Programme Proposal – Investigative Documentary

Director JUAN DELACRUZ Programme Subject Mental Illness

Date 2024 Provisional Title Bihag ng Sariling Pag-iisip

Rationale
Target audience: The age range of my target audience is 16-25-year-old because
 Age I believe that younger people have more of an understanding
 Gender of what’s right and wrong. As it is more to do with there
 Lifestyle Grouping personal feeling towards a subject like Mental Illness. This is
 Social Class because the majority will perceive the elders (more likely the
parents) as they are sometimes prejudice towards anything
that’s new. Therefore, this is more likely for the younger
generation not to make the same mistakes. Never the less
when they get older they’ll be more exposed to different
opinions and this means they’ll be more likely to see the
intellectual, moral sides to things and if these are social trends.
This is because the younger generations are more likely to
question the things that they’re doing.
Even though this documentary will have more women than
men I will make this gender natural with facts about men and
women.
I won’t be looking at the lifestyle grouping as much because
the research that I have done shows that it doesn’t matter if
you have nothing or something mental illness will affect you
one way or another.
The social class that I want really tackle in this documentary is
the working class as they are more exposed to stress with a job
as well as trying to get benefit for their child or themselves.
(I’VE GONE IN MORE DEATIAL ABOUT MY TARGET AUDIENCE
ON PREZI).
Overall theme: The underlying message of my documentary will be about how
 What is the basic underlying a person with a mental illness view the world and how easy or
message? hard it is to do the simple task that a ‘normal’ person wouldn’t
have a problem. I want to emphasis that a person with a
mental illness can come out in the other end better an average
person.
What does it need to say about? This documentary will highlight the people in this documentary
 People as being ‘normal’ and people with the mental illness would
 Situations almost be ‘mad’. This is because I want to make this
 The world we live in documentary about how a person with a mental illness view
the world, almost putting myself in their shoes.
This will show also demonstrate how other people recognize
the illness and how people with the profession help the person
who are suffering in their head.
This documentary is to remove the stigma around mental
illness as it has been glamorized in the society because it what

How long will it last:
How will the programme be seen:
 On television
 On the internet
 On DVD
What research did you do?
 To help you understand the
subject area and identify
narrative opportunities
Constraints:
 Legal
 Ethical
 Representation
Treatment
Synopsis:
 What is the overall story?
 What happens in each segment?
 How are segments tied together
we think and not anything physical. The aim is to destroy the
stigma around the mental illness. Also, show how the world is
more accepting and more helpful to people with this type of
mental illness. The help.
5-7 minutes
Due to my target audience, this will be shown on the internet
as social media is dominating the world and it more acceptably
to everyone. This is because they would be able to watch it
whenever they want and not be tied down to one time and one
day that this documentary is going to be shown. Therefore, this
documentary will be on YouTube as it is easier for my audience
to access it. There will be promotions on other social network
such as, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
The research that I conduct is that I did a lot of qualitative
research to help my understanding of how a documentary is
made. For example, I analyzed multiple of documentary and
saw what they key elements that they had that I could inspire
from. I looked on how I can be objective, subjective and
impartial whilst doing the presenting part of my documentaries
by looking how new report is reported. This is because BBC
news are always objective and never have a prejudice way of
explaining the news. The other research that I did was I looked
at the codes and conventions of documentary. I also did some
survey about what the public thinks about my idea and that I
got some feedback from them as well. Lastly, I went on
websites such as NSH and Charites that help in the area so I
could have more of an understanding.
The legal aspect of my documentary is that the I will ask and
give credit to anything that I have used that I did not create.
Such as music and any editing effect that I have used. The
ethical aspect of this documentary is that I will be always
asking these questions: How to portray the subjects of the
film? What to shoot and what not to shoot? How to edit so
that the film is true to its topic and subjects, yet also works as a
compelling story for the audiences? To make sure that I don’t
disturb any ethical issues. Lastly, the representation of how I
portray a person will don’t be manipulated to make my
documentary more interesting, since, I will be using the clip as
they come.
The overall story of my documentary is explaining what a
person with a mental illness does in their everyday life,
following the around on what they find challenging. Also, to
get their view point on what they felt like during the points
when they weren’t diagnosed with their mental illness and
how that affected them. I will be following their story and

