Documentary Film Treatment
1. Title:
Home away from home
2. Premise:
From escaping persecution in their home country to moving somewhere completely different, we speak to those who are trying to build a new life in the United Kingdom and discovering the challenges they face thousands of miles away from their loved ones back home.
3. Treatment:
The central characters for the documentary will be 2-3 refugees who have had to escape from their own country, running away from the threat of what it could mean for them if they stay. Now, they are trying to settle into their new home, the United Kingdom. This documentary will be broken into three different sections:
1. Why they made the decision to leave behind the place they called home.
2. What it was like for them when they arrived in the UK
3. What it was like getting used to a brand-new culture after arriving and how they are coping now, having had time to settle in
Do they feel like they can finally call the UK their home? Or are they missing the loved ones that they have been forced to leave behind? The documentary mode for this film will be expository because it will be a topical news documentary. Expository documentaries normally include a problem/solution structure, an argumentative logic, and evidentiary editing (Nichols 2017). I have chosen this approach because I am hoping to relate it to the current news about what’s being said about immigration by getting first-hand experience from people who have had to go through the system. There will be a contrast between the words coming out of the mouth of politicians, the things being said about refugees and asylum seekers in the media, and the reality of their situation. An example of something recently in the news relevant to this story is that the government recently proposed an increase in the minimum salary needed for skilled workers overseas from £26,200 to £38,700 (Donaldson, Milligan, Bloomberg 2023). This will be something I can ask them as they have had to go through the system themselves getting their insight into how this will affect refugees in the future. Throughout the documentary, there will be no voice-overs from a presenter; instead, it will be interview-led, this is where the characters are interviewed by the filmmakers and in the editing process, the characters’ answers are weaved together to form the story (Solberg 2023). This means that you will only hear from those who have been directly affected by the subject being discussed in this film giving their personal thoughts. Exodus: Our Journey (2016) a documentary series on BBC iPlayer about refugees leaving Syria and moving to the UK did this to great effect and was what inspired me to take up this approach.
The target audience will be anyone who pays attention to the news and wants to go a bit further behind the headlines. The sound for the video will be nondiegetic where is sound is represented as coming from a source outside the story world (Bordwell, D. Thompson K 2020) so when they are talking about a positive subject the music will be happy and when they are talking about a more depressing subject, the music will be darker. Unless one of the interviewees is passionate about music the only diegetic sound will be background noises. includes any sound that the contributor hears while filming (Sones 2022).
Act 1- The documentary will start with an insight into what life was like back home for the contributors. This will be done by sitting down with the interviewees in a way that is typical of most documentaries, having a black room with lighting being used to highlight their faces as they recall the stories that led them to where they are If possible, behind them in the background of the shot will be something that resembles part of their personality or something that is special to them. For example, Nima Javan, who is the first potential contributor for the documentary, is an artist so I would try and put one of his own paintings behind him, for example in this unfinished short documentary that Nima spoke in.
I would do this slightly different to how they have done it and have the camera in front of the picture so that the framing is him on the chair with the full painting behind him looking directly at the camera. By doing this, the viewers should be able to spot the colourful characters that shine out from the darkness of the room and reflect his unique artistic style, allowing the viewers to get to know Nima though the imagery as well as him telling us his story. For this section of the documentary, the contributors will be asked questions such as
· How would you describe life back home?
· What kind of family did you grow up in?
· What kind of school did you study in?
· Did you have any passions growing up?
· Why did you have to end up leaving your home country?
All the questions will be open because that means that you will get more than just a yes or no responses (Baker 2021). The interviews will also not just consist of fixed questions and what I ask depends on the answers that are given. Some extra footage will be gained if they have pictures/footage from their home country, which they can describe to the viewers. These shots will be done from where their homes are in Liverpool the viewers can feel like they are sat down with the interviewee. The documentary will include close-ups of the photos, wide shots of the contributors with their photo, over-the-shoulder shots of the contributors holding the photo, close-up shots of the face when they are describing the photo. Other shots could be considered when filming. This footage will be used as cutaways from the interviewees in the dark room. How the footage will come together depends on the answers given and the pictures shown to me. The documentary will be edited so you have one person telling their story of life back home and then it will move onto the next person who will tell their story. At no point in the film will the contributors meet each other.
Act 2- Once the contributors have given us some insight into life in their home country and their childhood growing up, the story will move onto them talking about the moment when they had to say goodbye and make the long journey into the UK. The questions will all be open questions such as
· What was the last thing you did before you left home?
· How did you travel into the UK?
· What was the first thing you thought when you arrived in the UK?
· What were the first few days like?
· Throughout your journey leaving home and arriving in the UK are there any moments you remember in particular?
