Pre-production

DOCUMENTARY FILM TREATMENT

The working title of your documentary. This one’s essential.

How to become a film nerd

Logline. Explain what your story’s about in a couple of lines.

Include modes

Its about my journey to become a film nerd, developing a deep understanding and engaging myself in the wider film community online. I am somewhat of a film noob, who hasn't watched a lot of the classic, cult movies, so that is my aim in this project.

Performative mode

Explanation of act one. Where are we? What’s this documentary about? Who are the main characters? What do they want?  What’s the setup?

Start off by explaining my situation and my goal. Starts off with a piece to camera that explains I have never watched a lot of classic films, and list them off. Mention that I am going on to study filmmaking with the goal of creating my own films in the future, I also need to introduce myself as a character. Then I need to set out my plan and what I am trying to investigate. I will also give a brief explanation of film, history and the industry, anything that is relevant. Do an interview with an expert about what makes a film nerd and who will give me advice on how to become one. Give an overview of where I am, maybe through a powerpoint presentation and show the state of my letterboxed. Set out the steps of my process, the guide I have created.

Explanation of act two. What’s the conflict? Where’s the story going?

Conduct the steps of the guide I have created. Do regular vlogs about what I am getting up to, how it is going. Do interviews at different stages depending on what I need to find out to help me on my journey. Watch the top 10 films of all time, doing a short bit on each one at different stages, including logging reviews on letterboxed. Its a chronological process, which is shown through the order of the footage. Alongside I need to explain a concept, investigate a part of it maybe like 'what is the greatest film of all time?, getting behind the camera for this part and interviewing people, maybe do an on-location shoot with an interview.

Explanation of act three. How does the documentary reach a resolution? What’s the climax?

Give my findings and thoughts from the experience. Interview with expert of a fan about the experience/subject matter or maybe do a check up interview with the expert that I consulted at the start for them to evaluate my process and ask them whether they think I have became a film nerd.

Final wrap-up. Where do we leave the ‘characters’? What happens at the very end? Is there an epilogue? (a final or concluding event)

Pick my four favourite films on Letterboxed, give final thoughts and advice.

Scheduling:

I could start the process of becoming a film nerd in 30 days after Easter, which would give me from the middle of may to the deadline for editing.

I may book out a camera to film certain pieces to camera which explain the main topics of the film and maybe during interviews, but the rest I will just film on my phone.

Planning:

I need to start off with filming footage for the documentary introducing the premise, my starting position, the challenge and my goals

Then I will start the challenge, filming regular updates on my progress throughout.

Alongside I will have a topic to investigate, which will lead me to interview people, maybe about how to get into the film industry, how to become more knowledgeable

My challenge is to become more knowledgeable in film, and create a portfolio on social media, creating content about film and taking my first steps into the industry to help me in university

To become and film fan and then get into film, that is the goal, so maybe I lead an investigation into how to get into the film industry, how do people first develop an interest and then grow that into becoming part of the industry.

I can contact John Currie from the Beeston Film Festival for an interview. I need to see if it will fit into my project, as part of my side investigation.

I will try to answer 'what is the greatest film of all time?' through watching many films during the process, but I will try to answer 'how to get into the film industry?' through interviews. I will link the two topics by saying that I want to get into the industry and a lot of film nerds may feel the same way.

I will also try to discover my own personal taste, tailoring the experience to movies I want to watch and being honest if I find a movie boring and lacklustre. I will try to determine my favourite films, genres, director, and actors.

I'm going to follow the Letterboxed Official top 250 films with the most fans list. I am going to try to watch as many of these films as possible, I will watch the top 25 or so fresh, but I will at first see how many of the films from this list that I have already watched.

List of films to watch in order (access):

Interstellar (Now)

La la land (DVD)

Dead Poets Society (Disney and DVD)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Netflix and Now)

Everything, Everywhere All At Once (Channel 4)

Little Women (DVD and Prime)

Fight Club (Disney)

Whiplash (Now)

10 Things I Hate About You (Disney)

Parasite (DVD and Netflix)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (DVD)

Pride and Prejudice (DVD and Netflix)

Call Me By Your Name (DVD and Prime)

Good Will Hunting (Prime)

The Dark Knight (Prime)

Coraline (DVD)

Fantastic Mr Fox (Disney and ITVX)

Howl's Moving Castle (Netflix)

Spirited Away (Netflix)

Pulp Fiction (Netflix, Prime and Now)

The Shawshank Redemption (DVD and Now)

Black Swan (DVD and Disney)

SpiderMan Into the Spiderverse (Netflix)

The Godfather (DVD and Now)

Scream (Netflix)

I will first see how many of these films I have watched already and if its quite a lot, I will just choose films at random from the list that haven't watched but want to.

I will first conduct primary research to see if this list is accurate and get some more recommendations. I can go with the flow when it comes to picking movies to watch but there are some that I need to like Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction.

Set my Letterboxed top 4 movies at the start of the process and then review it again after the process.

I am trying to plan what I do each day to keep me on track, but it is okay if some days all I do is watch movies. If that is all I do this process, that's okay because I am still learning by watching and widening my horizons.

