1.5 Target Audience Research

Target Audience Research 

The main audience for this film is really anyone in general. But most we want an age range of around 16-22. We know this is a very small age cap but we want to help other young people like ourselves get more in tune with what is happening in our country and documentary is a great way to provide this information. 

The original idea for the documentary, in the very early stages, was to focus on huge stories with what’s happening in the country at the moment. But we thought that the 5-minute time limit would give us enough time to explain things in detail. Before I started this documentary, I knew nothing about the HS2, all I knew was that it was going to be very expensive. But since researching about it and finding out more information, I’ve found that it could affect the very town I’m living in. Also, we think that the way we should present the documentary in a way that the target audience can understand and stay focused.

We also used an age demographic site, YouGov, to see who wanted to see what type of an audience would like to watch documentaries and go completely against that convention:

First we gather the demographic to see who would be most likely to watch a documentary from the king of documentary - Sir David Attenborough, These were the results:

It turns out that it is mainly males at the age of 55 plus who are the main majority who watches David Attenborough's Masterpieces also they have a high social grade of ABC1.







Next, we looked at the demographics of Louis Theroux to see what the demographics were like: 
 This was slightly different to David Attenborough's Demographic as the age rage was from 25-39 however the gender was still male. 








From these results we could gather that there was a gap in the documentary range for a documentary for young adults and teens. So we decided to fill that gap and decided that our age range would be 16-22 and the occasional view of  documentaries.

1.4 The Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions of a documentary film 

A narrator is used to move the narrative along. They also are used to push and idea or a view on the topic forward. A narrator is important to hold the narrative together. We plan to use this feature prominently in our documentary as if we tackle a quite informative topic it will be hard for the audience to take in all the information. So by having a narrator to move along the audience in the documentary would a great thing to help are target audience watch the documentary.  This also makes the type of documentary we are doing is an expository documentary which i have already explained.  

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound is used to represent emotion or a topic. Non-diegetic sound is a sound which is neither visible on the screen. For example a narrator's commentary. Also Diegetic Sound is whose sound is visible on the screen or whose sound is implied to be present by the action of the film for example is voices of characters and sounds made by objects in the film. But in our case this could be the sound of a train passing by the camera, or voices heard in the background of a Vox pop.

Graphics in a documentary can be used to grab the readers attention and give them plenty of visual information which can keep them interested in the documentary. An example could be projecting the costs of a company via a visual chart that is on the screen for the audience to see and for an example in a political documentary, which is what we are planning to focus of, could be what the UK spends its money on.

Archive footage is used to show a variety of views on a topic. It can also provide the audience to look into the past about a certain topic. For example when watching  a documentary about an old car maker for example, you might see a snippet of old footage of a car in black and white footage, this can class as archive footage. 

 During interviews, the camera remains mainly static so the audience aren't distracted away from the interview by any movement. Documentaries contain lots of cuts because there is such a variation of interviews, archive footage etc. 

 A title sequence is used to introduce the Documentary. End credits are also used to credit everyone involved in the production of the Documentary Interviews are mostly in close up or a medium close-up shot filmed on a left or right alignment. Although we are planning to have a introduction sequence we wont be having a end credit scene as we are only doing the first 5 minutes of a documentary. 

The mise-en-scene of the documentary is always portrayed in the interview, e.g. a documentary about horses so a stable may be the setting of the interview. For example if we plan to do a documentary about the HS2 we could have most of the interviews taking place in a train station.

The Gender of the narrator depends on the topic and target audience. The tone of voice, accent and vocabulary of the narrator all depends on who the program is aimed at. Our program shall be aimed at mainly 16+ so the voice over will need to be dynamic and engaging to encouage are audience to watch all of the documentary. 

1.3 Textual Analysis' on Documentary films

1.3 Textual Analysis' on Documentary films 

Supersize Me

















Louis Therox Documentaries

Documentary – Louis Theroux, behind bars in San Quentin.

This is a documentary based on the San Quentin prison which was released in 2008. In the film he meets and speaks to serial murderers, gang members, at-risk inmates and guards.

The codes and the conventions of documentary film are shown well in this as the opening really draws your attention because it starts with Louis talking to a man called David Silver who is in the prison for 500 years. This “hook” gets audiences intrigued and makes them tune into the program for the whole hour because they want to find out how the man got 500 years in prison. Also in a documentary there are central questions that are asked at the beginning of the program for example, “What is the necessity of wearing this” Louis asks this when he is putting his Protective layered jacket. The reason he is asking this question is not for his benefit as he would most likely know as he is a very smart man. In fact Louis is doing it for us, so that we know more about what the atmosphere is like so he is showing us how dangerous the prison actually is. 

