Planning our CCTV
Documentary
We decided to base our documentary on CCTV in Britain, and whether the
country is becoming a ‘surveillance society’.
We felt this would be interesting and entertaining
for our audience as it’s a controversial and relevant
issue at the moment.
During the opening there will be quiet music playing and a voice over, introducing the topic and telling the audience some shocking
statistics about CCTV (i.e. how many times a person is caught on camera per day)
The opening sequence will only last about 30 seconds
Each shot will be a very short clip which introduces the audience to some of the issues explored in the
documentary
Short clip of a busy street
Commentry – The average Londoner is caught on CCTV at least 300 times a day…
Quick shot showing a CCTV camera turning, which is a transition into the next shot
Short clip of Channel 4’s ‘Big Brother’
Zooms out to a shot of CCTV footage looking into a home window –the real Big Brother
Commentry – Is England becoming the real Big Brother?
main documentary
begins
Shot of a CCTV camera turning to face the viewers at home, making them feel like they’re being watched. The title of our documentary will be included in this shot and will then lead
into the main documentary.
We are going to discuss controversial issues and circumstances where CCTV has been mentioned in the press.
For Example..
The woman who threw the cat in the bin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/crimewatch/appeals/
2010/02/warwickshire_assassin.shtml
o BBC’s Crimewatch has been an helpful source of information on CCTV, as real
CCTV footage is used as an integral part of the programme.
o The footage is used as an appeal the viewers at home
to identify the criminals featured.
o It has been a key element in helping to
catch some of Britain’s worst criminals .
o Crimewatch is a good example of why CCTV is valuable and effective in society. We want to include some archive footage from Crimewatch in our documentary to demonstrate how useful CCTV can be.
Has CCTV gone too far? Talking cctv cameras.. The real big
brother?• Another issue we want to discuss in
the documentary is the arrival of Britain’s first talking CCTV cameras.• They publicly announce bad
behaviour and shame offenders into acting more responsibly.
• We thought this would be interesting to explore in our
documentary as it’s something that affects every viewer personally.
Live CCTV Footage OnlineWhilst researching the topic we found out that anyone can watch live footage from
CCTV cameras around the world at any time. There are live streams of CCTV cameras outside shops, universities, tourist attractions and places of interest
(for example Leister Square, Trafalgar Square and Oxford Street). They usually include sound, and the facility to zoom in and out. For example, you can watch
live stream footage of Abbey Road in London on this website:
http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/
However online CCTV streaming is also being used to catch criminals -
This BBC news report talks about the pros of CCTV being available on the internet…