About Me: I'm Niki Vossler

Thursday, 5 May 2016

Documentary and Commission - Evaluation

intro
in this short evaluation I will evaluate this unit and its accompanying project, reflecting upon my experience of the thing.


overall this unit has been tiring and exasperating, we as a team had so many issues, so many problems and road blocks that I'm somewhat amazed we managed to complete our project. the unit has been challenging, fun, stimulating and entertaining. I've learned a lot from the course of this unit, however the most important thing I've learned is not strictly academic. through their actions recently, my team mates have been amazing, and through their effort I'v developed as a person somewhat. due to teenage traumas I'm not very trusting, the actions of my team mates has helped immensely in regard to some of my anxieties, and my generalized mistrust of people.

from an academic perspective I'v learned a lot, due to my attendance most of it was hard won through experiencing what I should have been present to be taught. our project went from roadblock to roadblock, I'm glad we made it and i'm extremely glad for my team mates.

If I where to change anything about my experiences this unit I would change the fact that we had a massive period of confusion and indecision. this wrecked our original plans completely and is probably why we've been running so behind of our classmates.
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Documentary and Commission - Visual reference material

EDIT: this mood board is out of date by two iterations of our project. due to time constraints I did not research visual reference material for the later iterations.

The following visual reference material has been collected to provide some insight into the sorts of shots and content I expect and would prefer to happen if all goes well on the project. they have been collected to inform my imagination as to how I want to represent the Medway river and the primary subjects of the planned documentary.
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Documentary and Commission - Risk assessment upload

NOTE:
unfortunately my Scanner is inoperable at the moment, however below are photographs of the risk assessments I produced over the course of this project.

the first was specifically for filming from/on a small pleasure craft, I performed it in preparation for our original planned production. IMG EXAMPLE


the second was for the Medway walk consept and was used during our shoot day on this project


the third was for our final documentary, and was used on our final and main shoot day.


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Documentary and Commission - 1st iteration group work file dump

As a piece of further evidence of our team's work efforts, I am uploading a copy of our shared work document wherein we posted important or useful information or responses from possible contributors. this was abandoned during the first iteration of our project and thus is not representative of our communications thereafter.


NOTE: this is a dump file and is here for evidence purposes only.  this is not a formal post.
Becca’s Research Links:


Niki’s Research links:
is responsible for maintenance and conservation/biodiversity in the Medway valley area
is responsible for the retrieval and storage of biological and environmental data within Kent and Medway specifically.
Useful map of CMP's in kent.
"The Environment Agency is the Navigation Authority for the 31kms of inland navigation on the River Medway between Maidstone and Tonbridge. We also have a general recreation duty to promote and facilitate recreation, and enjoyment of water both inland and on the coast."
a short doc about the medway MCZ
A tourist guide to the Medway estuary(includes my focused area)
an organisation dealing with birds and pests in medway- maybe knows about foxes?
Doc dealing with local development strategy
Wikipedia article for medway area
website for the owners of Chatham harbor
"An Act to amend the Medway Ports Reorganisation Scheme, 1968; to confer further powers on the Medway Ports Authority; and for other purposes."
details on maritime Piloting of the Medway estuary
document links regarding the marine conservation Zone
general information on foxes from the RSPCA
the Fox website's pages on Urban foxes
wildlife park on the medway Eastury
Partnership organisation regarding boat and vessel hire within the medway maritime environment.
lists major and minor boat/vessel charter organisations in the area including detailed hire information.
listed below further charter and hire businesses(not listed on MBC):
medway council website: about the riverside Country Park
Leo’s Research Links:
East Kent and West Street Hunt
mfha.org.uk/pack_directory/component/option,com_directory/listing,East Kent with West Street Hunt/page,viewListing/lid,94/Itemid,71/
Independent article on Fox hunting 1
Independent article 2

