Documentary style

I like the style of Michael Mosleys documentaries for the BBC and Horizon. The Horizon documentaries as a whole are excellent. 

The titles for the production will be used to introduce the prison scenario before production shots begin with images of steel defences and a porridge-esk soundtrack. 

The reconstruction element will be used as a vehicle for the audience to connect with Mary as a living person and with her predicament.

The documentary will be shot in the Studio and out on location, cutting frequently between them both. I want it to feel like we are out and about investigating the case and gathering information regarding it, not studio bound reciting facts. The narration should not be patronising but allow the audience to join me on a learning curve of discovery and to make their own decisions regarding the case in conclusion.

Michael Moseley

The dimmed studio set will have a glass crime scene board that is an illuminated focal point; this is what all studio content will be centred around. The lighting can include subtle colour to enhance shots. This footage will be used to tie all aspects of the case together on the board.

This glass ‘board’ (a glass table top which may be mounted in adapted legs from the gallows), will be central to giving these studio shots life. The glass will have a paper ‘trace’ backing and will be used more like a VDU screen used with back projections of moving and still images and graphics. The screen will be used to link individuals with others and locations etc with a dry marker linking moving and still images both physical and projected.
With masks adhered to the rear of the glass and trace, the presenter could draw a key hole or stick a frame on to the glass, then back project the transition shot into it to cut away linking to another segment.
With enough time this could be used to great effect by cutting out masks that fit these frames and cutting through the glass trace backing also to be able to see through the glass, by placing a larger trace screen than the frame behind it by several inches the camera could track toward these frames and the shot would reveal more of the image as it looks through the frame which would eventually fill the camera screen with the rear screens projection if the camera went close enough.  Linking footage like this would have to have been shot wide.
The glass trace backing would need replacing for other shots this but could make an interesting effect. Negative projections viewed like this with a slow zoom could transition to a positive.
Small film loops very much like the moving photos in a Harry Potter newspaper will be back projected onto the glass screen of characters involved in the documentary  e.g. Mary brushing her hair then looking into camera or the Hangman tipping his hat whilst looking into the camera to return to reconstructions or shots regarding the character.

Period still Images and maps will be rotascoped to create movement and used to give extra context to narration.

Interviews with all contributors will be conducted on location with graphic overlays displaying who they are and why they are relevant including; an interview looking at a laypersons modern perception regarding Mary in ‘Bogeyman’ Folk law stories. This will serve as an introduction to the larger media perception and legend that now exists. This could be with Sharon who knew of them as a child, which contributed to her interest in the part. Hopefully we can include an interview with a living descendant to discuss legacy effects or stigma associated with that.

The production will need several experts whose individual segments will be periodically introduced. They will be introduced in the production using a wide and a portrait shot. The backgrounds to these shots will be 16mm footage from the reconstructions projected over their surroundings.

I would like a practical demonstration of the test which proves the presence of Arsenic in a compound, which was a recent discovery in Marys time, to be performed on camera. Heating test tubes and chemicals always makes good tv.

We shall visit modern day locations involved in the case like West Auckland, Durham Jail and Courthouse (permission permitting) to film exteriors linking to other aspects in the film.

To end the documentary the titles will include a modern take on a broadsheet ballad wrote c.1873 that will give a taste of the influence of such material on an audience to the audience.