Concept 1 – Migration story –

It was during the Yugoslav wars; my mother was in her late teens in a small town in Bosnia. During the early 90s there were a series of ethnic conflicts, wars of independence and insurgencies, making it unsafe for the people. This led to the dilemma of leaving the country and her family to start a new life and giver her children and herself a better future or stay in an unsafe war-torn country. So, my mother and Father left Bosnia to go to Australia, a brand-new country not knowing the language or the people and having no plan. I would like to explore her migration story and what influenced her decisions and what sort of emotions she was feeling.

Location

Most of the shots would be around my house and back yard making it a much more comfortable and personal environment.

I would like to use old archival footage of what Yugoslavia looked like before while she is describing it in the background.  And also use cuts/montages of old photos of my mother and family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIk752_5G4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6JGvry-o5M

Concept 2- Increased pollution within Melbourne- 

Point of view

People who live with in Melbourne who aren’t aware of the pollution increase around them and the people who are conscious with what is occurring.

What will be explored

I would like to explore the ideas of how people witness the increase of pollution around them but do nothing or even cause more pollution without being conscious of what they are doing has a negative impact on everybody around them.

Who and what will be put in the film

I would like to find someone who is all about recycling and pro green and does not contribute to the pollution and get their point of view on the issue not being tackled. With this said I’d use cuts and have montages of rubbish in Melbourne all over the ground and the people just mindlessly being oblivious to the rubbish on the ground. Furthermore, to make juxtaposition ill use what Melbourne looked like when the pollution wasn’t that bad with archival footage too what it looks like now in order to evoke emotions with in the audience. Building on from this, I would like to get the point of view from someone on the other side of the spectrum, someone who does not care about the increase or is not even aware and get there take on the issue.

Reflection

The Idea that I would take forward would be my Mothers migration story, as it is much more of a powerful message and has more meaning and impact than the ‘increase in pollution’ idea. And because it a personal story, I can explore much more in depth and find out every little detail which may help other people who are able to relate but not communicate their message to people. So, the advantages of the ‘migrant’ story compared to the ‘increased pollution’ story that stand out the most would be; the message and idea being too broad for my second concept and because of that I would find it difficult to communicate the message to audiences with out any misunderstandings. However, for the first concept the story and message will be straightforward and concise, the point of view will be clear through out and will much easier to film as it is my Mothers story being told. Furthermore, my knowledge on the ideas are important when it comes to planning what to film and information I want to put out in the documentary. So, researching would be much more difficult for the second concept as it is such a big topic to cover and a lot of information will be needed and known prior to filming the documentary and this will be too time strenuous. However, for the first concept, I have prior knowledge of the issue and the story being told as it is a personal topic, so I won’t need to do too much of research other than finding out a bit of the history during the time period of when the events took place. Meaning the creating of the documentary will be less time consuming. Basically, overall the ‘Migration’ story has more advantages and will a more effective piece in terms of impact and communicating a meaningful message to my audience compared to the other concept. How I came to developing the first concept was during a conversation I was having with my mother about her child hood and how her and my father met and ended up in Australia. And that is how she told me the story about the ‘Yugoslav war’ and how she migrated to ‘Australia’ and the different challenges and decisions she had to face in between her journey.

My plan for shooting a 3-5 min documentary:

The reason I want to make this documentary is because in my own little way I want to engage an audience and try to make an impact or difference. I like to tell stories of people who are inspiring and that inspire me to communicate their message and spread it to the people who want to watch/listen. The influence that documentary has to not only entertain but to educate, motivate and, create meaningful social change.

The story is a young girls’ journey of escaping the Yugoslav war and seeking a better future and more opportunities in a new country.

I have a basic structure and guideline of how I want the documentary to go. I would like it to start with my mother saying an emotional line about the war in Bosnia which she talks about later in the documentary. Then to start of her explaining what happened during that time period of the war and id like to fade it into archival footage of how Bosnia looked like during the war as she describes it and then use a close up of her explaining her story. And zoom in as she explains why she went with her decisions she made and then have a montage of old family photos as she describes and talks about family so the audience have something to connect to while she talks. And then get her to talk about why she decided to go to Australia and how she coped when she first came and how it was for a foreigner in Australia at the time not knowing the language and what she did to get to where she is now.

My shooting style will be a lot of close ups and zoom ins, keeping it personal and emotional all through out.

My potential interview subjects would be my Mother as it is her story and point of view, but also id like to include my father as he was there with her through out it all, so can get good insight and extra little details for more depth to the story and a breathe of fresh air using a different person rather than just one.