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In terms of research and development, I am pleased with how our documentary is forming. In our group, we at first met to discuss the name for our company. We came up with various ideas, and were nearly going to call it "Digital Voodoo" however, Jess reasoned that it would be safer to invent a made up word or phrase, to decrease the chances of the domain name and company name being taken. We all agreed this was a good idea, as we do not want to become embroiled in a copyright dispute under any circumstances. Jess' father had previously invented the word "Rugulent" whilst working as a Music lecturer - a word meaning a combination of "rough" and "elegant" - and when suggested, it appeared to us to be how how we want our film to appear content wise - potentially controversial, a sensitive topic being tackled - but aesthetically pleasing and well filmed. We checked the domain name was not taken, which it predictably was not, and Rugulent was established.

Once we had the company name agreed on, we began to discuss ideas for our documentary. I had recently read an article about a couple who collect sex dolls as a hobby, and the group were immediately interested in this. Using Direct Inquiries, I acquired the phone number of the couple, and we got the support from our lecturer regarding this idea. The couple have over two hundred sex dolls, and spend their retirement dressing up the dolls together, driving them around the small village they live in and are constantly on the search for new dolls. I thought this subject would be controversial and interesting, because both members of the couple claim to never have, and never will have sex with any of the dolls, which they say seems to make their neighbours more perturbed than if they did.

However, once we had worked out the budget for this, we realised this would be a risky documentary to attempt to produce because of practical reasons. The couple live in Madley, and not only on our budget would this be expensive to travel to and from, but the couple live miles away from any train stations. We would have to travel to Madley, with heavy filming equipment, and if they couple were unable to drive to the train station, somehow fit all six of us in their small car alongside the equipment, then we would have to walk five miles to their house carrying the aforementioned heavy equipment, in potentially freezing conditions in January. We all agreed this was not a plausible idea, due to the budget, impracticality of carrying equipment so far and likely weather conditions alongside heaving the equipment. It is unfortunate, as I like this proposed documentary for several reasons. Firstly, I am confident that that idea has not been overdone, if done at all. Secondly, it would have likely proved interesting and controversial footage as this is not a typical hobby of an elderly couple. Thirdly, I believe this would have kept the audience interested as again, it is not a subject that has been covered many times.

Moving on from my idea, which we had entitled "My Live In Sex Dolls", Graeme proposed an idea regarding dog shows. He knew somebody involved with dog shows and explained that a lot more goes into dog shows than we may suspect. Upon researching this, I was surprised to discover the lengths that dog owners will go to in order to win at one of these events. I did not know dog make-up, designer dog outfits, a variety of grooming products and the beauty tricks that dog owners practice when preparing their pets for the shows. I thought this was an original idea, and practical also, because a significant amount of dog shows take place in Winchester, and in nearby areas, yearly. The group were somewhat split as to whether we should include the fact that various animal charities object to dog shows, and this would prove problematic for us later.

I created a photo essay concerning the TUC demonstration in September. I experimented with breaking the edge and decisive moment, shooting in TV mode with a high shutter speed, to catch the marchers mid motion, at various angles. I received good feedback for my photo essay, which definitely rekindled my interest in photography which will hopefully come in useful for this project.

We created the website for our documentary using Yola, and Jess designed a logo for our company. The logo is sharp and eye catching, but the colours are not abrasive to the eyes  - which adds to the concept of the word "Rugulent" which we invented. I began to research documentary makers and documentary films once the website was functioning, and because of the nature of our documentary, and the group being split on whether to include the notion that dog shows are regarded as an unethical practice, I decided to research propaganda documentaries. I did this because I realised that propaganda could easily be made about dog shows, showing them in a good or bad light, and I wanted to understand the nature of this so that we did not appear to be promoting a propaganda film, regardless of what way we went with the documentary.

Understanding that our film may be controversial was important for my research development, as I looked into several controversial documentarians and their films. Kirby Dick was one of them, known for his angry and often aggressive tone in his films, continuously covering subjects that were bound to upset some viewers. Emile De Antonio made himself known in the media industry by being openly and aggressively critical in his work of the American government. While I accepted that his films are potentially inflammatory yet still got broadcast, I also accept that if we were to attempt a film with similar levels of controversy, we would have to know the law and Ofcom rules very, very well and I believe that although we are competent in film making, we do not want to upset the ethics board who will be viewing our project. 

However, I also conducted research on documentaries that although deal with potentially upsetting issues, the documentary maker deals with the subject in a gentle way. Cutting Edge's documentary, "The 9/11 Faker" dealt with a potentially rage-inducing subject, about a woman who pretended to be a survivor of the September 11th attacks for personal gain for six years. This documentary did not have an aggressive tone towards the woman in question, and I can confidently say, that if this had been a film by Kirby Dick, it would have very possibly been a lot less diplomatic and even downright abusive in exposing this woman as a fraud. I learned from studying various documentaries and their makers, that there are different ways of handling controversial subjects, and I intend to remember this when creating a film about dog shows.

I also did research on advertising, for when we have to promote our product to the public. Interactive advertising particularly took my interest, and I have learned a lot about how in a world of technological convergence, interactive advertising is a good way to get a product noticed. I narrowed down what types of interactive advertising were plausible and which were just not within our means, as I think it is important to know your resources well when creating a media product.

I saw fit to do a lot of technological research for this project too. I did extensive research on Arri lights, Dedo lights and shooting in RAW format in photography. All of which, our group decided, would prove suitable for our documentary. Arri and Dedo lights are both available to loan from our university, we are all competent and experienced with using them and after researching them and posting my findings to the website, we are all in agreement that these are the lights to use. For our photo essays, we all discovered that we had used RAW image format and we accustomed to how it works. I wrote a piece on the website listing the pros and cons of using RAW image format, which everyone is free to read and decide for themselves.

For our trailer, we decided to speak to Pet's Corner, a local pet shop whose employees regularly attend dog shows and sell an extensive range of products for dog shows. We had an employee speak to us who was very knowledgeable about the subject and was able to show us products and give us facts about what dog shows typically involve. Unfortunately, a technical problem meant that we could not use a lot of the footage, but we managed to obtain the best parts from the tape, after extensive editing. 

Finally, we revealed our trailer to our lecturer and class. During the trailer, due to a miscommunication about the Powerpoint slides, we accidentally exceeded the time limit in which we allowed to talk. Our trailer received fair criticism about the fact that it had derogatory music playing after one part explaining about the darker side of dog shows, which we took into account. We were also told that we were on dangerous ground in terms of not being clear enough as to what side we were on, did we agree that dig shows were not harmful to dogs, or did we intend to expose the world of dog shows as being potentially cruel and unethical? The split in the group was what caused this issue, and we all met afterwards and discussed the fact that we would need to be clearer in what stance we would take in regard to this subject. Once we were all agreed, we began to discuss filming dates, and Graeme is currently arranging this with his contact.