A short film by Emily Wakefield

 Initial documentary planning

I’m in the early stages of planning my documentary right now.

I have my idea and have started to research, at this stage I need to research as much as possible and try to think of a way of finding a good angle.

From my initial research, Chagos has lots of hidden stories and this is turning into a huge subject – but I only have 10 minutes for my documentary so planning and focusing is key!

I have jotted down a brief history of the islands, found news articles, and jotted down people who have been interviewed as potential people to talk to. I have also searched for documentaries on the same subject and found one from 2004, which talks about the history of the islands and the people. To make mine original I’m definitely going to have to find a unique angle that I can explore, and make sure it’s up-to-date and potentially serve as a piece that would update the situation 10 years on!

So far this is all I can find, which makes me hopeful and is serving as real motivation to get this story out in a really engaging way.

Here’s a timeline that I will be trying to stick to during the film-making process:

Next: Pitching my documentary