Documentary Structure

Menopause documentary 1st shooting plan: doc will be exactly 15 mins long.

Intro – “Crimson Productions” presents “menopause uncovered” (title screens) lasting 20 secs, with voice over
Straight into some facts with cinematic video can be unrelated to the menopause also use comedic footage on the menopause, playing in background this goes on for around 40 seconds, shots lasting 3 seconds each with cut shot and clip lasting 3-5 seconds.
Need to capture 8 (minimum) scenic shots in Weston but shoot 15 to be safe this can all be done in first week of filming, these shots must include people walking by and scenery shots.
Locations for these shots would be by the sea front in the centre of town and on the high street, try and get low angle shots, high angle shots, using a tall tripod looking down on people. (if someone does not want to be filmed leave camera rolling until we have enough footage to be able to cut people out who don’t want to be filmed).

1 min in:

Use cut always and over voice over and introduce the interview of the Dr Greenhouse who a specialist on the menopause, no introduction on camera cut to the questions, behaviour, treatment, mental health etc…. film him talking about these topics for a while. However, this time NO background shots, we will use an over the shoulder shot with camera A and for camera B use a side shot, once again we will use a boom microphone for audio but only one. We should try to get permission to either film in the surgery in a room or invite the doctor to college where it would be even easier to film.
The objective for the doctor interview is to have a very serious feel about it we will increase lighting, do more close-ups. All these different shots can then be edited to create a serious feeling / vibe for the viewer.
During the interview, we will shoot different parts (cut always) of the documentary in 2 different locations; the clinic itself and people passing by the camera in Weston super mare.

3 mins in:

After intro introduce Claire for interview, mix interview with more cinematic shots of places in town, these background shots should be filmed on the first week (do not shoot the video on the JVC cameras as they are worse quality than the Sony cameras). These shots must be relaxing e.g. Shoot somewhere where it is not that busy and get some calm shots, we need 20 of these shots each lasting 3 seconds but film each shot twice in case something goes wrong, use panning with the tripods vertically and horizontally, also make sure the tripod is level. No audio is required for the background shots.
When mum is talking about sport move location to the gym in our house. For the main part of the interview we will shoot in the lounge. The interviews will have a 3-point lighting setup, (both sides and one pointing at the wall behind). We will record audio from interviews using an audio recording device and 2 boom microphones held in the air / mounted on a tripod.

7 mins in:

2 min interview with Claire’s partner and another 30 second interview / 1min with my brother to see what it is like being a child whilst our mum is going through the menopause, the interviews will take place in each of the interviewees rooms. (so, two locations)

11 mins in:

Round off the menopause documentary with the second half of my mums interview which is training and what she does to overcome the stress and pain and how to cope mentally, (cut to boxing, sports running, swimming, all of these shots of mum in the gym can be shot at my house in controlled conditions, these shots should be filmed in 120fps slow motion and sort of a montage style.
May also include interview of Claire’s coach Ian as he is up for a short interview which would probably last 30 / 40 seconds in the film.

14 mins in: