Showing posts with label D. Documentaries/3MW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label D. Documentaries/3MW. Show all posts
Primary research is new research that consist of answers about certain issues conducted by the Film maker or producer. It can have questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals. For my documentary I collected some primary research. Firstly, I created a questionnaire on survey monkey asking my target audience questions about the topic I wanted to discuss. For example, one of the questions stated 'What are your views on homosexuality'. Another type of primary research I used was having an interview with an individual. For this I used Callum Howard a former student at East Norfolk Sixth Form College. During the interview I asked his opinions and what society thinks of homosexuality. After the interview I asked If he would star in my three-minute wonder documentary and he kindly said yes. A few months back when researching a producing my dove TV ad, I made a questionnaire on survey monkey asking my target audience asking if they would like to see a dove advert for that target audience and what would work. 

Secondary research makes use of the information given from the primary research, usually the information is put into a summary or collation. For example, books, journals and searching the internet. For my secondary research on my documentary I watched a few different coming out videos on YouTube and videos based around coming out, and how they could possibly relate to the one I was thinking of making. Each video had snippets of things I could use. For example, one video I watched was
a coming out documentary. Other forms of secondary research were searching on Google the stats and other forms of information relating to young teenagers struggling in the LGBT community. one of the websites I used washttp://www.hrc.org/youth-report/view-and-share-statistics This website relates to the stats of the LGBT community against members who are not a part of the LGBT. 

Quantitative research uses ratings, numbers to  make use of sampling techniques such as surveys and customer questionnaires, it requires asking people for their opinions, in a structured way that will help your research. For example, film reviews, game reviews and responses to advertising campaigns. For my documentary I made a questionnaire to collect opinions on what my target audience would find interesting to watch when discussing the LGBT community. Another quantitative research I used was looking at other advert campaigns for example and seeing how many views it received and likes and dislikes.



Qualitative research uses detail,rather than figures and simple yes and no answers. Qualitative research  is easily accessible, for example film reviews, game reviews and attitudes to media products. One really good example of collecting qualitative research is companies that visit cinemas and ask customers weather the film was good or not. The only downside to qualitative research is the response could be bias towards the strong opinion of the person responding to the questions. During my pre-production for my documentary I watched a few different films that had an LGBT story line and looked at the viewing figures for the certain films. One of the films I watched  was Tongues United (1989) Directed by Marlon Riggs. The film's plot is about black men loving black men as a revolutionary act. The film inter cuts footage of men in social intercourse and dance and various other comic riffs. This film helped configure stats for my own documentary, with the different race and sexual orientation. The film itself has a 6.5 star rating out of 1 on IMDb and the reviews are extremely useful.




Data gathering agencies are responsible in collecting and maintaining data and operating data specific to the company. A few examples of data gathering agencies are BARB( Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) and IMDb and Boxofficemojo. BARB figures can be used to show different data for example if you are wanting to find out different data about films and TV shows. The week ending 1st May 2016 20.57% watch BBC1 shows in that week. Other than BARB, IMDb is also a very similar website to BARB where they collect figures on views of films, Although BARB only states the channel IMDb has individual film ratings, this helps if you are looking for ratings and views on a specific genre or film. Other information that IMDb offers is the box office and how much each film spent on budget (estimated) and how much gross they make in different countries and states.  Along with BARB and IMDb Boxofficemojo is very similar to the two. This website links very closely with IMDb, in the way that it shows the film expenditures and the gross that the film earns around different countries.

At a very early stage in pre-production its always best to establish your target audience before creating any media related work. This helps the idea of your product work and gives you a starting. For my documentary my target audience was young teenagers and young adults ranging from 13-24 this is the very beginning of the stage when young teenagers and young adults find what they want to do and how they feel towards different genders. After deciding your target audience you can then start market researching, for example making questionnaires and surveys that fit to your target audience or watching different adverts and documentary's that relate to your subject and your target audience. Demographic information is used in marketing to classify an audience into age, gender, race and other categories, they are then broken into different groups depending on jobs or status. Here is an example: 

As you can see each Job/Status is but into a letter code. Same goes for psychographics where they divide the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics depending the product.
Here is the table for psychographics where they divide each personal characteristics into mainstreamer characteristics. for example Aspirer's who seek status, and are orientated to image and appearance, persona and fashion who are typically the younger generation.









