"The Story of How I almost died".
Digital Media Project Proposal
This is the story of how a man I knew who almost died. I guess the most important thing is that he, in the end, didn't. But it was a pretty full on experience.
I plan on telling Johns story (I don't know his real name yet so we'll just go with John). John is the caretaker of the Abercrombie cave system, a hugely vast network of caves that extend under the ground for a large part of the central west. Because the rocks in the area are limestone (easily carved/eroded by water) it means that the whole basin collects water after a rainfall. So when you get a huge area, something like 200 square kilometeres which acts like a big bucket, you catch a lot of water. A volume that is seriously huge. And that’s where our story comes in.
A system of bad weather approached the basin and began to pour down, dumping so much water in the area that rivers became flash floods, farms were inundated and fences were ripped out, all in the matter of hours. The huge mass of water was then soaked into the ground and began to collect, building and building. Meanwhile, John had heard about the approaching system and had cleared tourists from the caves and was packing up. He cast his gaze to the sky and was worried, he noticed the water in the creeks was at about 30cm, nothing unusual, but he of all people knew how quickly things could change in this kind of weather.
2am that night. John was woken up by an ungodly roar, it sounded like a huge freight train was making its way past his front door only meteres away. John looked over at his wife and was suddenly concerned about her safety, he threw clothes on and rushed out the door. But he stopped in his tracks. The 30cm’s of water that he had previously seen were now 8m of raging water that had jumped the banks of the creek and were almost touching the door of his house even though it was 20 meters away. The creek had turned into scene out of hell. He and his house are now in danger of being completely wiped off the face of the earth. John looked back at his house and knew that these next few hours would determine if he and his wife, lived or died.
I plan on interviewing John in his caretakers house against a black backdrop with light falling on certain props that will further his story. He has pictures of the event where the river rose that I have access to and the last time I spoke with John he was happy to tell his story. I’ll use the SWOT analysis to show why I think this project will be successful and entertaining.
I should have plently of time to shoot enough footage to cover the 5-10 minutes. I plan on shooting the interview first so I know what broll material I'll need to shoot, then timelapses and cutaways to give it a high production feel. This should only take me 2 or so days to shoot and around 2 weeks to edit.
Swot Analysis:
I have a background in TV, News, Documentary and film that will help me produce an interesting, engaging and exciting documentary.
I have all my own equipment.
I am capable of creating such content.
Weaknesses:
I haven’t locked John in.
I’ll need to travel to the destination at least twice to assemble enough footage.
Opportunities:
I may be able to have the short documentary shown on the news and on the internet.
Bad weather will be perfect to film in.
John may not want to take part anymore (I’ll have this sorted by the time I get the go-ahead).
Here is my schedule. I'll be completing this project over a 4 week period starting from the 2nd of September.
Week one (2nd of September).
Call up 'John', arrange a interview/shoot time and film principal interview and Cutaway shots.
Week two (9th of September).
Begin to edit interview and go out and shoot broll and any other cutaways that John mentions in the interview. Also shoot night timelapse photography.
Week three (16th of September).
Week four (23rd of September).
Have draft finished. Screen to friends and family - take on board improvements and story suggestions.
Week five (30th September).
Have final cut done. Screen to people (optional).
