-Title, location, subject & premise
-Style of documentary
-Central and minor characters
-Tension of conflict in main characters' stories
-Central character's 'journey' and threats to this
-What character learns/experiences
-Resolution
-Why the film should be commissioned (originality - what's new about the idea?)
According to Michael Rabiger (2015:115), the three research steps for making a documentary are:
1) Come up with a hypothesis, which is a statement explaining the intentions for the film
2) Pitch the idea in order to get feedback
3) Write a proposal, which is a description of the film and can be used to help gain finance, and/or resources for the film so filming can begin.
We began with our hypothesis, and then wrote a proposal to further expand on this, before building the proposal into a full pitch so we could get feedback on our idea.
Proposal:
Proposals should include:
-Working title
-Details about the idea
-Research conducted to develop the idea
-Subjects who could feature in the documentary
-Locations
-Aimed audience (Rosenthal and Eckhart, 2016:33-4).
Working title: 'No Comply: Women in Skateboarding'
Hypothesis: Female skateboarders are using their obsession with their sport to change gender stereotypes.
Society today is obsessed with image. Many images of sports such as football, rugby and skateboarding primarily feature men, creating gender stereotypes within these sports. However, in the wake of the recent women’s movements, such as Time’s Up and #MeToo, many women have begun to challenge and change these stereotypes. For example, there are now many all-female football teams and skate crews all over the world.
Therefore, our documentary plans to focus on a female skateboarder, and her ‘obsession’ with her sport, which requires dedication and commitment to succeed. We believe this is relevant to show to the BBC 3 audience, as the skateboarder we plan to feature will be a young woman with whom they could identify, which could help to change their own perceptions and encourage them to take up the sport themselves. In order to tell this young woman’s story, we plan to take an actuality-led approach and create an observational documentary, to enable us to show her skateboarding in action, but also incorporating interviews in locations such as a skatepark, potentially from her friends, family, and other female skateboarders. We can introduce the audience to her obsession through information about why she decided to take up the sport, the level of experience she has in the sport, competitions she has entered or plans to enter, and whether skateboarding is something she would like to pursue as a career.
We hope to use a skate park as the main setting to help introduce the audience to this world.
Pitch:
Today’s society is obsessed with image. With the cameras on smart phones, the Internet and social media, everybody has the power to create their own images. However, since these images are so easily accessible, they can create stereotypes when the same type of people are constantly seen doing the same type of activity.
For example, what do you think of when someone says ‘skateboarder’? You probably think of something like this, since this is the typical image of a skateboarder which is most commonly circulated within society. However, women taking part in traditionally ‘masculine’ sports is becoming increasingly more common, especially in the wake of recent women’s movements such as Time’s Up and #MeToo.
These women have begun to challenge and change these stereotypes of masculine sports, with there now being many all-female football teams, motorcycle gangs, and skate crews. This has changed the traditional image of a skateboarder from this, to this.
This is what drew us to our idea initially, because even as young women ourselves, we had not given much thought to women who could be skateboarders.
Therefore, for our documentary we have decided to focus on how female skateboarders are using their obsession with the sport to challenge gender stereotypes, titled ‘No Comply: Women in Skateboarding’. No comply is a skateboarding trick where a rider’s back foot flips the board up so the front is temporarily off of the ground. We also decided on this title since comply can mean ‘to act in accordance to’ or ‘to meet certain standards’, and by challenging stereotypes it can be said that these women are not complying with what society expects in order to pursue their obsessions with the sport.
With our story we aim to focus on one female skateboarder, from either the Nefarious skate crew, or the Longboard Girls Crew UK, depending on what we can get access to. We are currently in contact with, and are planning to meet Kayleigh Hurst, one of the skateboarders from the Nefarious Skate Crew, but we have also been in contact with some of the ambassadors from the Longboard Girls Crew.
Focusing on just one skateboarder will give us closer access into the somewhat enclosed world of skateboarding, and also give the documentary a more personal feel, allowing for a protagonist with which the audience can identify.