Production research is always used when making a new product, its a very important part of the pre-production process. Pre-production paperwork includes: location recee's, location releases, talent releases, budget sheet, prop/costume list, shot list, storyboard, script, risk assessments and lastly production schedule/ call sheet. For my documentary I completed most of these sheets apart form prop/costume list, budget sheet, storyboard and script. The reason I didn't complete a budget sheet is because I didn't spend any money. During the pre-production process I emailed a few different companies enquiring about posters and stone wall company posted them for free. Each sheet has its own importance for example talent releases, with out getting a talent release signed you have no right to use the footage of them in your product.

Thursday, May 12, 2016



Friday, April 22, 2016
I have been researching Channel 4's 3 Minute Wonders. A three minute documentary is a short documentary that helps producers and filmmakers get into the industry. Channel 4 really help with that as they have selected slots for three minute wonders. The sort of topic to see in a three minute wonder mostly relates to something personal to the filmmaker/director. 

 Here is my first out of three favourite 3 Minute Wonders.


I really like the camera shots for this documentary, its very fast paced this works well with the object that he is showing, how it takes so long to draw and build but when the editing is fast paced it looks so simple. From this documentary I have learnt the skill and technique of making sculptures. This type of documentary according to Bill Nichols is expository, this is where the subject talks directly to the viewer either with a voice over or titles.They are mainly rhetorical and persuade the viewer to understand what they are telling.

 The second documentary is This is Our Youth: Carrot Crew


During this documentary school kids are protesting about their own food revolution two gangs at south London school, One being the crisp crew and the other being the carrot crew. This seems comical but is a serious matter. This type of documentary is Interactive, Although the filmmaker has no appearance, there is a debate between the two rival gangs and they talk directly towards the camera. I really like the layout of the documentary. 

 The third and final documentary that I really liked is 3 Minute Wonder The Wall Andy Seize.


This documentary is Observational the filmmaker follows the subject around and discovers the different events that they occur. In this documentary the events are about spray painting (graffiti) I really like this style of documentary, as it shows what Andy Seize is passionate about. From this documentary I have learnt that not all graffiti is disturbing and offensive. 

On the 19th of April 2016 on Channel 4 there are 3 documentary's being aired between 3am and 4am. 

 On Channel five for the 18th of April there are 10 documentary's being broadcasted through out the day. 

 On BARB they produce viewing figures for different genre of tv programmes, For the week ending the 3rd of April the viewing share is 12.73% 
Monday, April 18, 2016
For my primary research  I used survey monkey to create a survey that would give me a range of information from the public that would help make my documentary and picking the right target audience. 

Here is my survey. 
Create your own user feedback survey


the survey offers a range of questions for a variety of demographic and psycho-graphic profiles, this gave myself a wider idea, and a clearer answer to who my target audience would be. 



During my pre-production, I got in contact with the stone wall company who are 'here to let all lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, here and abroad, know they're not alone. We believe we're stronger united, so we partner' - Stone Wall company. The company help and support people from the LGBT community, I began to research into the company as my documentary was based on LGBT and the struggles of coming out. I sent an email to the company, to ask if they could kindly send some free posters that I could include in my documentary. 
















  They quickly replied and set out eight free posters for the research I was planning to do and the posters were under the title of 'some people are'. 


Not only did I do a survey and email a company for my primary research, I also wrote my own questions and answers for my documentary, and included another student, Callum Howard who was my interviewer and briefly answered a few questions. I had to discuss with Callum the times of shooting and also which location would be best to shoot in.



For my secondary research I looked more into the Stone Wall company, during my research I found a really well written article of coming out as a young person and the struggles you could face, and the positives about coming out as a young person. This article gave me some clues and facts that I could portray in my documentary. Here is the link to the article http://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/coming-out/coming-out-young-person The company also offer programmes for all ages to help build the community. 


