Research&Planning:Treatment

The Illuminatum will contain main themes like conspiracy and mystery, there will also be sub themes including thriller and myth/fantasy. It will be situated in the NEW academy school, present time. Within the documentary, a brief explanation is given about the subject to give the audience an understanding/ This will continue into interview style questions where the narrator of the documentary asks questions, receiving different views and concepts of the subject. An experts opinion is then given to give a more in-depth description of how subliminal messages are used within content such as music videos.

The documentary includes a narrator with brief knowledge on the subject, coveting to learn more about the illuminati. In order to do this he goes out to find out how broad this subject is, discovering new aspects and detailed explanations from intellectual sources. As information is received the audience will discover new things and more secrets will be revealed from interviews and conversations with higher officials from organizations that are linked with the Illuminati i.e. Freemasons.

The style of this documentary will be expository, with the narrator acting as an authoritive figure speaking directly to the viewer. So as a whole the documentary, the documentary will be looking into the conspiracy theory that is The Illuminati, exploring the hidden secrets that have been kept away for many years by an elite cult that includes only selected members.

The target audience for this will have a large range, with young people ages between 15-21 targeted with the current music videos included in the documentary and towards the older generation with the use of questions and facts given, with the conspiracy effect being likened by a wide range of audiences with its sense of curiosity and excitement.

Research & Planning: Time Line

Research & Planning: Illuminati History

This is the history the Illuminati never taught. This is history Illuminati researchers must know.

The group of enlightened ones formed in 1776 in Bavaria. It's founder Adam Weishaupt believed in evolving man to perfection. His mission entailed the dismantling of all governments and religion. Weishaupt would stop at nothing to achieve this but in his words...

"The end justifies the means."

Those means were an infamous list of prerequisites known as the goals of the Illuminati.

Weishaupt would need all of these aligned in order to achieve world domination and enlightenment.

Weishaupt funded his endeavor by recruiting high ranking, wealthy officials into the Order. The Illuminati began expanding and soon had a stronghold in Germany.

Its internal hierarchy was driven by occult secrets said to exist in the higher rankings. Once promoted, a member would become enlightened with knowledge.

Weishaupt blended his cult into the society of Freemasonry out of paranoia of being dismantled by the governments he wanted to infiltrate.

It would secure it's presence in the future and spread influence to America. In 1785, his writings were intercepted by the Bavarian government and the Illuminati was denounced and some even say dismantled. Skeptics will usually point to this as why the Illuminati never transcended into the next generation. This is far from the truth.

He and his ideas fled to France and would help to trigger the French Revolution.

Eventually many in the field of Freemasonry grew suspicious of a possible infiltration.

That's when John Robinson (a Freemason and physicist) wrote the book titled Proof of a Conspiracy shortly after being approached by an Illuminati member.

The year was 1798 in Illuminati history and the group was thought to have been destroyed 12 years prior.

Reverend G. W. Snyder sent this book to George Washington to hear his thoughts.

Washington wrote a letter back explaining...

"It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more truly satisfied of this fact than I am."

This letter can be found in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and even more shocking Illuminati quotes can be found on this website.

George Washington himself was a well-known 33rd degree mason but no school textbook will ever mention the history only Illuminati are aware of.

There are families (generally 17) that are still in charge of society today through many fronts. High level government officials, CEO’s of major multinational conglomerate corporations, heads of colleges, many religious leaders, military generals, titans of industry are all chosen and put in place by the specific design of Illuminati members.

These 17 families include:

1. Astor

2. Bundy

3. Collins

4. DuPont

5. Freeman

6. Kennedy

7. Li (Chinese)

8. Onassis

9. Rockefeller

10. Rothschild

11. Russell

12. Van Duyn

13. Merovingian (European Bloodlines)

14. Reynolds

15. Disney

16. Krupp

17. McDonald

Research & Planning: Roles

I will assign roles to all the members of the team so everyone knows what they are doing, and the workload is shared, I will make sure people carrying out roles know exactly what they need to do to carry out to be successful in this role.
The director will have overall say on what is finalized. Me and Josh will take the role of Co-Director, and generate most of the ideas to be discussed with the director to put in our documentary.  We will have a presenter and when the presenter isn't on screen and explanation is needed, the presenter will also narrate the documentary. Me and Josh will also take the role of camera men and also expert on illuminati, so when one o us star within he film the other will record.


Roles:

Director- Mathew Blackham
Presenter/ Narrator- Faraz
Co-Director/Cameraman/ Expert- Josh
Co-Director/Cameraman/ Expert- Naz

Research and Planning: Questionnaire and feedback

I have created a questionnaire relying on feedback to tell me what age groups, sex are interested in documentaries and what they like to be included in documentaries and what puts them off documentaries. This questionnaire will help me know what to include within my documentary. This is the feedback I got:

This feedback shows me that the age group 17-18 are interested for facts and figures to be included within documentaries and that they are quite interested in current events, this could due to the reason they are maturing and becoming adults and are now concerned about current events. As well as this the majority are also interested in documentaries that include wildlife and popular presenters, this is shown by the documentaries such as Bear Grylls and Frozen Planet that they have already watched, I feel this is because that the is a sense of danger and unpredictability. When it comes to what I should not ideally include are factors such as making the documentary too opinionated, don't make it too long and keep the topic interesting.

Research & Planning: Music

My documentary is on the illuminati this will be a conspiracy based documentary therefore the music should be mysterious and have a sense of darkness.


This theme music is very dark and dreary and if in a film it would leave you on the edge of your seat, I feel this could add effect to our conspiracy as it suits the mysterious element behind our documentary about the illuminati. It could draw the audience in as the music get more and more intense which is very good when catching the full attention of the audience.

Research & Planning: Archived Footage

This is the analysed version of 'Rihanna-Umberella' this video shows reasons why the illuminati is involved  within this video, and also the aspects of devil worshipping, due to hidden symbols, and messages. This can be integrated within our documentary if we get permission off the owner.

Return of Team Member

My previous team member who briefly left has know again returned and has now joined me, Mathew and Faraz as a group of 4 and has been briefed and updated with our advances in the project.

Research & Planning: Running Order

The running order will demonstrate a experimental order off sequences within my documentary.

It will start off-

-Black screen
-Introduction of documentaries
-Illuminati related people, symbols, object will flash on screen
-A black screen with the the word 'ILLUMINATI' in bold letter
-Interviews
-Show archived footage
-Discuss interviews
-Illuminati expert views
-Conclude the documentary

This Week

I will have 3 key targets to work on:

• I will chose the Music that will go with the documentary, I will analyze the music an say what I like about it and why I will chose this piece of music. 

• I will experiment with a running order and try sequence together how my documentary will be structured and viewed. 

• I will also try find Archived footage that I could include within my documentary. 

Research & Planning: Documentary Film

This is a Film/documentary trailer, I find that the way the actual content is structured together as a documentary could prove useful when filming my trailer. At the start of this video it introduces what the program is going to be about, he is narrator of the video but is also starring in the film/documentary, I could use this in my documentary. When he introduces the documentary there is a shot of what the documentary is going to be based on, I could use this by putting a visual of the words 'ILLUMINATI' and the pictures that are linked with the illuminati.
Within this documentary film there is archived footage which I could use in my documentary as archived footage is external intelligence on the subject in hand which I would integrate in my documentary.

Research & Planning: Our Final Idea

We discussed as a newly formed group (Me, Matthew, Faraz) about our previous ideas and we chose a subject that suited our strengths and interests that we all agreed on. This could have been a tricky subject due to the alliance made by us as we were separate groups with different ideas so as I joined Matthew and Faraz's group they could have not wanted me to have any decision in there idea stage and just work on there chosen idea. So the discussion proved very useful as it integrated both of our ideas and how we were going to structure the documentary when it came to filming the actual piece.

Lost Team Member

The team member I initially started out to work with has now dropped this subject, and I feel with the rest of my subjects I wont have enough time to complete the whole project on my own, so I have integrated with another group who are also doing documentaries and we are going to sit and discuss possible adaptions of both of our ideas brought together.

Research & Planning: Research Task

Within this task i'm am going to research newly released documentaries within 2011, I will set out research targets to make sure the research I do within this task will be advantageous to me and not a waste of time. 

• Most successful at Box office
• Topic
• Audience 

Most Successful at Box Office 

1. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never- Follows Justin Bieber with some footage of performances from his 2010 concert tour.
2. African Cats- A nature documentary centered on two cat families and how they teach their cubs the ways of the wild.
3. Born to Be Wild - The insight on life for animals within the wild. 

