homework

LB127 Homework. Euan McAleece. 17/11/10

The Battersea Divide. BBC Radio 4  Documentary(38 minutes)

Summary

In this documentary we meet two teenage girls who live on opposite sides of Battersea Park and explore how they view themselves in terms of class identity.  One girl goes to comprehensive and the other public school.  The girls will spend a week in each other’s schools and then go on an outward bound course. We will end by asking if the experience has changed their views on class identity.

Treatment

It will be very important to get informed consent from both of the girls who are taking part in this programme and I believe due to their age (17 years old) from their parents as well.  They need to be made aware of the question being posed in the documentary and the tone of the piece, as well as any health and safety hazards (especially the Duke of Edinburgh ‘O B’ course) that could come up.

A narrator will set the scene with a brief description about the objectives of the documentary and some facts and figures about the wealth divide between neighbourhoods around Battersea Park in London.

To establish the girls’ ideas of their own class identity and how they view others, we will interview them in and around their homes. We will make use of actuality to try and paint a sonic picture of their neighbourhoods.

We will arrange for both girls to spend a week in the other’s school. This will put each of them outside of their comfort zone and hopefully make them evaluate and reflect upon their original thoughts on class. For this segment both girls will make a daily audio diary before, during and after school. Also, a researcher will interview them again and ask about their week. From these recordings we will get some strong content that can be edited together to form a wrap introduced and summarised by the narrator.

For the final section of the documentary both girls are taken to an outward bounds course in Wales. Here they will be removed from their familiar environment and will hopefully be able to bond. They will once more make use of audio diaries and location recordings of some of the activities can be used as actuality and atmos, to be edited together to form another wrap.

 This would lead to the last interview on location in Wales, where we ask both the girls together if their ideas of class identity has changed and if so in what way has different environments affected this change?

Reflection

For this piece I watched some sections of ‘Rich Girl Poor Girl’ the TV programme. I have to say I found this awful and it reminded me of the benefits of not owning a TV. However the idea of using the programme idea and converting it into something suitable for BBC Radio 4 was very interesting. I believe if you gave enough time to the recording and due consideration to the girls, this could make an informative and enjoyable documentary which I would be very happy to work on.