Ticket To…Tadcaster
The textual topic I chose was documentary; I made a documentary about a local band called the tickets which was made to target people who are interested in MOD music and the MOD scene, I feel this as been achieved because I have shown my documentary to people who fit this criteria and they commended it as an accurate view of scooter rallies are were interested in the band and seeing them again.
As the documentary was aimed at a specific audience, the main ideology had to be linked to the ideology of the target audience (MOD). This ideology is the lifestyle that comes with the music and the accomplishment watching a band ultimately succeed in this style of playing. However my documentary was shot to make the progression from practise to gigging look like a struggle; this was done by mediating the footage. But I think that people watching will feel empathy towards the band, willing for them to succeed, as most people, not just MODS, like to see an underdog come out on top this gives a wider audience for my documentary. Therefore I believe I made the right decision showing my documentary on channel four in the T4 slot on a Sunday morning. As the demographic audience is aged 16-30 and can relate to the band as they are the same ages. I have chosen a televised viewing rather than a cinema viewing for the simple reason that they are more popular judging by the regular scheduling of documentaries and higher viewing figures.
I have used diegetic dialogue from the band in the argument sequences in conjunction with non diegetic narration from me to convey an informative style; this narration is a way of directly communicating with the audience to keep them posted of what was going on visually at the time, as most shots were in the same setting. My camera angle during the practise and argument scenes could have been made better by using different angles and editing them all together, instead most of the time you can’t see one member of the band even when they are speaking. I used an hand held video camera to shoot the documentary this makes the quality of my documentary poor as at times the camera is quite jerky which diverts the attention from what is happening on screen. If I were to make the documentary again I would use a tripod to keep the camera still.
The footage of the band in the small practise room to a huge room full of people represents what I wanted to show in how far they have come to play a successful gig. The clean cut look of the band and also the mise-en-scene of the room they are playing in connotates the look and attitude of MODS which is to be dressed smart and have a no nonsense attitude. Any footage that didn’t represent this I edited out.
I wanted to make my documentary a form of docu- soap. Recent docu-soaps such as Airport show the same struggle and resolution as mine does. I wanted to make the characters personalities strong and make them fully aware of the camera, to the extent that they “play up to it”. The audience identification with, and response to, characters is strong just like that of televised docu- soaps. In my opinion the only element in my documentary not consistent to that of a real docu- soap is that there isn’t a multitude of characters with different stories all interwoven, this would have been difficult to do as the point of my documentary was to show one story from a certain group of people.
At the end of my documentary it fades out with a still frame of the bands faces smiling with a song played over the top this makes people want to know what will happen to the band after they had pulled off such a big gig, I wanted people to ask questions like Will they do any more? What will happen to them now? After talking to people who had watched it these questions were asked. I decided to show fans smiling at the end of my documentary as this shows the enjoyment they’ve got from watching the band with the song that the band have played “Can’t explain” with lyrics saying “got a feeling inside can’t explain” I believe it fits with the images on screen and will hopefully make the audience smile too.
My documentary follows the story of a bands run up to a big gig in a nearly chronological sequence, at the beginning it shows them playing the gig then it flashes back to practicing from then on it is perfectly chronological, I don’t think I should have done this as straight away you know that the band make it to the gig and are doing well. I should have maybe showed them doing a smaller gig and made the point of how big the next gig was and the huge jump they had to undertake. I believe I made characters that engage and interest the audience as they are all big personalities that have presence on screen. Also I had a non- character narrator who acts as the storyteller and providing links between the sequences.
Although not shown in the documentary I would have liked to have created the documentary under the name Talkback TV as the programs they have made suit the target audience such as musical programs such as Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Bo Selecta, both programs are primarily watched by 16-30 year olds. Also Talkback TV has made a string of documentaries for channel 4 on which my documentary would be shown; they make documentaries that are catered for minority interests and tastes as instructed to do so by law as they have a Public Service charter, as such this documentary about a local band would fit the criteria. Using this institution would also ensure the money needed to professionally film and edit, a large budget isn’t needed as big name stars are non existent and not needed in a documentary.
The bands ideology is the same ass that of the audience, have a laugh and enjoying themselves whilst still maintaining quality and seriousness but most of all doing it for themselves. The bands ideology fits in well with the ideology of channel 4; the channel on which the documentary would feature. The Public Service charter means that the documentary would be shown to people of minority interests, such as that of a MOD. More specifically the programme would be best scheduled during the T4 slot on a Sunday morning as to target the audience more specifically.
With the reputation of music channels such as MTV rising bands are becoming more popular and so in turn documentaries such as “Making the Band” are too spurring more people on to create their own band. My documentary was made to inspire people of the same age of the band showing the audience the highs and the lows and what was needed to create their own band aspiring to be like The Tickets; this I believe is a new trend within teenage boys and my documentary meets this trend.
