PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

INTRODUCTION

Hello. My name is Charlotte Harper and today I’m here to present my pitch
for my new documentary that I’ve been working on. The chosen topic of
interest for my documentary is food poverty within the UK, however I have
chosen to look more closely at how food banks are helping to reduce this
issue and provide support for people who are struggling. I’ve named my
production food banks for poverty. For this documentary I have decided to
enter my work into a competition and to also work closely with a food bank
charity based in Yiewsley and West Drayton.

*NEXT SLIDE*

MY PROPOSAL

• As I have come to the end of studying Creative Media Production I

have become more aware of my strengths and weaknesses.
• I have worked really hard to achieve distinctions throughout this
course, without being organised and also determined to succeed I
wouldn’t have progressed like I did.
• While on this course some of the skills which I have required range
towards the written elements of a production.
• I have learnt how to fully research all of the context and also codes
and conventions which are needed in order to make a project a
success.
• Having skills like this is key as I have enabled myself to learn about new
topics and explore different areas.
• Before starting this course, I was very unaware of the amount of
research needed in order for your production to be successful or to
improve it.
• Throughout this course my main focus and interest has been
camerawork as this is the area which I have the most passion towards.
• My current aspirations are to finishing focusing on camerawork for my
Final Major Project however, in the future my goal is to be a successful
camera operator for documentaries and other television productions.

• The aim of my project is to produce a 10 minute documentary

educating people about an how food banks are helping people
across the country.
• I am going to research about the process of how the problem is
solved, the people who sort this out and how its helping members of
the public.
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

• Currently, I plan to interview people who work at an organisation as

well as some of the people who seek help from the charity I work with.
• I want to show people the harsh reality of the issue I’m talking about
and have people realise that this is all happening right on their door
step. I plan on using a range of equipment depending on what I am
planning to capture.
• My previous productions have lacked high quality images so I aim to
improve on this by using more up to date technology.
• I will be not only making full use of technology available to me but also
time. Free periods and spare time outside of college will be where I
dedicate time to incorporate independent study without any of my
usual distractions.
• Furthermore, I am going to take onboard all feedback I receive so that
my work reaches the highest standard possible and also be suited to
my target audience.

• An important element which contributes towards a production being

successful is the reflection on your work which you carry out.
• I think it’s key to recognise your mistakes and how you’ve overcome
them and learn from different situations.
• So that I can learn from my mistakes and issues within this production I
am going to evaluate everything which I have done within the week
through the form of a weekly blog.
• I think that having a log of what I have done each week is important as
well.
• If a piece of work doesn’t go as intended I still want to upload this as
record for my mistakes and to demonstrate how I have improved my
work from them.
• For instance, when reflecting upon a week I want to take note of
different errors and areas for improvement (for example there could be
parts of my research missing) and understand how I am going to move
forward and not only fix this problem but prevent similar ones from
occurring in the near future.

*NEXT SLIDE*

In the development stage of planning my production I had to decide what

the topic was going to be for my documentary. Initially I came up with three
ideas which I thought could work or be interesting and I worked hard to
narrow this down to one idea.
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

IDEA 1:

• My first idea is to do a documentary about food banks and how they're

helping to solve hunger within the UK.
• I want to educate people about the charities behind these and the
people they're helping.
• I think it's important that people's prejudice towards the people who
use food banks are removed and they get an understanding of why
people turn to food banks (have to stop working due to illness, injuries
from being part of the public services etc).
• I aim to work with a charity to show the process of how the volunteers
get the food and how these are then given to people.
• Interviews with members of the public asking them on their opinion of
food banks and who use them will then be compared to interviews
with food bank volunteers and the people they're serving to show the
harsh reality behind not being able to afford to eat.
• When I asked people in a survey if they liked this idea, 90% of people
voted yes.
• When I asked people what problems I could face with this idea, the
majority said finding people who are comfortable to talk about their
situation on camera and perhaps these interviews not being interesting
enough
• To improve my idea survey participants suggested I show the point of
view of the volunteers as well.

IDEA 2:

• My second idea is to make a documentary about the issue of

mistreating dogs and how animal rescue services help to re-home and
rehabilitate them.
• I want to show people the different reasons why it's so important that
different animal welfare charities are receiving donations and funding
• I think it's important for society to see the damaging effects it has on
these animals when they're not treated right by owners or no longer
wanted
• As part of this documentary I would aim to interview somebody who
has had to give up their animal for mistreating it, people who are
working behind the scenes to get the dogs in better health and then
the process of these dogs then being adopted by people.
• I want to interview people who have adopted dogs a charity
• When I asked people if they like this idea only 60% said yes, many
people said that this wasn’t orginal enough and they had seen many
similar productions before and to improve it they said to come up with
a different idea all together.
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

IDEA 3:

• My final idea is to make a documentary about how plastic is killing

marine life.
• I think that this is a really important topic which is becoming more
apparent by the day.
• I want to show people the truth behind the amount of waste plastic
there is and how this is affecting marine life.
• I want to talk to professionals about the effect this is having on marine
life.
• As well as this I want to focus on individuals and show them how their
unnecessary rubbish is having a negative effect on the planet and how
people need to cut down the amount of waste their household is
producing.
• When I asked people in a survey if they liked my idea and 90% said yes,
however when I asked people what problems they think I might face
with this idea they said finding interviews and getting access to
different locations.

*NEXT SLIDE*
The last question of my survey was asking people which idea they liked the
most, the majority of my results said that they liked the first idea which was the
food bank one. I went on to film a focus group with three people within the
age group of my target audience. It was really useful to talk through my ideas
with other people and hear their opinions on them.

