Audience Research

Results of Research

The results for the research aided us for what we can acheive with this film, in terms of editing and production. The results we received will eventually play a part in reaching the needs of the audience as a collective because the responses we received varied responses with most of the questions. 

The most popular choice for a documentary is mixed one. The sub-genre itself, pays attention to detail further to the typical features for a documentary. This is rather unpromising as this category is solely focussed on interviews, narration and archive footage and so this comes across as being too bland and unoriginal, if it is used for poor measure or if it is used excessively. However, it's suggested by our research as largely recommended, we can learn from this by reminding ourselves to cover a large proportion of the film compared to the rest of the footage.

The results for this question has taught us that compositon is key for a documentary for it balances features witht he likes of camera angles, the authenticity of sound motifs. We want to ignore archive footage & reconstructions owing to the fact they're more to do with movie based documentaries; ours being more suited to a TV.

In terms of the delivery of audio in the documentary, we asked whether people would favour having a voiceover, an onscreen presenter or if they didn’t mind at all. People were fond with having a voiceover as a response rather than not considering it, and, in my opinion, I agree it would be a exponentially good support for the film as a sort of touch-up. 

Although we were sure to not be hassled with adding any particular voice narrative, it seems to come with great value after all, having a voiceover or not using it at all really depends because alot of people answered with 'Don't Mind', so we should consider it if I really want to reach a level 5 and a voice-over will improve upon my current target level which is 'proficient'.

I believe an onscreen presenter is not necessarily optional for our film as it doesn't link with the emotional impact we tried to imply from the setting. I've seen documentaries in the past where they're used occasionally, but, in my opinion, I deem it as below par for portraying a serious documentary such as ours.

I was hesitant to believe this, but it surprised me to see people msotly answered the question ‘Does non-diegetic sound support a documentary’ with the answer ‘yes’. To my disbelief, I was wrong to think that non-diegetic sound didn’t support a documentary because I thought it would ruin its faithfulness to the genre. 

It was not until I watched a behind-the-scenes video in a media lesson that it began to influence the creation of our film, the video focussed on a man responsible for creating authentic sound motifs and adding them to clips from a nature documentary with horrendous background noise, improving them immensely. Of course beforehand, I was referring to the type of sound effects that sound too obvious to a usual fictional film and using this in a documentary wouldn’t make sense.

Our answerers preferred archive footage, which interests people the most in documentaries. I would agree archive footage furthers the balance of content because too many interviews or angles for visual shots can get very dull if it's used too much . Although, we will not use this feature because archive footage provides higher production value than we've filmed in the process, together with the lack of ideas of how our film could be recreated.

In spite of not using the most popular result, we've gained knowledge from people who've answered other than archive footage inspiring us to make sure our has equivalence and lineaments are placed into separate positions rather than having them clustered together.

Are there any documentaries you have found particularly memorable?

If they answered yes, they stated what those documenatries were.

Answer 1: 9/11 Documenatries - Using actual footage of people recording the events of the day.
Answer 2: Planet Earth and Frozen Planet.
Answer 3: The Man with the Ten Stone Testicles.
Answer 4: Exit through the Gift Shop.
Answer 5: Food Inc. - Extradionary look at the reality of food.
Answer 6: Man on the Wire, Brian Cox's documentaries of the universe and Planet Earth.

The Questionaire

Circle answers

1.     Gender:

(Circle answer)

Male         Female

2.     Age:

            ____________

Reason: Both age and gender may have different opinions on documentaries. It's better to have a wide range of results and risk to try see a patterns amongst these results.

3.     Are you an avid viewer of documentaries?

Yes         No

Reason: If they say yes, this will be important, as we need to be attentive to answers for the questions 
below. This is because they'll be fully aware of what goes into a documentary. 

4.     What documentary sub-genre do you prefer to watch?

(Circle one)

                        ‡         Mockumentary (e.g. Borat)

                        ‡         Docusoap (e.g. Big Fat Gypsy Wedding)

                        ‡         Fly on the Wall (e.g. Big Brother)

                        ‡         Mixed Documentary (interviews, observation, actuality footage, archive material and narration)

                        ‡         Docudrama (e.g. Apollo 13)

Reason: If one is mentioned the most, we could use elements from that subsidiary of documentary to the film without giving the impression that it's a complete sub-genre.

5.     Are there any documentaries you have found particularly memorable?

Yes            No

               If yes, what? ______________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Reason: We could incorporate the 'particularly memorable moments' to enhance our film even further.