Setting:
 Location/Environment the film
is being recorded in
Narrative structure:
 Linear or non-linear
 Single or multi strand
 Open or closed narrative
Documentary Genre:
 Reality
 Fly on the wall
 Investigative Journalism
 Dramatic Reconstruction
 Animated/Graphics led
Tone:
 Serious
 Light Hearted
Narration:
 Presenter in vision
 Presenter as voice over
 Participant commentary
Pace:
 Fast - to build excitement
 Slow - to provide depth
Camera work:
using that to take me to finish the documentary.
In each segment, there will be 3 sets of interviews, which will
be talking heads. Within that there will be cut away of scenes
to tie the segment together and to make it flow naturally.
There will be one or two reconstruction of a mood/event that
happened. I will be trying recreate that. Lastly, I want to have a
tour of the expert’s facility such as the charity.
The environment where the documentaries will be filmed in is
in their homes. This is because the audience can get a sense of
connection and see how well or bad they are doing in their
lives. This gives the sense of they are opening the world into
the conversation. This is one main thing that I want to
desperately get across is that this is a conversation and the
audience is being apart of it.
The narrative structure of the documentary will be linear type
of documentary. With at least two cameras involved this is
because I want more than one shot of an angle so it gives it
more of dimension to the documentary and give the audience
to see it in all angle as if the audience was there.
The aim of this documentary is to show the reality of a mental
illness and educate the audience about what it is actually like
having a mental illness (giving them an insight). The people in
the documentary are not aware of the camera will do this so
like the audience are the fly on the wall. This is because it
showing an everyday person whom the audience wouldn’t
know that they had some sort of health problem. Also this is
going to have an Investigative Journalism feel to It because the
journalist will be asking question and trying to understand their
point of view because I’ll be trying to get that point of view
across.
During the interviews, I do want it to be a serious tone as it is a
serious topic, which in this society over looked. Therefore, I
want to bring back to reality of this topic. However, when the
presenter (me) is talking to the camera or directing them
around the facility and places it will have a lighter approach to
it. This because I do not want to make it intense and dramatic
to watch.
The presenter will be in vision because she/he will be
expressing their views as well as the interviewee. To give the
difference of an opinion. The presenter will also be in the voice
over as well as the other people in the documentary.
Slow because this is a serious topic that needs people to be
educated on so the information will slowly build up when the
documentary progress. So, it doesn’t seem like there is a lot of
information hitting the audience at once.
For the interviews, I will be using a tripod, as it is a sit down
  Use a Tripod talking head.
 Hand Held When I’m walking around and talking directly to the camera
 How will you use camera it’d be hand held because it be more personal.
moves?
 What kind of camera angles will
you use
Look: The documentary will be in colour because it wants the visuals
 Colour to look very clean and so people can recognize the places. The
 Black & White depending on the shot the resolution will be different but for
 “High” or “Low” Resolution the most parts of the documentary I want the resolution to be
 Studio high. The filming of my documentary will be on the location
 On location because I feel like this will help the audience connect with the
 Montage people in the documentary. There will also be found footages
 Found footage as it go towards the cutaways.
How you will use lighting: The lighting that I will use is the built-up light in the camera
 Available Light and I will also use any available light that there is but it
 Brightly lit depends on the lighting of the locations.
 Mood lit
Sound: The sounds that I will be using in my documentary are the
 Sync-sound voice over and the use music underneath the voice over and
 Voiceover/music mix the diegetic sound. These is because using music underneath
 Music the diegetic sounds because it breaks it up a bit and make it a
 Sound effects bit more less intense.
Scene Transitions: The scene transition is going to be cut between scenes because
 Cut between scenes it would more to the visual so there isn’t just talking head in
 Cross-fade scenes them.
 Fade to black
 Use captions
Misc: N/A
 Any factors not covered above

Resources Required
Production Factor Item Source Cost Gathered Returned

Locations San Antonio 1 . 20 2 2

PESOS
San ANTONIO 1 This is where the 0000 - -
majority of the
interview would be
shot.
Mandaluyong 0000 - -

Performers JOSE’s mother

Joses father
 Joses neighborhood
Joses sister
Crew Ivana alawi
Coco martin
Julia montes
John Lloyd
Equipment DSLR Camera 600d
Canon Camera X2
Tripod X2

Costume There are no

costume required
because the actors
and interviewees are
going to be providing
it themselves.

Props Note book

Pen

Production Schedule
Stage Done By Client Sign Off Date
Script First Draft
Script Final Draft
Recce Reports
Storyboarding
Shot List
Casting
Permissions
Recording Schedule
Recording
Rough Cut Edit
Fine Cut Edit
Presentation