During my secondary research, I really wanted to find LGBT stats, in schools were children or young adults have been bullied. This website in particular https://nobullying.com/lgbt-bullying-statistics/ gave me some really good facts and figures that I could quote in my documentary.



















I then looked at other documentaries based on coming out for young adults here are some that I found. 




Each documentary gave me and idea on how to base mine and the different stories that I could tell.
Monday, April 18, 2016
The idea I have, is to make a three minute documentary on the struggles of coming out. In the documentary I want to include people that have different sexuality, to give my audience a more depth answer on the struggles of coming out. 

My documentary is going to be leaning towards a performative format, this is when the emotional and subjective side is shown. It also encourages the viewer to experience what the subject has been through.

 My primary target audience is young teenagers ranging from 13-18 year olds, I have chosen this age bracket, because a lot of people have different views on sexuality, and many 13-18 year olds, are struggling with this. The demographics for this documentary would be the unemployed, students and casual workers.  My secondary audience is a slightly older age range, from 25-40, the reason I have picked this age group is because they are the age to be parents, and when coming out you want a good family to support you. 

 The aim of my documentary is to open up other peoples minds on the views of different sexualities and hoping that they will accept it more. Not only to open peoples minds but to help them, if they are struggling to come out then watching the documentary could help them seeing how much support is out there.

 For this documentary I am aiming to film in a calming environment, for example a living room. if using my house then it will be a ten - fifteen minute walk. 

 I am using a few members of my class to be in my documentary, to give different opinions on my questions, Callum Howard, is going to be helping with the filming and also the voice over.

 The budget for this documentary is five pounds.



Create your own user feedback survey
Sunday, April 17, 2016
I recently watched BBC One Look East from the 21st of March 2016. The opening story was based on the East Anglia devolution, they then continued onto a story about a Norwich bus being evacuated due to a suspicious object being left. The third story was about a young adult male factory worker who has just been found guilty of murdering his pregnant ex girlfriend. The second from last story contained information about another women who was murdered days before giving birth. The final story was on a Chelmsford United Fan who was left brain damage after being attacked just after a football game. The whole story leads to a happy end when His wife, family, friends and also the local community helping to raise money so that he can move around easily at home.

The presenter of this broadcast is Amelia Reynolds. She works for Look East but also is a News Journalist. The job of a newsreader is to present to to a wide range audience, this could be on Television, Radio or even the Internet. As I said above Amelia Reynolds is also a News Journalist, this means she helps collect the news she is going to present. This helps her understand the different story's and how they are placed in the news values. This brings me on to discuss news values, and the prospect list. 

 The prospect list, is a list of all the possible news stories that could be aired on the day of broadcasting, this list can change before they air, due to stories changing or a delay for example if a subject cannot make an interview date.  The different stories on the prospect list all fit into news values. 

News values are guidelines used by the media, to clarify how much prominence to give a story.  For example here is a few of the news values. 






















The top value on this list Is Negativity, this is one of the most common news values, that you see in most media outlets. Its the one everybody hates to hear, but draws the attention of the audience. Negativity comes under bad news for example involving a death (tragedy) violence and bankruptcy. For example, In the news broadcast I mentioned at the very beginning, The negative story was the young adult factory worker who murdered his ex girlfriend while she was heavily pregnant. The negativity in this story is that she was murdered. 

 Another News Value is closeness to home (proximity). This news value draws the attention of the audience who live extremely close to a big story. This draws the attention of the viewers who are local. For example In the news broadcast on Look East, the closeness to home story was the suspicious object that was left on the Norwich bus, and how it had to evacuate its passengers. 

Exclusivity is another important news value, this is when the news or a newspaper is the first and only company to have a story, the UK Sunday papers are extremely popular for this. Here is a link to a Sunday exclusive story. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/  This link clicks to a story that has just recently happened where a teenage couple are badly injured while on the white-knuckle ride at M&DS Theme Park. 