Urban foxes getting Braver in Medway





Requirements for Pitch
  • Working title/top line/explanation of story and how its new
(A day on the medway - working title)
25 word pitch? - talk to helen
Niki
  • Story synopsis
Niki and Leo and Becca
  • Character profiles
Niki and Leo and Becca
  • Location recces
Niki and Becca
  • Proposed style/narrative
Niki/Becca








Schedule
thurs - Locations
Fri - Lectures and Production Meeting(for 2nd year work)
Sat - working at Niki’s place(all Paperwork)
Sun - Finalising Pitch and anything else to be done
Mon - Pitch
Mon-Fri Script(TBS)


Finalised Idea as it is now:
A day on the Medway
  • wildlife along the banks and in the Medway estuary Maritime Protection Zone
  • focusing on:
  • Urban foxes in chatham/rochester/strood/gillingham - Fox Project(See link in Beccas links)
  • Seals in the wider estuary
  • Ocean/estuary birds around the riverside park area
  • and any other associated wildlife along the bans of the medway
shooting in/near:
Herne Bay(Wildwood Trust),Riverside Country park, Medway estuary and sound, Rochester/chatham riverside areas, Chatham Historic Docks.
questions for helen:(now answered in meeting, prepared question results only at this time, non prepared and follow up questions asked to Helen will be expressed in this document after meeting audio recording is uploaded and transcripted for team blogger distribution or as simply recorded evidence of the meeting.
1st question: maritime shooting- feasibility(we asked helen about the feasibility and possible licensing issues relating to the medway estuary)
Helen’s  answer to this question  was nuanced and thorough, an overview can be found in the section of this document entitled:
“crew and equipment safety and the wider feasibility of shooting from a low draft, Small commercial vessel/pleasure craft, first thoughts into risk preventative measures and actions to be taken in preparation or during maritime shooting.”
2nd question: clarification on requirement for pitch grading requirement listed as a :“Working title/top line/explanation of story and how its new”
the answer Helen gave as i understand it(not actual words, Paraphrased through Niki’s interpretation of her response to the above queary):

a better description of this noted requirement would be something of a merger/powerpoint slide detailing the following information verbally and visually: a Buy line, a Masthead/headline, an expression of how our idea is original and,  a “25 word pitch” style sentence expressing our storyline/narrative(light on info, more detail in synopsis)





“crew and equipment safety and the wider feasibility of shooting from a low draft, Small commercial vessel/pleasure craft, first thoughts into risk preventative measures and actions to be taken in preparation or during maritime shooting.”


in regards to the possibility of filming at all, we will will have to do an in depth risk analysis and risk assessment in relation to our chosen charter craft or private rental, the first steps outlined below are universal, inconsiderate of which Hire/Charter/Private vessel we end up using in our production.


the first assessment of any watercraft to be used in our required way must be an overview of the watercraft’s equipment in relation to safe securement and crew safety gear, an assessment in relation to crew safety and risk management measures upon said watercraft, and an assessment of actionable measures in relation to the  proper securement  of camera and audio equipment to the deck and superstructure of the chosen watercraft.
story idea notes
“A day on the Medway”
from strood bridges to the medway basin, from historic Rochester town to the Darnet and Hoo Forts, we’ll be taking a look at the wildlife, from urban foxes in chatham and rochester, to the Seals and birds of the medway estuary. this is a Day on the Medway.
Angle is the post industrial wasteland slowly becoming a naturalistic paradise
major sections:
Urban Foxes
we’ll look into the urban fox infestation threatening medway, focusing upon the rescue and the packs operating in the area.
Seals
we’ll be looking at the mammalian species that inhabit the medway estuary, focusing on the seal community and other aquatic or marine beings.
Sea/River/Eastury Birds
for our final section we’ll be looking at the local avian population, focusing upon the wetland and ex industrial sites along the medway and their avian residents, we’ll also be looking at the mudbank worm that earned medway its maritime conservation status.





