Radio documentaries

With things going wrong already with my video documentary, I thought I would look into the radio documentary form:

The first radio documentary I found was a recent one from BBC Radio 1 about, former Apprentice star Tre Azam about how he made his first million.

Apprentice guy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/documentaries/081123_myfirstmillion.shtml

Pros:

Cheaper

Less equipment needed

Could be easier to edit

Able to distribute for free at the highest quality online

Cons:

Radio secondary medium so could get overlooked if people are doing other things

If not written/edited well, people could get bored – no pictures to fall back on or progress the narrative

The domestic violence idea would work very well as a radio documentary. All the information could be given using voiceovers and interviews and could be equally as hard hitting – potentially more. Descriptions of terrible acts or injuries would let the audience’s imagination run wild and go add to the power of the documentary. I think a radio documentary could possibly be a “safer bet” as without the images there is a risk (such as bad shots) taken out of the production, though of course there are many things that could go wrong with a radio piece.

Web Page: Clear Browsing History

Those suffering with domestic violence may want to make sure the websites that they are visiting are clear from their browsing history, to make sure that nobody can see what websites they have been looking at.

I have written a guide for various web browsers to guide people who may not know how to do this themselves. A link to this piece will be in a prominent place on every page of the website to make sure the readers are aware of how to erase browsing history for safe browsing.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users

Viewing History

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x users can view their history files by clicking the “Tools” menu, “Internet Options”, clicking the “Settings” button under the Browsing history, and then clicking the “View Files” button.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x users can view their history files by clicking the “Tools” menu, “Internet Options”, clicking the “Settings” button, and then clicking the “View Files” button.

Deleting History

• Microsoft Windows users running Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x and 7.x can delete their history files by clicking the “Tools” menu, “Internet Options”, and clicking the “Delete Files” or “Delete” button. Users also have the option of automatically deleting files each time the close the browser window by clicking the “Advanced” tab and checking “Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed” under the “Security” section.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x users on an Apple Macintosh can delete the history by clicking the “Hard Drive” icon, “System”,  “Preferences”, “Explorer”, and moving the history file into the trash.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 and lower users can delete their history by clicking the “View” menu, “Options”, open the tab “Advanced”, click the “Settings” tab, and click the “Empty Folder” button.

Mozilla Firefox users

Viewing History

Press Ctrl + H to open the left-side history bar.

or

Click History at the top of the window.

or

Users using earlier versions of Mozilla Firefox can also view their history by clicking “Go” and clicking “History.”

Deleting History

Mozilla Firefox users can clear their history by clicking the “Tools” menu, “Options”, clicking the “Privacy” button, and under “History” click the “Clear” or “Clear Now” button.

or

Press CTRL + Shift + DEL to open the Clear Data Window.

Netscape users

Viewing History

Microsoft Windows users can view history by first opening Netscape and click the “Edit” menu, “Preferences”, “History”, and view the location where Netscape is storing your files. Next, open this folder within Explorer.

Deleting History

Netscape users can delete their history files by clicking the “Edit” menu, “Preferences”, “History”, and click the “Clear History” button.

Opera users

Viewing History

Users can view their history files by opening the “cache” folder within their opera folder. Microsoft Windows users can often find this within “C:\Program files\Opera\ .” If you’re unable to locate the cache within this directory try opening the “C:\Documents and Settings\**USERNAME**\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile” folder, where **USERNAME** is the name of the username you use to log into Windows.

Deleting History

Opera users can delete their history by clicking the “File” menu, “Preferences”, “History”, and click “Empty now” button. In addition, users can check “Empty on exit” if they wish for this task to occur each time they exit the browser.

Safari users

Viewing History

Open up your Safari Web browser. Click on the History menu, you should see a list of the last 10 Web sites that you’ve visited, as well as dates representing your browsing history from previous days. Move your cursor over one of the dates in order to view the entire browsing history of that day. Look through your browsing history in order to locate pages that you would like to visit again or delete.

Deleting History

Safari users can delete their history by clicking on the “Edit” menu and choose the “Reset Safari” option, from there you can check what type of data do you want cleared, with the possibility of clearing the whole history, cache, cookies and personal data. After you have chosen the options, press “Reset” and all data will have been cleared.

Dangerous Love

For this year’s Comic Relief celebrations, UK Model Danielle Lloyd (who has suffered from domestic violence herself in the past) starred in a documentary on the subject.

Danielle Lloyd embarks on a journey to uncover the true extent of violence in teen relationships in the UK today. Visiting organisations funded by Comic Relief, Danielle hears the real stories of teenagers who have violent boyfriends. She meets Sam who, having survived violence in her teenage years, is now supporting others, and Danielle’s search for answers also involves going back to school with kids in Hendon to see ground-breaking solutions in action.

