Pre-Production: Show Research (School For Stars)

Show Research: School For Stars

As part of my research for this project I watched and researched in to shows that had similar content and inspired me to produce this series. One of those shows (and one of the biggest inspirations for this series) was the CBBC show School for stars. This show aired on the children’s BBC channel CBBC back in 2009, it focussed on one of England’s leading full time performing arts academy’s, namely London’s Italia Conti. This show expressed a lot of similar themes to what I have planned.

It followed students over several months as they either started at the school for the first time, or began to take their first major exams at the school. Being a BBC show it did not have any add breaks and ran for almost a full 30 minuets. This is something I will have to work around when planning my show. But being longer in length each episode tended to follow between 3 to 4 contributors per episode, using narration to explain their stories. Most of the show was made up of actuality guided by narration. It took a very observative point of view and the students rarely interacted with the camera. When they did it felt quite natural as if they were just airing their thoughts and feelings aloud rather than talking to someone behind the camera. While I definitely think this is a motif that I want to keep in my documentary (the idea of observatory non interactive/invasive filming) I do think that the show missed out on some valuable exposition. I think the lack of structured interviews meant we didn’t connect to the characters as much as we possibly could have done. But to make sure I keep the ni=on invasive feel in my documentary series I will ensure that interviews take place at a sperate enclosed location and are almost completely separate from the main filming, just edited in to provide further context of characters actions.

Going back to the narration briefly I think this was one of the most effective parts of the series. It acted as a guide to the viewer, providing us with valuable information not given by the contributors and introduced us to each scene with effective set up. The series was narrated by Reggie Yates a well known personality that has worked on several series before. In my series I absolutely want to keep it narration led as a presenter would feel to obtrusive and out of place, using a well known narrator that audiences are familiar with is also an interesting idea that I will consider.

As mentioned each episode tended to follow between 3 to 4 contributors, as the series progressed it would revisit some of the contributors seen in earlier episode to update the audience on their progress and reconnect us with them. This is something that has the potential to appear in my series but it would likely come very late in the series (maybe even the last episode), since due to the scheduling and structure of my series this is when the majority of development would occur with most contributors.

The cinematography of this series was interesting. Despite using a lot of hand held shots, mostly the camera operators would assign themselves to one place/corner in the room where they would observe classes and contributors from. Using mostly zooms or camera switches to change the shot framing and get us close to the contributors. Although it still told the same story as it would have done otherwise, I do wonder if more movement with the cameras actively moving to follow contributors rather than panning, would have helped us connect with them better. This is why I think a fixed camera set up will be best for my series. We can cover multiple angles at the same time easily switching between framing and shots to follow the contributors and action through the locations no matter how quickly it changes.

The editing in this series was also effective. It kept a consistent pace and was able to merge several months of filming in to just a few episodes without it feeling rushed. The choice of editor is key for the success of a show like this. They need to be competent and understand the subject matter to narrow down the most important parts of a story.

Overall I think there is a lot to learn from this series, they way it takes an observational stance, revisits its contributors and creates an entertaining and educational view in to the world of performing arts. It makes sure to pick contributors that an audience can relate to and that provide gripping stories that will impact even people who know little about the performing arts world. Despite simplifying some things are skipping over some details to compensate for its younger audience it was definitely successful. I hope I can take a lot of these aspects and build upon them in my series.