Emails to be sent:
Mark with an X when done.
Niki’s responsibility:
X medway council for the Riverside country park
X jet tours
X hurricane tours
medway coastguard station DO SOON!!!
Becca’s responsibility:
X Rochester Fishing Club
X Rochester cruising club
X Medway yacht club
X The Fox Project

Example E-mail
isle of sheppey bridge/kings ferry bridge
Good Afternoon,

I am a student at University for Creative Arts studying Television Production. I have been given to create a documentary on nature and Wildlife.  
My team and I are focusing on the Medway Estuary and its associated wetland, we are looking to charter a small vessel to facilitate the shooting of some scenes from a watercraft on the Medway. We are willing to pay for this service, however we are students so we do have a fairly low maximum budget.

If you have any members interested in allowing us to use their craft in April, then please get back to us promptly at this email address.

Regards,



E-mail response list
Tour/boat charter organisations
(not yacht, cruiser or fishing clubs)
replies have been received from both tour companies, a group decision will be made tomorrow on which company to use, or to wait for responses from the boat clubs.
Jet Tours’s response was received by Becca, Hurricane tours’ response was received by NIki. a decision will  be made tomorrow on the above issues.
The Fox Project response was recieved by Becca, they have said that they would be happy for us to visit the ICU, however it is unlikely that we would be able to film an actual rescue being held, this is because they cover a 60x70 mile cachment areas and have volunteers spread throughout the territory, they have to have quick responses so we may be unlikely to capture the footage that we are after. They have said that if we would like a day with a duty driver then we can see what comes up on the day, they can try and fit us in.
Feedback from pitch

Stick to one

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Documentary and Commission - Workshop learning Post


In this post I'm going to explore what I learned from the workshops I attended, what I learned during production that I should have learned in workshops, and my opinions upon my role in the second year major production


The only complete workshop I attended was the practical shooting workshop focusing upon interviews and interview lighting, this workshop allowed me to become further acquainted with the standard EX camera equipment that we use at Uni, It also gave me a refresher on three point lighting, something I had learned, along with interview format and the method behind shooting interviews previously at college, the refresher in lighting was extremely useful and it allowed me to become familiar with the redheads that we have available to us upon our course. in all I would say that the few workshops I attended didn't actually teach me as much as our lecture time. this is due to my lack of attendance at some of the more advanced workshops.

what would I have learned had I attended?
there are two workshops witch I missed for various reasons that I would have liked to have attended. the first was actuality, the second editing.

I learned some hard truths about actuality shooting from an OP's perspective during this project, had I attended the actuality workshop I would have learned them before my shoot, increasing the quality of the work.
I believe that the editing workshop would have helped massively during the late stages of this unit, probably expedited and made easy the edit witch I and the team have been wrestling.

in review I would say that I should have liked and would have benefited extremely from attendance at more workshops, I believe that our project would have gone smoother as well. unfortunately I missed what I missed. and theres nothing I can do about it.
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Documentary and Commission - Working practices and skills review



in this document I'll outline some of the professional practices put into place by our team at various times throughout the production, I'll also outline where these broke down and where we should have acted differently in regards to professional conduct.

My opinions on the key pieces of professional conduct that need to be observed when shooting a Doc are varied and numerous, in this first section I'll outline what I believe to be the key elements that a production relies upon to be successful.

this list is based upon what we've been taught in lectures, experience pre-unit, experience from performing the tasks set in workshops, and experience from the production process as I experienced it.




Initial Research -

 From my experience, performing formative research is key. this doesn't only include subjectual research, it includes almost any factors that can effect a production. I've known the value of good research for a long time and this is reflected in the production's initial subjectual research, in the list posted at the bottom of the page that's (HERE) are the various online locations where I found useful information for the original planned production. notable are things you wouldn't expect like navigational charts, tide times and marine exclusion zone maps. these were key to that version of the production due to its maritime themes and narrative subjects. for example: if we where shooting seals from a boat, everyone on board including the boat's crew need to know how close they can legally get to the shore and how close they can get to the seals. Its key for the director to know this as well, when directing a chartered pleasure craft you need to know that your directions to the crew dont put them or their well being in danger. with a good pilot/captain it shouldn't be a problem, however you cannot guarantee that people are innately competent. this example also works well in terms of respecting the rights and freedoms of others, a core ideal of working in actuality.




