Documentary and Commission - Research Three - Client research - EDEN

For this unit we have been commissioned (hypothetically) by the eden channel to produce a ten minute nature documentary regarding the theme of "doorstep nature", nature found on our collective doorsteps. To facilitate continuous style and formatting I have researched the channel and in this short post I will expand upon what I discovered about the eden channel.

eden is a cable and satellite television channel owned, and launched by the UKTV network, eden is available on all television services in the UK and N. Ireland, excepting the national terrestrial digital service, Freeview and, the now defunct terrestrial analogue service. hence the distinction of "Cable and Satellite".

history(bullet points)

• Launched on March 8, 2004 as "UKTV Documentary", the channel originally aired only third party content, most of it from the BBC.
• The initial programming came from the preceding documentary channel in the UKTV catalog, Horizons.
• re-branded in 09' to its current brand of  eden, this marked a change of focus from a wide focus upon documentaries in general to its current focus upon nature and the environment.

channel identity and ident:
The current Eden identity features explorers in an unknown environment, such as the deep jungle or the Antarctic, before coming across a landscape, which the logo then forms onto. this expresses their current focus and presents a clear view of their identity through their channel Ident'. this is reflected in their website(See below), and their programming.

eden's programming is all supportive of their identity as a channel, the vast majority focus upon nature, many examples of "extreme travelogues", the science behind nature(biology and evolution), and some examples of shows about the wider universe. (See bottom of post for full list)

audience breakdown:
While I have not been able to find the precise statistics for the channel, however I have found information(from the BARB Annual viewing report) that in 2015, Documentaries provided 12.2 percent of UK(&NI) audiences with entertainment(LINK Page 34, slide 18). unfortunately this is not indicative of eden's actual viewing figures, however it does show the audience share that documentaries in a wider sense fill.

Programming list:

