Documentary Commission - Getting Businesses for Interviews

Today in my group we went out to find local businesses to interview for part of our exercise for tomorrow.  We need to find businesses to interview about being a local business in the Maidstone community, and why Maidstone is their choice  of city to set up a business in etc.
We succeeded, after speaking to Six different companies.
The first, "The Grinning Demon" agreed to let us interview them.
The rest we got however were maybes. We went to a Cornish pasty shop, they gave us the email of the people higher up to them, they gave us the go-ahead in store, but said we just need permission from the big dogs, if it were.
Otherwise we went to the fancy dress shop, who agreed if we catch them at a time they are not busy, they will do it for us, which went the same for a pawnbrokers and a music store.
So hopefully we can get some good interviews, and test our new skills that we have learnt!

Narrative and Genre - The Story of Narrative - Breaking Bad

In our lecture the other day, we learnt about what is known as "The Magnificent Seven". These are the stories that are used to communicate the whole picture in a television series or a film. A writer and theorist named Christopher Booker, argued (along with many other theorists) that these stories can all be broken down into 7 different main plot lines. These include:

1. Tragedy
2. Comedy
3. Overcoming the monster
4. Voyage and return
5. Quest
6. Rags to riches
7. Rebirth

When applying this theory and looking at Breaking Bad, i realised that it can fit into about three of these different categories, being Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches and Rebirth - I shall go into more detail about them now.

Overcoming the Monster - In Breaking Bad, the main character Walter White is battling inoperable lung cancer. The story throughout the series shows his ongoing struggle with the illness. While at one point, it does seem he has beaten it, as it goes into remission, but as the series progresses, in very minor ways it catches up to him. Now, having reached the final series (the second half of which is being aired next year), it does hint at the cancer maybe properly taking over again. Obviously in this example the Cancer is the "Monster". I also had another idea, being that the "Monster" that Walter White faces, from around the middle of the third series and progressing onwards, is in fact himself. He goes from being a small time, nice, chemistry teacher, to a proverbial "God" in his drug manufacturing business. He becomes darker and darker going to more extremities as the series progresses, becoming a completely different person as the world around him changes, and he adapts to fit this. It shows that the Monster he has to overcome, is in fact himself.

Rags to Riches - Walter goes from having nothing, to eventually becoming one of the wealthiest people imaginable. In an iconic scene in the most recent episode at the end of the first half of season 5, Walter's wife takes him to a storage facility, and reveals a mountain of money the size of a small car, under a giant sheet. (He has been giving her money to launder, but it has become too much for her so she ends up having to take it to this storage facility). This is rags to riches in the literal sense. Usually there is an antagonist in this story line, who moves in the opposite direction mirroring this. A character named Gus Fring in BB fills this role. As Walter becomes higher up in the business, Gus ends up losing everything.

Rebirth - I mentioned this in Overcoming the Monster. Rebirth story lines show the character finding a new reason for living and turning their life around. Essentially, the drug trade does exactly this for Walter White, who goes under the name "Heisenberg" when he gets deep involved in it, and he turns into a completely different person, not necessarily for the better!

Narrative and Genre - Breaking Bad Heroes

The main character of the breaking bad series is Walter White, who goes by the alias Heisenberg. He is the main hero of the series but it is relatively difficult to decide what kind of hero he actually is. In many respects he is your typical antihero. He displays many of the characteristics you would get of an anti-hero:

• He is selfish and cares only for his personal well-being.
• He will harm anyone who comes between him and his personal happiness.
• He is a wanderer.
• He tends to favor violent acts.
• He does not care who gets hurt as long as he benefits.
• He has a general negative attitude towards life.

Narrative and Genre - Breaking Bad Genre

When talking about the Genre of Breaking Bad, you could consider it quite a difficult one. Whereas its main genre would probably fall under the category of Thriller and Crime. These would be classed as the main genres because a) the show is entirely about crime, and b) a thriller because all the conventions of a typical thriller can be seen in it, including tension/suspense, it takes place in a mixture of urban/suburban areas and there is a fair bit of violence which most thrillers tend to adopt as one of their conventions, though that can be mixed in with the Crime genre as well.
There are a few more sub-genres involved within it as well, such as some black comedy elements, and it could also be considered a serial drama as well, as it uses some of the conventions shown within all of these as well, but mainly it is a Crime Thriller I would say.

Narrative and Genre - Chosen Tv Series

The T-V Series I have chosen to use in my Narrative and Genre piece is Breaking Bad. I thought this would be a good series to use, as I know rather a lot about it, with it being one of my favourite television shows ever made.
The basic premise of it being, that a Chemistry teacher is diagnosed with in-operable lung cancer, and decides to team up with his ex-student to start cooking Crystal Meth, so he can come up with enough  money to support his family when he is dead.
I know I have a lot to say about the series, and the idea of heroes/genres and the narrative used within are rather interesting as it is not your usual kind of show, with a distinct proper Hero that necessarily matches with the themes involved with in it.