This will be relevant to show to a BBC 3 audience since this skateboarder will be a young woman, around the same age as the audience to which their content is aimed. By watching the young woman we feature, members of the audience could find their own perceptions changed, and even be encouraged to take up a sport themselves that they did not previously think they could pursue because they did not have the courage, or because they felt they could be judged because of the gender stereotypes in place.
We plan to have the main location of the documentary be a skatepark, preferably the one where our female skateboarder usually skates, so that the audience are introduced to skateboarding primarily through her and her take on the sport, since it is her obsession we are focusing on.
Because of this, potential minor characters which we could also feature and interview are our skateboarder’s family, friends, and other members of the skate crew she is a member of, since they will have their own opinions of her taking up the sport, know how it has affected her (and maybe even their) life, and have their own thoughts on how women in sport are challenging these gender stereotypes and why/if it is important that this is happening.
With regards to experts surrounding the topics of image and women in sport who we could also interview, we have already contacted the BeReal campaign which focuses on promoting body confidence in young people, focusing on health, education in schools, and diversity. This is relevant to women taking part in skateboarding since it may be harder for women who are not happy with their appearances to take up sports such as these, since they may not feel fit enough, or do not think they would belong within one of the crews.
We have also contacted the ThisGirlCan campaign, who aim to help women overcome the fear of judgement which can be created by stereotypes of masculine sports, and encourage women of all ages to join in and become more active both indoors and outdoors.
However, we could also feature ambassadors and coaches from the skate crews themselves as they will have seen firsthand how participating in sports like these can change girls’ lives by having a positive impact on their confidence in themselves.
For the audience to be able to see our female skateboarder’s obsession firsthand, we have chosen to present the documentary in an observational style, so that she can be who introduces the audience to her own obsession, and take them into her world of skateboarding, which she is the best expert on. Viewers may also not know much about the world of skateboarding initially, so by having our skateboarder introduce them to it, they will gain a unique perspective on not just the world in general, but what it is like to be a woman in this male-dominated part of the sporting world.
The observational style will also enable the use of actuality sequences showing our female skateboarder in action on her skateboard, as well as interviews situated at the skatepark. An interview with the central character would involve her talking about aspects of her journey, such as why she took up skateboarding, how she has reached her current skill level, competitions she has entered or plans to enter, and whether she would consider professional skateboarding as a career she would like to pursue in the future.
However, we could also talk to her about the obstacles she may have had to overcome such as being the only girl at a skatepark, since it has been shown that this can sometimes put girls off of taking up sports such as these which are seen as traditionally masculine.
Skateboarding also takes a lot of time and commitment to master new tricks and skills, therefore it could be interesting to see how our female skateboarder balances work or study with her hobby.
What is original about presenting this idea is that women are not traditionally thought of as being skateboarders, even though it is becoming increasingly common. Other girls are taking up ‘masculine’ sports, and can be empowered by other women to do so.
There are now many communities for girls who wish to take up these sports, such as events and crews, which are being created worldwide and are increasing in members all the time.
Overall, we believe that this documentary will show that it is possible for girls to be obsessed with skateboarding and that they can overcome these gender stereotypes created by image, as well as empower other women to join them and take up a ‘masculine’ sport they have always wanted to try, but have not before because they may be afraid of judgement, and being the only woman.
We also have women from other areas of sport that have competed internationally in hockey and can get their perspective on how this issue of society’s obsession with gender stereotyping effects other sports and also see if its still an issue when competing overseas. This can add a depth to the documentary as it can show how this is a very common issue and that change is needed.
We used cue cards whilst pitching in order to remember all the key points we wanted to cover, and projected the presentation of images so that we could show what we wanted to convey as well as tell it.
References:
Rabiger, M. (2015) Directing the Documentary (6th edition). Oxon: Focal Press.
Rosenthal, A. and Eckhart, N. Writing, Directing and Producing Documentary Films and Digital Videos (5th edition). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
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