Risk Assessment - 

assessing risk is what I'd describe as the second most important thing you can take into account during every stage of a production, maintaining a safe working environment is absolutely vital on ANY production, in documentary it is literally the most important thing. this is due to the unexpectedness of actuality or the real world. an example that has stayed with me over the years was experienced by a colleague of my uncle(worked in the industry before retirement).

he was working as a camera operator for a news programme in Manchester at the time, His reporter and him were covering a riot, on the ground with the rioters, during a shot a person approached from behind them with a metal pipe, aiming for the cam operator, thanks to the timely intervention of the reporter who was spotting the camera operators back while doing her PTC, only the camera was damaged, the camera OP dodged enough that he wasn't hit on the head, the blow caused the entire rear half of the camera to snap off the forward part, the extremely heavy battery pack dropping off the back of the camera. it was thanks to brainstorming risk beforehand and managing those risks that the presenter(a rookie) knew to spot for the camera op. saving his life in the process.

Risk assessment doesn't only cover the safety of your crew, in many situations when shooting actuality it also maintains the safety and comfort of the public and the condition of the location where your shooting. for instance: when shooting a documentary on the great barrier reef you have to be sure that your transport is shallow enough on the drought to not cause damage to the reef through "bottoming out" or chopping it up with the propeller. another example: if your shooting vox pops its important to be courteous and professional when interacting with the public, by not doing so you can damage reputations or end careers through rude behavior or inappropriate conduct. this again ties into the concept of respect.

my risk assessments are available (HERE)
the first was for shooting from a boat and was written specifically for the initial proposal, following that are the ones that were regarding actual shoots.




Reconnaissance - 

Like some of the others mentioned, proper reconnaissance is key to any production, however with documentary it has a far wider scope. in this document I define reconnaissance as not only Recce-ing the locations, but also getting correct information regarding the personality of all contributors or contributing organisations.  the attitudes and opinions of these groups effects how balanced your production is or becomes. Knowing what it would take for an organisation to get involved can give you a significant advantage when inquiring about their availability, equally, knowing whats inappropriate to ask of, or to an entity can allow for proper respect to be observed.

location reconnaissance is equally important to the above observed social reconnaissance, and this is something that I didn't properly observe at a key point during the course of this production. during the second planned production I improperly recce'd a key location, a walking route. the satellite images I used to recce the route indicated that a key segment of the route was of reasonable width and maintenance for our uses. it wasn't, the pathway was badly maintained and overgrown, some parts had subsided into the river(it was a riverside path similar to a tow path) what should have taken an hour took four, a brief look at further sections of our planned walk showed that the route hadn't been in use as a public footpath for some time, and had been relegated to a "Right of way" rather than a marked path. this put our team behind schedule, and when added to the mis-forecasting of the weather doomed this planned production.

this illustrates the need for a "proper" Recce, a member of our team should have attempted to walk the route previous to our shoot date. thus time would have been saved in either finding an alternative route or redesigning the production again.




Communication And Conduct - 

I've mentioned I and My teams Issues with inter-team member communication many times earlier in this blog. so I'll skim over this first part with the following sentence:

"Try and communicate, if they dont message you?, message them. if they dont reply in a timely manner?, phone them. if they dont answer their phone?, visit their house, if they are definitely in and not answering? leave them a note explaining the situation. if they dont respond to that? go on without them and continue to try and contact them until they explain why. it might be something of deadly import. just try and maintain team cohesion and maintain ownership of the product,"

the second part of this is extremely important, when communicating with anyone related to the production who isn't a part of the team, you need to be formal, professional and un-opinionated. professional attitudes, actions and vocabulary allow for a better dialogue with organisations and contributors. its a sign of respect, your showing them that you take them seriously, that you take their responsibilities and opinions into account when contacting them, and that you respect them. equally approaching them with professionalism shows them things about you and your team. It shows that you are serious, that you are respectable, that you are competent and it allows for a positive first impression.

