The Idea & Tagline and Pitch
TAGLINE: In this documentary, I will find out how hard is it to follow your dreams.
25 WORD PITCH: A journey to see how hard it is to follow your dreams. Experience the reality of pursuing an ambition and how it challenges you.
SUMMARY: I will be going on a journey to complete a dream that I have had my whole life. I start as a complete novice and through advice from professionals and application, I will gain the knowledge needed to achieve my dream of becoming a race car driver. The story will be pushed by a narrative of my childhood memories and my attempts to fulfil this dream earlier. There will be many obstacles I need to overcome to achieve my dream, without these events happening, it will not happen.
OUTSIDE SUMMARY: This documentary will start with a flash forward to the race day of the main event. The opening sequence will be quiet at first allowing the tension to increase. Soon after, the music will rise, speed and drama will be shown through a mix of shots of the car on the track. This opening scene is designed to intrigue the viewer and give a hint at what is to come. The title sequence and explanation of my challenge will then follow.
The documentary will then go into more about my first introduction into motorsport and why it became such an important passion, that has stuck with me since. These sequences will be visualised in a format we are calling the "Diary room". These are where I will speak to the director in a staged room full of photos from my past. In these sequences, which are placed multiple times throughout the documentary, the viewer will be able to have a greater understanding of my story and why I want to achieve this goal. The aim of these sequences is partly to challenge me as a contributor, it will enable me to speak about situations that led to this dream never happening at an earlier age.
I will visit multiple significant locations throughout the documentary which are involved in my story of being a motorsport fan. One of the most significant locations is Brands Hatch, where I went with my Dad to watch my first ever motor race. The other is Filching Manor, where I went Karting for the first time at the age of 11. I will re-visit Brands Hatch with my Dad and we will recall our favourite memories of watching Motorsport together, this will add a further personal touch to the story. At the kart track, I will explain my emotions when driving a vehicle on track and why I have always wanted to go the next step and race a car.
This documentary will also feature some important interviews along the way. They will be filmed like an actuality sequence, myself and the interviewee will be doing something while speaking, which enables these sequences to be less staged. I will speak to professional race drivers about their struggles in finding financial funding and why that affecting their decisions when becoming a race car driver. I will speak to drivers about their journey into motorsport and let the documentary question what stopped me from doing racing as a child. I will also have a feature interview with a racing driver who suffered a horrible crash in 2017. He had to have both legs amputated and his story about "never giving up" will be inspirational. It shows his attitude of not let anything get in the way of him achieving his dreams. This will link back to the diary room sequences and how my past decisions may have left me with no choice but to not take motorsport more seriously as a child.
While it is a documentary about "achieving dreams" we want to highlight some of the technical details of motorsport. These topics include finding money to race, obtaining the fitness level and achieving the race license needed. These will be the sequences that will heighten the jeopardy of this documentary. There will be a sense of unrest when attempting to overcome these hurdles as they are all needed to prepare me for the final race. The importance of the final race will have been broadcast through the sequences, remembering the past and visiting old locations. These are giving the context and meaning for me to push myself and overcome the hurdles set ahead of me. As the viewer would have had the backstory through the Diary Room sequences, the happiness or sadness seen will be understandable.
Throughout the documentary, we will also have information through either voiceover or sequences where I am speaking to the producer. These will not be direct pieces to camera as I will address the producer and look towards him. These scenes will enable me to transition from topic to topic and also allow the viewer into my mind and my thoughts through these candid sequences. The presence of the producer's voice will be heard throughout, but we will never see him.
After overcoming the various hurdles, the documentary will climax with the final race. The race day will be the focal point of the documentary and we will build up to the race by showing my emotions on the morning and on the way to the track. This nervous tension will then have meaning because of the story before it, showing how important this subject is to me. The team will follow me on the day of the event and get a mixture of on-track shots mixed in with shots of me waiting to take over the car. Once I am in the car we will focus on my race out on the track and capture in-car audio of my reactions while racing. This scene will be visually striking with a mixture of speed & energy including slow-motion shots. This scene will be very cinematic but will include shots of my teammate in the garage as well as some of me in the car through a Go Pro. After the race is done I will show the raw emotions of achieving a life's ambition. After the race will mostly be about me coming to the realisation that it's complete.
The final events to take place in the documentary will be one last Diary room sequence where Geoge asks me :
“Now that you have finished the race, do you regret not asking your parents to race as a child?”
After my answer, we will cut to a voiceover that describes what has happened and what the experience really meant to me. The documentary will then cut to the credits and be complete.
The timeline of events page will show how all of these scenes will be placed together into the project timeline.
