COMMISSION DOCUMENTARY UNIT: Idea 2

IDEA 2: Unsung Heroes

Title: “My Hero”

Producers: Ilianna Ntouvli, Sam McKeown
Pitch:
The struggles and issues faced by mental health professionals on a day to day basis, portrayed in this short documentary, and how they’re undermined by societies figures.

Introduction:

In life we personally believe that our world, has not been fair to the heroes around us, mainly to the professionals that are in charge of giving individuals stability regarding their mental health.
Our film will mainly show this in action by exploring the way in which mental health professionals (e.g nurses, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, etc.) deal with the struggles and issues they have to deal with in their day to day job, when taking care of their patients.

Ultimately we want the audience to feel sympathy for the problems these professionals have to deal with, such as nurses not getting a pay rise after not having one after 4 years.
The three main categories of mental illnesses that nurses have to treat are: Psychosis, Bipolar, and Personality Disorder.

Also to understand that the credit given to those “heroes” is underestimated as we, as a population, should look after our own. This is the idea we want to pass to our audience and show to the world.
Our main goal is not to portray the people getting help, but the people “behind the scenes” that are responsible for it.

People Included:
-Mental Health Professionals

-Patients (current or past)

-Family Members

Location/environment:

In a psychiatric hospital, The Maudsley Hospital, as we want the professionals to be in their workplace as our main goal is to engage our story (the issue presented through the film) to the location we’re filming in.

Target Group:

Part of doing a documentary film for BBC 3, is that the target group is mainly ages from 16- 34, which is exactly the group we’re targeting for. This is due to through those ages we can explain this situation and have a great impact on the whole situation, as the age group we’re targeting for is the ‘new generation’/ the millennial generation.
It also guarantees a viewing audience at the specified time slot, as other channels target older ages in this time slot.

Possible Time Aired:

-20:00-21:00.
-It’s usually the time slot when they air ‘junior paramedics’. Our show is quite similar (dealing within the public sector).

-It’s a time slot when people that work during the day, usually sit down at that time on their couch and watch television.

-It’s also not the first time slot (19:00-20:00) because to watch a documentary dealing with hospitals and patients in this condition is not ideal to start off the whole channel with.
-It is also when all the other channels like E4, Channel 4 & 5, ITV, etc. are airing American television series, which target older age groups.