Unit 18 - Cinematography: LO3:

Treatment:

The Message -

My Unit 5 - Short film or trailer will be a historical motorsport documentary. The documentary is non-fictional and is based around the life of Tony Dawson and his company's creation the Astralite Wheel. The documentary takes inspiration from the film The First Auto (1927) and will appear in a similar format. As my documentary like The First Auto will be publicly available on YouTube, they will also share a similar format by having my documentary strewn with historical photographs, drawings and paragraphs of information. My documentary will differ as it will feature an interview with the actual person opposed to having actors on screen. The film will also feature audio and background music whilst The First Auto is a silent film. However, I believe that showing the black and white past mixed with the colourful present will demonstrate to the audience that this is still recent history. The purpose of my historical documentary is to inform and educate the public about the history of the Astralite Wheel and the life of Tony Dawson. The film must also appear entertaining so as to captivate the audiences attention and keep the engaged. The historical documentary will also act as a historical record so that the information about Astralite will be available for many years and generations to come.

Due to the short timeframe of being between 5-15 minutes a lot of detail about the history a man's life and the wheels history will be lost. This means that most of the documentary will focus on the late 70s to early 80s due to the wheel being put into production at the beginning of 1981. Hopefully this leads to enigma being created and the audience will be incentivised to find out more elsewhere.

I find that in most motorsport documentaries such as Ferrari, Ford V Ferrari or Le Mans they focus on the racing side and despite Astralite having a history in racing and the wheels being used by famous racers such as Kevin Schwartz I want to focus more on the life and the invention. Hopefully this different take in the genre makes the film stand out more.

Target Audience -

The documentary will be targeted at a mass audience in order to appeal to any ethical issues about not being accessible to a diverse audience. However, I expect that the majority of the audience will be made up of car, bike and racing enthusiasts and people who come from a background in engineering. Due to the fact that the documentary will solely be available online on YouTube; I expect that there won't be many people from Tony's generation who will watch the documentary due to them being digital immigrants and not understanding technology as well as younger generations.

Roles and Responsibilities -

- Successfully create and use pre-production documents in order to create the short documentary.

- Successfully record film with a camera and audio with a microphone for the short documentary.

- Successfully edit the short film as well as record and insert the voice over and sound effects into the documentary.

- Upload the finished short documentary to YouTube.

Deadlines -

Main deadline for film to completed before start of the Easter Holidays date of breaking up is March 28th.

Milestones -

Have ideas outlined

Have idea chosen

Gained client permission

Finished Moodboard

Finished storyboard

Risks assessed

Locations scouted

Equipment sourced

Equipment obtained

Film and audio recorded

Voice over recorded

Voice over edited fully

Voice over input properly

Footage saved and uploaded

Footage and audio edited

Film made offline just in case

Peers given form to fill out

Look at and answer feedback

Second draft sent to Mr H

Feedback from Mr H sorted

Final cut of film produced

Final cut uploaded to YT

Legal and Ethical considerations -

- Gaining written consent from Tony. To make sure he is ok with his details being made public, these includes his name, face and details. This needs to be considered more than usual due to Tony beginning to suffer from dementia.

- Making sure risk assessment is up to scratch due to the potential hazards at the location due to the active workshop on site, and age of the property.

Working Title: Astralite: A History

Narrative:

An interview with Tony Dawson ex-biker, engineer and all-round mechanics enthusiast, who created the Astralite Wheel used in bike and car racing throughout the 80s and 90s. The documentary will include parts about growing up and living in Sheffield from the 50s till present day as well as what the biking and engineering scenes where like throughout this time period. We will see plans and or blueprints for the Astralite wheel, a real Astralite wheel and also the original script for the film that was made about the wheel being used in racing.

Genre: Documentary

Now: Motorsport

Characters/Organisation/People:

Tony Dawson - Tony Dawson

Required Crew

Director/Writer/DP - Joel Dawson

Production Designer/Set Designer - Marie Bradley

Voice over - Ellicia Culic

Required Equipment

1x Camera

1x Boom Mic + Boom Pole

2x Studio Lights

1x Reflector

1x Lapel Microphone

1x Diffuser

Synopsis:

An interview with the inventor of the Astralite Wheel, we learn about how he made it and why. We will also learn about his earlier life. It will also include a segment on the film that was made about the wheels.

Production Schedule

Suggested Locations

Tony's House

Storyboard:

Set Design:

Location Recce:

Kitchen:

Living Room:

Workshop:

Annotated Script:

Annotate unit 5 script with camera and lighting settings included.

