Documentary Project - Treatment 1

Poetic Exploration

The documentary will be approached as an informal device that will explore the city of Liverpool as a place to live. In life you want to explore and find out which place best suits you as a person, and it's a massive decision to make the move, we will aim to give people insight into the city Liverpool. What makes this startlingly different to the generic norm will be the way we convey these themes through a poeticism.

The narrative will be primarily driven by a poetic Voiceover recorded in post-production, with a presenter introducing the concept and summarising the findings, having a defined beginning, middle and end. The main element of the documentary will then take a holistic approach, taking into account the diverse range of things on offer in Liverpool. Including the rich areas of cultural heritage, juxtaposed with the raw edge of Liverpool, which having been labelled the most deprived city in England proves that there is a story to be told. Exploring the best and the worst, so that the audience can gain an unbiased insight and make their own decision on how they perceive such place. Therefore, we will be taking into account the scenes of music, art, culture and maritime history, as well as the problems with gun crime, poverty and mass unemployment. The way in which we do this is what is going to really bring this idea to life.

We will take a poetic approach, seeing how time of day can change the atmosphere of a place, be it a hustling crowd, a darkened street, or the silence of sunrise, interjected with the natural birdsong. The sound plays a major part in portraying these differing atmospheres, utilising dynamic range to engage the viewer combined with moments of silence. Bringing deep meaning and sensual feeling to the documentary, developing the genre away from flat faced facts, breaking from convention. This specific stylistic choice is utilised so as to match the rich cultural heritage of the city.

The target audience for this documentary is going to be fairly broad, though our main aim is to give insight into the city which may appeal to younger audiences who want to travel and find out where they want to live. Using the poetic approach we hope to make it more accessible to none documentary viewers. We envisage this as a short film available to view online figuratively speaking making money through advertising. Due to its unbiased nature it wouldn’t be utilised as advertising for the city of Liverpool.