Graded Unit Pitch

Every year over the month of August, the Scottish capital of Edinburgh takes a incredible transformation from a typical Scottish tourist hub, to one of the most attended festivals of culture in the world. From August 4th to the 28th, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival takes place, a month long festival for the people of Edinburgh and those who come from across the globe, a festival of comedy and arts more than anything else, one that is almost entirely free to the public. Last year alone the festival held 50,000 + shows overall. That’s an insane amount of shows, all stuffed into 294 venues (which in itself is a crazy number). The trick is, they don’t just use small bars and clubs across Edinburgh; dozens of unusual venues have been snagged up, everything from apartment complexes to churches, from office spaces to industrial sites.

My documentary I annually attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it’s a passion of mine and something I want to share with as many people as I can. The idea of focusing on the festival is something that’s always interested me, but it’s such a large topic that so many people have already covered, so I needed a new angle. There are hundreds of articles focusing on the Fringe and it’s unusual venues, everyone is already interested in hearing about some of the strange places that the Fringe is taking advantage of this year around, but I have different questions to other reporters I want to pose to the owners of these venues. These unusual venues, these churches and schools, are used as a cultural hub for this one month long festival, but what happens after that? Has anyone really looked at the other eleven months of the year? I want to research how the festival affects these businesses over the month, and then how it has affected them for the remainder of the year. Standard venues such as bars and clubs can host music and comedy acts whenever they wish and pose no interest to me, their business doesn’t change drastically at all; but a church is a non profit organisation that hosts prayer sessions most of the year, I want to know how it changes business during and after it’s been renovated into a hive of possibly blasphemous comedy.

Target Audience The target audience will consist of both men and women in the age range of 18-35. This fits in with BBC Radio Scotland target audience. The age range covers the target market for the Fringe Festival, the minimum age being 18 because it’s legal drinking age which can be very important at the Fringe. The income of my target audience can be very low, as a large amount of those that attend the festival are students, and the festival offers almost entirely free shows. Ethnicity and sexuality aren’t factors that I need to consider because the Fringe welcomes all and encompasses all cultures.

Radio Station My Documentary will be presented as if on BBC Radio Scotland. This is because it’s a local station, that focuses heavily on the culture of Scotland. As the Edinburgh Fringe Festival celebrates cultures from all over the world, and Scotland in particular, it makes for a fantastic fit. Radio Scotland’s target audience matches up with that of my documentary along with that of the Fringe Festival itself. Will be broadcast at 12pm/midday. Those that are interested in the documentary will tune in while they’re at work/college, either while studying or during their lunch hour. It will give them time to pay attention which they wouldn’t have if they were driving, and can then provide a talking point throughout the day which it couldn’t do if it was in the evening.

Presented Style Casual-smart language, there should be some local dialects coming through (use a presenter with a local accent) and perhaps some local slang just so that the listeners feel at home. Should be conversational yet informative tone, I want the facts and any figures to come through clearly but it needs to be easy to understand. Slow to medium pace, I want it to seem conversational but I also want the listener to take in all of the information, so it needs to give them time to think about the points that are made throughout. Needs to stay upbeat throughout, it can’t get boring at any stage. It will be speech only, no throughout background music. Possible background sounds for location interviews or topic changes, e.g. choir song in a church.

Research There are thousands of articles written about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year, and hundreds focusing on the venues alone. Dozens of these are solely about the unusual venues that are hosting the celebrations. So there is definitely interest in hearing about these strange Fringe venues, I just need to broach it from this new angle of how it affects them the rest of the year. There are possibly even more articles surrounding money when it comes to the Fringe, people are desperate to know where their donations go, how these shows run when they’re almost entirely free to the public, money makes the world go around. So mixing these interests in venues and possible profits affecting the businesses will definitely draw in an audience.

Article Links WOW247 http://www.wow247.co.uk/2013/08/02/fringe-shows-weird-wonderful-venues- 37392/ The List http://www.wow247.co.uk/2013/08/02/fringe-shows-weird-wonderful-venues- 37392 BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19149582 Scotsman http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/theatre/edinburgh-festival-fringe-10- key-venues-1-4181291

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