Primary and secondary research

Location
We had to find a place to film our documentary, when we decided on the subject of tattoos we immediately wanted to film in a tattoo parlour. We felt this would be intriguing and perhaps more different. It took a lot of effort and we got turned down five times, we phoned Saz's tattoo, Voodoo tattoo and Ashes tattoo (aswell as others) and we were immediately turned down. this was due to the worry of plagarism (stealing ideas for tattoos). Finally we rang 'Well inked' and they immediately agreed.

Primary Research


Well Inked
8 Bruche Heath Gardens
Padgate, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 3TP
01925 479 071

We were allowed to film anywhere we wanted in the parlour and the owners were extremely helpful.

Interviewees
We agreed with the owner from the beginning that we would like to interview her. We felt this would be interesting, as she is a woman and this is unusual.

We also asked her if she could ask clients, if we could film them getting a tattoo. She was very helpful and finally a man said yes. However on the day the man did not turn up, so the woman's husband volunteered to get a tattoo. This was not planned but was extremely helpful. We wanted to interview the person getting tattooed as this would be interesting. We also wanted to interview a professional on tattoos and perhaps people either getting tattos or that have them.

As for the historian we e-mailed him and called him, to arrange a date for filming.

Narration Script for Radio Advert:

(SF) Tattoo gun
(MB) Avenged Sevenfold - Beast and the harlot
(VO) Tattoos, an art, a fad, a disease
(VP) I tattooed like his bones
I’ve had parents coming in asking can their 12 year old son or daughter to be tattooed if they sign for it
I believe the oldest person we tattooed was 85
(VO) Skin deep on channel 4
Wednesday 1st December at 9pm
Is beauty really skin deep?
(SF) Channel 4 ident

Interview Questions

Tattoo Artist

What made you become a tattoo artist?
How long have you been a tattoo artist?
Would you consider your profession to be an art?
Is your job a vocation?
How many customers do you serve a week?
What is the age range of your customers?
What is the most unusual tattoo you have done?
What is the most popular tattoo?
What do you believe is the fascination with tattoos?
Would you recommend tattoos to everyone?

Historian

Where did tattoos originate from?
How were they discovered?
How is the industry safer nowadays?
How does it influence different cultures?
Is there a time in history when they were most popular?
Is there a change in the way tehy are done?
Why so you think people get tattoos?
Do you think celebrities influence people to get tattoos?
What tattoos do you have?
What do you think the fascintaion with tattoos is?


Props

We wanted an ironic viewpoint when it came to the interviews so we decided to ask the tattoist to sit in the tattooing chair. We felt this would be a good stimulus for the audience, and would be interesting. We also chose a time when there would be halloween decorations out, which was also a great stimulus for our documentary. It gave a more eerie feel, and it was particularly dark in the tatto parlour.

Secondary research

Statistics
17% of those with tattoos have considered having it removed
36% of 18-25 year olds have at least one tattoo
61% of people say that the reputation of a tattoo artist and tattoo studio is the most important factor when selecting who will tattoo them and where they will get tattooed
36% of those with tattoos are between 25-29 years old
Tattooing is the united state's 6th fastest growing retail business
In 1936 10 million Americans (about 6%) have at least one tattoo

Archive Material

We want to keep the documentary relevant so we decided to use images of covers from tattoo magazines, so that people know where they can get more information about tattoos. It also allows those that read the magazines to relate to the documentary.

These images were taken from Google images, when typing in tattoo magazine covers.

We also wanted to use images of tattoos, both unusual and popular. This was to give examples and link to the subject being discussed.







These were found on google images, as were these:

We wanted to include celebrity tattoos into our documentary as we wanted to give the audience what they wanted. People said they were influenced by celebrities with tattoos.






We also plan on including some video footage related to tattoos, perhaps movies with tattoos in, or perhaps music videos with people with tattoos. This is to show how tattoos effect the media.



This video is from Jordin Sparks. It has a lot of mention to tattoos, it uses as analogy. This is done because people can relate to tattoos as it is a contemporary subject.



People also use tattoos as a way of raising awareness. Years ago tattoos were seen as a big deal, now people are quick to get them. This could be due to ways of removing tattoos that wasn't available 50 years ago.

We got these videos off youtube.

For music we plan on using a more heavier sound as it will fit in well with the style. However in some parts, instead of music we will put in the sound of the needle in the background.


This is a lot more heavier, we feel this may fit in well in parts.



We feel this may be good also, because it mentions tattoos and has a good beat.



This is a famous heavy metal song, so people may find it easy to relate to it.

Formal Proposal

Formal Proposal for Documentary: Skin Deep

Our documentary will be based around the topic of tattoos; we will look at the public’s obsession with getting them and the reasons why we are fascinated by them. It will be an objective documentary, and will give an un-biased view of tattoos. A voice over will be put in to the documentary, in order to fully explain the subject. It will show both the positives and negatives of tattoos. This will be an investigative documentary; it will both inform the audience about tattoos as well as hopefully entertaining them. We would aim for this documentary to be filmed on channel 4; at about 8pm.This will attract a wide range of ages as the audience, so it would therefore reach out to more people. We felt that channel 4 would be an appropriate channel to broadcast on, as their audience is usually of a younger age. Tattoos are widely popular in the younger generation, so channel 4 would have the perfect audience. Our scheduled time was 8pm, as this is a time that students tend to relax after college or university. We would aim for the documentary to be shown on a week night, as this is the time that most students will be watching. Our target audience is the younger generation, perhaps those between the ages of 15 to 25 as we believe these are the people who are more interested in the subject of tattoos. Our primary research consisted of us trying to find a place to film our documentary, it took a lot of effort and we had to phone 5 tattoo parlours, finally someone said yes. We had to ask the tattooist if we could film someone getting a tattoo, in order to do this we had to follow certain procedures. The tattooist had to phone her clients and ask if we would be allowed to film them, we also had to discuss a date and time that we would film. We also created 30 questionnaires to give out to people in our local area. These questionnaires asked them questions on what they thought should be in the documentary and what interested them. This was extremely valuable to our final decision, and it gave the audience a chance to give their own ideas. Our secondary research consisted of us finding research to include in our documentary, such as statistics and the history of tattoos. The structure of our documentary will follow a linear narrative, as we will first look at the history of tattoos and then look at tattoos today. Our main focus will be on tattoos in the 21st century, as we feel this effects and interests more people.

