Initial ideas that one has are usually those that anyone would have, so prepare to reject the obvious. This is an important habit if you are to refine subjects so they become compelling. Try asking yourself:
- What is this subject's underlying significance to me?
- What do most people already know, and what don't they know?
- What would I-and most people-really like to discover?
- What is usual and interesting about it?
- Where is its specialness really visible?
- How narrowly (and therefore how deeply) can I focus my film's attention?
- What can I show (as opposed to narrate)?
(Directing the Documentary)
Over the summer our group (Jemma, Myself and Gavin) developed our starting idea of going to America to meet 'Desmond is Amazing' and do a full doc on kids doing drag.
Through out this whole process I had consistent communication with Desmond's mother who was very excited about the project. We also had 'Drag Queen Story Time NYC' (an organisation of Drag Queens who go to schools and read stories to kids with the intention of teaching them about gender and LGBT people), as a contributor.
I also had contact with the American and UK embassy help lines to find the best visa for us. I was also in communication with people to help sort out a Carnet for our kit.
Due to funding issues and an inability to get a visa in time though we were unable to go through with this idea fully and had to email all our U.S. contacts that we were unable to come interview them.
We then decided that we could still do a documentary about kids doing drag in the UK. I emailed Jamie Campbell (a teenage boy who had been refused the right to go to prom because he wanted to go in drag)Link to article, Violet Vixen (who appeared on loose women) and Lewis Bailey (who wasn't allowed to enter a school talent show because he wanted to do drag) Link to article.
We weren't able to do this angle as participants weren't reliable in replying and were gaining more attention from mainstream media potentially making the doc angle unoriginal.
Our next angle would look at misrepresentation in media, looking at examples of Bisexual characters in TV dramas, "Things still aren’t perfect. TV still depicts some bisexual women as fast and loose, and they are more likely to end up dead than is statistically reasonable. As for bisexual men ... well, they still barely exist onscreen" - ('How bisexuality on TV evolved from a favourite punchline to a vital storyline' https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/5/16/17339992/bisexual-representation-tv-callie-rosa-darryl)
I contacted a Youtuber named Noah Finnce (Link to Channel)to present the doc that would bring his following to our audience, Noah is a trans man who documents his life online.
I also emailed a lot of Youtubers who had large established followings and were representing themselves, Dodie - Bisexual (Link to Channel) and Rose and Rosie (Link to Channel) were among a few of them.
We also got in contact with the a representative for a Nursery who organises Drag Queens from the company 'Drag Queen Story Time' (Link to website) to come talk to children about gender.
Who were very interested in taking part in the filming.
The reason we didn't go with this idea is because there wasn't a clear angle to go down for the story and contributors weren't consistent in replying.
The next idea was to look at Drag in education. Jemma found the contact Dr Ellie Barnes and I went on to email her, she is the founder and chief exec of the charity 'Educate and Celebrate'. She was very interested in taking part in filming and was keen to hear what we had to say. We would also use the Drag Queen Story time organiser in an interview.
The reason we didn't do this was due to inability to get access to schools, there was no clear narrative to follow and access to the actual organisation of 'Drag Queen Story Time' wasn't possible.
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