Week 1 plan:

Monday: watch a film, take photo, give brief intro to my plan and create a short video for tiktok

Tuesday: start learning about film history, end the day with watching another film

Wednesday: watch Audrey Hepburn movies

Thursday: Watch another film

Friday: Watch the Youtube video about film analysis, study film analysis, watch a film and try to put my skills into practice, film more footage for the documentary and social media, make tiktoks about film history https://nofilmschool.com/film-analysis

Ideas for days:

Learn film theory and how to analyse films, and try applying it to a film I have watched

Planning documentary footage and social media content

I am planning segments that I will do for the documentary, aswell as content I want to do alongside the production of the documentary. I am really inspired by old hollywood and black and white movies as I really enjoy them, so I can try to show this in the final piece. At the end I will do a conclusion where I sum up what I've learnt and my favourite films, I can use footage from these films.

Documentary segments

Film noob on film nerd skit:

Inspired by Variety's Actor on Actor/Director on Director

I need to write questions about film that I would answer as a film noob and then at the end of the process as a film nerd. It is comedic.

Questions:

What is your favourite film?

What is your opinion on...

A brief overview of film history:

Sum it up quickly, talk about some key films and moments

How film evolved into what it is now

Film analysis and critics:

Read book (s)

Try to analyse a film

Explain the five different methods

Look at the different ways to analyse

Explain what I learnt from researching film analysis

Genres, tropes, and cliches, archetypes:

How we watch films, engage with them as fans:

How we watch films, the era of short attention spans and streaming

Fan edits, what we do after watching the film

How was it different before, the history of watching films

How a film is made:

Break down how films are made

Towards the end of the documentary, setting up filmmaking in the future

The film industry in view:

Short films vs feature films:

Understanding film:

Film grammar and theory

Overviews:

This is a recurring segment, will be filmed weekly during the process. I will talk about the films that I watched in the past week, and give my thoughts, aswell as maybe ranking them. I will also briefly talk about what I have learnt, about film history, theory, analysis, anything more theory based.

World cinema:

Watch some international films

Film criticism:

Can be modelled like BBC's 'Film...' programme or more recent podcasts and social media. Find sources of inspiration and plan this segment to film at the end of the 30 days to show how I have improved, and am able to analyse and review films. Maybe I could rank all of the films I have watched during the 30 days and roughly explain them.

Conclusion:

I will script the beginning and end of the conclusion, however the rest I will make talking points for, which will make it easier to talk and keep on topic.

Script-

After watching 30 of the greatest movies of all time, and learning about film, have I become a film nerd?

I spent 30 days watching some of the greatest films of all time and learning how to analyse and review them, and this is what I learnt.

What I learnt:

• YOU ARE NOT WRONG FOR LIKING THE FILMS YOU DO- Just because you favourite film is not a technical masterpiece with a high rating on IMDb does not mean its wrong for you to like it

• TO ANALYSE A FILM YOU NEED TO SAY WHAT YOU SEE AND ASK WHY?- Every film is a work of art, with everyone involved in the making of the film making deliberate creative choices, so

• ITS OK NOT TO WATCH A FILM EVERY DAY- Not everyone can watch a film every day, people have their own lives, and sometimes if you watch a film every day, it will takeaway from the actual experience of film, so don't pressure yourself

• OLD MOVIES ARE GREAT- Through this process I have learnt that I love old films, especially black and white films from the golden era, they are not boring and have some of the best stories and actors, so don't be afraid to watch movies from the different eras

• MY GEN-Z SHORT ATTENTION SPAN DIDN'T REALLY AFFECT ME- Although I am very used to short form content and am often guilty of double-screening, this didn't really affect the way I watched films. At times I did find myself checking my notifications, however most of the time my phone was out of sight and I was locked in. However this wasn't unusual for me, many times when I have watched TV shows or films, especially ones with compelling storylines, I fully immersed myself in the experience, like I was a character. So what I found is that when I turned to my phone for a moment it was often out of boredom rather than losing attention, I didn't find the story captivating. We Gen-Z are not uncapable of really paying close attention to what we are watching, we most likely grew up doing that, we just need reminding every so often, to put the phone down and have our imagination captured.

Here are my tips to becoming more knowledgeable about film, and these tips can be applied to anything you want to understand better:

1) WATCH LOTS OF FILMS- from a range of different directors, genres, and international films, widen your scope and never be sacred to try new things

2) WATCH FILMS MORE THAN ONCE- If you want to understand a film better, first just watch it, experience it, the second time pay closer attention to certain details and try to understand what the filmmakers are trying to tell you

3) AVOID DISTRACTIONS- Put down your phone, turn up the volume and concentrate on what you're watching. Film is an experience, so try to immerse yourself in it. There is an art to watching films, lose yourself in it and get transported to their world, you won't regret it. Movies are often a source of distraction from the outside world, so we don't need phones distracting us from disappearing

4) GO TO THE CINEMA- Its the best way to watch films and have the best experience

5) COLLECT PHYSICAL MEDIA- Don't let it die out, having a good collection of your favourite films will make sure you can watch them anytime, and of course have a DVD player to watch them on

6) SHARE YOUR PASSIONS WITH OTHERS- I guarantee almost everyone has watched at least one film in their life, so most will have opinions on films that they would love to share with you, whether online or in-person, share you theories

7) LISTEN TO WHAT OTHERS SAY, BUT TAKE IT WITH A PINCH OF SALT- Its great to listen to what critics of your favourite movie say, however that doesn't mean you should change your opinion to align with theirs. Read, listen and watch the work of critics and people who know what they are talking about, if you want to get a better understanding of a film you've watched, however don't let it sway your opinion too much

So am I a film nerd?

