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