Research presentation - Babies having Babies (Chanel Akinwande)

 Babies having Babies

 

Why such a downer on teenage pregnancy?

• A teenager expecting a baby is a bad thing. Or so you would believe if you ever read the news.
• It is proclaimed that the UK's rate of pregnancies in females aged15-19 makes it the "worst"in Europe.
• This is certainly the government's view. The stated goal of its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy is to "halve the under-18 conception rate by 2010, and establish a firm downward trend in the under-16 rate".            (Image)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7595871.stm 
• Pregnant teenagers receive negative reactions, she says. "The initial response was one of horror and shame and it made the kids feel terrible. They meet prejudice on every single corner. Going down the road looking pregnant, people looking at them in a hateful way

Government target 

•  Although the number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales fell in 2008, the government is highly unlikely to meet its 1999 pledge to halve teenage pregnancies in England by 2010
•  Figures from the Department of Children, Schools and Families show rates in England are down by just 13.3% from 1999 to 2008
• The government allocated £260m to reducing teenage pregnancy and, in 2009, ministers announced an extra £20.5m funding package for contraception resources. 

Teenage pregnancy rates

• The number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales has fallen by 4%, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• A total of 41,325 women under 18 fell pregnant in 2008, down 3.9% from 42,988 in 2007, the figures show. Of these young women 49% had an abortion, compared with 50% in 2007
• The national target for teenage pregnancy reduction is: reduce by 20% the pregnancy rate (per 1000 population) in under 16 year olds from 8.5 in 1995 to 6.8 in 2010.

Pregnancy in Barking & Dagenham

• Barking & Dagenham is still higher than the London Average in contraception rate
• In 2006, a Sex Relationship and Education (SRE) survey was conducted in secondary schools indicating that almost 50% of pupils were dissatisfied with the amount of curriculum time dedicated to SRE
• 49% had poor awareness of where to access free contraception, compared to fewer than 5% having higher knowledge on contraception/sexual health service.
• There were a lower percentage of young people receiving information on sex and relationships from their parents.
• The local data indicated that majority of fathers were under the age of 18, the youngest was 15 years old.  It was identified that some of the fathers were youth offenders

Conclusion

• We can conclude that teenage pregnancy rate has fallen during the years however the   rates are still high.
• The government aim to reduce teenage pregnancy and announced an extra £280.5m funding package for contraception resources.
• So why such a downer on teenage pregnancy? Some people feel the government spend way too much money on contraception, to prevent teenage pregnancies.
• Why do we have the worst underage pregnancy in Europe? Is it because the poor awareness and knowledge on contraception/sex/sexual health service.

Week 3 update (Rebecca Ogunmola)

In week three we started filming , our first interviewee was the pregnancy adviser,we filmed her scene from two different angles just to be on the safe side in case one of them were incorrect. We also log and captured our footage and started on the editing of our documentary. We did research into our subject matter and next week we plan organise other interviews,start on the script and research into ways we can engage our target audience, and make our documentary and blog presentable.

Primary & Secondary Research (Chanel Akinwande)

Primary research is collected for a particular purpose and is new information. This is conducted using some means of questioning usually via a survey or intervews, or then information can be gathered through observation.  As a group we spent time planning and gathering primary research; we produced interviews, questionnaire and documentary analysis.
Secondary research gathers information which has already been collected. our project aalso consists of secondary research ; rules of thirds, documentary modes, theorists etc
We believe it is important that our doucmentary consists of both research types as we dont want to our doumentary to be based on only our knowledge and opinion but on facts figures and case studies aswell.

Media theorist (Chanel Akinwande)

John Grierson

He was the first to coin the term ‘Documentary’. He did so in a review of Robert Flaherty’s film, Moana (1925). He indicated the ability of the medium to literally produce a visual document of a particular event. He saw in the genre the ideal way to explain to people how complex modern societies functioned. By dramatising the issues and spelling out their implications, Grierson believed the documentary film maker could enable people to play a full part in the democratic process. He was a prime mover of the British documentary movement of the 1930’s and both directed and produced documentaries whilst working first for the empire Marketing Board and then The GPO unit. 

       We chose to study Grierson as we believe he related to our documentary. Our documentary dramatise the issue of teenage pregnancy, these are issues complex modern societies deal with. We wanted to raise awareness of these teenage pregnancy by creating a visual document, which is similar to Grierson's theories.

Documentary code and conventions (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Documentaries are seen as a non-fictional re-presentation of reality, using codes and conventions to portray it.  Documentaries are usually shot on location, use actual persons rather than actors, and focus thematically on historical, scientific, social, or environmental subjects. Their principle purpose is to enlighten, inform, educate, persuade, and provide insight into the world in which we live.

Voice Over- the voice over will usually be authoritative in some way, encouraging the audience to think that they are either have some kind of specialist knowledge or 'right options' people should pay attention to.

Graphics- such as text are used as another way of conveying a message to the audience in a easier,quicker and effective way.

Sound- Non-diegtic sound is used within documentaries as a bridge between scenes and also to bring an effect to whats being shown within the documentary.

  
Visual coding- Mise- en- scene and props are important in setting the right tone and image of the documentary.

Modes of Documentaries (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Documentary mode is a scheme developed by documentary theorist Bill Nichols that wanted to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles. Nichols identifies six different documentary 'modes' in his schema: poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, and performative. While Nichols' discussion of modes does progress chronologically with the order of their appearance in practice, documentary film often returns to themes and devices from previous modes. Therefore, it is inaccurate to think of modes as historical punctuation marks in an evolution towards an ultimate accepted documentary style. Also, modes are not mutually exclusive. There is often significant overlapping between modalities within individual documentary features. As Nichols points out, “the characteristics of a given mode function as a dominant in a given film…but they do not dictate or determine every aspect of its organization.” (Nichols 2001)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_mode

The Poetic Mode
It reassembles fragments of the world, transforming historical material into a more abstract, lyrical form, usually associated with the 1920s and modernist ideas, especially those of Grierson.

