Final draft of Statement of Intent

 

Statement of Intent

Audience

The topic I have chosen for my documentary is "Unrealistic Beauty Standards". The brief mentioned seeking a mainstream family and I am sure that this topic will. Social media is always advancing, as well as young people's access to it, so I feel that it is an important topic to make a documentary on. I plan to target all ages but especially teenage girls.This is because even though the topic might effect everyone, I feel that teenage girls specifically should be informed more about how unrealistic beauty standards are, so that they do not grow up thinking they are not beautiful. The name of the documentary is "Real Vs Ideal". Some audience pleasures would be personal identity and surveillance. This is because many girls watching the documentary would be able to relate to the documentary and it also is a form of information on a social issue.

Media Industries and Digital Convergence

I am hoping to have the documentary broadcasted on Channel 4 because it is well known for its documentaries. If viewers miss it when it is aired, they would be able to catch up on "4 on Demand Catch-up". Channel 4's public service broadcasting remit is to“promote measures intended to secure that people are well-informed and motivated to participate in society in a variety of ways”. My documentary will fulfil this by informing the viewers about beauty standards and it will motivate teenagers to grow up in society without feeling the pressure of the unrealistic beauty standards. The documentary would be advertised on all social media platforms such as instagram, facebook and many more. An account would be made on all social media to promote the documentary by posting small snippets using hashtags. This would attract more people as people would share it around, leading to more people aware of this new documentary.

Representations  

I plan to present beauty standards as unrealistic and a big weight on many female's shoulders. It is something that should be broken so that many people over the world can finally open their eyes to their beauty. My documentary will subvert stereotypes like:

. Slim is beautiful

. Girls need surgery

. Being fair perfect

. Pimples and cellulite are ugly

Gauntlett suggests that things change over time and that there are generational differences. This will be portrayed in my documentary as it discusses how these beauty standards used to be accepted but not anymore. There has been a change in attitudes towards beauty standards nut not enough. Also, Van Zoonen believes the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views. This view will also be reinforced but in a gradual change away from it. Overall, the documentary will aim to subvert traditional beauty standards.

   

Interviews

I'm going to film an interview with a young female in sixth form and it will be shot in a classroom with computers in the background to match the topic's mis-en-scene. This would help to highlight the notion of social media. Another interview would be with a student in year 9. Her "costume" would be her school uniform(blurring the logo). The third interview will include a middle-aged woman discussing her views on beauty. Each of these three age groups will provide a unique perspective for the documentary.

Filming/Editing

I intend to begin the documentary with a brief montage of the interviewees. I have filmed medium shots of one of the students looking in the mirror in mind for the montage, as well as close-ups of her scrolling through Instagram and toying with filters. These have all been carefully considered in order to highlight the documentary's topic. On some of the shots in this montage, I plan to add a voice over. While discussing serious themes, I believe cutting on action, as well as quick paced editing, would be beneficial to include in the editing process. When the interviewee offers a significant phrase or mentions a statistic, I will add text on the screen to make the quote memorable.

There will be gloomy non-diegetic music through the documentary to enhance the documentary's sorrowful tone, in addition to diegetic sound (interviewee voice).

Print brief

The first poster would include an image of a young female crying because of not feeling like she is beautiful. This specific poster will cover the mental health aspect of unrealistic beauty standards. The girl will be in a dark room with only the phone light illuminating her face. The poster will include the date of the documentary and all the social media handles. The second poster's purpose will be to inform people more on how to watch the documentary:will include the details of what time and which channel the documentary will air. It will also discuss how to catch up if people miss it when it is aired on TV. The third poster will be parts of different people's faces put together to make one whole face. This will be quite difficult to position but I am determined to accomplish it. This particular poster will include small reviews and key quotations.