TASK 1
Brief: Setup a website using WordPress
Consider your reading this as proof of task completed.
TASK 2
Brief: Write A Treatment For A Television Documentary
WHERE’S MY MUMMY?
Last year Laila turned 18. She also became a Romanian orphan.
CONCEPT
Where’s My Mummy, is the story of one girls struggle for identity, growing up and what it takes to truly know yourself. In short it’s the tale of every young adult across the UK.
Six months ago Laila was a happy go lucky girl celebrating her 18th birthday. The day after, her world fell apart. Her adoptive mother told her that she had been adopted from Ceauscescu’s Romanian state orphanages. Up until then she was happily residing with who she thought were her brother, sister and mother in Surrey. Since that day she has needed to know more, she can’t stop the voice inside that’s saying, where’s my mummy?
Laila is just one of hundreds of children dubbed by Pierre Poupard, the head of Unicef in Romania, ”The Lost Generation.” Many were adopted by UK couples, following heartbreaking TV appeals and news reports. After Ceaucescu’s Ban on any form of contraception, many couples had more children than they wanted or could afford to keep, and so left them in state care. These children – whom calls a “lost generation” – were closeted away from society, often malnourished and subjected to physical and even sexual abuse.
In this one-hour observational documentary we will follow Laila’s bid to track down her mother and find out what and where she came from. This is a coming of age story that will shed new light on a terrible time in Romania’s history that resonated across the UK.
WHAT WE WILL SEE
In a bid to track down her mother Laila will meet with similarly displaced people and meet former orphans of Ceaucescu’s regime from around the world and we’ll find out what it is to be young ansee if she can find her mother and more importantly whether she can piece together the new her.
ACCESS
Laila is a close personal friend of mine and I have known her for years and she has offered me the chance to follow her story.
WHY NOW?
This Christmas it will have been exactly 20 years since Nicolae Ceaucescu and Elena were sentenced to death by an impromptu revolutionary tribunal and executed by firing squad, in what was a suitably bloody end for a bloodthirsty regime. At the time . This is the perfect time to reassess this tragic time in a country’s history and.
TASK 3
The Budget
The Brief:
Congratulations! SBS Utopia wants to commission your documentary project. However, they are only putting in 50% of the budget.
How much will it cost?
The budget for Where’s My Mummy will be roughly £30,000. The main costs are for foreign shoots (50% of the film will be made in Romania) and archive material relating to Ceaucescu’s regime. It will be a self-shooting project with a skeletal crew where necessary and the focus of the film (Laila) is doing it for free as she is already on the personal journey that we are seeking to document.
What is your strategy for finding the rest of the money and
where will you go to find it?
Bearing in mind the fifty percent subsidy from SBS I am seeking to raise £15,000. I seek to do this through a variety of sources. I intend to approach the British Council for partial funding and alongside this I would approach J K Rowling’s charity established for Romanian Orphans in 2008. I would look t work alongside them to produce something of note that highlights the plight of these children.
Who do you intend to pitch it to?
I intend to pitch this to Channel 4 as part of its Storyille strand. I will also approach the British Council to offer the project as an educational history document.
How much do you think you’ll be able to get from these sources?
I am confident that given the right approach I will be able to acquire at least 90% of the funds required to make this project.
TASK 4
Brief: Write A Treatment For A Television Genre Of Your Choosing
