Creative Opportunity - SPP Journal Task 2

The second task for the SPP module is the following:

Using your own personal experience, write a few lines that describe how a personal contact has provided a creative opportunity for you.

I have always been passionate about music, however before I met my friend Frank Wild, I had always envisioned making music to be something only the rich and well connected could do. I met Frank, or Pancho as he was nicknamed, when I was in high school in Switzerland. We would go to his flat after school and during the weekends, he would DJ and we would record a bit a music and mess around with samples and just have a good time. It wasn't until that point that I realized that anyone with motivation can produce music. Not only the music was important, but I also realized that with the right equipment and the right knowledge, much more could be accomplished than I had previously thought. Pancho gave me this creative insight withought knowing it, and by doing this gave me the opportunity to pursue my own path in educating myself and making myself capable of producing my own artistic material.

Documentary Outline

After our presentation today, our group met and came up with the following outline for our "character study:"

Introduction
- Title
- Photograph montage
- Voiceover (facts about heroin)
- Music: Hip-hop/Grime

Interview
- Location: Nottingham city center
- Picture sequences with interview voiceover (growing up and family/Nottingham)
- Hip-hop/Grime in the background (beginning and middle)
- Lighter electronic track at the end.
- Questions Draft:
- Life before he was using?
- How he started using?
- Were there any good aspects?
- What was the peak of his addiction?
- His psychological state?
- Effects on his family and friends?
- Trouble with police?
- How he was able to stop?
- What his life has been like since?
- Outlook on his experience?

Outro
- Conclusion voiceover
- Quote/Photo sequence
- Credits

We also looked at a few short documentaries to get some inspiration for the style we want to achieve and we found one on the drug culture in London, which shows how we would like the end product to look. However, unlike this film, we would like to put much more emphasis on the story of the person, rather than focusing on the drugs.

http://current.com/items/76362822_london_drug_culture

"Character Study" Documentary

My first project for the second year has been assigned. It entails creating a four-minute documentary style "character study." I will be filming in a group with four other multimedia students and my role in this film production will be the producer. Today we had to give a short presentation covering what we are planning to do, including what, where, who, how, and why. Here is a summary of the presentation:

The documentary will focus on one man's struggle with heroin, providing insight into the personal side of addiction.

The person we will be interviewing is a local recovered addict. The reason why we chose this person is because as a recovered addict, he has seen drugs through different viewpoints (person who has never used drugs, person who has, and a person who has been rehabilitated), and can speak about the experience from many perspectives.

The filming will take place in the city center of Nottingham. We chose this setting for a few reasons; Nottingham is where the person we are interviewing battled addiction, it is an area with high drug use, the urban setting compliments the tone of the documentary. We want it to look quite dark and grimey to accentuate the heavy mood of the subject. Urban music, specifically hip-hop and grime will comprise most of the soundtrack. This will give the documentary an energetic and slightly aggressive feel. Although we plan to highlight the dark side of the story, we would also like to achieve an uplifting feeling for the viewer at the end with lighter shots and music. Additionally, we plan to include pictures of Nottingham and possibly of the individual's life.

The reason why we chose this as our character study subject is to raise awareness about the personal aspects of addiction and to show it in a different light. Many similar documentaries do not focus on this and only focus on the drugs, rather than the person.