Practitioners
When planning my final major project, I chose two different practitioners to research to get a better understand on the stereotypes I need in order to carry out a successful mockumentary. These two practitioners are Chris Lilley and Shane Meadows.
Chris Lilley
Chris Lilley is an Australian comedian, television producer, actor, musician and writer. A two-time winner of the Logie Award for Most Popular Actor, he is known for his creation and portrayal of several characters in the mockumentary television series such as Summer Heights High (2007), Angry Boys (2011), Ja’mie: Private School Girl (2013) and Jonah from Tonga (2014).
Lilley was born in Sydney, Australia. He is the youngest of four siblings. He was raised in Turramurra and attended Pymble Public School. He later studied at Barker College, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts with a Diploma of Education from Macquarie University in Sydney, when he graduated in 1997.
In 2003, Lilley made his debut in Big Bite, a Seven Network comedy programme, in which he portrayed extreme sports enthusiast Extreme Darren and the high-school drama teacher Mr G, a character that he continued in Summer Heights High. Big Bite was nominated for Best Television Comedy Series at the 2003 Australian Film Institute Awards, marking the first time a comedy programme from a commercial television network had ever been nominated at the Australian Film Institute Awards. It did not win. The producers co-credited Lilley however the show lasted only one series before being spun off into a comedy/variety programme. Lilley was a recurring guest on the programme, but it was cancelled after only a few episodes.
Lilley created We Can Be Heroes , a six-part series on the ABC, in which he portrayed various characters nominated for the Australian of the Year Award. The series was co-written with Ryan Shelton.
Summer Heights High
Chris Lilley achieved overwhelming success with his second mockumentary series, Summer Heights High, which aired on ABC TV in 2007. In the series, Lilley played the three main characters at a public school. In March 2008, Lilley released a single, Naughty Girl, based on the series and performed in character as the Summer Heights High drama teacher, Mr G.
At the 2008 Logie Awards he was nominated for four awards including Most Outstanding Actor and Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Television, and won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor and the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Comedy Program.
The series was sold to the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Lilley embarked on a promotional tour of the United States in October 2008 to promote the U.S. broadcast of the series, which began to air on HBO on 9 November 2008. The BBC began showing the programme on BBC Three in June 2008.
When asked about whether there would be a second series, Lilley stated, “I never thought about it in the beginning because it was always a one-off thing. I’m not into just cashing in and rolling off into a second series that is not as good. I really enjoyed making the show, so the thought of writing and going back there again is really fun and exciting, but I haven’t made a decision on what to do next”.
Characters
Playing all the main characters at Summer Heights High, Chris Lilley reveals what really happens in an average Australian high school.
Jonah Takalua
Jonah is a smartarse schoolboy from Tonga and the best breakdancer in the district. Physically more mature than most boys his age, he is obsessed with defacing school property with his infamous tag.
The question is whether Jonah can make it through the term continuing to harass teachers, drawing obscene pictures and tormenting younger students, without being expelled again and sent back to Tonga.
Ja’mie King
Ja’mie King is the star student in her year at exclusive private school Hillford Girls Grammar. She is taking part in a swap scheme to bridge the divide between state and private schools and has enrolled at Summer Heights High, keen to make changes. But outside her privileged and sheltered world, Ja’mie is out of her comfort zone.
Will the staff and students cope with her naïve opinions and will Ja’mie be able to claw her way to the top of a school world of boys, lesbians, emos and hot teachers?
Mr G
Greg Gregson aka ‘Mr G’ – has been teaching drama at Summer Heights High for nine years and is passionate about his self-created, innovative teaching methods.
He causes friction among the staff and students when he appoints himself the self-styled Director of Performing Arts, and restructures the department.
In the face of relentless opposition Mr G cancels the traditional school musical so that he can write his own original “Arena Spectacular”.
Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows is an English independent film director, screenwriter, occasional actor and BAFTA winner, known for the British cult film This is England.
Meadows grew up in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. His father was a long distance lorry driver and his mother worked in a fish and chip shop. His father discovered the body of Susan Maxwell and was initially a suspect in the murder case, which led to Meadows being bullied and shunned by other children. He attended Picknalls First School, Oldfields Hall Middle School and Thomas Alleyne’s High School. His love of cinema meant regular trips to the Elite Cinema.
Meadows left school shortly before reaching his GCSEs, and soon turned to petty crime. He moved to Nottingham when he was 20. While living in the Sneinton area of Nottingham, he made roughly 30 short films with the friends he met there. He could not show these films to anyone because there were no film festivals in his area. His friends started one in the local cinema which became popular within the city.
Meadows enrolled on a Performing Arts course at Burton College, where he first met friend and future collaborator Paddy Considine. The majority of Meadows’ films have been set in the Midlands area. Much of the content of his films is semi-autobiographical and based on his experiences in Uttoxeter. Twenty Four Seven was inspired by his youth, both at a boxing club, and also playing in a local football club. Despite some huge losses, the club’s coach never lost faith in them
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee
Le Donk & Scor- zay-zee is a 2009 British mock musical documentary film written and directed by Shane Meadows. It follows the fictional character of Le Donk, played by Paddy Considine, a roadie working for Arctic Monkeys, and Scorzayzee, a young rapper playing himself.
Aging, failed musician and roadie Le Donk is introduced to a fly on the wall documentary film crew, including real life director Meadows, at his Nottingham home. Scorzayzee is an aspiring rapper who Le Donk is mentoring. Le Donk and the film crew visit the home of his former girlfriend Olivia (Olivia Colman), who is pregnant with Le Donk’s child. Le Donk becomes irate when he learns Olivia’s new boyfriend is to be her birth partner.