6.     Which of the following content do you most prefer in a documentary?

(Circle one)

                        ‡         Eccentric Angles

                        ‡         Interviews

                        ‡         Archive Footage

Reason: We want to be able to focus on one aspect more than others so the proportions for each are correct.

7.     Do you think that non-diegetic (sound edited into the film) sound supports a documentary?

Yes            No

Reason: Non- diegetic sounds can often ruin the authenticity, and overall feel for a documentary. Although these will be included, we don't want sounds to be obvious of being fake that people will know it's edited.

8.     Do you prefer a presenter on screen or a voiceover?

(Circle one)

·       Onscreen Presenter

·       Voiceover

·       Don’t mind

Historical Research on Documentaries

The earliest film to date, better known as "moving image" at the time, was defined as a documentary; most of these films were short displays of life being documented. At first, these short films were called "actuality" films. They were full-length captured films as editing was later to be hailed as a helpful tool for perfecting films; amongst these films were a train arriving at a station, a boat docking, or people getting off work factory. There wasn’t much to portray from these films because there were technical boundaries: cameras had very little film in them, which meant many of the first films were only around a minute long. Film eventually began to form as the first revolutionary knack of the 20^th century that radically changed modern culture over the course of 100 years in history.

Documentaries were originally shot on film stock; the only medium avaliable but has now gone onto digital production that can be distributed easily to either direct-to-video, a television program or released for screening in cinemas. 

The great pioneers of this trade were Auguste and Louis Lumiere who were responsible for making Un Train Arrivee in 1895. This was their most famous film simply showing a train pulling into a station; the reason being was that witnessing the detail of moving photographs captured by a film camera for the first time fascinated audiences. 

They created their own camera that could hold only 50ft of reel, which is evident to how incredibly short their full-length clips, were. The Lumière brothers stage the world's first public film screening in 1895, it was showcased in the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris.

The first edited feature length documentary began with Nanook of The North, the first commercially successful documentary, created by Robert Flaherty in 1922. This is the first ever documentary that we know of because the term ‘documentary’ was coined by John Grierson as his description of the film, he also praised it as a ’creative interpretation of reality’. This meant that Flaherty staged most of the scenes and tweaked the realistic side of it, which made the film more fictional to regular movies, which meant it was more dramatic and exhilarating for the audience.

Of course, the documentary genre developed over the years as major development of documentaries began in the 1950s and 60s. Direct Cinema, a movement that began in the United States, aimed to present important issues surrounding politics and society, it was a way of giving the impression that events were recorded exactly as they happened without any notice of the film-maker. The further development of much smaller, portable film cameras that use smaller film stock was pioneered by news camera men, allowing the shoulder to support the camera and to film everything in a more unintentional style.

The use of cinema verite techniques meaning there is a huge measure of realism or naturalism responsible for making films seem more real and truthful to an audience. Although, in recent times, film-makers have used the codes and conventions of documentaries only to fool audiences into thinking the documentary sticks to its original intentions, to be factual.This form of film-making is known today as the mockumentary sub-genre. Films like The Rutles, a 1978 American-British mockumentary film written and directed by Eric Idle, about a fictional band intending to be a satirical version of The Beatles.

The 1980's began the lead upto a new era of documentaries without words. They are most notable for being described as a art form for a visual poem, along with music to coincide with the meanings portrayed visually similar to Baraka because it's been described as a visual tone poem; it's essentially music with what the audience could see, but no spoken content. Koyaanisqatsi consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes. Baraka tries to capture humanity in its finest and its worse as it explores the activity of different cultures and religious ceremonies.

Jersey Shore is one of the most popular reality shows on TV.

Modern documentaries moved to television sets as a new a new era of reality television became a popular medium. This often became more fictional and staged for views rather than the documentary approach. Well-known shows such as Geordie Shore and other similar shows center on the day-to-day activities of a group of people from a particular walk of life. The show still has a essence of the genre through the interviews they have with the cast members.

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The Codes and Conventions of the Two Ancillary Artefacts

Radio trailer
 

Radio Trailers are a perfect platform to promote upcoming projects to the more traditional audiences who seek the radio for entertainment, information etc. The duration of the radio trailer should be kept to a bare minimum. Typically, a radio trailer should usually take 30 seconds to address all the appropriate information because radio companies will only take short advertising to fit in with the radio show’s agenda.

