Treatment One: Castle Market

By Henry Vinten & George Beattie  

Our ten minuet expository documentary is centralised around Sheffield's castle market. The film will be an informative piece on the history, future and general day to day activities of both store owners who have made the old market their livelihood, and the customers who have come to value to the market not only as a place to shop but potentially a place to socialise. We feel it’s more relevant than ever to make this film now due to the fact that by the end of 2013 a brand new indoor market will be opening on the Moor. Castle market has a long history dating back an estimated 900 years. The market is built on the ruins of the old Sheffield castle and has therefore been an important place of trade for nearly a century. With this soon set to change our documentary will seek to find out how the current residents, as well as the regular shoppers, feel about the change to come.

The documentary will include contributions from at least two different traders who own and run completely different types of stores.  

Jeff Fearn is going to be our main contributor. A man in his fifties or sixties, he’s owned and worked his store, JB Tools, for the majority of his life. He professes to be ‘the face of Castle market’ being that when asked about the upcoming shift it’s him that’s leading the fight for the trader’s rights. He’s a strong minded individual that doesn’t mind speaking out in regards to the way in which the new market is to be set up.

Michelle runs a meat produce stall who when briefly probed about the new market replied that when it opens she’ll be out a job. Again she’s a trader in her fifties who’s been at the Castle market most of her working life so similarly to Jeff she’ll be able to a give good insight into the thoughts of not just herself but her fellow traders. The fact that she owns a food produce stall as opposed to a home wares one offers the opportunity to reveal whether different types of stores are getting treated differently.

Tony Oakes owns one of the bigger butchers’ stalls in Castle Market, again offering insight into the way in which different sellers could be affected in different ways, depending on size, popularity, duration trading and so on.           

The majority of the film will be made up of material gathered from interviews, however, rather than using a ‘Theruox’ style interviewer, through the use of planned questions we’ll be able to edit the responses in such a way that a story can be told and understood without the audience directly hearing the questions being asked. These responses will be a mixture of voice over’s and sync sound, allowing lots of space in the film to show footage of the market it’s self. Showing the decaying state of the market is crucial for the success of the documentary as it’s for this reason the new one is being built. Alongside these cut aways, we’ll integrate archive footage of the market in years gone by, showing the progression from what would have been an exciting new shopping experience into that of what we see today.  Lastly, to gain a sense of what’s to come we’ll use concept art work of the new 2013 ‘Moor market’, throwing into sharp focus the vast difference in aesthetics between the new and the old.

I will be using a lot of close-up inserts to highlight details of the market and use them as much as the dialogue to tell the markets story.  As well as this, long un-cut takes of traders and customers going about their business will be featured to give an honest look at the current state of affairs and general atmosphere of the market.

I’m taking inspiration from Sean Dunne’s The Archive. The seven and a half minuet documentary follows Paul Mawhinney and his collection of around two million vinyl records. The mixture of close ups and long shots that pan the stacked basement do a great job of portraying the space, a method I’ll be adopting in portraying the spaces within Castle market. The interview format works well too, by asking the right questions the interview responses tell a full story without the need of the audience to be given any context. Lastly, the subject matter of Dunne’s documentary and that of mine are linked by a common theme, an inevitable end, in Dunne’s case, the idea that vinyl is a dying medium and in my own documentary, the fact the market is soon to close. The Archive does well to create a tone that’s not overtly sad yet forces the audience to empathise with its contributors. This is the approach I will be taking; the audience will be able to identify with and feel for the interviewees without the film becoming a piece that strictly emphases the ‘doom and gloom’ of the situation.     

I want the finished film to have a personal feel, an account of the troubles facing these real people, a subject relatable by all retailers and shoppers alike given the current financial climate. Rather than highlighting the bad and giving the impression of condemning the place, I will create a warm piece on a subject that despite appearances is home to an abundance of humble, friendly and good natured people.

           

Outline

1.   Beginning: Introduce the contributors, get an understanding of who they are, what they do, how long they’ve worked at Castle market.

2.   Middle: Find out what the market means to them, introduce the idea that their current location is in jeopardy, how they feel about this.

3.   End: What they think the future holds, excited, nervous, why?