I will be using ideas and shots from both mockumentaries to create an original storyline with comedic lines and slapstick humour for my final major project. I found when doing the research into both films, summer heights high was more of the visual comedic road I wanted to follow down, because it included handheld fly on the wall filming as well as, established interview shots and voice overs. I also want it to not only be aimed at adults but however targeting the teen audience too.
Research Links-
Book- In The Blink Of An Eye New EDN: A Perspective On Film Editing Paperback- 1 Sep 2001
Legal and Ethical Issues-
Legal Issues-
Copyright is a large issue in the media industry. Legal Protection is advised so that their original material can’t be used in somebody else’s name. However with copyright, It can only be applied on the thought process of the idea, and not the idea itself.
It is illegal to discriminate anyone on grades of race, sex, disability. However with comedy shows, it all depends on the taste in which it’s done. For example in Mockumentary summer heights high, there is a large use of disability jokes. Here is a complaint from an anonymous viewer.
“Parents need to know that although this Australian mockumentary series focuses on school life, it’s definitely intended for mature viewers. It offers strong commentary about prevalent social issues in Australia including private vs. public education, class, race, and juvenile delinquency. The students use lots of curse words (including “fu*k,” “sl*t,” and “p*ssy”), utter racial slurs, and make frequent derogatory references to homosexuality. They create some iffy content for young viewers here at home. Also expect some sexual imagery, drug references, physical confrontations, and heavy issues like rape, anorexia, molestation, and more”.
However in this mockumentary, They are taking the mick out of the naivety of the comments due to the characters being younger than 16. These comments happen every day at schools therefore due to the taste in which it’s done, it’s seen as ok to show to the public however it is rated as parental advisory.
My film does not include any racist, or discriminating comments therefore legally it will be ok to show to the public.
Humor has to be acceptable and ethical as long as it is funny to sufficient numbers of people, with the additional requirement that it not be intended to cause harm . Humor will always be either ahead of consensus or behind it, for humor is a form of art. There will always be parts of society, sometimes quite large parts, that will find forms and topics of humor offensive. This is can’t be avoided, unless we want to ban all humor.
Ethical issues
With Ethical issues, the only thing in my film that may offend someone is the stereotypical ‘camp almost certainly gay’ characteristics I have given my character which some people may take offence too however this can be said for many characters in comedy shows, such as ‘Rory’ in Mrs brown’s boys, and Uncle Bryn in Gavin and Stacey. Due to there being no discrimination and no rude/ harsh comments and no intentions to offend or cause harm this will be seen as ok and therefore will be allowed to be aired on main channels.
I would also would have to get permission from Simon Cowell and the team at the X Factor to use their logo, and mention the copyrighted name a numerous amount of times.
Equipment used-
Sony HD Video Recording HDRPJ440PJ Handycam CamCorder
Clip microphone 
Attachable Microphone- 
and a Tripod 
Test Shots-
Cost and Budgets-
For mockumentary film making at the lowest-budget level, ‘£500 per finished minute’ is the cheapest starting point for costing. And you should expect that even a ‘simple film’ may cost more because there are many elements which come into play when costing a film. When filming a mockumentary they use £50,000 cameras, separate mic systems with 20 man crews all with different camera angles as well as sound that must be edited back together, etc. Which is why it is so expensive, But for a production with one camera (or even two) with only a built in camera mic or shotgun mic, it could probably be edited fairly cheap.
I spent very little when budgeting Jerry Funk, only spending out on props, costumes and drinks for the night out scene. This worked well due to the project being for educational purposes, however if I were to be producing this mockumentary for television screens I would hopefully have a much larger budget. Therefore allowing me to spend out on actors, locations, and a scriptwriter. All of my locations were in bus or walking accessibility therefore I had to spend a little to get the bus to my locations. For music I took soundtracks off youtube which will be allowed due to it being for educational purposes, however if I wanted to make this film to air to the public, I would have to ask the artist/production company for permission and pay.
Target Audience-
My target audience is 18 year olds. I am aiming at this age because of the mild language and adult humour. I also think that the humour and overall understanding of the mockumentary will be more understood and appealing to a adult audience. However I do still think under 18s and above will really enjoy it.
For demographics I will be aiming at C1, C2 and D which are supervisors, clerical jobs, skilled manual workers and semi skilled and unskilled manual workers.
For my psychographic target audience I will be aiming at mainstreamers and explorers. This is because The X factor is a mainstream television show shown on itv, which is the most popular the uk like to watch on the weekends, which is when I will air my mockumentary.
Overall doing the research has really helped me to develop my idea for my project. The most useful source I found was watching back old episodes of the X factor and looking into my practitioner Chris Lilley. Watching old episodes meant I could really nail the cliches of itv editing and the stereotypes that are included in a tv talent show. Looking into the work of Chris Lilley meant I could get inspiration for my main character and also learn a bit more about slapstick comedy and how to portray it.
The book I read, and the opinions I got from other 18 year olds didn’t help me as much as I thought they would. This is simply because I learn a lot better through physical ways and practicing other than reading.Therefore reading about how to edit sound although I found it interesting, didnt help a great deal.It was intresting to find out what people at this age like to see on a comedy programme, however due to it being a mockumentary I wanted it to be different, and not something people have already seen .
Shauna Church 