Concepts+page

=Media Group Concept=

**Where’s Wally / Project W (Working Title)** __Concept:__ The purpose of the mockumentary is to create humor by playing on the natural human tendency to be intrigued by mystery. The audience will be presented with a seemingly serious documentation of the background and search for the elusive character “Wally Waldini”. The use of this well known (to be) fictional character is the first indication that the film is a mockery, contrasting with a very seriously toned presentation. This also creates a parody of certain filmmakers who seem to take their work far too seriously. Due to the nature of mockumentary, much of the story behind the film will need to be fabricated, as well as characters who will help to tell the story. Another purpose of the documentary will be to cause audience members to reflect and assess themselves on whether or not they are susceptible to naivety or psychological tactics used by filmmakers to enforce their ideas such as selective presentation of facts, or ridiculing opposing theories. This could cause the audience to view documentaries of mysterious nature with a more critical eye, so that they use the raw information to make an informed opinion rather than accepting the message of each documentary directly without question. The target audience of the film will be those who are familiar with the “Where’s Wally?” series of books, as well as the stories that the film will parody. These will generally be people who grew up during the series popularity peak during the 90’s so people aged approx 15-25 years. However the popularity of the books could stem to reach people of all ages. There is however no gender or socio-economic status bias. The film will appeal to the target audience due to the familiarity of the stories involved and the character Wally creating a sense of nostalgia. Those who are interested in the mysteries of the world will be able to relate even better than others as they may see an extreme version of themselves in one of the interviewees. Due to the film being a mockumentary rather than a conventional documentary, the issue arises of rather than finding real people to interview, competent acting talent will need to be found. (A few possibilities have already been found.) Also for the same reason, many of the interview answers will be fed or scripted. Much of the filming can be done in private locations such as the homes of various group members and at school, particularly for interviewing. Much of the faked archival footage could also be filmed in these locations as they provide various environments both indoor and out. All interview footage will be shot on the same camera, as well any dramatizations. Footage of other things may be shot on different cameras and varying qualities, or effects may be use to achieve the look of different cameras. The reason for this is that it will look less staged, since we are trying to convince an audience that it is amateur footage or simply footage used at the courtesy of different people. Because of the plans for varying cameras, this should make it easier to work around camera bookings. The time taken for shooting with our main camera will be dependent on availability of group/technology, and there could possibly with some recovery shooting. To simplify the editing process, the footage will be reviewed regularly to organize footage into categories based on the likelihood of being used. __Treatment: Style__ The style of film is mockumentary. All of what the audience sees and hears will either be set up, made up, or manipulated in some way. The film will however be presented as factual, and in a very serious, dramatic tone. This tone will be achieved primarily by use of audio. The filmmakers will not be presented in the documentary. There will be introductory and interview shots of the characters throughout the film, some of which may not be limited to a single interview area (eg the possibility of a character exhibiting a “centre of research”). These shots will be interlaced with dramatizations of various events involving Wally, and Wally related footage and still photography. Much of the interview audio will be used as voice-over. This style of presentation could be compared to that of “The Filth and the Fury” directed by Julien Temple, where members of the band “The Sex Pistols” give their take on the bands story, the audio often accompanied by various images. The film will have a varying pace, but mostly moderate pace. In parts where close apprehension of Wally is discussed, the pace will quicken and the intensity of the audio will increase. The pace may also slow down to increase tension at appropriate times. __Treatment: Conventions__ //Storyline elements:// Wally will be presented in the documentary as “the man behind the book”. What this means is that rather than the book being considered a factual document, it will be a book series based on the person. To bring a sense of realism to the mockumentary, we need to fabricate a motive to find Wally, as there is none given in the book series. Because upon sight he is simply a normal person with terrible dress sense, his existence alone does not evoke a lot of mystery such as with Big Foot, and he needs a more concrete motive such as with Osama bin Laden and his links to terrorism. It does not seem that the mystery of Wally himself created by the lack of records of his existence, and his unexplained ability to travel vast distances in uncanny amounts of time without being tracked or noticed until