This documentary was a great help to me, giving me a fair few tips and tricks in dealing with this subject whilst interviewing a guest and how to approach certain topics into the conversation.

The use of a celebrity also gives the programme a good unique selling point (USP) – the fact that Danielle has gone through domestic violence herself in the past and has gone past this to lead a happy and successful life will give those suffering now inspiration. If they have been too scared in the past to come out and tell someone about it, seeing Danielle and all the other girls getting help may push them to do something about it and stop the vicious domestic violence cycle.

Documentary makers that have influenced me

Although I have a great love for documentaries, I have never had the urge to make any myself over the past 3 years studying Media Production – hopefully my first leap into this genre will be successful when I head towards producing my final project.

There are a few documentary makes I respect greatly and hopefully watching over their films more will give me ideas and influence me to create a good piece in the future.

Louis Theroux

Bit of a clichéd choice for most media students I’ve found, but there’s a reason for that, the guy is a fantastic journalist and documentary maker. The way he can earn the trust of his subjects in these documentaries  is out of this world – his recent series where he is filming gang members in Philladelphia and then Johanasbourg – some of these show of their firearms and admit to murders to Theroux and I believe it is due to his “typical English charm” – they begin to trust him and then sometimes forget they are being filmed. I find he comes across as really “dumb” or “simple” at times, faking naivety to get people to underline really ridiculous things.

Morgan Spurlock

Like many I first heard of Spurlock when seeing his documentary film Super Size Me:

Super Size Me is a 2004 documentary film written, produced, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock’s film follows a 30-day time period (February 2003) during which he subsists exclusively on food and items only purchased from McDonald’s. The film documents this lifestyle’s drastic effects on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. During the filming, Spurlock dined at McDonald’s restaurants three times per day, sampling every item on the chain’s menu at least once. He also super sized his meal every time he was asked. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (1¾ stone, 11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight he gained.

The lengths that Spurlock went to, to prove his point about America – and the world’s – eating habits was outstanding. He put his body and health on the line and though very extreme, it made huge changes in the McDonalds menus (removing the super size options) and way of thinking about food – adding more salads, etc. to the menu.

More work from Spurlock that I admired was a television series he produced, titled 30 Days. In 30 Days, either Spurlock, a friend or a celebrity living a life very different to their own for 30 days. These have included: living on minimum wage, being in prison, a Christian living as a Muslim. Similiarly to Super Size Me – his drive to throw himself full force into these projects has greatly admired me.

It also shows you don’t have to go to massive extremes to create good documentary television, living on minimum wage is a simple idea and very easy to produce and can have a great impact on society also, if the right people see these documentaries and give good backing to a campaign, people with power may rethink how the poor and working class are treated.

Seth Gordon – The King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters

This is a low-budget documentary that I watched earlier this year. A synopsis:

A middle-school science teacher and a hot sauce mogul vie for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong.

In 1982, LIFE Magazine assembled the worlds greatest gamers for a photo shoot that would become the center spread of their 1982 Year-In-Photos edition. Billy Mitchell, who would later be named the Gamer of the Century, was one of the invitees.

Mitchell, the World Record holder on Centipede, had been tracking the score on Donkey Kong, and knew he could take that title as well. In front of the 20 best gamers in the world, Billy scored 874,300 points, a record many thought would never be broken.

In 2003, 35 year old family man Steve Wiebe, after losing his job at Boeing, found solace in Donkey Kong. Steve stumbled upon Billy Mitchells record online, and set out to break it. He began perfecting his game every night after his wife and kids went to bed, and not only surpassed Billys record, but ended up with a thought-to-be-impossible 1,000,000 points.

A tidal wave of media coverage followed, and Steve Wiebe quickly became a celebrity in his hometown of Seattle, WA. He also rediscovered his love for teaching, and regained the respect of all who once doubted him. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, FL, Billy Mitchell hatched a plan to reclaim his fallen Donkey Kong record

In the months that followed, Steve and Billy engaged in a cross-country duel to see who could set the high score that would be included in the 2007 Guinness World Records book and become The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Along the way, both men learned valuable lessons about what it means to be a father, a husband, and a true champion discovering that you dont always need to win to be a winner.

It doesn’t really sound like an interesting subject matter to most, even to me – a self confessed geek – I thought it wouldn’t be that interesting – but I was very much wrong.

It amazed me how serious these men took the rivalry and lengths they go to get the Donkey Kong World Record, but director Gordon does a fantastic job of editing the piece. He adds great tension and Mitchell comes off as one of the great film “baddies” in his arrogance and, at times, desperation trying keep his record.