In terms of images, this is most likely to mainly be from the dark room focused on what they are saying. I will also get some footage together of them causally going through their new day-to-day lives minding their own business, for example, them at work, them on a walk or them taking part in a sport that they like. For example, with Nima in this scene because he arrived in the UK trying to establish himself as an artist though his unique style and adaptability, I will probably have shots of him teaching a class at the Mary Seacole where he has just got a full-time job or back in his flat working on one of his own projects. This documentary sets out to make the viewers understand the journey that these people are going on and getting shots of them going about their day-to-day lives will be one of the ways I hope to achieve this objective. This part of the documentary will be the main climax. This will be edited in the same way as act 1 the first contributor will tell their story and then when they have finished the documentary will move onto the next contributor. The reason I have chosen this approach is to allow the contributors to go into more detail about their story instead of picking up key quotes. This will also ensure that none of them are forgotten by the viewers because they are too close to the start.
Act 3-This be the shortest part of the documentary which will give us an update on where they are now having had some time to settle in the UK. The questions will vary depending on their pervious answers and how long they have been in the UK for. Examples of questions that could be asked are-
· How have things changed since you moved into the UK?
· How do you feel now about your decision to move into the UK?
· What are you hoping to achieve in the future?
· Do you think you will ever be able to go back home?
In terms of shots used it will probably be their own voices over footage of them in Liverpool maybe with their family or with their friends. In Nima’s case it will be his wife who has moved into the UK with him. In terms of sound this scene will have some slow but upbeat music to hopefully have a happy ending but that depends on the answers to the questions. This will ideally be shot in slow motion, but it depends on the activity they are doing. For example, if they are playing with their friends then I might get close ups of them and their friends, if they are with family then I will use medium wide shots to get everybody in and if they are on their own then I will use wide shots to get some of Liverpool in.
4. Production considerations
In terms of interviewees, the first contributor will be Nima Javan, an asylum seeking who was forced to leave Iran as he said it was no longer safe to be a Christian living in a country where dissenting beliefs such as Christianity, Baha’i, and atheism can result in prosecution. He has been painting his whole life and has exhibitions in London and Sheffield. Depending on the answers given, I am planning on traveling to the exhibitions to get footage that can be used for the documentary.
To make contacts and find more contributors, I am working closely with the Mary Seacole House, a mental health charity that puts a real emphasis on diversity and ensuring each person’s individuals needs are meet. The charity normally has a lot of visitors who have just come into the country and is where I meet Nima. Other potential contacts I have meet though the Mary Seacole House include.
· Rabiul Haque: Rabiul previously worked in Bangladesh for the red cross, helping refuges who had come over from Myanmar. During his time at the Red Cross, he and 20 other staff members were working in difficult situations with thousands of people needing care every day, leading to a lack of sleep. Rabiul moved to the UK after being accepted into Coventry University. For the documentary, Rabiul could potentially be somebody to talk to about the challenges refugees and asylum seekers face on their journey coming into the UK.
· Celine Hay: Celine is an English teacher who gives support to people. One of the people who she is currently helping is a woman from Albania who’s very stressed and depressed about going to the home office to seek asylum. She could have contacts which will help with the documentary as well as being a good source to find out more information that can help.
Regarding locations, the dark room with the lighting where the interviews will take place will hopefully be the green room at LJMU. The only issues with this are that it might be difficult to work around schedules. For example, Nima works full time, and the building is only open 10:00-16:00 weekdays, so there could be potential issues there. However, if we can organise a time slot, then we should be able to get around this. Unless I am short for footage, or it will have a substantial impact on the documentary, it will most likely mainly be filmed in Liverpool with a bit of footage from Sheffield and London.
The project can be self-funded though borrowing equipment from the university and filming in locations where I have permission to film. The equipment that will be used will be my own tripod, a C-100 camera from the university, radio mics and a litepanels kit.
Bibliography-
Baker, J (2021) Essential Journalism The NCTJ guide for trainee journalists Routledge
Bordwell, D Thompson, K (2020) Film art: an introduction Twelfth edition McGraw-Hill Education.
Donaldson, K Milligan, E Bloomberg, Rishi Sunak’s government wants to cut immigration by 300,000 iu ‘future years’- and it’s raising the income cap. Fortune available at-
Nichols, B (2017) Introduction to documentary third edition. Indiana University Press
(2016) Exodus: Our Journey. 7 Nov. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07ky7sn/exodus-our-journey-our-journey-to-europe-episode-1.
Solberg, S (2023) Documentary Storytelling: Narration Style (online) Available at- https://www.docfilmacademy.com/blog/narration-style
Sones, Z (2022) Understanding diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound in film. Premium beat (online) available at-
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