The Expository Mode
It directly addresses to the audience, social issues are assembled into an argumentative frame, mediated by a voice-of-God narration, associated with 1920s-1930s, and some of the rhetoric and polemic surrounding WW2.

The Observational Mode

As technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, life could be documented in a less intrusive manner, less control was required over lighting, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other, sometimes this is called 'direct cinema', this mode aspires to invisibility.

The Participatory Mode

In this mode the encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them, in this mode the documentary film maker is clearly visible.

The Reflexive Mode
This mode demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the judgements they arrive at, this was popular in the 1980s.

The Performative Mode
Documentaries of this type acknowledge the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people, often autobiographical in nature, a contemporary mode that could be associated with post-modernism. 

http://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html

Our documentary covers a variety of documentary modes; to start with our documentary has aspects of the performative mode as it acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspect of the subject matter, it presents ideas as part of the context, we have views from different kinds of people, our documentary doesn’t persuade the audience to have a certain opinion, the audience are able to choose themselves what their view may be about the subject matter.

It also has aspects of the expository mode as it addresses the audience directly with social issues which could be argued as either positive or negative.

Aspects of the poetic mode can be seen in our documentary as shows how the number of teenage pregnancy has transformed rapidly over the years.

And also reflexive mode as it engages with realistic issues and acknowledges the presences of the viewer as it allows it targets different people with different opinions and allows them to see different views on the subject matter and may change the way they view the issue.

Research Into Documentary Genre (Prescilla Nyemba)

Like films there are different genres in documentries. There are a number of different ways you can approach a particular subject and the way you approach it will give your documentary a different feel. There are documentries such as observational which follows a "fly-on -the-wall" approach. This technique focuses on observing different subjects in typical, everyday situations. This can also fall under the realistic/original catigory because it includes everyday people, in other words non actors.
    Documentaries in general are separated from fictional films because the majority of them like observational ones portray real life situations and issues so it can create awareness to the audience. Other documentaries also set out to entertain the audience. These documentaries are usually reality television which are based on a television programme or unscripted, dramatic or humorous situations. However when it comes to documentaries the main aim is to put an opinion or theory across to the. This all relies on the authenticity audience. 
    The way documentaries convey information can also alter peoples opinions and attitudes towards particulars topics. Altering the audiences opinions and attitudes weather the documentary is to entertain or inform isn't an easy job. So the way the information is put across to the audience it important. When it comes to a documentary the are many purposes. A simple recording of events such as a home video or polemic texts that arouse argumentative views such as the controversial Bowling For Columbine can both be put in the category of being a documentary.  It's crucial that the audience sees the purpose early on to decode the text differently to fictional narratives. This also enhances the importance of the title its self.    

Examples Of Correct Interview Frames (Prescilla Nyemba)

Frame 1

Frame 2

Frame 3

Rule of Thirds (Prescilla Nyemba)

The most frequently used way of directing the veiwer's eye to the centre of interest in a picture is by simply following the rules of thirds. The idea of rule of thirds is to imagine that your frame is split into nine equal sections, by two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. Placing your subject or something that is key in your scene near a point where the lines cross, leads your veiwers eye through the image. It also gives it a more balenced composition.   


The picture's shown below will help us frame the interviewees and at the same time allow the audience to be engaged. The rule of thirds will stop the audience from being sidetracked  making them more aware of the interviewee on screen and nothing else.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Week 2 (Chanel Akinwande)

In Week 2, we allocated individual roles to each member of the group. We all did research; Rebecca researched on the documentary modes, Chanel researched on primary and secondary data and media theorist and Prescilla researched about the documentary genre, rule of thirds and examples of interview frames. We started to draw up potential interviewees and tried to organise interviews. Next week we aim to film at least 1 interview and go into more research about our subject matter.

Storyboard (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Documentary Proposal (Prescilla Nyemba)

Documentary Proposal

Responsibilities (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Responsibility

Group Roles (Chanel Akinwande)

Name - Prescilla Nyemba
Age - 18
Role - Sound, Director
Prescilla chose to take on the role as the sound person because she felt she had the skill to choose sounds that is relevant to our documentary and be able to put it into our timeline.



Name - Chanel
Age - 18
Role - Editor, Director
Chanel chose to take on this role as the editor because she felt she had the skill to be able to log and capture footage and be able to capture footage we want into our time line.



Name  - Rebecca
Age - 18
Role - Camera person, Director
Rebecca chose to take on this role as the camera person because she felt she had the skill and the technique to capture footage. She believe as she could include the rules of thirds while she was filming interviews.


As a group we all decided to take on this role as the director because we felt it was a huge role and we believed we could put together ideas for the documentary. As a group we could arrange how the documentary should be composed.

Brainstorm (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Week 1 update (Chanel Akinwande)

As a group we discussed what our documentary could potentially be about and came up with 'children of today growing up too fast' we spoke to our teacher about it and said the subject was too broad, that we had to focus on a specific topic. After putting up some suggestions we decided to base our documentary about teenage pregnancy. We discovered what we wanted to talk about and now had to decide what question the documentary will answer or inform, we came up with 'How society view teenage pregnancy.' Next week we aim to go on to research documentary modes, documentary genre and documentary codes and conventions.