Documentary Unit | Preparing the Pitch

The Idea

I was placed in a group consisting of Alex Baldwin and George Nicholls. Formally the group also included Ethan Collins however he has since decided to leave the course for his own reasons.

Essentially we immediately settled on the topic of weight loss, or more widely the perceptions of one's own aesthetic, based on the examples that are held up through society as role models, whether this is a good or bad thing, and how it has changed over the past decade or so. We are aware that our pitches are coming up soon (Wednesday 22nd March) and we have to be able to successfully present a sound idea to both our unit leader Helen and the visiting lecturer on the topic - Zoe.

As it stands we have a working idea in our heads as to how this will work and are in the process of arranging interviews with qualified nutritionists as well as those who have taken part in boot camp programmes often labelled by the media as 'fat camps'. We believe that this will provide an important contrast in terms of what is accepted within society and what is actually achievable. E.g. emphasis on existing norms where models are deliberately and purposefully lit in a specific way in order to accentuate unnatural shapes and aspects of one's physique, not to mention the widespread manipulation of digital media through the use of various image editing softwares such as Adobe Photoshop & Picasa.

I genuinely look forward to being able to present this idea to Helen and Zoe on Wednesday and figuring out where to go from here.