One broadcast that I have found was about how the media demonises teenagers for wearing hoodies, and tracksuit bottoms, and that the way they dress makes them look like 'scum' In the story the teenagers are present, they are presented as 'scum' and 'inhuman' People would avoid the area that the teenagers would hang out due to the way they dressed and the way they were stereotyped. I personally dont believe they should be stereotyped, clothing should not decide if a person is bad or not. The construction was poor, it was a struggle to follow the new event, due to the changes of set going from different teenagers rather than focusing on a certain group.

 News stories can be bias through placement which is a form of bias within media texts. placement of the story can determine its importance for example if the story is on the front cover of the news paper it would come across as important where as if the story was in the back it would seem less important. Here is the daily express, as you can see almost every title story has a negative word that gives a bias opinion. 

 Another form of bias, is through selection and omission this means that a new story has left out vital information, that gives the audience a view on the situation with out knowing the full story, A very good example of this would be when Madeline Mcann first got kidnapped, the news were so quick to release the story that they missed out the vital information, giving the parents sympathy, when the parents left the children in the room while they went for a meal. 
there are many different ways to be bias one is through shot selection and camera angles, if a camera angle is high up and the subject is low down, this could show that they are weak and afraid, or have done something wrong to make them feel low, but if the camera angle is from low down and the subject or object is high up then this shows power and will come across as something good. here is an example the image to the left is taken at a low angle giving the subject and object power. 







Saturday, March 26, 2016
A documentary is a television programme , that documents different aspects of reality. They use interviews to have factual reports on a subject or object. Some documentaries are used to reveal something that can be emotional to some viewers, which could leave them with a rhetorical question. There are five different forms of documentaries they are Interactive, expository, observational, reflexive and preformative. 

 Interactive Documentary

This type of documentary involves the presence of the Film maker more. Instead of having a voice over, there is more interaction between the interviewees, the presenter and the audience. During most documentaries that are interactive, there are many arguments that are presented, and can change the views of many people. Louis Theroux has filmed himself and a family in America, on the protests of human rights and how 'God hates Fags'. 

In this interview Louis Theroux has a strong belief that he doesn't believe in god and that everybody should love who they wish, no matter what the sex, gender or race. The family that he visits are claimed to be the 'most hated family in America' because of the way they believe and they way they protest. In the documentary, Louis Theroux visits the family as they protest on the side of the road, agendas are discussed due to Theroux not believing in God and how he uses that as an excuse not to hold a sign. The family also protest at soldiers funerals, as they claim that bad things are happening because more people are supporting gays, and how gay is o.k, so soldiers are dying on that be half.  My example documentary fits in with Interactive Documentary's because, the filmmaker Louis Theroux, is interacting and is shown in the footage, he also tries to argue against their religion. 

Expository documentary

This type of documentary speaks directly to the viewer, mainly using voice overs and titles. They are mainly rhetorical and persuade the viewer with the problem they are explaining. 
My example for this type of documentary is The Blue Planet A BBC documentary. During the documentary, David Attenborough, voice overs the explanation of different problems and causes that happen in the ocean and how viewers can change the way these happen. This is a rhetorical documentary, that leaves the viewers questioning the statements and scenarios in the documentary and question whether or not they could change and help the blue planet. 


 Observational Documentary
With this type of documentary, the filmmaker follows the subject or the object around to view the different events that they occur. Usually there are not many interviews and voice overs, long takes are used to show the follow of the subject or the object.

My example for this Documentary is based on MTV Cribs, where they check out celebrities and their homes, This documentary is on the Alli Show, which is a YouTube channel. This video is with the young celebrity skateboarder Ryan sheckler, as he shows you a tour of his house and his own private indoor skate park. This is classed as observational as it follows the celebrity around, the camera usually focuses on the wealthy items in and outside of the house. During this documentary, Interviews are not being taken but the subject explains the objects in his house as he is taking the film maker on the tour. At the very beginning of this clip the editing is very quick and shots are only one or two seconds long, this is used a lot when making observational documentaries, this is so that they can skip past the less interesting and focus on the important aspects. 



 Reflexive Documentary
This style of documentary, is used to help the audience understand some what of the process in film so that they can develop a certain critical attitude. Usually in reflexive documentaries the film maker acknowledges their presence, and give some type of guidance towards the subject or object. These are usually about real life, therefore are the truth.

My example for this type of documentary is Driving me Crazy by Nick Broomfield, Where he documents behind the scenes of making a musical. This is a very good example it shows that Nick Broomfield is in front of the camera, and In one shot Nick Broom field is standing in the mirror with his camera crew, of only one extra guy to hold the mic. A large part of the documentary is about the making of the film rather than the footage that is being shot.


 Preformative Documentary

Preformative shows the emotional and subjective side of a documentary. They aim to represent the world indirectly, they encourage the viewer to experience what the subject has gone through. 

My example is Tongued United (1989) which is about Marlon Riggs, and other gay black men as they celebrate black men loving black men as a revolutionary act. Marlon Riggs tells the story of his growing up. Some of the stories that are being told are upsetting and different to what the world is like now. It puts an impact on the viewer.



Overall I think that all the different techniques of making a documentary have a purpose to tell a truthful story, and by changing the way the documentary is made fits different target audiences. I strongly believe that the film-maker and the subject should have a stated contract that everything is stated is authentic and truthful and have a non-bias opinion on the given matter. So that the audience can believe its authentic. In most cases the film-maker is bias on a certain opinion and makes the audience believe that way too. Although this could be interesting for some of the audience watching its not always the truth.



Thursday, March 17, 2016
La sortie des usines Lumière is a short documentary that consists of one scene where workers are leaving the Lumière factory. The camera is stationary outside the factory as hundreds of people begin to leave. I believe that this documentary is telling the truth. My reason to believe this is down to the camera's position and the workers, you can see on the workers face they are some what shocked to see a camera recording. There is also no voice over, so no opinion is given just a view of what happens, there is no explanation and no argument during the documentary. 

 The second documentary we watched is called NightMail by Harry Watt and Basil Wright. Its based on the London, Midland and Scottish railway. I don't believe that this documentary is completely authentic and truthful, my reason for this is halfway through the documentary when the post has reached certain destinations a man is pulling three levers, as he pulls the second lever camera trickery is used, the three shots are match on action shots. When the first lever is pulled the camera is behind the man, and you can see the three levers, the second shot is behind the levers. This is when camera trickery is used because in the first shot you can clearly see that there is no gap for a camera to fit, so they used a smaller camera, this gives a hint that the actions taken place were acted for the camera to state that this guys job is pulling levers. Also during the documentary you see an Arial shot of the trains, this would be impossible to do during the times in 1935, so they used a model train set, which is small scaled so they could get away with using an Arial shot.

When Louis met Jimmy, Is a short documentary where Louis Theroux met Jimmy Savile and attempts to to get behind the public persona. Louis Theroux uses voice overs, to create different opinions. I don't believe that this documentary is all truthful as some events were staged for the cameras.

Bowling for Columbine is an American Documentary on American crime rate for people killed by fire arms for a developed nation without a civil war. Activist filmmaker Micheal Moore try to find the roots on why this was happening. I don't feel that this is all authentic and truthful due to Micheal Moore using a couple of days to shoot one scene, but he keeps his clothing the same to trick the audience to seem that this was filmed in one day. And how he was given a gun in under an hour. He manipulates the audience to fit a certain agenda that he is trying to portray.

The Act of Killing is a film about the killers who have won, Although they did not admit to the killings, they had written their own history. In the film it journeys into of the perpetrators, and getting inside the heads of the mass murders.One particular scene that stood out for me was when Anwar, had to act as if he was getting killed, after the shot, he said he could not re-do the shoot, he finally understood what all the victims felt, and how he never wanted to feel that again. The director Joshua Oppenheimer has a slight presence but only his voice, he is never in front of the camera, during the film the speak to Joshua to ask his opinion but other than that he has no presence in the film.In the movie there are a few executive producers, but the two honored documentary filmmakers are Werner Herzog and Errol Morris.




Wednesday, March 09, 2016
Friday, February 12, 2016
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