Chloe Morley & Jack Glennon

DOCUMENTARY IDEAS FINAL SUMMARY – My Life: Martial Arts

The documentary that we are producing is based around Martial Arts, focussing on a club based in Salford called Jarmesty Martial Arts Academy. We chose to focus our documentary on this because Jack is a member of the club and has a keen interest in the sport. We both thought that producing this could provide an insight into a sport that doesn’t get much publicity but takes a lot of strength, stamina and commitment to do. The documentary will be ‘The Life of an Instructor: Martial Arts’ – a segment from one episode of a possible series about instructors in a variety of sports. A general overview of content in the documentary includes an interview between the instructor and founder of the club, Russell Jarmesty and Jack; here Jack will ask Russell questions about the new club, his previous work as a Bouncer and how he feels about Martial Arts. It will also feature a large amount of footage from the classes held at the club, including a time lapse feature from one of the classes – this giving the audience a clear insight into the club.

There will be a mixture of modes of narrative used for the documentary - mainly the expository mode and the participatory mode and the footage will also be non-linear. The use of these modes will be conforming to the typical conventions of most documentaries shown nowadays - they usually mix narratives to create a great piece of work. The expository mode will be used over footage of the class at work, talking about what they do there – Jack will be doing the voice over. This mode may also be used at the start of the documentary to introduce the club and give a few facts about it. The participatory mode will be used as Jack will be participating in some of the classes and he will also be doing the interview with Russell the instructor.

The characters included in the documentary will be the main instructor and founder of the club Russell Jarmesty, students in the classes that will be filmed – the students will have an age-range from 4 years old to 50 years old and will also be mixed gender. Jack will also be in the documentary as the presenter of the documentary. He will be a participator of the class, interviewing the instructor and also will be giving the voiceover throughout.

The mise en scene of the documentary is key to providing the audience with more visual information. The setting of the documentary is at the club which is in an Old Mill in Tyldesly – here holds the gym where the classes are held. The majority of filming will be inside the gym and also the interview will be set here. The lighting of the documentary will be mostly high key to emulate a bright, energetic atmosphere in the club. There will be a possible use of back lighting during the interview between Jack and the instructor to enhance the quality of footage. In post-production lighting may be edited to enhance the quality. The equipment used by the club will be placed around the room to give the audience an insight into what is used here and what students do; this will include punch bags, pads and gloves. The clothing worn by the students and instructor would be the Martial Arts gear; this would include the belts that represent the level of skill they are at - conventional outfits for Martial Arts.

Chloe Morley & Jack Glennon

The iconography in the documentary will be related to that of Martial Arts, this would include the clothing worn by the students and instructor, and this would include the belts that represent the level of skill they are at and also the techniques performed by them. The equipment used (such as gloves, punch bags/pads) also is iconic of martial arts. The use of a gym as the main setting for the TV Documentary shows the audience that it will be mainly about sport and the sporting world.

There will be a variety of camera shots and camera movements used throughout the documentary to produce a high quality piece of work. A time lapse of one class could be used as either a filling shot in the documentary or used in the interview with the instructor speaking over it. It will be filmed from a heightened angle. This would give a general over view of a typical class here. This is not used a lot in documentaries so it breaks conventions and will engage the audience. Shot reverse shot between Jack and the instructor will be used during the interview - establishes relationship between the both of them - most interviews are filmed this way so it conforms to conventions. These shots will be medium shots. Long shots and group shots filming students in the class performing the Martial Arts will be used as well to demonstrate the class content. Whilst the class is taking place one of us would move the camera around the class in a circular motion for a 360 view of the room/class/students; this will make the audience feel like they are a part of the class and give them a better understanding of what it is like to be there. The establishing shot of the documentary will possibly be of the setting of where the class takes place, this will then lead on to a panning shot of an empty gym. In this panning shot when the camera passes a pillar it will then transform into a panning shot of a class taking place – this showing contrast.

The editing and digital effects of the documentary will be to a high quality. At the start of the documentary juxtaposition could be used - panning shot of empty class room, goes past a pillar to see a the room filled with students - could be classed as a cross cut. This could reflect to how Martial Arts are a lively sport against other classes that may take place in the room. The time lapse filmed will be edited and cut down; 20 minutes of one class will be shortened to 30 seconds of time lapsed footage sped up. A different pace would be used throughout to documentary to show footage - a faster pace used for the shots of class and a slower pace used for the interview. Also in post-production the lighting will be altered and colour correction will take place to enhance the footage quality.