*NEXT SLIDE*

I have decided to enter my production into Plymouth Rebel Film Festival. This
takes place at the Plymouth Arts Centre from the 29th of June to the 30th of
June 2020. This is the sixth year of the film festival. They are accepting entries
for their 2020 festival from June 2019. This will be just before I have finished my
production There are five different categories that you can enter your work
into:
- Fiction
- Documentary
- Animation
- Feature
- Comedy
I am entering my work into the documentary category.
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

• To enter my short film, I am expecting it to cost me £7 unless the rates

for 2020 entry change from the rates for 2019 entry.
• The winner receives a specialist award known as the ‘THE ROGER
DEAKINS AWARD”.

• I feel as if I could win this competition as it isn’t a mainstream festival, as

well as this it understands the number of students entering. Furthermore,
they don’t judge the films based off who has the best camera or
technology etc but the level of creativity and originality an individual
conveys through their work.

*NEXT SLIDE*

• My target audience are people aged 12-30. I have chosen this

age range as this is the group of people who I feel the need to
engage with most about the issues I’m presenting onscreen.
• As productions similar to mine are usually aired on TV and not put
onto Netflix or YouTube I feel as if they are missing out on not only
being educated about this issue but also a documentary which I
think they would find interesting.
• To reach my target audience I plan on airing my production on
YouTube and Netflix as these are two of the most popular media
platforms amongst my target audience.

*NEXT SLIDE*

• An element of my topic research which has changed the rest of my

project is finding people to interview. After contacting Yiewsley and
West Drayton I got into contact with Doris Hughes, a volunteer there.
• Doris is a 73 year old practising Christian from West Drayton. Doris is
retired with Grandchildren. Doris is a Trustee at Yiewsley and West
Drayton food bank as well as this she is the warehouse manager.
• She is in charge of storing the food and ensuring it is sufficient enough
to be delivered to the distribution centres.
• After speaking to her I decided to change the focus of my
documentary slightly and show more about her in oppose to just the
food banks
• It changed my work as initially I didn’t want to have a heavy focus on
anything in particular.
• Other elements in particular the shocking statistics that I found out
were what gave me more motivation to educate people on this topic.
I realised that I wanted to focus on people’s personal stories as well as
the statistics involving the use of food banks
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

• I made a practise interview as part of my research

*NEXT SLIDE*

Target Audience

• The next part of my research which I started was my target audience

research. This was a lengthier part of the research process. I sent out a
survey asking people who they think my production is going to appeal
to the most
• My focus groups have been a really important element of my research
so far. As I was unsure about exactly which ages I wanted to aim my
production at I decided to interview people of many different ages.

*NEXT SLIDE*
Codes and conventions

For codes and conventions, I researched the different genres of

documentary and evaluated examples. After doing this I sent out a
survey to my target audience asking them which genre they think will
be best with my idea.

*NEXT SLIDE*
Analysing Productions

• The first production which I analysed is called fighting shame

• An element that I like in this documentary is the b-roll.
• The footage is simple and is combined with statistics. I want to imply this
into my production, as there are no particular camera techniques or
unnatural lighting the main focus of the audience is put into the
statistics being presented.
• I want to do something similar within my production as I think it's an
effective way to break up the different scenes and interviews.
• I also feel that this then gives the audience a moment to think and
reflect upon what they have seen so far onscreen.
• I also found out elements which I don’t like and won’t be reflecting within my
own production. For example, I realised how I want my interviews to be set up
after watching and analysing this documentary with Professor Green.
• From this research I have decided to use similar interview set ups and editing of b-
roll as I found in the first production I analysed. In the second one the presenter
addresses the camera, this is what I don’t want to be doing in my production as I
want to avoid having a presenter led narrative.
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

*NEXT SLIDE*

Test Shots

• I practised some test shots as part of my research. I was able to test

different camera settings, lighting and interview set ups before I start
filming for my production
• I practised two different interview set ups, when editing one of them I
changed the colour and added a logo onscreen
• I also practised filming b-roll so I can be fully prepared for the filming
process of my production

**NEXT SLIDE**

Locations

• These are the different locations where I intend to film different parts of
my production.
• They all suit my production as they revolve around the food bank of
volunteers and clients. Locations such as the house, park and Christian
centre are where I’m filming my planned interviews. The interview
which I’m filming in the park is with a man called James Carson. Due to
troubles at home and kidney failure he was unable to work, this left him
short of money.
• Without the support of food-banks he wouldn’t have been able to eat.
Now he is a journalist working for a newspaper and volunteers at his
local foodbank as a way of giving back and helping other people who
have been in similar situations to him.

**NEXT SLIDE**

CONCLUSION
• I’m really happy with my production so far as I believe it all suits my
target audience
• When I did my focus groups I spoke to people of all ages, they all liked
my idea. When I asked them which age range this would interest they
said people of all ages. As a result of this I have made sure my
production will suit people aged 12 and onwards. I have been sure to
PITCH SCRIPT BY CHARLOTTE HARPER

not include any themes that wouldn’t be suitable for younger people
and to also make my production as engaging as possible.
• As well as this the people within my production are of different ages as
well

• All of my research which I have carried out is going to be really useful in

making my production successful. In my proposal I explained how I
want to make a successful and engaging production, particularly
focusing on my camerawork. my test shoots have been an element
which has contributed towards ensuring my work will be as successful
and go as smoothly as possible.