10 Things You Didn't Know About... BBC Four 2007-2008
Africa BBC One 2013
An African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby BBC Two 2010
Animal Armageddon Animal Planet (United States) 2009
Amazing Planet National Geographic Channel (United States) 2007
Amazon BBC Two 2008
Arctic with Bruce Parry BBC Two 2011
Are We Changing Planet Earth? BBC One 2006
Ask Attenborough Eden 2011
Attenborough and the Giant Egg BBC Two 2011
Australia: The Time Travellers Guide ABC1 (Australia) 2012
The Ballad of Big Al BBC One 2000
BBC Wildlife Specials BBC One 1995–present
The Bear Family & Me BBC Two 2011
Bang Goes the Theory BBC One 2009–present
Biggest and Baddest with Niall McCann Animal Planet 2012-2014
Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery BBC Four 2008
The Blue Planet BBC One 2001
The Brain: A Secret History BBC Four 2011
Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life BBC One 2009
Chased by Dinosaurs BBC One 2002
The Code BBC Two 2011
David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities Eden
Watch 2013–present
Deadly 60 CBBC 2009-2012
Death of a Sea Monster National Geographic Channel (United States) 2011
Deserts and Life Eden 2012
Dino Stampede BBC Two 2011
Do We Really Need the Moon? BBC Two 2011
Earthflight BBC One 2011-2012
Earth: The Power of the Planet BBC Two 2007
Eden Shorts: From Lens to Screen Eden 2015
Equator BBC Two 2006
Expedition Borneo BBC One 2007
Favourite Attenborough Moments UKTV Documentary 2006
First Life BBC Two 2010
Frozen Planet BBC One 2011
Galápagos BBC Two 2006
Ganges BBC Two 2007
Great Barrier Reef BBC Two 2012
The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart BBC Two 2010
Hainan Adventure with Nigel Marven Eden 2012
Himalaya with Michael Palin BBC One 2004
Horizon BBC Two 1964–present
How to Grow a Planet BBC Two 2012
Human Planet BBC One 2011
Humpbacks: From Fire to Ice ABC1 (Australia) 2008
The Incredible Human Journey BBC Two 2009
Inside Nature's Giants Channel 4 2009–present
Inside the Human Body BBC One 2011
James May's Things You Need To Know BBC Two 2011–present
Killer Whale Islands with Nigel Marven Channel 5 2007
Last Chance to See BBC Two 2009
Life in Cold Blood BBC One 2008
Life in the Freezer BBC One 1993
Life in the Undergrowth BBC One 2005
The Life of Birds BBC One 1998
The Life of Mammals BBC One 2002–2003
Life on Earth BBC Two 1979
Life on Fire Arte (France) 2009-2010
Life BBC One 2009
Lion Country ITV 2010–2011
The Living Planet BBC One 1984
Lost Land of the Jaguar BBC One 2008
Lost Land of the Tiger BBC One 2010
Lost Land of the Volcano BBC One 2009
Madagascar BBC Two 2011
Monsters We Met BBC Two 2004
Monster Bug Wars Science (United States) 2011–2012
Mountain Gorilla BBC Two 2010
Museum of Life BBC Two 2010
Natural World BBC Two 1967–present
Nature's Great Events BBC One 2009
Nature PBS (United States) 1982–present
Nigel Marven's Rhino Adventure Channel 5 2006
Nova PBS (United States) 1974–present
Oceans BBC Two 2008
Ocean Giants BBC Two 2011
On Thin Ice BBC Two 2009
Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey BBC Two 2012
Origins of Us BBC Two 2011
Planet Earth BBC One 2006
The Private Life of Plants BBC One 1995
Ray Mears' Bushcraft BBC Two 2004-2005
Ray Mears Goes Walkabout BBC Two 2008
Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness BBC Two 2009
Reconstructing T-Rex National Geographic Channel (United States) 2010
Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds BBC One 2010
Sea Monsters BBC One 2003
The Secrets of Everything BBC Three 2012
South Pacific BBC Two 2009
The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion BBC Two 2010
Super Giant Animals BBC One 2013
Swarm: Nature's Incredible Invasions BBC One 2009
Ten Deadliest Snakes: China Animal Planet
Eden 2013
Ten Deadliest Snakes with Nigel Marven Animal Planet
Eden 2014-2015
Termites - The Inner Sanctum ORF (Austria) 2011
Through Hell and High Water BBC One
BBC Two 2006
The Trials of Life BBC One 1990
Tribal Wives BBC Two 2008-2010
Tribe BBC Two 2005-2007
Tropic of Cancer BBC Two 2010
Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link BBC One 2009
Voyage of the Continents Arte (France) 2012
Walking with Beasts BBC One 2001
Walking with Dinosaurs BBC One 1999
Walking with Monsters BBC One 2005
Whale Adventure with Nigel Marven Channel 5
Eden 2013
Wild Arabia BBC Two 2013
Wild Brazil BBC Two 2014
Wild Britain with Ray Mears ITV
Eden 2010–present
Wild Canada CBC (Canada) 2014
Wild Caribbean BBC Two 2007
Wild China BBC Two 2008
Wild Colombia with Nigel Marven Eden 2012
Wild Down Under BBC Two 2003
Wonders of the Solar System BBC Two 2010
Wonders of the Universe BBC Two 2011
Yellowstone BBC Two 2009
Yunnan Adventure with Nigel Marven Eden 2012

Documentary and Commission - Research two - Adam Curtis

in this short post I intend to explore the career of a documentary film maker that has influenced my thinking and worldview, his methods are something I wish to be able to use more often and his most recent documentary(Bitter lake) has inspired and influenced me on an emotional and intellectual level to some large degree.

Adam Curtis

Kevin Adam Curtis is an English documentary filmmaker, he was born in 1955 and describes his favorite theme as:

"power and how it works in society". He describes his work as Journalism that is expounded via film, he's won various awards including four BAFTAs, and has been closely associated with the BBC throughout his career. His works explore politics, sociology, philosophy and political history.


Born in Dartford, Kent to a left wing cinematographer father, he attended Sevenoaks school before studying Human Sciences at Mansfield College, Oxford.


Shortly after giving up his pursuit of a PhD he was hired by the BBC to produce a training film for a BBC training course. this provided an "in" to the corporation, and allowed him to be hired upon the Magazine series. That's Life.


