

Bill Nicholas (Introduction to Documentary) describes

"This is an example of a film that uses archival film material not to confirm the truth of a situation but to demonstrate how truth claims can serve political goals"(p.27)

and he continues,

"We usually understand and acknowledge that a documentary is acreative treatment of actuality, not a faithful transcription of it...Documentaries marshal evidence and then use it to construct their own perspective or proposal to the world. We expect this process to take place. We are disappointed if it does not."(p.36)

Pre-Production Unit: Idea Development

Part of my planned sequence footage at the start of the programme will be rebuilding of the collapsible canoe, type used in 'Cockleshell Heroes' raid on Bordeaux 1942.

Similar to Ray Mears:



The Cockle Mark II consists of a ridged plywood deck and a ridged plywood flat bottom joined by rubberised canvas sides.

Pre-Production Unit: Idea Development

Steve Backshall on Marathon Des Sables



Dan Snow talks sport



Discovered this film made by Robert Lawrence's company, Global Adventure Plus. This is a highly stylish montage piece with elements i would like to implement in my pre-production piece (go-pro helmet mounted shots, picturesque establishing shots etc.)

Pre Production: Research - Relevant Programming: Critical Acclaim

Harry's Arctic Heroes [Sam Wollaston, guardian.co.uk] On interacting with the film crew.

"...there's definitely a barrier there; he seems reluctant to get personal in any way. And he goes back to talking about rations, which he seems to feel more comfortable with.

Actually all the guys – Martin, Guy, Steve and Jaco – are better at opening up, talking about what this means to them, than Harry is. It may be a buttoned-up posh thing; or that he doesn't want to steal the show from the wounded soldiers. Perhaps it's a lingering, inherited, mistrust of anyone with a camera. But he's not giving too much away. Maybe next week, when they're actually out there, alone and on the ice, we'll see more of the real Harry."

Bomber Boys [Review by: David Butcher, Radio Times]

"Does this look familiar? There was a good documentary, Bomber Boys: Revealed, on Channel 5 last year, also about Bomber Command in the Second World War, and some viewers may remember the splendid series Channel 4 ran a few years ago called Bomber Crew."

Pre Production: Research - Relevant Progamming

Bomber Boys

Colin and Ewan McGregor explore Bomber Command, a rarely-told story from World War II.

Production company: Lion Television
Length: 1 x 90 minutes
TX 9pm 05 Feb 2012 BBC 1

Harry's Arctic Heroes

Documentary following Prince Harry and four wounded soldiers on the first unsupported expedition to the North Pole.

Production company: Twofour Broadcast
Length: 2 x 60 minutes
TX 9pm from 23 August, BBC1

On Thin Ice

Ben Fogle, along with the Olympic rower and Telegraph contributor James Cracknell and Ed Coates, a doctor from Bristol, compete in the Amundsen South Pole Race: On Thin Ice, a five-part documentary series on BBC Two, tells the story of their expedition.

Length: 5 x 45 minutes
TX BBC Two Sun 28 Jun 2009 21:00