Do I have a great passion and knowledge? I definitely have the passion, but the knowledge, I think it is still lacking. I know a lot more than I did before and I can say that I've watched some of the great films, however I am not fully confident to discuss film, technically, yet. I do have the desire to learn more, about the history and memorise the different technical terms to understand the making of film. I have come a long way though, and definitely widened my horizons.

Miniseries:

If I am making my video into a miniseries, I need to create a standard intro and outro that I will add to each episode to keep the flow between them and help inform. I am using my pitch script to inspire me as that was essentially an introduction to my project that I presented to people.

Intro:

Version 1 script:

Hey everyone, I'm Rachel and I'm somewhat of a film noob. I haven't watched some of the best films or the classics. No I haven't watched The Godfather or Pulp Fiction or even Pretty Woman. So I am challenging myself to change that by watching the films I have tragically never seen and gaining a better understanding of the industry. This is 'how to become a film nerd in 30 days'.

Version 2 script:

Hi everyone, I am Rachel and I have a dilemma. I am an aspiring filmmaker, but I don’t know much about film. So I am setting out to become more knowledgeable in my series ‘How to become a film nerd’. I'm going to watch some great classics like the Godfather and Pulp Fiction and learn what it is to be a film fan. Can I become a film nerd in 30 days, only time will tell?

Outro:

Script:

So we've reached the end, the fin of this episode. Stay tuned for the next episode to see what films I will watch and what I will attempt to learn! See you next time!

Episode plan: 

Episode 1  (introduction)

Episode 2 sets the scene (DVD collection, letterboxed, interview with John)

Episode 3 is an overview of week 1

Episode 4 is an overview of week 2

Episode 5 is an overview of week 3 (including interview with filmfluencing)

Episode 6 is an overview of week 4

Episode 7 is conclusion and picking my letterboxed top 4 with analysis of favourite films from the process (‘i challenged myself to become a film nerd in 30 days’, here’s what happened, roundup each week and key moments aswell as topics I leaned about and reflect honestly on my progress, it won't be titled as episode 7, but will act as its own standalone episode)

Release schedule (Before 14th June, if I released 7 short episodes):

There are 4 weeks from Monday 19th May. I need my rough draft in by the end of that week, so if I have two episodes posted that week it should be sufficient enough to hand in on the soft deadline. Then for the next 2 weeks I will release 2 episodes a week. I could release the conclusion on the last week on Saturday.

19th May: Intro episode

22nd May: Episode 1

26th May: Episode 2 (Week 1)

29th May: Episode 3 (Week 2)

2nd June: Episode 4 (Week 3)

5th June: Episode 5 (Week 4)

10th June: Episode 6 (Conclusion)

All of this is a rough plan, depending on how editing goes and if I have enough engaging content to create an episode per week. However this plan will allow me to focus on specific videos at a time, make sure they are edited and then post, so I am not stressing to complete all the editing at once.

Video description:

I modelled this around the description I wrote for my last FMP documentary. I may add hashtags aswell as line separations.

Episode 1:

I've challenged myself to become a film nerd in 30 days, by watching some of the greatest films of all time, learning about the art behind them and speaking to those in the industry.

Will I be a film nerd by the end of this? Only time will tell...

In Episode 1 I introduce myself before I begin the challenge, as someone who lacks knowledge about film and hasn't watched many of the classics, but wants to go into the film industry. I go through my physical media collection and Letterboxd, aswell as talking to John Currie from the Beeston Film Festival about some of the best films. We are setting the scene for a rollercoaster of 30 days of binge watching!

Social media content:

Intro and recommendations:

Script: I've challenged myself to become a film nerd in 30 days. I'm going to watch some of the best films of all time, learn about film history and theory and share my passion. All of this will be documented in my social media content and at the end of the process in my documentary. However I need help from you. I need recommendations of your favourite movies and the films that you think are the best of all time. I will try to watch your recommendations during the next 30 days, so leave them in the comments.

Overviews:

Weekly post, slideshow with photos of films that I have watched. I will give a star rating and a brief summary of my thoughts. I will post this weekly on Tiktok, under the title 'all the films I watched in the last week (whilst trying to become a film nerd).

Written piece:

Rough structure:

Intro

How I started off and where I wanted to get

Week 1 summary

Week 2 summary

Week 3 summary 

Week 4 summary 

Interviews with experts (incorporated into different segments)

Conclusion of 30 days

Putting my new skills into practice; breaking down and analysing my favourite movie(s) from the 30 days

Conclusion of what I learned, takeaways and advice