ASTRALITE: A HISTORY

Joel Dawson

Scene 1:

Scene One will mainly consist of dialogue with a mixture of videos and pictures added in post. The added media will relate to the subject matter and help the reader understand what Tony is referring to in the documentary.

Scene One the sun will act as my key light, I will also use a reflector in order to create a natural warm feeling to the documentary, it also connotes the documentary as informal and homely as if Tony is just engaging in conversation.

FADE IN FROM BLACK:

Title screen with credits plays over footage of different models of the Astralite Wheel on display in Tony's workshop/garage.

This scene connotes initial intrigue and enigma for the audience as most people watching the documentary will not be familiar with the wheel nor the name 'Astralite.' The workshop setting connotes the documentary is in the motorsport and racing genres.

Jazz music will play in the background to connote the documentary relating to the past and also reaffirms the calm informal atmosphere. The Jazz isn't a real song as such rather a audio clip I found whilst searching on Freesound.org. I decided to use sound from Freesound.org in order to prevent the legal issue of seeking copyright.

Once the Title/Credit Screen is over the documentary will properly begin with a fade from black transition which will lead into a medium close-up or close-up of Tony.

Only Tony's voice will be heard throughout the interview so other people's voices (i.e., interviewer's) need to be cut out. This is to further imitate the format of a casual conversation rather than a formal interview.

CAMERAWORK:

Light

Camerawork

FADE FROM BLACK:

INT. WORKSHOP - DAY

In focus shot of TONY sitting on chair

Medium Close-up of Interviewer from a slight high angle.

Low Key Lighting

INTERVIEWER

So tell us your background

Medium Close-up of Tony from a slight low angle.

Low Key Lighting

TONY

Anecdote about childhood and growing up

Medium Close-up of Interviewer from a slight high angle.

Low Key Lighting

INTERVIEWER

And what got you into biking

Medium Close-up of Tony from a slight low angle.

Low Key Lighting

TONY

Anecdote about biking and the biking scene when he was younger such as his influences, what appealed, what got him into biking.

Medium Close-up of Interviewer from a slight high angle.

Low Key Lighting

INTERVIEWER

Who are your biking heroes?

Medium Close-up of Tony from a slight low angle.

Low Key Lighting

TONY

Talks about biking heroes

Medium Close-up of Interviewer from a slight high angle.

Low Key Lighting

INTERVIEWER

How did you come up with the idea for the Astralite Wheel

Medium Close-up of Tony from a slight low angle.

Low Key Lighting

TONY

Retells about the creation of the Astralite Wheel

Medium Close-up of Interviewer from a slight high angle.

Low Key Lighting

INTERVIEWER

And how was it used later on?

Medium Close-up of Tony from a slight low angle.

Low Key Lighting

TONY

Goes on to explain what happened with the Astralite Wheel how it was used and how people recognise it in the biking world.

Medium Close-up of Interviewer from a slight high angle.

Low Key Lighting

INTERVIEWER

Well Tony, thank you very much for your time today.

Medium Close-up of Tony from a slight low angle.

Low Key Lighting

TONY

Always a pleasure. Thank you for listening.

FADE TO BLACK:

Pre-Production Documents:

Mindmap:

Risk Assessment:

Moodboard:

Daily Shooting Schedule:

Call Sheet:

Location Recce:

Dining Room:

Lighting wasn't ideal due to the bay-window behind where camera would go. Other camera spot had similar issues with being too underexposed or overexposed with their lighting. The dining room table was too messy in order to use as a set piece and therefore table would have to be either out of shot or edited out in post-production.

Kitchen:

Having the chairs in the kitchen up against the wall wasn't much of a desirable option either due to again the over exposed lighting from the bay window. The other camera angle would have also been over exposed due to it pointing into the light. The scene was also like the dining room quite messy and over filled.

Lounge:

I decided to use the lounge as my set due to the good exposure of lighting. The room being on the second floor meant that the sun wasn't able to shine in nearly as much as it could downstairs. Also there was a large curtain which, if the sun got too high, could be used to dim the set down again. There were also multiple artificial light sources such as the over head big light and three lamps which could have been used to increase the exposure if necessary. The scene is also much cleaner than the other two available sets where meaning it fits the prim, proper and professional codes and conventions of my documentary. Having the interviewee/Tony sit on a sofa or armchair also looks more informal and personal denoting that it is in his house rather than a studio.

Release and Consent Form:

Ellicia Culic Consent Form: