- What they will add to the piece.
- What purpose they will serve.
- Representation of them on screen through the audio.
- Topics they will be able to discuss.
My sons Isaac, Jacob and Noah are the catalyst of the piece and the very core and centre of it. The piece is all about them as they obviously have to be all over it. Which they are they are. They are in every single frame as not only being themselves but they are acting as the vessels for the comments
of others about them. This adds a whole different dimension to the piece and a real sense of the uncanny. Their role is to be at the centre but also the canvas for the thoughts of the other contributors.
Their primary role though is to be themselves and to be as natural as they can in front of the camera. To interact and interplay with their brothers when speaking about themselves and to interject their personality and physicality into the piece be this laughter, hurt or tears. They will serve as the basis point and if you like the placebo. Who really cares what everyone else thinks and tries to read onto or make them conform to they are just what they are and if you like the innocents of the piece. They serve as a counterbalance at times to the thoughts of others at times agreeing with them though. they will also add some light relief as they can be very entertaining both in terms of spoken words and physicality as the camera is allowed to just watch them.
Their representation is to be as honest as possible. As with all of the contributors it will be just the boys on screen either as themselves or voicing the thoughts of others. I aim to have the same lighting set up for all of the boys or as similar as I can get in the TV studio. This will be 3 point lighting backlight, fill light and key light. My aim is to not going to make the boys look any different whatever role they have in the piece. The backgrounds will be plain back so again nothing can be read into their screen appearances from the background. Similarly the absence of clothing and being naked physically (although only from the waist up!) and metaphorically in front of the camera. The shot will be a loose MCU or between a MCU and a MS. This is the most typical documentary shot size for talking heads. the boys will subvert this though by being allowed that most privileged of gazes that back at the camera breaking the fourth wall. This will allow a direct communication with the audience as though they are addressing them. No music will be used on the piece to again draw all the focus to the boys and their answers or the comments from others coming from their mouths. Their voices will simply theirs.
The one bit of representation they will be allowed is as I have mentioned earlier their performances in front of the camera. The thoughts of others they will voice through lip-sync will be delivered and from trials they tend to deliver these really flat unless deciding to do otherwise. They do perform a little for the camera and each other but this is THEIR thoughts on themselves and THEIR world and they will be allowed the freedom of it. In my opinion everyone else is a commenting on the boys, the boys are the "truth" even if it is a forced representation of them through filming it and what a camera on a subject creates.
PARENTS
This whole project stemmed from discussions about them and their characters, personality traits, physicality, educational abilities, gifts, talents etc that all parents discuss about their children. I always found it fascinating also to hear the viewpoints of others though I love parents evenings and to see if their teachers have got the measure of them and what they are all about or if I feel they are not describing my sons. Outside the of themselves the parents have the second most privileged view into the world of the boys. from birth we have nurtured, fed, taught and helped them find their way in the world. The parents obviously have a history and spend possibly the most concentrated time with the boys throughout their lives and know and love them intimately for different reasons. They will hopefully add a warmth to the piece.
Their representation on screen when the boys say their thoughts and statements visually will be the same as the boys themselves. Exactly the same shot size, lights, background, state of nakedness etc. All of which have been mentioned above. I did toy with the idea of different lighting, backgrounds, even hair cuts and even shot sizes and camera angles in early tests but then the representation would be too contrived and I wanted to try and remain as representationally "honest" as I thought I could so None of these techniques sat easily with me.
What will be different is their performance and the audio. The performance because it is not their own words and they are simply delivering the thoughts of others is generally dead-pan and perfunctionary. I did try to get them to perform the words and statements a little but it seemed too forced and laboured so I decided to let them just say them as they felt appropriate with minimal intervention. There have been instances where they have become a little more animated if interested but not many.
The voice also is a key difference between the boys own sections. Whilst my wife and I do not agree on anything we do tend to agree on the boys and what they are all about most of the time of at least agree to meet in the middle. This could be because we discuss them a lot so one of us accepts the views of the other or compromises but it is also because we both know them so well that what we see is often the truth and their true nature and personalities. It could also be that we see them as multi faceted and often lots of versions and emotions and traits that ebb and flow. I have tried myself and my wife recording different bits of audio but I have always returned to us saying the lip-sync together. This is primarily due to the fact that when we discussed the boys and wrote down our thought they were very, very similar and identical on the statements I chose to include. It simply made sense to say these in unison and also really plays with the sense of the uncanny and 2 voices from one person. I have also experimented with inflection and mood and tone of the parents voices and tried to add warmth to it. This is to create a representation of the familiarity and love we have for the boys and also as this is how we would address the boys at home.
THE PSYCHOLOGISTS
The psychologists serve the role of the authoritarian, the academic, the expert and the "voice of god" that most documentaries have. Initially I envisaged the piece being more to simply point out that you cannot pigeon-hole people and things are not black and white. However the more research I did into this their simple statements did prove to have a lot of sound footing as far as sibling birth order went but in my opinion were never always right and a bit of a blunt instrument. So the role they will serve is both the "expert" and the scientific. Their thoughts are created from loads and loads of research into birth order, papers, publications, web-sites etc and the statements the boys will be reading/speaking are an amalgamation of these and the strong themes that run though all of the research.
As mentioned on the parents outlines visually the psychologists thoughts as voiced by the boys will be exactly the same. The performance will be the same as the parents representation visually and the boys are likely to be a little flat and generally unanimated as they are simply speaking the words of others. As with the parents representation I toyed with costumes, lighting changes even considering colour grading and early on they were B/W, pixelated and with a robotic voice but this was too clunky.
As with the parents audio this is where the representation can be a little more playful as it is the only real way to create representations of the psychologists. I did consider trying to track down a psychologist. However as with a lot of exposition documentaries that use the "voice of god" to fill in the details and exposition and be the voice of fact I did not see much point as they often use celebrities and/or non experts for the voice overs. The words were based on psychologists research so they were the truth so does it really matter who says them as no-one will no. I have looked for images of psychologists on line and they are generally male, however search for child psychologists and the images are mostly female. I am not too hung up on a male or female voice although if pushed the authority of a male voice stereotype may make the message clearer. As I thought that this would be OK I will approach whoever I feel have the voice, command and authority to record the lip synch and create a representation of a psychologist.
TEACHERS
The teachers do not only oversee the academic side of my boys education but they also see them at play, forging friendships, doing group work in a non-home environment. Next to their parents they are the adults who spend the most time with them, even if it is in the company of 29 others rather than lots of 1-1 contact time. For all of the above reasons I see their inclusion as really important as not only do they know the boys but they offer an insight into where they fit in with a group academic environment and can often reveal sides to the boys personalities that we do not see at home especially with academic work.
Visual representations as with the aforementioned parents and psychologists will be the same for all of the same reasons. Again I did play around and consider different visual representations corduroy jackets and sensible shoes etc but this was far too clumsy and not needed.
Aurally they are represented by ideally the teachers themselves doing the voice over as this is the closest to a true representation as I can get. I have spoken to them all for some primary research and they are by and large willing to help out but a couple were a little reticent. Ideally they come across as they are a young female NQT teacher, a middle aged established female teacher and a very upfront and forthright male teacher in his late 30's. I want them to be as natural as possible but ideally with a familiar, comforting but no-nonsense tone and to use their teacher voice. However as with the psychologists if there are issues as their own words that they gave me are being used I could possibly get others to voice their words.
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