The above schedule has been carefully considered to allow enough time for each stage of the production to be completed thoroughly and in detail. Theshowwouldbecommissioned in December of this year and the go in to pre-production in the new year. Januarywould be used for research purposes, the producers would reach out to SBS in Australia andbegin to organize the collaboration between the networks, commissioning crew, equipment and specialists and securing their availability for the planned shoot beginning in April. (since Channel 4 doesn’t have an in house production team). Meanwhile the projects research team would begin to contact and outline potential schools and locations that could be used for this documentary. With a full month to research all the potential schools available over the two countries and make contact, the producers can then look over all the potential contributors gathered and shortlist which ones have been the most interested and which would provide the best content. 

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By Marchmeetings can then be set up with the selected schools, to help the production move on quicker, the producers from both countries can meet with their native schools to assess viability and explain the documentary's aims and process. But to get additional conformation of the validity of filming I have allowed for an extra 2 weeks that both the producers can use to fly over to each location and speak to the contributors in person, and fully asses what/where they could film, which contributors they may be able to focus on, where they could place cameras, what their limitations and obstacles would be etc. This time frame was based on the schedule of 24 hours in A&E, who had their producers meet with the hospital staff roughly 2 months before filming began, allowing time for logistics, permissions and other necessities to be obtained, and allowing a buffer zone for the hospital to prepare staff before filming began. Once all the above has been assessed the next few weeks of April can be used for admin, obtaining  and checking over filming and location permissions from contributors, completing in depth risk assessments and schedules that account for the transport and travel of crew internationally. As well as arranging the equipment that will need to be used, finalizing the numbers and planned instillation points that will be worked out between the producers and camera rigging crew. During this time a small camera crew along with the assistantproducersthat will be on site during the filming will be sent out to each location for a period of two weeks. They will use this time simply to observe classes at both locations, picking out key contributors (and checking they have permission to film them) as well as stories that would fit well in to the outlined script of the show and reflect both Channel 4 and SBS’s remit. This will save some time when the actual filming begins as the crew can be more focused earlier, on what content they need to follow and will help both parties transition through the initial heavy presence of the crew more easily and comfortably. 

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Bymid Aprilthe locations will start to be rigged. The UK school will be rigged first (partly so the crew can evaluate any unexpected issues, that they can learn from before rigging the second location, but also because expert fixed camera rigging crews are hard to come by in Australia). With both locations being smaller than the sets that the crew are used to working on, it shouldn’t take more than a few days for the set up to be completed. After all of Prima has been set up with cameras, microphones etc. the crew will then be over the Jute Theater academy over in Australia to meet with the SBS team and begin rigging there.  

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April 25this when the cameras will go live and the filming will begin. I allowed a little extra time in case the rigging team encounter any issues or the crews flights get delayed. If all goes to plan then this will only give the team more time to observe the school, and plan out their stories, whilst the contributors have a longer period of time to get used to the presence of the cameras, helping them feel more relaxed around the presence of the crew and less paranoid about how they may come across. This way when the cameras actually go live it will feel like little has changed (sincethewholepointof a fixed camera set up is to make the documentary feel unobtrusive and encourage people to get on with their day behaving in a natural authentic manner). 

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From April all the way through until July the cameras will be live. The producers will and camera operators will sit in on the schools any classes following each school as they rehires and prepare for their big show, learn the full details of the documentary (that they will be performing to a school on the other side of the world) and watch how they cope with external pressures such as exams and their personal lives. Duringthistime a team of assistant producers will be ”on the floor” during every class picking up on developments and feeding back to the rest of the team in the gallery as to who they need to follow, or mic up, or avoid. Making amendments to the planned schedule/scriptastheygo. On the days when classes are not taking place footage can be passed to offline editors who will slowly start to piece together loose stories and character arcs based on the footage obtained (that can then be reviewed and adapted at a later date during post production). This period of just over 3 months will ensure that each crew captures plenty of content that can be used to fill and make this six part series as interesting to an audience as possible. 

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By July 11th/18th the main bulk of the filming will have wrapped. Eachcountryshouldnowhavecapturedaseriesofcoherent andprogressivestorylinesfromeachoftheir contributors. At this stage the two schools willcome together to perform each of their end of year showcases. By this point the crew will have a list of the stand out contributors that have provided the best content and well rounded stories. We will then follow each of them as they get their chance to perform on stage. Onceagain,simplyobservingtoseeoftheysucceedorfailintheir performances (or rather if they perform well or become too nervous and mess up), and we will follow the action back stage to catch final thoughts from each contributor to roundofftheir individual arcs. 

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Once both shows have finished the camera’s will be de activated (however will remain up in case the producers decide to briefly re-visit either location to obtain a small amount of additional footage that will support a contributors story during the edit), and on July 22ndthe main edit will begin. 

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By this point most of the footage from each location will have been digitized and clearly catalogued anyway (since as mentioned earlier that is what some of the days where no classes were taking place were to be used for) but any remaining footage will be exchanged after the final show. Thanks to the work of the offline editors the post production team should already have a head start and the lead editor can review some of the rough cuts that have been put together and decide what to take in to the final edit. By allocating two months for post production I have also allowed for opportunity for “pick up shots”. By which I mean if the producers decide it would aid the edit, there is time for the production crew to return to each location to get additional interviews with contributors that would add closure to each of their stories. 

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The editor would then be able to work these interviews in to the late edit, creating a more successful narrative. The edit would then be finalized ready for broadcast on the 12th of September. Although there is a lot of footage to go through, this time frame is very similar in structure the schedule that other channel 4 series such as Educating Essex and Educating Cardiff used (and although they weren't international they had a more episodes with more contributors and larger locations) so this time frame is not only viable but also ties in with the “back to school” audience. After the summer is over, our target audience will be returning to school and work from their holidays and will be reverting back to a routine. Meaning that our viewing figures in our intended timeslot will be at their peak since audiences will be actively looking for media to consume after their working day has ended.