Documentary ideas

Faults and Strengths 

School trips

My idea for this documentary was to inform and encourage school trips as they have been the most inspirational and influential part of my school career. However, I felt that they weren't explained or promoted enough to the students as many take it as just another boring school activity. It is extremely relevant to the demographic I am aiming for and not only does it educate them on some of the nuances of their trips but also excites and thrills them when they next hear about a trip. The idea is to use anecdotes and information from the staff members that set up the trip to give an in-depth view of what benefits come from a trip ranging from an educational experience and character development to boosting their self-confidence and being able to visit new parts of the world. 

Strengths 

• Interviewees are easy to find as school colleagues can be used as subjects to tell their experiences.
• Appeals to the target demographic and older as whilst being informative, it is also just an upbeat, interesting documentary to watch and enjoy. 
• There are no documentaries (that I can find) about school trips so it is a completely new and different idea to do. 
• It is a positive, upbeat documentary that gives details about school trips that aren't well known or not very advertised when hearing about them in school. It gives a deeper look into the trips and if the audience doesn't have anyone to ask about what trips are like, this gives them a look into how fun they can be.  

Weaknesses

• A broad topic that may be hard to fit in a shorter documentary style.
• May not appeal to some people of the demographic as they don't like trips or they have family members to inform and give details about trips.

Trends

What intrigued me about this topic was the coming and going trends that we have in modern-day society, especially as teenagers and the younger generations (my demographic) are the ones who are most up to date with them. How a meme can last for a week before it's out of date. The in and out of tiny glasses and see-through trousers. An artist that is brand new comes into the spotlight then the next month are overrated because of their success. Even the trending page on twitter is such a huge part of how we view news and if you are even a day late to the party, you're out. 

Strengths 

• Very relevant to the target demographic and something they encounter daily in the modern world.
• A topic that hasn't been done in such a broad sense before. Fashion and gaming trends, sure, but the psychological aspects of how trends affect us in our society and as humans? Not so much.

Weaknesses

• This is a rather broad subject matter and working out a plot or overarching narrative could be hard to do with so much content. 
• Although relevant, the demographic may not be interested in watching a documentary talking about the reasons why we want to be following trends so badly and just care about what's new on Twitter or Instagram.
• Trends change so quickly that if someone watched the documentary a year after the release it will be extremely out of date and irrelevant to later viewers. 

Modern-day comedy

The reason I thought about doing this topic was due to the different types of 'humour' and 'jokes' people make. It can range from a dad joke to dark humour to banter and the way the general public view these jokes can vary widely. Some say we are too sensitive as a population to some of the edgier jokes made by big comedians but a lot of it is down to the developments we've made to create an equal and positive society. This is what interests me, what is acceptable in our modern-day society in regards to comedy? Also, to relate it to the target demographic, when is the right time to stop or think about what jokes you are saying. The banter we see in schools and the nitpicking of how we are all different as people can cause problems to what is acceptable and what we need to apologise for and reflect on. 

Strengths 

• This is an important topic that the target audience needs to be educated about so that they are knowledgable about what is acceptable. The distinction between what can be said by.a comedian at their show compared to what can be said to tease your friends. 
• The idea of covering MODERN comedy isn't too overdone and going into the nuances such as bullying and banter etc. hasn't been done in the documentary style. 
• It is an interesting subject that the demographic would like if delivered well.

Weaknesses

• Comedy as a whole topic has been done several times in documentaries as well as looking at the influential comedians of the past.
• It's a very broad topic that may not be done in a shorter documentary style and would need maybe an hour-long feature to cover only half in a decent amount of detail. 
• Even though it is an important topic, it may not appeal to the target audience as it is a very deep topic that requires mature thinking and psychological analysis to understand how comedy is in the modern era. 
•  Interviews would be difficult to find as the people who would be useful to speak up on the topic are comedians in the industry and it would be unlikely for them to agree. 

Final Choice

After presenting my strongest idea (School Trips), we decided to go ahead and use it as my documentary topic. It was the best choice because I had the most ideas of the bat when I thought about the idea and it was the easiest to film regarding the circumstances of the time. I had considered a contingency plan for all aspects of filming and recording and it had the best overarching narrative of all the ideas.