Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Project overview

As a practising pagan in the UK. I am aware of the negativity and prejudice that over the centuries (and still today) have surrounded the many followers of the various pathways that make up paganism. But with more and more people coming out of the "broom closet" in the UK, I decided to put together a documentary showing Paganism in it's true light as opposed to the misconceptions of devil worship,virgin sacrifice and wild naked orgies. By focusing on practising pagans from my local community I aim to film interviews,gatherings,meetings and festivals to paint a true picture of what goes on within the Pagan community. By doing this I will be covering relatively new ground, although a small number of television and internet programmes have highlighted certain aspects of paganism these are mainly focused on the witchcraft element and secondly are written by outsiders looking in. My aim is to film this from within the community and to focus on what paganism means to the people who follow it's various paths and to present this as my final assessment project.

The video below shows the biased way in which paganism (and witchcraft in particular) has been shown by the media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi9pZEhNQvQ


FMP Proposal

Review

When I began the course my aim was to work in radio, utilising my existing skills. However, by Christmas I felt that this had been achieved and was no longer a challenge, coupled with the possibility of progressing on to the media production degree I felt that I had to step out of my comfort zone and look at other mediums in order to develop new skills needed for progression. I took part in studio sessions with professional artists and engaged with a student led film production I soon found that I had other skills such as directing music shoots, vision mixing and post production editing. I have decided to utilise these new skills within my final project in an effort to develop them and to challenge myself.

Ideas and concept

As a practising UK. Pagan, I am aware of the negativity and prejudice that over the centuries (and still today) have surrounded the many followers of the various pathways that make up paganism. But with more and more people coming out of the "broom closet" in the UK, I decided to put together a documentary showing Paganism in it's true light as opposed to the popular misconceptions. I aim to film interviews, gatherings and festivals attended by practising Pagans to paint a true picture of what goes on within the Pagan community. By doing this I will be covering relatively new ground, although a small number of television and internet programmes have highlighted certain aspects of paganism these are mainly focused on the witchcraft element and are predominantly written by outsiders. My aim is to focus on what paganism means to the people who practice it.

Contextual research

Apart from a few home-made American films and one, four part documentary listed below, there is very little material out there covering this subject and as far as I am aware paganism has never been filmed from the inside before, therefore not only do I have direct access to the people and events, I also believe that the community will be much more open about their beliefs and practices. My primary research comes from the fact that I am a practising pagan within the very community that I am filming. The interviews and shoots will also provide vital primary research and will lead the way that the further shoots are filmed and will guide me as to the content that will be included in the final film.



Techniques and presentation

As far as the shooting style goes, I intend for it in the main to be very organic utilising two cameras and shooting the events as they happen much in a similar way to a group I worked with on a previous project. “Stories of the world (The Burnley cotton mills)” by social inclusion media company, REELmcr.   http://www.reelmcr.co.uk/. I believe that by doing this the finished film will appear more natural and also more authentic. Of course the interviews will have to be much more structured some being studio based while where possible some will be done on location.

Evaluation and progression

The main process of evaluation will be the reviewing of footage and deciding what footage tells the story and gets the message across, by doing this I can then decide whether another interviewee needs to be sourced or a further shoot is needed etc. Unfortunately with the project being time sensitive I am limited to what festivals and gatherings can be filmed as they too are time sensitive. Also by inviting members of the pagan community to the screening and by being involved in the peer critique process this will help to determine the level of success the film has achieved.

No comments:

Post a Comment