The documentary will start with a flash of images related to the subject of tattoos, with music in the background. We will then proceed to the title, which in this case is ‘Skin Deep’. We felt this was an appropriate title for a documentary about tattoos, as it implies what it is about without giving to much information. This gives a sense of mystery, which will hopefully attract the audience. A voiceover will then start and will explain the history of tattoos, perhaps with archive images or an interview with a professional. We will then see interviews with people who have had tattoos or plan on getting them. After this visual stimulus occurs, a video of a tattoo being done will come on screen. Perhaps with a voiceover explaining the process. The interview with the tattoo artist will then be put on, with her name and profession put underneath. It will then proceed to showing a bit of the tattoo being done, with particular focus on the subjects face when in pain. The needle noise will play in the background. The interview with the man who got a tattoo with then progress. There will then be music and blackness. The title of the documentary will then come up and underneath the title it will say end of part one. It will then fade to black.

The resource requirements for our project are:
• Camera to film the documentary
• Microphone for the speech and voiceover
• Tripod to hold camera

Timeline and storyboard

This is the timeline we used, although we plan on changing parts as we want to make the documentary the best it can be. However, it was a great help when filming our scenes.












This is the storyboard we decided to base our documentary on, although we followed this when filming we plan on changing the storyboard in editing as we have thoguht up of new ideas which will make our documentary more interesting.

Target Audience Questionaire

Questionnaire
Age df 0-15 16-25 26-30 30-39 40+
Gender Male Female
Do you have a tattoo? Yes No
If no, would you consider one, and what would it be if yes?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
If yes, how many and of what?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Do you prefer:
Big Small don’t like any tattoos
Do you prefer:
Colour Just black don’t like tattoos
Where would you get one on your body/ where have you got one?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Where would you get a tattoo done in Warrington?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Are you influenced by the tattoos that celebrities have?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Who is your favourite celebrity with a tattoo?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Would you be interested in watching a documentary about tattoos?
Yes no
If yes, what aspects would you like to see concerning tattoos?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
If no, why not?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Videoed reaction to Questionaire







Results of questions shown in Graphs

We asked people what age they were, in order to help us understand what our target audience wanted.



From this graph below, you can see that the majority of people wanted us to include the video of a tattoo being done. We asked people what they would like to see in a documentary about tattoos. We then took this into account when filming our documentary.




You can tell from these graphs that the majority of people said that they were not influenced by celebrities with tattoos. We wanted to see if this topic affected our target audience, which shows that some are influenced where as the majority are not.



We asked them which celebrity tattoos they liked, as you can see there was a range of results, however Cheryl Cole was above the rest.




We also asked if people were interested in documentaries, we found that their was an equal amount for either side. Some people seemed to like documentaries where as some didn't. The other graph shows if they would be interested in our documentary



The large majority of people like black coloured tatoos, this could reflect the way times have changed. In the past sailors usually had coloured tatoos, where as many younger people today said that they wanted black tribal tattoos.




We also asked people where they would get a tattoo, whether it was within Warrington or outside. The majority chose a tattoo parlour marked as 'other' this was usually 'LA ink' studios that are advertised on shows on MTV. People also said that within Warrington, they would go to Voodoo tattoo studio in Warrington.

Brainstorming

We agreed on the idea of tattoos, as we felt this would be an interesting topic to research. It would also reach the hoped target audience as it is usually a subject discussed by the younger generation. We agreed as a group on this topic and discussed possible ideas for the documentary. We all got a say and ultimately came up with a good idea.

Preliminary ideas

Preliminary ideas:

Tattoos:
Title - Skin Deep
Channel - Channel 4
Time - 8pm

RSPCA
Title - Raining cats and dogs
Channel - Channel 5
Time - 7 pm

Toys
Title - Toyland
Channel - BBC2
Time - 4pm

Ideas for documentaries

-(Fusion at the work place)
At a workplace, nuclear science. Include interviews and nuclear science background.




Ideas of documentaries -(TOYLAND)

Interview of people , talking about favourite toys when they were little.




-Investigate , do you believe in ghosts? Interview a priest and people on the street .










-Best films of all time , interview people at the cinema and ask them what there favourite film is.






-The ranges of fashion , ask people stood out side high street shops there opinion on clothes and how often they buy clothes.









-(TATTOOS) Take a video of some one getting a tattoo and interview people that have had them and how they feel and people that haven’t.








-(RSPCA)How many animals get sold in a day , has the amount of abandoned animals risen or dropped.







-(HOSPITAL)How many people come into A+E in a day and which day is the most busy. What people come to the hospital for.






-(MAKE-UP)How many people buy make up in a day? Stand at the make up store (mac) in Selfridges and find out which is the highest age range buying make-up.








-(HAIR DYE) Do more people buy blonde . brown or black? How many are bought a day. Stand in boots and ask customers questions.