However, from my experience informal communication is just as important, to be able to communicate to an individual on an emotive level elevates the quality of your narrative, it allows for you, and thus the audience to connect with the narrative on a deeper level. rather than just an intellectual exchange, the narrative can become an emotive and thought provoking exchange.another use of informal communication is to ensure that contributors are relaxed, a shoot should be as painless as possible for your contributors, they are doing you a favor by being involved, they deserve a certain level of respect and care, to be imparted by the crew members and especially the persons who must interact with them directly.




Varied Planning - 
proper planning is essential when deciding how to present your content and when your designing your shoot and scheduling your production, this almost goes without saying, however my experiences on this unit have shown that there are three not-so-well known actions that are vital to a successful production. it was through the auctioning of two of these that has allowed my team's documentary to be produced at all, the third action listed makes the other two somewhat less important, however the auctioning of all three can be vital to a production's success.

Flexible, Redundant Initial Plan- of the three planning actions listed, this one should be the most obvious, initially your plan must be flexible in regard to all elements(from scheduling to content to narrative) until you have "tied-down" your contributors and resources you cannot guarantee your schedule, you cannot guarantee your content and you cannot guarantee your equipment. your initial plan must be detailed and have extensive redundancy built-in. the redundancy allows for flexibility and clarity, if something goes wrong you need to know what your options are. I learned this during the planning stages of our first idea's collapse. I and the team didn't keep a record of our plan's redundancy, we didn't build in much to be honest and as a result of basic miscommunication we all lost our clarity in regard to the plan, causing its eventual collapse.

Backup plans- like the previous point, I learned this during production primarily, we as a team where too focused upon the benefits of our idea that we overlooked the concept that it might collapse under us, if we had written up backup plans properly and developed them alongside our primary then it would have taken far fewer work-hours to reconfigure and adapt our production when the main plan failed. what actually happened was that we where forced to design a completely new concept in an extremely short time, from the ground up. this effected our scheduling and didn't allow for proper, thorough planning. as a resultant of this, the second production collapsed as well, this time after an almost-wasted shoot day. thankfully however we had managed to create an extremely basic backup plan within the chaos of this, this backup plan germinated into what is now our final production. without it we wouldn't have been able to complete the unit.

on-the-fly planning- when your in actuality, your plan becomes a guideline, because of the nature of the universe and Murphy's law, you must be ready to adapt your plans at any time. especially in actuality. this skill has been Vital to our production. without it you, as a production team can find yourself in an untenable position. This skill is key to ANY shoot and is something you have to develop if you want to be able to react to unexpected events or circumstances. when used in conjunction with the other planning elements you can create success out of some of the worst circumstances. An example of this can be seen in this project, in this production we have been able to overcome every obstacle, work around every missed opportunity and rise above ALL of the issues we have faced in this production(of witch there where MANY) of all the skills I've developed or trained in this unit, this skill is my personal favorite. a skill that has been instrumental in our production.



Time Management -
This is a skill I wont dwell on, its one of my professional failures and, while i have had some development of this skill over the course of this unit and this year, I'm still terrible at it and its one  of the leading causes of this project's issues, to me time management is something I'm getting better at every day and is a skill that I dearly want to change into one of my strengths, this unit has illuminated just how far I have to go, however it has also brought the most development in relation to it of any unit so far.



Respect - 
Respect is my all-encompassing term for Clearance, Credit, Representation and Balance.
as a concept it covers all of the mentioned areas, respect for other's work is clearance, respect for other's effort is credit, respect for others is representation and balance is respect for the truth. I apply all the elements of respect when working professionally, I remember the rules and laws surrounding representation because to mis-represent something or someone can be detrimental in a broad range of ways. During this project I have applied the rules of "respect" to the best of my ability because its so key to a production. subjectual rules are even more key. in the most basic terms, if a person or object is a "primary subject" then permission must be gained, and permissions must be checked. I value this rule innately as I emotionally agree with its meaning.