Tim adams wrote the following in a profile of Curtis for The Observer,:


"Curtis has a remarkable feel for the serendipity of such moments, and an obsessive skill in locating them. "That kind of footage shows just how dull I can be," he admits, a little glumly. "The BBC has an archive of all these tapes where they have just dumped all the news items they have ever shown. One tape for every three months. So what you get is this odd collage, an accidental treasure trove. You sit in a darkened room, watch all these little news moments and look for connections."

this expresses my favored elements of Curtis' style, he doesn't use fluff, he uses visual metaphors and appropriate archive footage to narrate the story of his films. I prefer his methods, they allow for extremely emotive imagery that bind the intellectual content and message completely. something I dont often see in documentary. and this is something that I think more documentary film makers should do. if your creating a narrative that is powerful and in depth then the use of archive footage allows, in my mind the reality of the content to set in. It feels real because it is *REAL.



his influences
Curtis has expressed that his greatest influence was the USA trilogy,(By John Dos Passos) A series he first read at age 13, saying the following in an interview for Film Comment.com:

"You can trace back everything I do to that novel because it's all about grand history, individual experience, their relationship. And also collages, quotes from newsreels, cinema, newspapers. And it's about collage of history as well. That's where I get it all from"

My experience with Curtis's work begins with the feature length documentary, Bitter Lake, his documentary about the nation of Afghanistan, which answers the whys and hows of the current sociopolitical climate in the Middle east region, in such a way as to impart a non-binary view of the recent conflicts. it expresses the history of the region, and shows why everything in the area is as it is today.



I love this film on both an intellectual level and upon an emotional level. As someone who has grown up in the shadow of the wars in the region, someone who had previously been given no real understanding of the conflicts, of how they developed it has allowed me some measure of calm against the politically motivated binary view of what's going on there.

the film is a liberating experience and from an artistic standpoint has effected all of my works to some extent since my original viewership of it.

The film is politically important and is fairly unbiased as far as its political message goes, its more about the history behind the modern conflicts, how,who and what caused them, influenced them and why middle eastern culture is becoming so conservative, militant and insular as it is today, how its a response to the chaos of modern societies.

Documentary and Commission - Influences, Creative Process and Research.

R&D and the creative process.

Introduction

In this post I will reveal the evolution of our team's documentary,  the pitched concept was the first here listed, the iterations listed thereafter are evolutions created by necessity as our production went through setbacks and re-designs as needed. listed are the influential work, how it influenced our concept, and why changes were made when they were.

The initial concept

the initial concept(Named "A Day on the Medway") was brought about through a surge of inspiration during the first lecture of this unit. this idea was developed through an already formed working knowledge of format and documentary codecies, a "ten minute nature-based documentary with a theme regarding doorstep nature" being the essence of the brief. from this I was drawn to my own doorstep from wich my immediate concept flowed. outside my door lies the River Medway and was is this geological feature that I focused on.

Great British Railway Journeys(GBRJ)

Produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and presented by ex-conservative politician Micheal Portillo. Great British Railway Journeys is about journeying along historic railway routes, as presented through the lens of an 18th century Railway guidebook. Portillo follows notary routes from the guide in the modern day, contrasting the experiences of the original(1800's) journalist, with his own experiences upon the route. Each series follows either one or two complete routes, stopping at interesting or pertinent stations along the way. Each episode is split between several different 'Destinations', each stop corresponds with a story based within the town of, or in the vicinity of the station.

 Episode breakdown:

each episode is split into "destinations" each destination forms a segment of the episode, with either one or two stories per segment, a breakdown of an average one story segment is below:

• beginning with anecdottal,descriptive or history commentary
• interview/sequence-each segment is made up of a mixture of actuality and either commentary or interview over a sequence formed of relevant visuals, actuality, interviews or archive footage
• Segway to next destination or segment depending upon episode

In the example episode the "destinations" visited and their associated themes are broken down below, listing their story count and a breif description. 

• Lynton and Lynmouth - one story about the funicular cliff railway, touches on operation, history, inception and conservation.
• Lynton and Barnstaple railway - one story about the partially reopened railway between Lynton and Barnstaple, touches on operations, conservation, heritage, history and inception and future expansions planned.
• Barnstaple town - two stories, the first about a particular factory, segway via a now demolished bridge to the second story about a clock tower that was not mentioned in the railway guide guide(compares then and now often)
• Eggesford - very short anecdotal-like story about why the train stops there at all(mentions the guide's lack of interest. segment is footnote-like) 
• Exeter city - two stories, the first about Northernhay Gardens, segway through "nature" theme into 2nd story about floral science and Exeter museum.

each "destination" is about 5-6 minutes long for a total run time of 30 minutes.

