Production Practice Treatment - Factual Piece

Production Practice Factual Piece Treatment

For my treatment I would like to present the idea of using the new Liverpool Museum to do a factual piece on. A working title for the film would be ‘The Museum of Liverpool: A New Era’. I thought of this idea in relation to the other project that we are doing on the Media Professional Studies course; in Creativity and Concept, we have been asked to design a new exhibit for this museum. I thought that doing a factual piece on the museum would be an insight in to one of Liverpool’s most recent builds. We would also be able to present the history of Liverpool through the exhibits.

I have sent an email to the museum through the website enquiring about filming and I am not awaiting a reply. Here is a screen shot of the email that I have sent to them. I have looked in to different people that we could interview and it is difficult to find names of the mangers/owners of the building and so I will have to find this out through the email contact.

What I was thinking is that the film could set the scene of the building and talk about the actual architecture of the building first, the site, etc. This would set the scene for viewers and show why we have the new museum (old Liverpool Life Museum closed in 2006). We could then enter the museum and look at the various exhibits and artefacts inside. Of course we would look at getting those who work on the museum floor to talk about the exhibits as they would know most about them because they show the public around.

I think that the short film would be educational for those who have not been to the museum yet and it could encourage visitors when it goes on YouTube/Facebook/Tumblr/etc.

I picture the film having short interview shots of the people that we are going to interview surrounded by footage of inside and outside the museum. Again, because our group usual get a lot of footage when on location, I think that it wouldn’t be a problem as we usual make sure we get footage of everything possible; this way we have more to work with and will have different styles of shots.

As I have been to the museum before, I know what exhibits are inside. We would have beautiful shots of the main artefacts such as an old train carriage and also The Beatles famous suits in a glass case. We would be able to get close ups of some artefacts because they are not in cases; and shots of the whole museum floor would be nice as well because they are well lit.

Giving the fact that the museum is called The Museum of Liverpool, we would need shots of Liverpool itself to establish the scene. Therefore, I think that shots of the Liver Buildings and the Docks would be nice from the actual windows of the museum. The views are magnificent from the windows as you are quiet high up when looking out in to the city.

I would like to get employees of the museum to interview, especially those who know about the buildings itself and also the exhibits inside. This would give us all the information about the museum that we need. I think that it would be a clever idea to interview people who are visiting the museum; of course this would be something that we take a day separate to do. This would just be a case of standing somewhere with a nice background, and waiting for willing participants. This would give the viewer a feel for what the general public think about the new museum.

I would like to enquire about any archive footage/images of the museum being built for the beginning of our film. I have searched the internet for such images but haven’t been able to source any. Asking the museum itself would be a good idea because they would have an archive that we can also refer to in the credits rather that an internet site.

The location is easy for the whole group to get to as we have filmed around that area before (the docks). We would probably meet at the screen school to pick equipment up, if not we could meet at the location if one person is taking the equipment. I believe that we have enough time to cover the story, as long as we get the permission to film. If the schedule becomes tight, then the group could split in to two and go to different areas of the museum to film if we book out two cameras.

I would like the story to flow through the museum in this order:

·        Outside the museum (establishing shots) in the morning time

·        People entering the museum as it opens (maybe a time lapse)

·        Working through each exhibit from the ground up

·        Progression throughout the day, as if in real time (morning onwards)

·        Shots when speaking about the museum itself of Liverpool (near beginning, again establishing)

Because the museum is a large organisation, I we get times for interviews and filming, I know that they will be reliable as they would have to fit us in to a schedule. If we were filming somewhere that was independent, however, this would not be the case.

I personally am interested in this idea because the history of Liverpool is very interesting to those who have not read about/seen about it before. We will be able to look at the museum from the inside and out and I find location shooting very interesting and fun to do (like our last assignment about the fireman).

As a back-up plan, in case we are not allowed to film at the museum, I was thinking about the Echo Arena as this has the same sort of ‘new build’ aspect to it. I have emailed the Echo Arena also to see what their response would be. Here is a screen shot of that email.

Speak soon!