Example of a Documentary Script

I decided to include an example of a documentary script that was composed as a previous idea last year when filming a documentary of a similar theme. It highlights the severity of underage and teenage drinking whilst also highlighting the effect it has on crime rates. I used this as a basis to compose my final idea for my documentary.

Music: Dizzie Rascal – Sirens (runs throughout pic sequence for intro)

Crimes committed by youngsters today are not unheard of; in fact many as young as 11 committed up to 8% of youth related crime in 2008. Here we are in 2009 and yet figures of youth crime are on the increase.
There are many reasons for this increase in crime, however in this documentary we will be focusing on crime from a different angle in relation to alcohol with alcohol being the main reason. Drinking can cause numerous health problems such as: liver disease, throat cancer and mental health problems. It can also lead to a young person becoming more violent, aggressive, less inhibited and no longer in control… these are just a few mild examples of how alcohol can alter your body. So if it can do this (show pic of a damaged liver) than surely it can make you commit crimes too.

Title: “Made of the HARD Stuff”
In today’s society fewer and fewer young people nowadays wait until they’re 18 to drink.
So by the time the average teenager has reached 15, more than eight out of 10 have already tried alcohol. Here are a few more statistics to put things into perspective.

Music: The Streets – Blinded by the lights. (Runs through stats, ,writing appears over use footage of people in Sutton)

o 16 – 25 year olds are six times more likely to commit an offence and become victims of one more than any other age group.

o Official figures show that there has been a 37 per cent increase in the number of children being admitted to hospital because of alcohol since 2001.

o Pinnacle age for men committing the most crimes over the course of their lives = 18 Also the pinnacle age for the most intake of alcohol.

o Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes.

The Pitch

Ideas for Project:

I chose to produce a documentary for my coursework and had to consider the codes and conventions of a documentary in order for this to happen. I originally planned to work on my own for the project and had already mind mapped ideas on what the theme was going to be. As the previous year I had also filmed a documentary, beforehand I had already planned the format, the style and knew exactly what my documentary was going to include. Having worked with a partner last year we both combined our ideas for our documentary together and decided to focus on crime in relation to alcohol. However this year I decided to just have a main focus of gangs which thus related to crime anyway.

Role Allocation

When composing my project last year I worked in a group as opposed to my current project where I decided to work alone. As last year there was two of us in my group we decided to share the roles equally. We both had the skills to be able to work the camera effectively in order to produce our documentary. Therefore we both acted as camera person. However since we chose to produce a documentary one of the required elements was a piece to camera or an interview including the interviewer on screen. My partner acted in this role to speak to experts and vox pops. When completing our final production we both worked together to agree on how we wanted to edit our documentary. We worked effectively together and composed a final draft that we were both happy with.

However this year it was a lot harder to work the roles as cameraperson whilst including myself on screen and be able to compose a successful documentary. In doing so I decided to enlist the help of a reporter to narrate, present, interview and act as a voiceover where it was needed. This meant that I handled the camera equipment, shot arrangements, location and interviews to ensure it all came together on screen.

Documentary Poster

This is my draft for my advertising poster that I previously made for a documentary on underage drinking and other effects of alcohol and the rates of crime affected by this. My new idea focuses heavily on gangs and the effects they have on society, however I will still be able to use this as a basis for my new auxilliary project for my poster.

News article

This is a draft copy for a news article advertising a documenatry film about crime in relation to alcohol. This was my original idea.