he has reached his destination, is enough to be considered a real motive. This is because there is no explanation as to how his activity was first noticed. An idea for how his activity first became noticed is that a person fitting his description was accused of a small crime, but he was never found on records until he was seen in a different location, which he reached in a seemingly impossible amount of time. This idea will be used, but may be replaced based on filming convenience/necessity. //Characters/Interviews:// The filmmakers will not be presented in the documentary, except for the possibility of a “Voice of God” style narration should the need arise. The majority of the dialogue/voice-over will come from interviewees who are characters made up to give various angles on the search for Wally. These characters may include - The most important of these characters will be the representative individual(s) or group(s) of those involved with the official/unofficial searches. As well as presenting the “facts” we will also look into what being a “Wally hunter” involves, and what challenges they face, such as; hoax’s and impostors; red herrings(a big part of the book series) etc. It is possible these characters could elaborate into other characters of the book series such as Wally’s nemesis “Odlaw”, his love interest “Wilma”, his dog “Woof”, and his accomplices “The Wally Watchers”, and how they have an effect on the search to find and get information on Wally. It is also a possibility to have a character who is kept anonymous by blacking out their face and warping their voice. //Audio:// Much of the film will be have the audio of interviews playing throughout, breaking for parts where the audio of imposing footage is vital. Audio of footage may play under the interview to create dramatic effect. This sense of drama will be used to up the false sense of seriousness in the film, perhaps even pushing a little over the top. Other ways of utilizing audio to do this is to be very dynamic, using dead silence under an interview, other audio clip, or piece of footage can create a different dramatic effect, as can using music. If any music is required it is likely that I will compose and record it myself achieve the desired effect. //References/”Outsider” footage:// The film will have many references and parodies of popular news clips, documentaries, photographs, and amateur footages based on that of other elusive characters, some of who’s existence/survival is questionable. Examples of these characters are Osama Bin Laden, Big Foot (The Yeti, Sasquatch), The Loch Ness Monster. Some of these clips will be faked, whereas some will be cleverly edited to stay with the topic of a search but without the original names. One of the clips that fits the latter description is an interview with George Bush speaking on the current status of the search for Osama Bin Laden which will be cut strategically to remove anything that doesn’t match our Wally storyline. These will be used to relate the story to real events and help enforce how a fictitious character can be made convincing. //Subtitles:// Characters in the film will be introduced by subtitles which will appear in the “type-writer” style typical of government/extra-terrestrial films and documentaries. These subtitles will also be used to give details of dramatizations. Times will be given in military time. These elements help to enforce the false seriousness of the film because of the associated formality of the military/government. //Reconstruction/Dramatization:// Many dramatizations and reconstructions will be filmed. However these events will be completely made up to work with the storyline. The characters in the film may question the validity of the described events, or whether or not it was the genuine Wally or not. The effect of the dramatizations in a regular documentary is to help the audience visualize events that are not caught on tape. In this film the intention is the same, however the subsequent opinions given are the real focus as it can show the audience how different people can very from being gullible to overly critical. __Justification:__ The intended effect of the film is to satirize the “gospel-truth” attitude of some documentaries which in turn will hopefully challenge the audience to take a more critical eye when viewing non-fiction media products. This lesson can be learned because of the way they see that even a blatantly fictitious topic can be made convincing, and may cause them to think twice when they become superstitious. I believe this is an important lesson for all people to learn so that they can make their own informed decisions, particularly the people in the target age-bracket. This is because these people can expect a long life ahead of them and can benefit from this as it can help them to learn from raw information rather than someones opinion. I believe that the lesson will go down well due to the humorous nature of the film rather than bluntly and explicitly trying to teach them, and that it is important in becoming more educated.
 * 1) **__Jono:__**
 * Media Concept**
 * Someone who is directly involved with the official search (Expert)
 * A Wally fanatic / an unofficial search coordinator (Expert)
 * A person who believes that Wally is a myth / dead (Expert)
 * Someone who believes that there is a government conspiracy involving the whereabouts / existence of Wally (Expert)
 * Others who claim to have seen Wally (Non-Expert)
 * Opinionated/”Informed” members of public (Non-Expert)