Topic- 

1. Celebrity, Justin Bieber
2. Nature/Wildlife- Cat families 
3. Nature/Wildlife- Way of life for animals with the wild. 

Audience-

1. Teenage girls, younger generation, more into pop music, also older generation might watch due to the nature of his songs 'love' 
2. People who are interested in animals, which can vary in age group and gender etc. 
3. People who are interested in animals, which can vary in age group and gender etc. 

This tells me basing it on someone extremely popular within the media industry will be the best way to get audience approval, due to the like ability of the subject so the audience will be instantly attracted. Also basing it on a subject instead of aiming it at an age group can draw a wider audience out as its not suited to one specific audience but the subject you may choose may appeal to a number of people of all ages, gender etc. 

Research & Planning: Documentary Ideas

In this task we set out to list a number of ideas we would like to base our documentary on, there were 3 categories, these were:

• Conspiracy- Illuminati, 9/11, Moon Landing, Madeline Mcann
• Real life events- Joss (friend), 2012 World Ending, Riots
• Celebrities- Tyler the Creator OFWGKTA, Stephen Hawking

The ideas that I was drawn to was: 

• Illuminati, as a lot of conspiracy about the illuminati has come within the music industry, I would like to do an in depth study on what really is happening with the Music industry and what it has got to do with the Illuminati. 

• Riots, the london riots was a very big deal, due to the catastrophe and the fatal damage it caused to peoples lives, I feel this would be a very interesting topic and also may have the opportunity to interview people who were caught up in the riots, and the reasons behind why the joined. 

• Tyler the Creator, the creator of OFWKTA a group of singer/rappers. Within the documentary I would be exploring how there rise from underground music to mainstream came about. 

Research & Planning: Research Task

In this task I made myself research targets to research categories within documentaries, which ill enable me to know what an audience want and like, which if I use this information to my advantage could make my documentary successful. The targets were-

• Most Popular Documentaries
• Documentary that was most successful at the Box Office
• Research techniques used in Documentaries

Most popular documentaries (2010)

v  Inside Job rated 8/10- a closer look at what brought about the financial meltdown.

v  Senna rated 8.7/10- a documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34.

v  Catfish rated 7.1/10- in late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother...

v  Jackass 3D rated 7.1/10- Johnny Knoxville and company return for the third installment of their TV show spin-off, where dangerous stunts and explicit public displays rule.

              Ratings by users on IMDB official website.

Most Successful at box office

Fahrenheit 9/11- Made $119M at box office, released of 2004; the documentary was about Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11; and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Techniques Used in Documentaries

There are various techniques used in documentary, one of which is the voice-over. This is when there is a commentary by the filmmaker, spoken while the camera is filming or added to the soundtrack during the production, this is also known as a narrative.

Depending on the type of documentary there is a lot of archived footage, where materials obtained a film library that is previously recorded to shows historical events and is then added to the documentary, also reconstructions are added to documentaries to shows previous events that happened that shows an extremely close representation of the events that are reconstructed.

An exposition is often used at the beginning of a documentary and introduces the important themes of the film. It is important because it creates the viewers first impression and introduces the viewer to the content. This can be an important technique in documentaries as it may decide whether the viewer will continue to watch it, this is usually done by specially chosen dramatic segments of the documentary to catch the viewers attention. Also the way that they are montages makes the viewer to believe a certain theme presented by the documentary and this presents its view much more persuasively to the viewer.

Research & Planning: Planning Methods

These could be the methods of planning I will use: 

• Initial Ideas-mind mapped 
• Group discussions (either recorded or mind mapped)
• StoryBoards
• Scripts
• Roles (casting)
• Planning specific elements such as music, camera work etc
• Running order 

Research & Planning: Research Methods

Through our research stage for the documentary, we will use two different methods of research, this includes:

-Primary Research:

• Interviews
• Surveys
• Questionnaire 
• Discussions
• Textual analysis 

-Secondary Research

• Internet Research
• Books
• Watching other documentaries 

The specific elements I will research will be:

• Set up of documentary (structure)
• Successful documentaries 
• Key effects used in documentaries 

