Practice Pitch - Documentary Workshop

 Girlboss: Recruited to Fail

Logline – A deep dive into the world of MONAT’s MLM scheme, going undercover and talking to victims to find out why it’s so effective and how deep its influence goes. 

Synopsis – An actor (me or other) going into MONAT and the entire recruitment process, going step by step through how their influence has speard, cutting between this and victims talking about their own experience. This will all be commented on by psychology experts in this field. 

Character –  The actor would be a significant role in going undercover, but the factual aspects including victims would be the focus of the film. From current research the victims are scared of speaking out due to constant lawsuits against anybody who has spoken out. Having somebody undercover protected by lawyers in a production company would allow the process to be documented in a way that hasn’t been possible before. The end goal would be to make it high enough in the company to attend their yearly convention. 

Access – Getting into the company itself is not difficult, having already had one connection to it before, as well as several other accounts in Glasgow and worldwide that openly promote the product. Getting into a recruitment interview is quite simple and even before the first payment there is are so many buzzwords and phrases used that make it clear how young women get involved in this company. One of the main issues with this whole documentary is the undercover aspect of it, there would have to be discussions with a legal team, but overall names would have to be changed, faces blurred, and some messages may have to be paraphrased for privacy protection depending on the countries in which they are sent and received. 

Treatment (visual) – Catfish, Icarus. Handheld cameras. Very little colograding and editing on the undercover sections. The interviews would be in a set but with a more causal, conversational atmosphere than say Netflix documentaries where they follow a more strict script, the inteviews and their editing would follow the story of the undercover rather than going the other way around.

Treatment (sound) – music to accompany the situations, building tension as situations become more tense, however focusing on diagetic sound and how this can be highlighted to understand the severity of ythe situation (ie. The ringing of phones, elevators reaching a floor.)

Your statement  Making this film would give a voice to the people who spend thousands of dollars, quit jobs, and risk their chldren’s college funds all in the hope of a better life while 94.03% of people who join this company will make an average of $183 annually while so many of them will have risked their livelihood and, in some cases their health, to try and reach these heights that were marketed to them in times of financial stress or unhappiness.