Becca' my colleague should have uploaded our clearance and permission form(s?) to her blog, if she has not by the time of hand-in and I dont have a copy I'm afraid their not available to view, but they WERE done.


Conclusion
I hope this post explains what I've learned most in this unit, the subjects talked about above are all areas in witch I've learned to either do better or learned fresh. I understand the theory, but what I've learned has been above and beyond this. en-merging theory and practice takes a person only so far, learning professional skills and practices are more important in my opinion, both in relation to professional and personal growth.
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Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Documentary and Commission - production review and analisis

introduction
in this post I will outline as many as i can recall of the major and exacerbative issues that we as a team faced throughout this production's course. this document will be updated periodically and serves the purpose of a record of our team failures, and my own failures as a team member, so we may overcome them.

Primary issues/Reasons for abandonment:

  • communication - throughout the first weeks of this unit our team had numerous communication issues. in my view these initially stemmed from a lack of understanding of each other as we had not worked on a large project in the past together. I was worried about how we would split the work, if everyone felt included and whether any of us felt as if we were getting short changed through our divvying of the work. another issues relating to communications was the lack of a constant dialogue, I had no idea what the other members of our group were doing, I had no idea how their portions of the work was going and whether I'd need to question their work ethic(something I am always hesitant to do as it makes me feel like I'm doubting their work ethic and trust)
  • other organisations - the initial, pitched show has had to have been redesigned and reformatted several times in part due to the above, but also in part due to the lack of communication from the organisations and groups we contacted. I beleive we waited too long in replying to some, and in the case of others gave them too much leeway as far as their reply times. of the organisations that did reply, one or two pulled out of the project, this led to a breakdown of my understanding of what stage the project was at.
  • other responsibilities and distractions - I and one other member of our team have been dealing with outside influences and responsibilities,this led to a lack of focus which resulted in, on my part disorganization and blind panic at some points. these emotions were the result of a large number of different factors, events, and influences, many of which lie outside the remit of this project and so have only been touched upon briefly here.
Our biggest issue was drawn from a lack of ownership on all parts, after a harrowing event happening at my residence, my drive disintegrated, this was through a chain of events following the incident. 
the incident was extremely traumatic for me due to my anxiety in relation to privacy and safety, immediately after the event I no-longer felt safe in my home, and I froze up for long periods of time, unable to concentrate at all for two weeks following the event. what I should have done is found immediate professional help, however this is not what I did, I decided to wait and get help by visiting my parents for an extended time, a week after the events happened. this resulted in an "onmni-shambles" whereby I nor my team knew what was going on for a protracted period. this put us severely behind schedule and necessitated the changing of the documentary in its entirety, 

The second concept

I then went on to Re-write the concept from the ground up, in an enxtremely short amount of time. this redesigned plan got as far as the scripting stage(can be found (HERE) this concept also failed fairly early on due to some unforeseen circumstances, mapping issues and recce issues.

Reasons for abandonment:
  • Recce issues - When preparing this concept I researched possible walks within the Medway Smile area, I wanted a walk that was fairly accessible from Maidstone and one that would show off the biodiversity of the smile area, I wanted to keep it river-based in-keeping with the first Idea, I found a walk starting at an easily taxi-accessible location with a reasonable length that should provide some interesting nature, architectural and geological features. unfortunately the recce I performed was solely from satellite images of the walk's route. In hindsight I shouldn't have trusted circa 2014 satellite  maps and, as we've been taught, done a full recce. this wasn't possible due to the timing limits imposed by our previous setbacks, so upon arriving on the walk we realized a series of issues: the path was overgrown to both sides, in extremely bad condition and our walking speed was severely impacted by our heavy kit bags(supplies and cam equipment), and that it was far hotter than any of us had expected(we had looked at the forecast), on the only day that we filmed this concept we managed to walk only the first leg of our route, having been forced to divert due to a part of the path having subsided into the river at one point. we reached Alsebury far behind schedule and completely exhausted, this also resulted in the illness(heat/sun stroke) of myself and a team member,

