JMUK Studios

Synopsis

The idea is to create an informative expository documentary into the lives of Britain's own Superhero vigilantes, with a voice of God guiding the audience through the narrative. The idea is to follow them in their everyday lives as they patrol the streets in England helping others in need. Of course we could not show any form of vigilantism as it is illegal and as a film crew we would be partaking in illegal activity. But we can argue that because it is decisive moment, that we have not gone out with the camera with intention of vigilantism that we did not provoke any dangerous acts.

We would film them as they go out on their everyday lives and give an insight into their alter egos. If in fact they do fight crime in a violent way, we could easily re-create the scene with hired actors and create it so that it matches the style of the classic Batman and others. With the stereotypical KAPOW, ZOOK, WHACK, CRAAACK! A nice signifier for us to use would be to introduce each character as a marvel style comic strip character using photoshop and then cross dissolve it to real life, blending the two realities.

Influences will be taken from the documentary 'Superheroes' driected by Mike Barnett, with the style of the documentary and how the characters are followed during their everyday tasks. Exploring why they chose the lives they did, how they act as a superhero, why they chose their names and costumes.

Influences can also be taken from 'Grizzly Man' directed by Werner Herzog, his 'voice of God' technique is really useful in posing questions about life and reality in using the documentary as a metaphor. When we compares the bears aggressive nature to the nature of our own. It would like to apply the same technique to our superhero concept: What does it take to be a superhero? Could anyone of us be a superhero? Is it a costume that separates heroes from superheroes? Finally we are to create our own superhero and send him out onto the streets to promote our documentary and we will decide a name for him/her through conducting a survey and getting the audience to name him. This makes our documentary both expository and participatory.

- John Bird

The documentary about squatting was to follow a man called Alex Haigh who was one of the first people to be arrested since the new squatting law in September was passed. Using a combination of Fly on the Wall (Cinema Verite) and Participatory modes, we endeavour to experience first hand what his squatting life was really like. If the filming went ahead with this documentary, we'd be aiming to squat for roughly a week. During this time, we'd experience the espionage and subterfuge of hiding away and being as discreet as possible, taking on the highs and lows of the squatter life. We'd also delve into the life of Alex and why/how he got to that stage in his life. Which wrong decisions did he make? How many other people squat on a regular basis? An entire squatting community to be discovered and delivered to the audience in the form of an engaging and immersive documentary.

- Toby Shepherd

The plan was to make a participatory documentary on people who have claimed to have seen UFO’s and have found UFO related objects. The idea is to have a is to have a presenter interact with the interviewees, get a insight in their lives and get them to speak of their stories with UFO’s. At the same time the presenter will be speaking to the audience letting them know where he/she is heading to and what he/she is about to do. The documentary will have a spooky element to it, to match the theme of UFO’s. I was thinking of having spooky music being played throughout the documentary. In the end I want to find out whether the presenter believes in UFO’s after the journey of following people who have believed to have see them.

- Kuda Mutinta

This is a "fly on the wall" observational documentary looking into the life of three individuals with different backgrounds, ethnicity, age groups and sexes. This is to inform people about the different issues regarding mental illnesses such as getting a job and some social situations. It is also intended to disband any miss constructed images and representations around people with mental illnesses. It would follow them through the highs and lows of there lives and hopefully create an emotional response in the audience to support people with this nature of illness. The fact of the matter is one in four of us suffer from some form of mental illness every year and it is not covered alot in the media especailly not in the perspective of the person suffering. the most common one is depression. the UK has one of the highest suicide and self harming rates in the EU.often being the case people look at mental health illness as something that can be contagious or cause harm to others. because of this people take a step back when it comes up in conversations. The aim of my documentary is to inform people about mental illness from the perspective of the professionals and the people suffering from it.

- Taylor Harvey Brigden

My preliminary idea for a documentary is one following the little covered topic of LARPing (Live Action Role Playing). This is the sport/community that creates real life MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) style scenarios and live PvP (Player vs Player) competitions. The doc would be a participatory mode, as we intend to create our own character and follow his journey through the LARPing world. The plan is to have two primaries: A newcomer to LARPing and a veteran LARPer. Our expert would be the rule maker or council of whichever LARPing community we can get a hold of. This will make an interesting documentary due to the door that it opens to a new world that viewers may not have necessarily seen before. Furthermore, people who LARP are considered generally considered by many to be strange and outsiders. This will help in finding an interesting primary, as most LARPers take LARPing very seriously and get lost in the world much like the people who get lost in the worlds of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars.

- Matthew Fryer

The Art of the Tattoo

The idea of making a documentary focusing on tattoo design and the culture behind it is something I am passionate about as I have tattoos myself and have personal meaning to me. In contrast to this alot of people would see a tattoo as a thugish mark on somebody or simply marking themselves for life. I would like to expose the real reason why most people would get a tattoo and the history behind tattoo culture and where it originated from. For example in Japan the Yakuza Clan must earn their tattoos as a sign of rank within their community this is also apparent in many other cultures. If this documentary where to be made I would be following the syle of Louis Theroux and completely emerse myself into this world as I am planning on getting another fairly large tattoo done, I would have this done in the documentary as I believe this would be a great way to gain insight into the life of the tattoo artist and their feelings towards how tattoos are percieved in today's intolerant world. The piece would also contain interviews with other people whilst they are getting a tattoo done to find out how much pain they are willing to go through in order to have a tattoo. The Documentray would fall into the modes of expository, poetic, reflexive and performative.

- Michael Dunningham