Its Influence

I had planned to use the vehicle of a boat ride along the Medway estuary, using localized waterside features to propel the programme through each segment.(segments were defined  by the results of research into the riverside features of the relevent, selected part of the river.) The planned show would also take cues from the way each story was presented, using a mixture of interview, actuality and commentary to advance the story.

having done some research, the influence that Great British Railway Journeys, and other light documentaries that I have viewed informally informed me of the style that I wished to impart. my observations show that this style of documentary is often broadcast late afternoon/early evening on weekdays, or during the day on weekends. it is light, pre-watershed, and genuinely relaxing just after returning from a place of work or education. 

my personal relationship with the above mentioned television show is reflective of its broadcast times. my father and I would often spend our evenings(while I was in college) watching films or television, this show would be the first as it often runs most of the year round, we'd watch GBRJ, then move onto Dramas or more serious documentaries after dinner. 

Concept 2

 The initial concept failed at a late stage in the production process, necessitating the redesign and re-writing of the project, this was due to our boat charter falling through, and the (at the time) lack of a response from two of the key contributing organisations, (the third was unable to help at all) thankfully a member of our team had found an interesting terain and wildlife conservation project that we decided we might be able to base our documentary around. unfortunately it was found days later that this project had been inactive for two years or so. I then wrote a script for the second concept, initially called "Hidden Medway". in keeping with my waterways theme, and inspired by the following programme, we designed a walkers or walking based show borrowing heavily from the programme described in this section.

Railway Walks With Julia Bradbury 

the programme uses a walk along a disused railway to frame the show, talking about local issues, nature and the history of the now deceased railway upon which the presenter walks. the act of walking theses trails and paths drives the story, and providing an overarching narrative. the show uses few experts, often joining the presenter upon their walks, there are long sequences of the landscape, and almost no VT's or archive footage, large amounts of actuality are used to express the story of the routes that are walked.

Its influence

from a format perspective it gave me the idea of using walking and a walk as a framing device. instead of using abandoned railways, I found a walk that hugs the bank of the river Medway from Maidstone to Rochester, described by several walking blogs as scenic and interesting. the walk deviates from the edge of the river at points, going past industrial and dilapidated, ex industrial areas.

I originally watched the show years ago and it was merely the framing device that I thought might work in this instance, and my team agreed.

Why it didn't work out

the second concept fell through after a day of filming, we managed far fewer miles in that day than expected, and due to the relative unfitness of our team we took a long time to shoot what we did. the other failing is the lack of interesting nature upon the leg we managed to shoot, however an organisation that we had contacted did get back to us so we decided to reformat and start again as far as content goes.

Final concept

The final concept has been created out of necessity and convenience, upon our visit to the previously stated organisation we where given the opportunity to film around the grounds of theur headquarters, as a conservation organisation they had sample ecologies on site and we saw a huge amount of interesting wildlife and received a lot of interesting new information. this lead to our final concept as it is described below:

A completely actuality driven shoot, with heavy emphasis upon the conservation work done by the above mentioned organisation, following a group of their volunteers as they work to conserve the landscape and wildlife. with heavy use of interviews and commentary. following the exploits of the volunteers and rangers who work hard to keep Kent conserved.

other stuff (related)

notes made on sample viewing of episode:

( S04 - E19 - Lynton And Lynmouth To Exeter)

• initial intro music.
• Intro sequence featuring commentary, introduces the show, the episode's route, and snippets from the three segments. tone is light and airy, feels as if travelling.
• segways to PTC within the first segment, Portillo describes the episodic starting point(villages of Lynton and Lynmouth) through a quote from the railway guide.
• sequence establishing the towns, commentary broadly describes the towns.
• segment with story about local feature(cliff railway), interviews and commentary over vision sequence.(history, geography, causes etc.)
• first segment ends with a cut to an arial shot of the North Devon coast.
• sequence introducing segment 2 (Lynton and Barnstaple railway)(NOTE: most episodes do not include segments featuring a railway, most use it as a vehicle for the story)
• segment two broadly follows the same format as segment one.
• show uses Arial shots of trains at speed or interesting geographic features to connect segments