Nisserin Bessioua - UCA Television Production

Different genres: Expository:  These types of documentary are usually carried by a presenter who narrates the information. They aren't always fictional but they try to persuade the viewers into having a specific opinion on the topic.  Observational: This is more like a fly-on-the-wall type documentary with only a small amount of narration or music. They usually just show the facts and don't attempt to dramatise the story in anyway.  Participatory: These can sometimes be considered the opposite of observational documentaries in that the filmmaker is clearly visible and part of the documentary, they appear on camera and interact in the interviews. The subject in question if discussed on screen between the presenter/narrator and the audience.

The Great British Countryside is a BBC production that looks into different parts of the UK and their countryside landscape. They go into the history of the countryside and look at how it is shaped that landscape that we live on today.  Commentary and Presenters: The presenters do lots of the talking in this documentary and they really carry  the narrative. This works because they are both famous actors so audiences will recognise them. With our presenter, this won't be the case so when it comes to decided what the presenter will say and what information we will take from our interviews, we will need to find a balance between them. All the facts and figures are said by the presenters in commentary, this is something I think we should consider when writing our commentary as there are lots of facts that we want to include. Actuality and Landscapes: The programme uses lots of landscape shots and sequences of the location to show the audience where the sho...

Tim Haines is a documentary filmmaker who has not only worked on nature documentaries but also in drama. He is known for directing shows such as Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Monsters as well as producing episodes of Horizon, Ocean Odyssey and Sea Monsters.  His programmes feature lots of graphics and are all very visual. I like this as it makes them much more interesting to watch and i found that being able to see what the narrator was saying made the information more apparent and I listened to it properly.  Thinking about our documentary, I want us to be able to include lots of wildlife footage to make our documentary very visual. Obviously, we will bot be able to use CGI but I still think it is important to include the visual aspect of the documentary and not just make sure that we have included all the information. 

We chose to have a presenter for our documentary to help carry our story and keep the narrative flowing. Sammi suggested that we consider carol to be our presenter as she has lots of experience in TV and she had worked on Sammi's previous project. Carol has worked on many theatre productions, including Guys and Dolls, 42nd Street and Chicago. She has also appeared in many TV shows such as The Bill and Sherlock Holmes smarter Brother, as well as films such as Muppets Most Wanted and Valentino.  From first meeting Carol and seeing how she interacted with John, the farmer we were interviewing, I knew that she would be good for our documentary. 

During our first meeting with John Harris, the main farmer on Broadditch Farm, he explained to us what  the scheme involves and all the different things he is doing in order to help preserve natural habitats under the scheme.  From doing further research into the scheme, I have been able to understand more what the scheme's main aim is and how it works.  "Countryside Stewardship ( CS ) provides financial incentives for land managers to look after their environment through activities such as: conserving and restoring wildlife habitats flood risk management woodland creation and management reducing widespread water pollution from agriculture keeping the character of the countryside preserving features important to the history of the rural landscape encouraging educational access The scheme is: open to all eligible farmers, woodland owners, foresters and other land managers suitable for many types of land use (eg conventional and organic farmland, coas...

On Wednesday we went to Leybourne lakes and did some test shots of the wildlife there. We filmed lots of different shots on the lake and the different animals like geese, ducks, Moore hens and seagulls. Filming: We used different lenses on Becca's Canon camera, using long range lenses so that we can get up close to the wildlife that's far way. This worked well as it meant we could get some good shots of birds that we in tress up high and ducks and geese that were swimming on the lake.  We also used a Sony EX as that's the camera that we knew we wanted to use for our documentary. This gave us a good chance to practice with the camera and work out how it might be on our actual shoot days.  I found filming the birds that were on the ground to be ok and not too difficult as they were quite close and they didn't move too fast however filming the birds on the lake and in the sky was more challenging as they moved much faster and with the camera zoomed ...

Broadditch Farm in a family run business that has been in the Harris family for over 150 years. Their 500 acres of farm land is used for growing wheat, oilseed rape, potatoes, vegetables, spring barley and beans. Along with 50 acres of grass and 10 acres of woodland.  The farm is now run by John and Mark Harris, who along with running the farm, the also keep a "fully stocked Farm Shop with fresh Home Grown and Local Produce all the year".  Broadditch Farm is very passionate about educating young people and getting them to experience life on a working farm. They provide local school with many opportunities to come and visit the farm; 'We don't want the children thinking that potatoes are grown in plastic bags in the supermarket, we take them to the field where they dig their own potatoes getting their hands dirty, then take them back to the school to enjoy!"  In 2001, Broadditch farm joined the Countryside Stewardship Scheme which provides farmers wi...

Eden is a documentary television channel best known for broadcasting wildlife, adventure and science programmes. It started out in 2004 being UKTV Documentary but was changed in 2009 to Eden. Along with changing their name, they also changed the programmes they were broadcasting. They now focus on nature and science documentaries.  The channel hosts shows such as Amazing Planet and How big is the universe? It regularly features David Attenborough and Professor Brian Cox who host a multitude of their shows. Our documentary should be suitable to be broadcast on Eden at 8pm. From looking and what is already on at 8pm, programmes such as Monster Bug Wars, Human Planet and Worlds Wildest Cities, I found it difficult to see a pattern in the types of programmes they were showing in this time slot. however, they are all very much nature orientated and this is something we plan to keep to in order to stick with the theme of the channel....

The brief for our new unit is to, in groups create a 10 minute wildlife and nature documentary based on the title 'Doorstep Wilderness'. It should be suitable for broadcasting at 8pm on the UK TV channel Eden.  Yesterday we had a brainstorm session in our groups, I am working with Sammi and Becca B. We sat and discussed different ideas that we could use for our documentary. We began talking about clime change and how the recent winter has been much warmer that usual. This has meant that crops and flowers have started to grown much earlier in the season than they would normally affecting farms and animals.  We also discussed looking at Leeds Castle and how they help to look after all the wildlife that they have there. We thought that this would be a good idea because it is quite local to us and it would be quite interesting to look into.