Final Concept

Immediately following the events listed above, Leo attempted once again(having already attempted contact during our first Idea) to contact The Kent wildlife Trust, we eventually managed to get what we had thought was an interview with their head ranger at their HQ, this however was not the case and we ended up meeting with another member of staff and getting permission to film their small reserve that was attached, this allowed, through serendipity the shooting of some near-controlled environment shots, similar to how larger budget documentaries use completely controlled environments to allow for extreme detail and close ups.

Going out and filming exasperated the heat stroke, putting me in bed for another couple of days, immediately after my recovery I started to put A lot of work into my blog and research, performing an all nighter in the process. doing so with my weak immune system resulted in a cold/flu/throat infection that persists currently due to the workload following. It took a nearly a week for KWT to agree to a shoot day that was only a day or so away, we would shadow their work crew and have access to their lead ranger on that day. going out and shooting this again exacerbated my sickness, and immediately upon minimal recovery I performed another all-nighter attempting to write a script appropriate to the footage, I eventually threw this out and started again in the extremely early morning having worked upon it heavily. the script I wrote during this period can be found (HERE)

This Idea was not formally scripted until after shooting because of ill health and an unsureness in relation to  whether we'd be able to shoot. I made a very informal and basic content plan, with sections devoted to three different major themes, along with a planned intro and exit based upon plan 2's intro and exit. a basic formalization of this can be found (HERE).

following the initial roughcut edit I tried to recover as best I could.






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Documentary and Commission - SCRIPT CONCEPT 3 - basic formalization of plan

documentary and Commission - SCRIPT CONCEPT 3 -  basic formalization of plan

PIX
SYNC/COMM
EW-MW Various, Medway metro area, Map including london, MW Trains from london, historical still-Charles Dickens.
INTRO p1

COMM: The Medway Area, you may know it as a dormitory for London, a historic Naval port, or the home of Charles Dickens. This metropolitan area houses over xx permanent inhabitants, and is a part of the Grater London Megalopolis.
MS Presenter- walking along a forest path.
INTRO p2

SYNC: - So you'd think that if I where to tell you that I'm standing right in the centre of it, would you believe me? This is the Medway Smile, and your watching Hidden Medway.
Intro sequence
INTRO SEQUENCE:
TITLE: HIDDEN MEDWAY

SECTION ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE AREA(BIODIVERSITY ETC.) use interview bits too!!

SECTION ABOUT LAND USE(ANCIENT USES, DARKAGES HISTORY ETC.) use interview bits too!!

SECTION ABOUT CONSERVATION(KWT'S WORK ETC.) use interview bits too!!
CREDITS – graphics and unused EST shots/beauty shots, web-links to listed groups etc.
COM: for more information about the Medway smile and other conservation efforts use the links below, for more about our route see the links as marked. The conservation of wildlife and nature are paramount in our modern world, once its gone its gone and the different organisations and groups are often looking for volunteers to help out. So visit some of the sites listed if your interested.


Shooting plan:
3 CAMERAS, THREE FOCUSES
Niki
EX1 – landscapes, interviews, following Ranger
Becca
Her DSLR – wildlife and plants.(MW,MCU,CU etc.)
Leo
His DSLR – focusing upon roving around plus general shots of the volunteers working. (MW,W, EW)
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Documentary and Commission - SCRIPT CONCEPT 4 - POST SHOOT Shadowing script

Documentary and Commission - SCRIPT CONCEPT 4 - POST SHOOT Shadowing script

PIX
SYNC/COMM
DUR
EW-MW Various, Medway metro area, Map including london, MW Trains from london, historical still-Charles Dickens.
INTRO p1

COMM: The Medway Area, you may know it as a dormitory for London, a historic Naval port, or the home of Charles Dickens. This metropolitan area houses over 247,000 permanent inhabitants, and is a part of the Grater London Megalopolis which stretches from London in the north, all the way down to Ramsgate.
10s
SEQ: comparative images of urban scenes with tranquil meadows and scrubland/
COMM: But, it isnt all urban jungle. surrounded on almost all sides is an area of dense natural scrub and grassland, an area protected from the gradual urbanisation of the south east. This, is Hidden Medway
10s
Intro sequence
INTRO SEQUENCE:
TITLE: HIDDEN MEDWAY
30s



SEQ: describing the medway smile, graphics and sat images showing Medway layout and the Smile project's boundaries.
COMM: The Medway smile is squeezed between the towns of Aylesford, Snodland, Halling and Cuxton to the west, the Medway conurbation to the north, and the Maidstone area to the south, with its easterly-most point near Stockbury.
10s
TOTAL DUR
TOTAL DUR
60s
SEQ: Satelight map, highlight specific, labelled wildlife preserves within the smile, zoom out to a wider view then highlight the Smile's catchment area.
COMM: The Medway smile is a part of what's known as “the living landscapes project”, instead of singular, protected sites, the project aims to protect larger, more complete biospheres-
10s
SEQ: the Medway river, graphics of its route ,graphics about its history, old photographs, industrial history ect.
COMM:The area gets its name from the river Medway, which runs from the High Weald in Sussex, through Tonbridge, Maidstone, The Smile,and then through the heavily industrialised Medway conurbation, Before finally emptying into the Thames estuary.

15s
SEQ: varios shots of wildlife from KW's HQ
COMM:
This mixture of river valleys, floodland and marshes provide a unique biosphere, with some of the best examples of British riverside life available country-wide, a Green Gem in the middle of this south-eastern megalopolis.
10s
SEQ: satelite/map view zooming in on our location
COMM:
Today We've been given the honour of shadowing a group of Kent wildlife's volunteers as they maintain one of the many nature reserves in the smile.
10s
SEQ: various shots of the volunteers working.
COMM:
The volunteers at Kent Wildlife perform a vital job, their work ensures the continuation of thousand year old ecosystems, sometimes even bringing back the nearly lost. Today the volunteers are mending a fence, something that to an uneducated eye may seem unimportant, we talked with the lead Ranger to find out just how important this piece of possibly innocuous work actually is.
20s
ACTUALITY: ranger talks about fence and various shots of the volunteers working.
SYNC:
PTC by Lead Ranger, describing the importance of the fence.
45s

TOTAL DUR
170s
SEQ: graphics describing the reason for the fence
COMM:
The fence in question acts as a boundary to a holding area for the cows whom live on the land here, the cows are moved from the north field to here via the lower pasture, its important to rotate the cows to allow for the chalk grass to properly develop. So we followed the ranger down to the current home of their herd, to get a bit of a tour of the area
20s
ACTUALITY: ranger talks and walks, explaining the chalk grass ecosystem
SYNC: Ranger walking and talking about the hillside ecosystem and important flowers
300s
ACTUALITY: ranger and various cow shots
SYNC: Ranger describes the cows and their stuff
60s
ACTUALITY: shots of particular field, the piles of wood etc.
SYNC: Ranger talks about the grassland where the cows have been moved, the piles of wood etc.
60s
SEQ: walk back to the work site, sequence of the volunteers working.
COMM:Once we returned to the work site we found the crew hard at work installing the new fence, working to a rhythm that may have been heard by generations before us.
120s
SEQ: various shots, scenery wildlife and interesting plants.
Various wildlife and scenery shots overlaid to the sounds of the work site.
300s
ACTUALITY: shots of tea being made, then walking back way from the site.
COMM:shortly after the tea break we caught back up with the ranger to find out more of the sites history.
She led us to an area of the site that reflects its role in world war one.
20s
SEQ: shots of the remains of the trenches intercut with historic imagery and archive footage.
COMM/SYNC: ranger talks about the trenches and their role in training for world war one.
120s
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