1.2 Types of documentary

1.2   Types of documentary 

There are many different types of documentary in this genre. The main theorist American documentary theorist Bill Nichols that seeks to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles. Nichols identifies six different documentary 'modes' in his schema: poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, and preformative.

Poetic - The poetic mode of documentary film tends toward subjective interpretations of its subject/s, Poetic documentaries focus traditional narrative content like characters and events, however they remain undeveloped, in favour of creating a particular mood or tone that represents the chosen topic. An example of this “Koyannisqatsi 1982 Godfrey” Director Reggio stated that “the Film are intended to simply create an experience and that "it is up [to] the viewer to take for himself/herself what it is the film means”. He also said that "these films have never been about the effect of technology, but about the industry on people.”

Poetic Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=546AUDxeHKs

Observational - The observational mode of documentary developed in the wake of documentarians returning to Vertovian ideals of truth, along with the evolution of cinematic hardware in the 1960s. Unlike the subjective content of poetic documentary observational documentaries tend to simply observe, allowing viewers to reach whatever conclusions they may deduce. Pure observational documentarians proceeded under some no music, no interviews, no scene arrangement of any kind, and no narration. Also the editing processes use long takes and few cuts. An example of this type is Big brother. In a clip There is then footage of a personal talk from the garden between the housemates. These clips are not they are able to properly produced or edited so there of clips that spy on what private things the housemates are doing. This is record the genuine behavior of the housemate

Observational link:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3VCb6z__Pk

Participatory - In the participatory mode the filmmaker does interact with his or her subjects rather than observe them. This interaction is present within the film as the film makes it explicit that meaning is created by the collaboration or confrontation between filmmaker and contributor. An example is Jean Rouche's Chronicle of a summer, 1960. It is an early manifestation of participatory filmmaking. At its simplest this can mean the voice of the filmmaker is heard within the film. As Nichols explains "what happens in front of the camera becomes an index of the nature of interaction between filmmaker and subject."  Here is a link with Jean Rouche Explaining the idea of the Chronicle of a summer, 1960

Participatory Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxk-fg771r8

Reflexive – The reflexive mode, Unlike the other documentaries I’ve talked about, mainly considers the quality of documentary itself, discover its processes and considering its implications on the topic its documenting. An early example of this type of documentary, is a film called “A man with a movie camera” by Dziga Vortov. In part of the film there is footage of him recording his brother and his wife, editing parts of the film and shooting it. The reason that he recorded it is that he wanted the audience to know how the process of this film was being made, so that they could develop a critical attitude for the film.  Here is a short clip of “The man with the movie camera” and to give it some context it is Vortovs highlighting the relationship between moving and still image.

 Reflexive Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZeapzWhal4

Performative - The performative mode, the final mode Nichols discusses, is easily confused with the participatory mode. The performative mode engages the filmmaker to the story but has biased truths that are significant to the filmmaker him or herself. This mode offers filmmakers from different social groups to tell a story of there unique personal experiences without having to argue with others if it’s true or not. An example of Performative is Marlon Riggs’ 1990 documentary Tongues Untied. It focuses on his life mainly about his experiences as a gay black dancer in New York City. The performative film helps a great deal more room for creative freedom in terms of visual abstraction and narrative.

Performance Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98XIitKlNcY

The type of documentary that closely links to our documentary that we want to is an Expository Documentary.  It’s defined as being the norm for most documentaries, like Louis Theroux: Behind Bars. Also for this type of documentary there is more of an audience as it is the most used type of documentary for TV programs and studios alike. So, this would mean we would already have a wide amount of audience who would be interested in this type of documentary.

1.1 Documentaries In a Nutshell

1.1 Documentaries in a Nutshell

A Brief History of Documentary Film:

An example of a modern Documentary

Documentary film is a non-fictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record. Such films were originally shot on film stock,the only medium available at the time,but now include video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video, made into a TV show, or released for screening in cinemas.

A scene From "Berlin, Symphony
of a great city"

 Pre-1900. Early films before the 1900s was mainly dominated by the novelty of showing an event. They were mostly single shot movements captured on very early filming cameras. The original term for documentary films was “Actuality films”. The term documentary would come until the 1920s. An early type of documentary film that is our idea of a documentary can link to is called, “Berlin, Symphony of a great city.” 

It is the first documentary of its kind to focus solely on a city as a whole and the director, Walter Ruttmann says Documentaries are like a “ Visual Poem” Most of the documentaries made from the 60s-70s were mainly to do with what was happening at the time for example many political documentaries were being made. For example, Chile: A Special Report, was the first public look at the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende government. So, documentaries are really giving people a chance to look at what’s happening all over the world from different perspectives. This is what we want to achieve with whatever topic we intend to research.