College Semester 2 Blog – for Documentary & Magazine Show – Formative Graded Unit Stage 1 Planning: Pre-Production Evidence

This page is to document any relevant information, discussion, material and contacts relating to providing evidence of the work undertaken for the Documentary.

The brief was formulated at our team meetings – it can be found in the narrative and audio recordings in the group meetings section of this blog. In summary my input was to suggest a theme pertaining to “What Makes Scotland Great?” for the radio magazine show, and the rest of the group were happy to accept this suggestion and move forwards with it.

Idea Number 1 – “The Outlander Effect”

The “Outlander Effect” on  the benefits to Scottish tourism, also known as “Screen Tourism”. Promoting Scotland as a great place to film media work, especially for the film and TV industry. This is an idea based on the theory that recent film and TV productions in Scotland have benefited Scottish Tourism enormously due to the increasing number of visitors (both national and international), who have visited Scxotland as a result of seeing various locations in these productions – they then get the “experience” of being part of the location. There is clear evidence that visitor number are showing a significant increase (in certain locations – mainly where Outlander was filmed) – Visit Scotland Report – and the associated benefits to the other local services too.

Idea Number 2 – “Edinburgh!”

Discussing “Edinburgh” as a great place to visit and it’s associated benefits in keeping Scotland a great place to visit. Although a more prolonged (and less recent as the above option) effect of Scottish Tourism, Edinburgh meets with the “What Makes Scotland Great!” ethos of the magazine show. Also, with it being more local, it would be easier to research and access services to formulate suitble content for the documentary – an example of the information available can be found here: – Edinburgh Tourism

Idea Number 3 – “Scottish Bus Drivers”

The day in the life of a Scottish Tourist Bus Driver and their influence in promoting Scotland as a great place to visit, and to spend your money to boost both local and national economies. I feel that this was a good topic to pursue with Bus Drivers being a “front-line” person working with tourists trying to make their experience a more pleasurable and informative one, whist at the same time evidencing a prifessional apporach to quality assurance and value for money. A quality bus operator/driver can be significant to the paying public coming back for alternative tours, word of mouth to other potentila customers, leading to inmproved productivity and customer satisfaction. An example of the reserach into this poroposed topic was undertaken here: – Coach/Bus Operators

Outcome and topic choice

I have chosen to follow Option 1 – “The Outlander Effect on Scottish Tourism”

My main reasons for chosing this category are:

1. Topic is relevant and to the magazine programme – as well as proposed Radio Satation (Radio Scotland).
2. I have an active interest in this topic and feel motivated to produce a documentary regarding this topic more than the other 2 options.
3. There is plenty of material available to research and formulate my own opinions for my documentary.
4. The target interviewees would be interesting to the proposed radio target audience.
5. The research would allow visiting various location sites for the collection of data, vox pops, and selective interviews.
6. The documentary could include traditional Scottish music to enhance the listeners experience.
7. Through Social Media, this topic could enhance the identity of the college radio station as there is numerous social media platforms that have Outlander fan sites.
8. I will recognise the ethics of broadcasting accordingly, ensuring the integrity of the recordings made in good faith. I will not engineer a false representation of the content recorded by selective editing, and I will not misrepresent the contribution made by the interviewee – this is in accordance with the Audio Release Form that is required to be signed by each participant/interviewee. A copy of this document can be found here: AUDIO Release Form

Tuesday 12th March – Discussion with Conor relating to the 3 ideas I have for my documentary:

Positive feedback offered by Conor on all of my ideas – he was of the opinion that the strongest of the 3 was my desire to focus on the “Outlander Effect” topic as it fits with the Radio Station (Radio Scotland) as well as the theme (What makes Scotland Great?). I feel this topic will be interesting to the station target audience in that will engage with most of the ages who listen to radio Scotland, it’s current as Outlander continues to be popular, as well as the recent noticable trend of more TV/Film production companies focussing on using Scottish locations and indoor production sets in their programming/filming.

The next stage was to formulate and compile a siutable pitch to be presented seeking confirmation that the idea was viable, relevant, suitbale and most of all entertaining to the listeners of the proposed radio station.

Below is my Powerpoint Presentation Pitch presented on 27th March 2019

DOCUMENTARY PITCH POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

I feel my pitch was good, but with room for the improvement in the delivery, with the necessary information conveyed.

Documentary Development

As previoulsy mentioned in my pitch, it is my intention to develop and produce a documentary that fits in with the ethos of the Magazine Show topic “What Makes Scotland Great!”. The planning and construction of this documentary will take the form of various components for consideration:

1. Duration of the documentary will be 6-8 minutes.
2. Documentary will be evidenced based.
3. Music – both opening and bedding music will be used
4. 3 Interviews with selected interviewees pertinent to the documentary topic will be used to provide enhancement to the statistical information and other content.
5. Vox Pops will be used to enhance the listeners to empathise with the content.
6. I am going to make the documentary using the necessary tools available to me – both hardware and software – and to the best of my ability, seeking appropriate guidance where necessary and applicable.

Further information and evidence for this developmental phase can be accessed via my PowerPoint Pitch (link above), including the target audience for the radio station (Radio Scotland) being:

“seek to maintain its coverage of regional, national and international themes and stories within its news, current affairs and factual programming, to enable audiences to develop a broad understanding of what is happening locally, nationally and in the wider world.” (OFCOM – The BBC Services: audiences in Scotland 2017)

Research

I have conducted extensive research for this topic including:

1. Internet – visited various sites to obtain information a that is current, suitable and relevant to the documentary. I have listed the various sites visited in this word document – INTERNET LINKS – these miltiple articles evidence the phenomena of what is the “Outlander Effect” and its development and spontaneous continued explosion in the Scottish tourism. There is clear change in screen tourism developing in Scotland, initially starting 3 decades ago when films were being made in Scotland (Like Highlander, Rob Roy), but with the explosion of social media over the past decade this is now being magnified to the extent we have at present that merits this documentary.
2. Social Media – visited Outlander Fan Sites on all platforms seeking opinion on Screen Tourism – why people are so interested with Outlander and the subsequent drive to visit locations, etc. Seeking contact information to access individual for interview.
3. Contacting individuals to seek permission to interview – Example below:

This list is not exhaustive and will be reviewed as the process progresses as there may be alternative sources and methods of collating evidence and content for the documentary and magazine show.