Research & Planning: Documentary Research

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record. A "documentary film" was originally a movie shot on film stock the only medium available but now includes video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television program. "Documentary" has been described as a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film

Documentaries can vary in subject and type, they can be based on real life events e.g. Disasters 9/11, on wildlife and nature life certain animals or place, there can be ones based on drug related events where people tell us there journey through there life where they first got caught up in drugs and it effected them and also how they overcome it, which could be very inspirational and inspire people and advise people they should get off drugs and give them information on how to achieve being off drugs.
There are also documentaries on survivalists one of the most successful survivalists being Bear Grylls who attracts a huge audience due to the bizarre survival techniques.
Teenagers are very prone not to like documentaries but there are documentaries that have emerged that for teenagers like THS(The Hollywood Story) which are the lives of celebrities and how they made there break up to the peak of there career.
Also there are very controversial documentaries that challenge the audiences views on the subject in hand, e.g. 9/11, this is a massive subject that nearly everyone knows about and has opinions on, close to the date of the 9/11 anniversary there are a lot of documentaries that are aired and talk about conspiracies and ideas that can cause uproar from a lot of people due to the information which are based on opinions but not actual facts, even so this still raises question among the audiences of the subject.

Structure of Documentary

1.        1.Watch documentary movies. Go see them on the big screen if you can. Learn what makes or breaks a documentary film. Think about what kinds of documentary films you like. Learn the various genres and filmmaking styles. For example, Michael Moore's filmmaking style is very different than Ken Burns' filmmaking style.

2.         2.Become familiar with technical equipment. Beg, borrow, steal equipment like DV cameras, final cut pro editing systems, cheap mics, flood lights. Experiment with lighting setups, audio recording, splicing clips together. Read filmmaking forums like IndieTalk to get sound technical advice from experienced filmmakers.

3.        3.Choose a subject that you find fascinating and is accessible to you. Choosing a subject that is compelling & timely will result in a strong and relevant film. It is often better to focus on a local personality or local event so that you will have access to loads of resources for your film. Besides, it's much simpler & cheaper to shoot at home than abroad.

4.         4.Become an expert on your chosen subject through research. Research your subject as thoroughly as possible. Gain knowledge through the internet, books, and word of mouth. Attend events pertaining to your chosen subject.

5.        5. Create a structure/outline for your film through visualization. Close your eyes and imagine how you would like the final  product to look. Think about how you want to structure your film. What do you want to start with? How are you going to build your film? Write down your ideas. This will give you a blueprint for shooting. But remember that in documentary filmmaking, unlike fictional filmmaking, the footage informs the final structure of the film. Your initial written outline exists to serve as a guideline for shooting.

6.         6. Analyze your wants/needs for making the film. Make a wishlist of any people, locations, items, equipment you WISH you could have for your film. Cross-reference this list with any people, locations, items and equipment that you do have access to. Ask people. Check with local art centers, film departments at universities and colleges. Talk to the local film office. If you still can't find it then go to Myspace or Craigslist and see if you know someone who knows someone who can help fulfill some of the items on your wishlist. If you are looking for footage, check with stock libraries for material that is in the public domain and free to use.

7.      7.  Find finances for your film. Use Google or check with your local film office to find out what existing documentary funding programs are available to you. For example, the International Documentary Association has a great list of grants you can apply for. Hold fundraising events.

8.      8. Shoot! Don't talk about doing it - get out there and shoot your film. This is the step that differentiates the aspiring filmmakers from the actual filmmakers.

9.       9.Post-production. Fast forward through all of your footage, and take printable screenshots of key scenes. This way you simplify the editing process by creating a visual map of your footage. Once this is done you should watch ALL of your footage and create an action log listing timestamps. This will help you to save time in the editing room.

10.Show your film! Upload it to the internet, four-wall it in a theatre, send the cut to distributors/networks to see if they are interested, hit the festival circuit. You can apply to multiple film festivals at once through the website Withoutabox. If all else fails, invite people to your place to screen. Burn multiple DVDs and get the film into the hands of family, friends, neighbours, co-workers, anyone you know who is in the film industry.

Research & Planning: Chosen Brief

For my A2 media coursework i have to do brief 7, which is the documentary, this is the criteria required for the brief:

An extract from an original documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:

• a radio trailer for the documentary;
• a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary;
• a newspaper advertisement for the documentary