The title for my project will be Gatka – Sikh Martial Arts. I have decided to title my project this as it clearly explains what the subject within the project is. I would like to produce a short documentary on Gatka as a form of Martial arts as well as Sikh ritual. There will be a narrative to my documentary, with a beginning, middle and end. The main issues that I would like to get across with this documentary are, what gatka is, where does it come from and why it is important. The documentary will also have a step by step to come basic Gatka moves and different weapons used. The documentary will contain visual footage, still images, audio and a few interviews.
The genre of my project will be documentary Duration will be no longer than 10 minutes The unique selling point will be Gatka as a form of martial arts as well as a religious ritual The intended audience will be aged 7 and above, people of all genders, people who enjoy sports and martial arts plus the Sikh community and documentary lovers.
The film will be in a documentary style format of Gatka, it will have a narrative, video footage, audio, stills and interviews. For a documentary I believe it is important to have facts, dates, names and times as documentary is to document the subject, therefore my video will contain all of the above. The main issue /subject that my project will examine are what Gatka is and where it comes from and why it is such an important martial art in the Sikh Community. The approach I intend to take is to start of with where Gatka came from and how it started to why it is important in today’s society and what Gatka is used for. I would also like to focus on Sikhism as a religion.
My project will answer many questions as this is the main aim. Here are a few questions that I am hoping my documentary will answer: What is Gatka? Where does it come from? Why is it important? How to get involved? Who can join and how? What it is used for? I am hoping to offer people the idea of making such documentaries on culture and religion in a different way and get Gatka and Sikhism the religion known as there are not many documentaries on this sort of subject at the moment. I believe my project fits in the current media environment with religious programmes and other documentaries, I believe this as it is an informative piece, like other documentaries on channel 4, such as ‘3minute wonder’, ‘true stories’, and many more that are shown on channel 4, so therefore I feel the audience would want to see something like this.
I would like my documentary to be viewed on channel 4 as channel 4 have a lot of documentaries shown throughout the week, therefore they already have a build up audience for this kind of genre. I would also like to distribute my documentary at ‘Sheffield doc fest’ that is held once a year, as this is a huge festival held where many people interested in documentaries attend.
Thinking of budget I don’t need much besides travel cost for me to commute to and from location. This is all that I will need as I will be filming at free events because my brother and cousins are involved in Gatka themselves, they also have a group at one of the Gudwara’s so I will be using them and the group to film and interview whilst performing. The skills, knowledge and experience that I will be capitalizing on are my own knowledge of Sikhism and the religion, Gatka as a martial art and the experience I have of it as my family members take part in the event and performances. I will be bringing my filming skills, documentary skills and knowledge plus my editing skills into this project.
I plan to get my filming for this project done by the 1 st /2 nd of February and hopefully arrange a time for a few interviews. I already have the location sorted of where I will be filming at which is Edward Street Gudwara in West Bromwich, Sandwell, West midlands. I also have my crew sorted so that is one less thing for me to worry about. My filming should be completed by early March, therefore the following week I will go through my RAW footage and putting time codes and durations of chosen clips on my final story board. After that I will concentrate on editing so that my documentary is ready to hand in advance in case there are any problems through out the production
I feel that this documentary on Gatka – Sikh Martial Art is viable because I believe it is a great idea and will be very informative to all viewers. It is also viable as there are not many documentaries out there on this sort of subject. The other reason I feel this documentary is viable as I am very passionate and excited about producing a documentary on this sort of subject as this is the sort of subject that ii would like to produce documentaries on. I am really excited and extremely looking forward to producing this documentary through out the next module. I believe I can produce a great piece of work if I put all my effort into it and concentrate as well as work hard.