Formal Proposal

Topic

Body Image/Appearance

Type of documentary

Mixed

Style of documentary

Informal

Channel

Channel 4

Scheduling

Tuesday, 8pm

Target Audience

Young Adults – 18 - 24

Primary research

Questionnaires, interviews, locations for filming and props/make up items.

Secondary research

Magazines, Newspapers, internet research, relevant TV programmes, still photographs, music, and official statistics.

Narrative structure

Open, single strand and non-linear

Outline of content

- Vox Pop – which celebrity has your ideal body shape? – Liverpool town centre

- Interview with a nutritionist over weight and healthy eating

- Interview with a plastic surgeon on the procedures young people are getting

- Interview with a sunbed worker to see the types of people who come in

- Interview with a beautician to see what people want done and why and if it makes them feel better on their way out

- Interview with someone who has had a gastric band and why she felt the need to change her appearance dramatically

- Interview with: Pete Burns, Beth Ditto, Christina Hendricks, and Cheryl Cole as to how it feels to be in the public eye and why they’ve changed their appearance

- Interview a young person on how they view beauty and body appearance today and then contrast it with an old person on how beauty used to be defined

- People putting make up on or having it done in a department store

- Extracts from TV programmes: “Gok Wan: How to look good naked”, “Supersize vs. Superskinny”, “10 years younger”, “You are what you eat”.

- Film a boyband getting ready for a concert and contrast it with a girlband e.g. The Saturdays and JLS

- Film the different types of celebrity diet plans e.g. the baby food diet, or the apple diet or people trying them

- History of women’s body types how it has changed in time and place

- Film people going in and out of shops

- Montage shop names

- Film a cosmetic aisle in Boots or Superdrug

- Film a make up counter in MAC

- Magazine articles on celebrity diets fluctuating such as Natalie Cassidy

- Extracts from fashion week to see the size of the models, any plus size models?

- Contrast a male and female pin up calendar to compare the stereotypes of an “ideal” body image

- Discuss why there are only ever women on page 3, does it pressurise girls to look a certain way?

Resource requirements

Tripod, digital video camera, microphone, computer with Adobe Premier and Photoshop