MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Made in Brum

Before now Joseph McElligott was relatively unknown- but he’s shot onto the scene with new one off documentary

By: Hayley Soen
Joseph McElligott doesn’t have any prestigious awards to his name, nor a boastful documentary portfolio, but that doesn’t stop us from being extremely excited about speaking to him ahead of his new, innovative documentary that set to create a stir.

You don’t often hear about new documentary makers landing prime time slots straight away but we’re here with the guy that has done just that. 
‘Cliché as it sounds, I wanted to make TV shows since I was young,’ he says, ‘all my friends wanted to be on the TV, I wanted to create it!’

Growing up in Birmingham was pretty normal for Joe, he went to a local school and college just like most other teenagers but it was after college that he began to step away from the crowd. ‘Going to Uni[versity] was what I thought I was going to do but then you can’t just turn down this sort of opportunity’.

Joe was approached by the BBC after they saw him writing about his experiences and ideas for a documentary on his personal blog.  ‘I didn’t even think anyone really looked at my blog, I used it more as a diary to log all of my ideas. Getting a phone call from BBC Head Office was not what I expected to come from it!’

‘I’d done some work placement with a TV studio local to me when I was 16 and that was what inspired me to go into documentaries,’ he explains, ‘I then kept writing about my ideas on my blog just as a hobby.’

And what was Joe’s incredible idea I hear you ask? Selfies. Not what you were expecting? Didn’t think so.

‘I know it seems like a trivial topic but when you speak to people selfies are actually having a big impact! [Laughs]'

And he isn't wrong, according to research; up to 30% of the pictures that young people take nowadays are selfies- that's a lot of pouting! 

'I think it's important that documentary makers try and make their topics current. A light-hearted documentary is much more likely to appeal to young people than a heavier one and getting young people into factual television is vital.' 

Joe's documentary, #SELFIE is already trending online but we wanted to know exactly what it is like to make your first documentary and how he sees the reaction that it's had from the public. 'It's been really crazy,' he blushes, 'I've been inundated with tweets and messages from people about how excited they are to watch it. I'm just as excited to see it go out, I've had so much fun working with an incredible team and talking to a lot of people- it's been truly incredible!'

The documentary follows Joe as he finds out how something as simple as taking a photo of yourself has become such a huge craze, particularly amongst teenagers and young adults. Joe visits a college and Solihull Town Centre to speak to students and members of the public first-hand about their opinions on this phenomenon. There are also exclusive interviews with technology and psychology experts which uncover the deeper issues that lie behind a seemingly innocent trend. 

'I wasn't expecting it to be that eye opening,' says Joe. 

If there's one thing we know about this documentary it's that it is not one to miss. Catch #SELFIE on the 24th March 2015 on BBC Three at 8pm.