The basic structure of a radio trailer consists of material from the show/movie, which the distributors are trying to sell. It consists of clips, or better yet, the audio. The audio also goes alongside a voice-over following through a script. The narrator should be the same one from the documentary so that the film isn't misinterpreted with a different voice and  the audience are aware of who’s involved.

I order to capture the attention of the radio listener; it should have a certain aspect to it to entice their interest towards the concept of the film. That attention provider is the slogan of the film, which is mostly considered to be good at enabling both the documentary and the newspaper advertisement to succeed in gathering three demographics by connecting all three media products.

As mentioned in the conventional features of a documentary, a combination of the voice over and script for the radio trailer should serve the same purpose to most importantly make it informative and entertaining. In addition, this should directly attach the audience to come across as more intriguing. The script will provide a clutch to keep the trailer together and give suitable information about the documentary.

There is often music to go along with radio trailer with the exception that it should relate to the overall detail for the documentary. Ideally, the music should be instrumental. If there were vocals in the music, it would deter the audiences’ attention away from the people speaking in the film; hence, it ruins a film. To finalise the media product, the trailer will resolve with the narrator reading the scheduling information such as the title of the documentary, the day, date, time, channel name etc. Again, this is an essential feature, enough importance to being used for the main task and newspaper advert.

Newspaper Advert
 

Newspaper adverts are rather basic in a way that they primarily inform the reader and don’t focus on plentifully adding on to the appearance, because they have to consider the amount of scheduling information to include.

The layout consists two main features; the advert will have a one striking image usually of a character(s) in a situational location, this is because it’s all about the mise-en-scene going on in the image, which transpires to the audience on the possible plot. For instance, our advert will feature bikes, so it may come across as a certain prop of significance to a niche audience of bike enthusiasts.

The second feature is the programme arrangement information; the text is deliberated as bold and in the style of sans serif. This is effective in meaning; sans serif is a modern class of font that is used as a good choice for documentaries since they’re fixated on modern topics and issues. The boldness of the text is a convention used quite clearly as a marketing device. It renders the image more and highlights the key bits that’ll be memorised the most from the advert

The slogan is a supplementary to the text enabling it anchor the general text and image; it’s a regular witty play on words, to say the least. It’s successful at reinforcing the image’s connotations and provides a more defined idea of the plot, in order to sell the programme. 

The Channel 4 logo is iconic image for the entirety of television viewers.
Everyone knows where to go.

Channel 4 - The Mind Detectives

The channel logo for the media product is prominent in the corner position of the advert. Channel 4 is a famous example for producing interesting documentaries involving in depth research into extremely peculiar areas like 'The Girl Who Cannot Sleep'. This advert is a clear representation of a typical Newspaper advert displaying an image that is associated with the topic and can be easily decoded by the audience. It depicts a a bed and a sheep, the sheep in particular is used to imply counting sheep to help you fall asleep. This suggests the meaning behind the image makes people think and feel more drawn to the documentary being advertised and not mislead by the synopsis depicted from the image.

Star Wars Radio Spot

The cult classic movie franchise, Star Wars, was re-imagined through radio to garner the attention from radio listeners to the eccentric sounds and music from the film's soundtrack. The idea behind these spots were to try and replicate significant features from the movies to a radio trailer, so that the similarities of both compositions were both accurate. 

The sound elements for this film are always kept consistent to help keep the interest of the audience remaining. The trailer consists of a combination of non-diegetic sound effects from the films alongside an narrater discussing what's happening, this aims to introduce the audience to an exciting adventure into a fictional universe that they're missing out. The narrater describes the sounds in a sarcastic tone to make them feel more genuinely thrilling He uses lines such as, "Don't be alarmed" and "relax" after each sound effect. The general approach of the film speaks to a niche audience interested in the action genre as it primarily focuses on this category of film based off the narrator's script and the title 'Star Wars' before its even released.

The Radio trailer will also have to fit in a synopsis to the 30 second mark, if the company behind the film want the niche audience of radio listeners to be invested to the story. It carefully delivered the characters descriptions and the roles they perform in the synopsis. The key selling point in one of the radio spots is the narrator effectively uses a good interpretation of the film in a line, "never before in the history of movies has so much time and technology been spent just for fun." For this instance, this line is a  conventional attention-grabbing technique to suggest this film is exclusive or a film 'like no other'.


Click 'Older Posts' to read my Codes and Conventions of a Documentary. -----I
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