Documentary: Development

 A Level Media Studies

Here includes the list of possible titles for our mockumentary, the storyboard, typeface research, actors/characters (cast), and locations. This blog is written by me (Sharon).


Titles

• On the Daves
• Finding the Best Dave
• Dave War
• Hunger Daves
• Daves
• Dave
• Dave Club
• The Dave Fight
• Diggin Dave
• Dave(s)

Self Reflection: These titles suggest that there are several Daves and some indicate that these Daves would have to compete with one another. The title we settled on is 'Dave(s),' by which the '(s)' proposes the idea of the crew members realizing that after all, these chosen students are all named Dave.

Characters' Names

• Muscle Dave/Dave Aardvark - played by Hanly - a black compression shirt with the school's uniform as outerwear
• Player Dave (originally Athlete Dave) - played by Davin - a varsity jacket
• Creepy Dave (originally Quiet Dave) - played by Baron - a black hoodie
• Crypto Dave (replaced with 'Not Dave'/Kevin) - played by Danny - nerdy glasses
• Softboy Dave - played by Taka - earbuds, and a cardigan
• Happy Dave - played by Jowey - a pink sweater
• 'Not Dave'/Kevin - played by Juna - normal school uniform

The name 'Athlete Dave' is changed to Player Dave as Athlete Dave would be too similar to Muscle Dave - they're both into sports/athletics. So, we modified the athlete to a player, showing a personality trait of being overly confident (in terms of pulling/attracting any girl at school). With now 'Creepy Dave,' as it was originally 'Quiet Dave,' we presumed 'quiet' would be too bland and boring, whereas a 'creepy' trait is easier for us to improvise on, such as staring and coming forward towards the camera, as well as our actor (Baron) portrays 'Creepy Dave' better than 'Quiet Dave.' The removal of Crypto Dave was due to the fact that our actor (Danny) couldn't be here on his designated filming schedule and the days after that, so we replaced 'Crypto Dave' with 'Not Dave'/Kevin (played by Juna), to not fall way behind on filming and editing schedules. Although it was a last-minute change, we believe 'Not Dave' is a great improvisation to invigorate the plot further since my team members could develop this idea in a short period of time.

As written, those are the things each and every one of the Daves would wear, which conforms to their stereotypes. For example, a black hoodie worn by Creepy Dave connotates that he is quiet up until the point it becomes terrifying to those around him, the type who would sit in the corner/at the back of every class, a private person, and 'weird' in a way. Moreover, all Daves would still wear the school's uniform to inform the audience that they are still high schoolers (all are stereotypical of high school students).

Self Reflection: As a group, I enjoyed discussing the stereotypes of each of the Daves, as well as the features that could represent their specific groups, such as a black hoodie for Creepy Dave to enhance that he is private, the type to sit alone at the back/corner of a classroom, and terrifyingly quiet. Besides all that, we also discussed the actors that would suit the role best. This conversation helps us with efficient planning and decision-making so we can start filming quicker due to the limited time, especially with editing as we require feedbacks from our teacher (Mr Nick) days before the due date.

Typeface Research & Development

This research on typeface would be for the title screen made by Nayana.

Link to: Dave Fonts

Above is the research and experiments we did on the typeface, including spacings, and capitalizations. We generally decided on a typewriter-like font to convey and impose the idea of a 'mock seriousness' which aligns well with our sub-genre, a mockumentary. Additionally, with our research on typefaces, we came across a sitcom-mockumentary called 'The Office' that also applies the typewriter font.

Moreover, we finalized with "Lumios Typewriter New" which we then experimented on the spacings and capitalizations.

As a team, we settled on the last one (the 4th picture) as it looks neater than the rest with the same amount of spacing within each of the letters. All capitalized letters (the 2nd picture) seem very demanding for a satire mockumentary show, and the other 2 are simply on the uneven spacings between the letters.

Above is what our teacher (Mr Nick) suggested - replacing the '(s)' with it being handwritten in red. This further conveys the genuine 'shock' and realization of the crew members that the chosen students are all named 'Dave.' 

Self Reflection: We chose the colour red with a marker-like brush to connotate that it is indeed a sudden and impromptu change due to the last-minute realization of our crew members. The '(s)' is written by Nayana on her iPad using the drawing software, Procreate. She then screen-recorded the handwriting process throughout, to be edited by Timo. Additionally, we experimented with a black background, however, it didn't turn out to look as well as a white background. The white background gives a cleaner, tidier, and brighter look (a more positive general outlook to this mockumentary) that can captivate the audience's eyes better. This is, therefore, our final (opening) title screen, as well as our thumbnail.

Storyboard

The storyboard below was done by me (Sharon) a few weeks before the first draft was finalized and before we started filming (where we improvised a lot), so therefore, some scenes may not correspond to both screenplays (original and updated), and the final edited documentary.

Self Reflection: The storyboard here was simply to put our ideas into drawings that would help us get the gist of how the documentary would be, and know what to improvise/develop on, or what to keep. Here, I was informed to draw a basic (not detailed) screenplay due to the limited time. Since we improvised much after the storyboard was done, we did not quite put the storyboard into significant use during filming (not depending/fixating wholly on the flow of the storyboard as better ideas came by the time of filming).

Thumbnail

These are all the possible thumbnail ideas that me and my team members sketched. 

Self Reflection: We finalized on the top right with all Daves standing in a line presenting body postures and facial expressions that correspond to their characters to give the audience a gist on each of their personality traits, simply through the thumbnail. This could perhaps hook their interest in consuming this media as they may think that they can relate to them/one of the Daves as seen from the thumbnail. Other thumbnails (shown) are merely the word 'Dave,' which I believe is not enough to grab the audience's interest as much as the one we settled on since they may not understand the concept just via the thumbnail. I personally sketched the bottom left idea as I suppose it could portray the Daves well individually, however, the top right would be simpler to organize and capture.

Below are Timo's experiments on the thumbnails with a variety of styles.

Link to: Dave Thumbnail

Here is our final thumbnail made and edited by Nayana.

Self Reflection: I personally agree with this decision on finalizing the thumbnail due to it looks the most natural to me, whereas those with white or black backgrounds, black and white images, and purple outlines seem "cheap" and disorganised to begin with. Here, I like the visibility of the shadows that illustrates a lifelike and realistic look. The positioning of the title "Dave(s)" looks best here as it gives a bit of spacing with the actors (a tidier image). Moreover, the Netflix symbol on the top left indicates that this mockumentary will be showcased and distributed through Netflix, as well as, for us to get a bigger picture (a gist) on how it would look like edited into Netflix's thumbnails.