Formal proposal

Topic
Body Image/Appearance

Type of documentary
Mixed

Style of documentary:
Informal/informative/entertaining/ short sequenced fast paced.

Channel:
Channel 4


Scheduling:
Tuesday, 8pm


Target Audience:
Young Adults: 17-24 years old


Primary research:
Questionnaires

Interviews: Person who has had a gastric band, Nail technician, Sun bed technician , Hair Dresser, Pregnant woman, make-up counter person, Gym person, Doctors surgery
Vox pop – Who has your ideal body shape?

Vox pop - Pete Burns beauty?



Locations for filming:
Hair dressers, Salon, Liverpool One, Shops – Debenhams/New Look/H&M/Dorothy Perkins/River Island/Topman/G Star Raw/Evans/Republic, Make-up counter – Debenhams, Doctors, Gym-Total Fitness, Office Building, Mac Donald’s, Tesco, MAC

Props/make up items.


Secondary research:

Magazines, Newspapers, internet research, relevant TV programmes, still photographs, music, and official statistics.


Narrative structure:
Open, single strand and non-linear

Outline of content:
- Vox Pop – which celebrity has your ideal body shape? – Liverpool One
- Interview with a nutritionist over weight and healthy eating
- Interview with a plastic surgeon on the procedures young people are getting
- Interview with a person who works in a sunbed shop to see the types of people who come in
- Interview with a beautician to see what people want done and why and if it makes them feel better on their way out
- Interview with someone who has had a gastric band and why she felt the need to change her appearance dramatically
- Interview with: Pete Burns, Beth Ditto, Christina Hendricks, and Cheryl Cole as to how it feels to be in the public eye and why they’ve changed their appearance
- Interview a young person on how they view beauty and body appearance today and then contrast it with an old person on how beauty used to be defined
- People putting make up on or having it done in a department store
- Extracts from TV programmes: “Gok Wan: How to look good naked”, “Supersize vs. Superskinny”, “10 years younger”, “You are what you eat”.
- Film a boyband getting ready for a concert and contrast it with a girlband e.g. The Saturdays and JLS
- Film the different types of celebrity diet plans e.g. the baby food diet, or the apple diet or people trying them
- History of male and female body types and how they have changed in time and through place
- Film people going in and out of shops
- Montage shop names
- Film a cosmetic aisle in Boots or Superdrug
- Film a make up counter in MAC
- Magazine articles on celebrity diets fluctuating such as Natalie Cassidy
- Extracts from fashion week to see the size of the models, any plus size models?
- Contrast a male and female pin up calendar to compare the stereotypes of an “ideal” body image
- Discuss why there are only ever women on page 3, does it pressurise girls to look a certain way?


Resource requirements:
Tripod, digital video camera, microphone, computer with Adobe Premier and Photoshops