These are a few ideas that I initially thought of before sharing with the rest of my group, and after a first read through relevant topics in Liverpool news items and events.
Chinese New Year
Liverpool Boxing
Chinese new year is celebrated in Liverpool's Chinatown on the 19th of February; I thought this provided an opportunity to create an incredibly visual and colourful documentary, what with all of the costumes and decorations in preparations to the celebrations. My idea was to get an angle from someone involved in the events (an organiser/costume designer/a member of the Chinese community) and explore how much time and preparation goes into the event, and what it means to them, their family, and the community as a whole.
Difficulties with this idea, one of the major ones I predict, would be finding someone with enough involvement in the celebrations, who has the availability to film for long periods of time with us. I think the only way to get a successful angle on this, would be to follow the journey of a member of the community who is involved, but I think being so near to the actual date would make it almost impossible to find someone willing to give up their time. Another problem actually comes down to our own time; although we would be there in the three days that build up to the main event, we will have already left before the main date, I think this would leave our documentary a bit open-ended without the climactic event that it would have been leading up to.
There may also be ethical issues involved, as it might be difficult to intrude on their community and celebrations with cameras and recording equipment.
This idea was my attempt to do something outside my comfort zone, something that i'm not incredibly familiar to me. I found that Boxing is a very popular sport in Liverpool, featuring approximately 22 amateur boxing clubs which have produced notable boxers such as John Conteh, Andy Holligan, Tony Bellew, and David Price. Boxers from Liverpool also were a significant element to the 2012 Olympic boxing team. This seemed like a good opportunity to explore the rich culture and pride of the sport, with the possibility of interviewing aspiring young boxers, their motivations and why the Liverpool boxing scene has become so popular.
I think this idea would be pretty achievable; there are a huge variety of amateur boxing clubs in Liverpool to approach for filming and interviews. The only downfall I see is that it would require a great deal of research on my part, as I know very little of the sport, and I don't feel it would be appropriate to make a documentary on something I don't have the time to research enough about in depth.