It is a fantastic way of turning a run-of-the-mill documentary almost into a drama and though I’m not if it’ll be possible with some of my subject matters – I’m wondering if it is something I may try in the future.

Domestic Violence adverts

I’ve found a few domestic violence adverts on youtube:

One:

This clip shows the different ways that domestic violence could take place, not just violence. However, all the cases seem to be aimed against women – no women causing it to men – it makes out the problem is very one dimensional and this is simply not the case. Maybe it would be more appropriate to reverse some of the roles in a few of the scenes.

Two:

This advert I specifically powerful as it gives a different side to the information the audience are receiving. It shows what happens to the person that has commited the crime: in this case, the man has beaten the woman and it has led to him losing his wife and children – it tries to stop this happening before it begins and to warn the man or woman if they start commiting this crime then they may lose everything.

Three:

This one again goes down a different route. Aimed at those who might be aware that domestic violence is happening – and pleading for them to phone the authorities instead of turning a blind eye.

Unfortunately I could not find any videos aimed at helping male victims. I shall keep looking but it is interesting to note, there are many people wanting to help the women but who listens to the men?

Bathroom ad banned for gloryfying domestic violence

While having a browse around the internet, I found this article about an MFI advert being banned as it trivialised domestic violence.

The bathroom ad slap that landed MFI in hot water for ‘trivialising’ domestic violence

A television advert that ‘trivialised’ domestic violence has been banned after a flood of complaints from viewers.

The commercial for MFI shows a couple rowing after the man leaves a toilet seat up.

The woman yells, “You’ve done it again, haven’t you?” before slapping him twice.

[...]

Those who complained – including a victim of domestic violence – described the adverts variously as ‘ offensive, shocking and disturbing’.

The ASA said: “Several found the ads distressing and particularly offensive because they believed they trivialised the issues of child and domestic abuse.”

“The woman’s action of slapping her husband twice as punishment for leaving the toilet seat up gave the impression that aggression and violence enabled people in everyday life to get their own way.

“The scene of domestic violence was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and could be seen to condone intimidation, domestic violence and aggression as an acceptable way to resolve issues.”

Granted, this article was from The Daily Mail but it actually raises a good few points and talks some sense.

Now, is this political correctness gone mad or are they genuinely making light of a horrible crime? Surely, if it was the other way around and a man was slapping/hitting a woman for making a silly little mistake – everybody would be up in arms over what they are seeing – so what’s the difference in a woman slapping a man?

I think the dometic violence companies were correct to make this a big deal as it really shows that people aren’t taking domestic violence towards men seriously and adverts like this would only go on to trivialise it.

Domestic Violence on Television – Eastenders

Probably the most famous case of domestic violence on television of the past few years is the situation on the BBC One soap opera Eastenders.

The character Little Mo was put through a terrible ordeal from her husband Trevor. A brief overview of their story.

The first love of Little Mo’s life was Trevor Morgan. She was a victim of his domestic violence and put up with his severe mood swings. She was extremely frightened of him, as he would beat her for minor things. He mentally manipulated her until her mind was so fragile that she just couldn’t bring herself to leave him, and he would always turn on the charm after hitting her, and she was convinced that she loved him and he felt the same way.

Trevor eventually made her become more isolated from her family who strongly depised Trevor and raped her on the bathroom floor when she told him she was going to her sister, Lynne’s, wedding. On Christmas Day, Trevor shoved Mo’s face in her Christmas dinner and made her eat it off the floor, a scene which attracted huge controversy and complaints from viewers.

On New Year’s Eve, timid ‘doormat’ Little Mo broke out of her shell and attacked Trevor, bashing him repeatedly around the head with an iron when he prepared to attack her. She initially thought he’d died and when she and her sisters returned home, he had gone, with only blood on the door handle as a sign. Mo was prosecuted and imprisoned for attempted murder, released on appeal. Trevor terrorised Mo after she managed to move on and planned to divorce him, but he took her hostage in her house, which accidentally set on fire. Fireman Tom Banks saved Mo, and when he went back in to get Trevor, they were both burned alive.

EastEnders was criticised for being too violent during the domestic violence scenes between this couple, as EastEnders is shown pre-watershed, there were worries that some scenes in this storyline were too graphic for its audience. However Eastenders argued that these scenes just showed the harsh truths that some people are put through. Complaints against the scene where Little Mo’s face was pushed in gravy on Christmas Day were upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Council. However, a helpline after this episode attracted over 2000 calls – showing what a fantastic help these scenes were for the domestic violence cause.

Erin Pizzey, an  international women’s rights figurehead for having started one of the first Women’s Refuges, said that EastEnders had done more to raise the issue of violence against women in one story than she had done in twenty-five years.