Our Documentary Proposal - First Draft

Working title: Tell me a story
Director: Alex Todorov
Camera/ Sound: John Ng
Editor: Bree Pagliuso

The films main focus is about showing an inner world, far removed from most people; it is a small insight into significant lives. The conflict is between the learner and the learning process. I expect the film’s structure to be determined by the subject’s process of learning and their interaction with one another. Ultimately we want the audience to have an understanding of the personalities of the subject that may not be evident upon first glance as some can be quiet shy to begin with. The subject and point of view suggest the style that is unobtrusive, almost an intimate conversation with the subjects. “A fly on the wall” approach.

Our film focuses and follows a class of intellectually disabled students. The subject is “Creative writing and stories”. In this class the students vary in age and ability and of course in personality. Each bringing different elements to the class, and the overall learning process.

The class takes place on a Thursday morning from 9:30 til 11:30, at the CAE collage on Flinders lane. The class in run by Pauline Walker She has been a teacher for 15 years and specializes in teaching young adults with learning disabilities. The class structure includes group activities, watching films and television programs, writing short stories and discussing certain subjects of interest.

Most of the sequences will be observational, an almost “Fly on the wall approach” we believe that the best way to capture our subjects is to allow them to go about their learning in class in a natural way, as if were not there. Sequences within the film will include the students interacting with each other, sharing stories and experiences.

One sequence will take place on an excursion with the students to the Ian Potter art gallery. The exhibition currently ties in with what the students are learning, “Indigenous Art”.
Any symbolic imagery will come out of the process, we’ve chose not to predict what will happen, but let it come naturally. However if there is something in particular that catches our eye, we will follow it and use it. We hope to capture the differences in their learning ability to those of the same age.

The film will also include interviews with specific students, centring on their experiences in learning. Also including their hopes and dreams, and in particular why they come to class to learn. It will focus on their individual quirks and personality.
Shots included will be: close-up of hand, writing, facial expressions, through this we hope to capture the implications of their disability.

At this point in the process we are undecided on which characters to focus on, each student brings different aspects to our film. We are considering all students as main protagonists as we want give perspective of the class, and not single out anyone in particular until we discover each character in depth.

This will help us determine who want to focus on, and whether in fact we want to have a focus. Below is a list of the students.

Debbie - blunt, straight forward. Tends to shy away from the class, doesn’t speak unnecessarily. Wheel chair bound, uses a computer that is hooked up to the white board.
Carrie - Lyn’s best friend. Cheerful. A hobby is watching movies. Not afraid to talk in class.
Robert - Loud, extraverted, works part time as trolley boy at Safe way. Not afraid to voice his opinion, constantly talking over the teacher and other students. A ladies man.
Jenny - wheel chair bound. Quiet and shy. Only really interacts with the teacher.
Frank - class clown, blunt. Swears a lot. Comes up with great one-liners. Likes to be a smart-ally to the teacher.
Lee - nick name “Speedy” for riding his wheel chair fast. Works part time selling newspapers on the corner of flinders street. Loves “The Rolling stones”. The oldest member of the class.
Mark - Autistic, quiet and reserved. But very intelligent.
Danny - plays basketball, coy and shy. Sits next to Mark, pleasant and very polite.
Michael - working cleaning microphones in a sound studio. Loves music. Cheerful.
James - wants to be apart of the action, but is a bit reserved.
Lyn - has been studying of 15 years at CAE. Loves to talk and is more than willing to be apart of the film. Asks lots of questions. Takes on the mother figure of the group.
Martin - nervous, quiet, yet seemed interested in the filming process. Articulate. Works with his computer.

The conflict is between the learner and their ability to learn. From an outsiders perspective we see the struggle they face with simple tasks, which they themselves don’t recognize. What we’ve come to understand is that we are faced with the issue of being respectful and understanding of their needs. We don’t want to be patronising in any way. We have realised there is a fine line between using our subjects as experiments, rather we need to focus on their personalities and show they are humans and ought to be respected just like any one else.

This film will show, how there is no difference in people when learning is involved. We are all given the right to learn, no matter what our ability is. The core of our film is based on this premise. Everybody has a right to learn if they are willing to grasp the opportunity, no matter what hurdle stands in their way.

Our motivation comes from being socially conscious individuals, with a passion for learning and people. We each are interested in the individual and how and individual fits within a group of individuals. It is the communication and interaction between people, which our films focus, is on. We want to be responsible media practitioners portraying people in a respectful way. None of us suffer learning disabilities, and we have a passion to understand and learn about their hardships. It’s a window into a life that we are far removed from.

Our indented audience is anyone who is interested in the quirks of personalities and how learning affects and enlightens different people. There are no expectations from our audiences only that they are respectful of our subjects and their experiences. We can expect some negative prejudices regarding their disabilities. Yet in saying that, we know that our audience will find a positive from our film, they too will take from our subjects what we have begun to and that is, how a learning disability may shape your learning process but not the entire person. There is so much more to these people than their disability.

To camera Interviews
Were considering both Lyn and Rob to be our main protagonists, but as we said above we haven’t decided how were going to approach our main characters as we have twelve very eager participants with very interesting individual personalities and stories to tell.

Lyn - Has been studying for 15 years at CAE. Loves to talk amongst her classmates and is more than willing to be apart of the film. Asks lots of questions. She seems to take on role as the mother figure within the class. She studies three days a week. And lives in the suburb of Chadstone.

Robert - Studies three days a week on his days off he works part time as trolley boy at Safeway. He is loud and extraverted and is not afraid to voice his opinion in class; he is constantly talking over the teacher and other students. It is also clear that he is a ladies man.

Style
Our shooting style will be observational; we will be observing our subjects in their everyday lives. We will most likely use a hand held camera for a natural effect. Our interviews will preferably be an intimate conversation with subject rather than question and answer, and it’s less obtrusive and will allow for the students to express themselves at their own pace. Our hope is to feel as though we are part of the class.

Tone
The mood is light hearted, we are defiantly avoiding being hard going as were not physiologists or professionals or familiar with these disabilities and want to be careful with how we portray the students. We certainly don’t want to imply we are more able than our subjects. Our desire is to show the positives of their experiences within the class and outside.

Structure
We are still working on how we want to approach the structure, as we feel there is no beginning, middle and end to our story. However we’ve decided that the theme of storytelling, will tie the film sequences together, either through voice over, or with the students on camera reading their own story. We want individual introductions of the students but in an informal style.

The learning process and journey will structure the film. Important information will emerge through individual interviews as well as the interaction in class.

Resolution
There is no physical ending to our film, these are people’s lives and their learning will continue beyond our short film. Perhaps the only resolution will be our journey as film makers. We hope to continue our relationship and film with the students as we can imagine it as a full length feature.