Target Audience Research

Questionnaire

Please can you fill in this short questionnaire.

1) What gender are you?
Female
Male

2) How old are you?
10-14
15-17
18-21
22-25
26+

3) What time do you usually watch TV
? (please tick one)
6-9am
10-12pm
1-3pm
4-6pm
7-10pm
10pm +

4) What terrestrial TV channel do you most watch? (please tick one)
BBC1
BBC2
ITV1
Channel 4
Five

5) What is your favourite genre for a documentary? (please tick one)
Fashion
Beauty
Historical/Informative
Food
Hospitality
Music
Medical
Topical
Other
If other please specify.............................................................

6) State two documentaries that you have watched and enjoyed recently?

7) What is your favourite genre of music? (please tick one)
Pop
RnB/HipHop
Rock
Indie
Classical
Dance
Drum and bass
Other please specify.................................................................

8) What word would you use to descirbe documentaries? (please tick one)
Interesting
Informative
Boring
Controversial
Topical

9) How often do you watch documentaries? (please tick one)
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Less

10) Would you prefer a male or female voice over? (please tick one)
Male
Female
Don't Mind

11) Would you prefer a series of documentaries, or just a one off? (please tick one)
Series
One-off
Don't mind

12) If you were to watch a documentary about denim, who would you like to see interviewed?(please tick two)
Manufacturer
Designer
Customers
Shop assistant
Other, if so please state..............................................

13) Would you like to know the history of denim?
yes
no

14) Would you wear more than one item of denim in an outfit?
Yes
No

15) Do you have a favourite denim item?
Yes
No
If yes please state.....................

16) Have you ever worn coloured denim?
Yes
No

17) Do you think denim is comfy?
Yes
No

18) Do you prefer to wear denim to other materials such ass cotton?
Yes
No

19) Do you wear denim casually or for going out in?
Casually
Going out

20) Do you follow the fashion trends of denim?
Yes
No

21) If you saw a celebrity wearing a particular denim item, would that influence you to buy a similar item?
Yes
No

22) Who do you think wears denim more, men or women?
Men
Women

23) Do you know any films/ TV programmes that you associate with denim?
Yes
No
If yes please state................................

Thank you for filling in this questionnaire.

Initial Plans

Topic - Denim
Question - What are all the denim items
Target audience - Teenagers/young adults as its educating them
Channel - channel 4
Time - 7- 7.30pm
Title - "What's the obsession with ... Denim?
Part of a series of documentarys that every week will be all about something else "What's the obsession with ..."
Interviews; Shop owners, manufacturer, shop assistant, customers, designers.
What we could talk about: Jeans - fitted, baggy, ripped, coloured. Waistcoats, jackets, skirts, jeggings, shorts, shirts. Levi denim, gap denim, designer denim such as Victoria Beckham compared to high street denim.

Brainstorming ideas for documentary

• Chocolate
• Healthy Eating
• Celebrities
• Music
• School/education
• Halloween
• Jeans/Denim
• Hairstyles
• Tattoos
• Piercings
• Jewellery
  
• Shopping
• Christmas

Scheduling Theory

TV companies want to reach the audience for a particular programme.

• Inheritance - scheduling a programme after a popular programme to "inherit" some of its audience.
• Pre-echo - Scheduling a programme before a popular programme, hoping that viewers will tune in early and enjoy the previous programme.
• Hammocking - a programme that is scheduled in between two popular programmes.
• Remote controls have had an impact on this theory as it is easier for people to switch channel.
• Satellite/cable/free view and sky+ allows the audience to become more active now as they can create their own schedule.
• Watershed, 9pm after which programmes contain stronger language, violence, sex, drugs etc. because children will have gone to bed. E.g. Inbetweeners.
• The end of some programmes run on to the next show so the audience catch the tail end and want to see it (inheritance).
• Narrowcasting - stops needing a remote as there is a specific choice of programme. E.g. Disney and Nickelodeon, Home, Discovery channel, Living and Food.

TV Scheduling

The schedule for each day can be broken down into clear segments. How would you categorise these segments?
Daytime and evening (prime time) has more programmes.

Who are the target audience for these segments?
Daytime; senior citizens - stay at home mum and dads and children with programmes such as Jeremy Kyle ITV, Homes under the hammer BBC 1 and CBeebies, up until 11 am on BBC2.
Evening; Mass audience.

What would you say are the most popular genres on television?
Soaps because they are on at prime time slots and because they are long term running programmes so they are easy to follow and people get used to them.

Who is the target audience of each terrestrial channel? And examples.
BBC 1 - Mass audience - CBBC - Question time.
BBC 2 - Mass audience - educational programmes such as animal park.
ITV - Mass audience
Channel 4 - Mass audience - Everybody loves Raymond - Location Location Location.
Channel 5 - Mass audience

Roughly, what percentage of each channel's schedule is taken up with repeats? Why do you think this is?
Channel 5 after 11pm has roughly a 15% of repeats played probably because they know it is successful so it will get viewers.

Which channels have more imported programmes in their schedules? Why do you think this might be?
Channel 5 - They have Home and Away and neighbours on most days, because they know it is successful.

What do you understand by the term "the watershed" and where does this occur in the schedules?
After the watershed is 9pm, mild swearing is allowed. Further on, more swearing and explicit scenes are allowed.

Summary of Codes and Conventions of documentaries

• "Talking head" interviews and "vox pop" interviews.
• Interviewee placed on the right/left of the camera looking off camera (looking space).
• Cutaways.
• Images/footage relating to text/voice including archive material.
• Backing music to tell the audience what to feel and also matches genre and audience.
• Narrator or presenter.
• All documentaries have a narrative structure and most are closed narrative (conclusion).
• Straight cuts to the next shot to make it seem more believable.
• Graphics - names/charts/information.
• Documentary type suits the TV channel and audience.
• Mise en scene signifies something in the documentary.
• Handheld camera work for drama and involvement.
• Factual and informative.

Documentary analysis

Title; Fearne and Perez Hilton
Channel; ITV 2
Type of documentary; Interactive, they acknowledge that the camera crew are there and Fearne is the narrator.
Narrative Structure; Starts with what Perez does, then goes onto his life. Then it asks the question Mario (real life) vs Perez (celebrity) who is he really? It comes to the conclusion that whenever a camera is around he is Perez as this acts as his guard and when he is at home is is Mario.
Camerawork; steady camera work throughout to show the smoothness of the surface of a celebrities life.
Mise en scene; This is the background and since there are no talking heads the background is the bedroom, the car and the awards to show the laid back situation.
Sound; Fearne's voice over to show and to evaluate the goings on in the last sequence. Fearne's voice is used as it is her series and also it makes the audience feel a bit sorry for the celebrities so we can see the real side to them. The upbeat music gives a happy feel to the documentary.
Editing; Cutaways to footage that they are talking about. E.g. news scandals, awards evening.
Archive Material; News reports about Perez "should he go to jail"
Graphics; opening title sequence has picture of Fearne and Perez at different sides of the screen to show it's about them and they are going to have a conversation. The lettering is rough and splattered to show that the true person will be shown.

Documentary analysis

Title; The Incubator
Channel; Channel 4
Type; Expository Documentary as well as interactive as we can hear the camera crew talking to the interviewees.
Genre; Life, struggles
Narrative Structure; We have the voice over telling us what the incubators do in a brief, then the audience is introduced to a 1 day old baby who is in an incubator. We then meet the family who tell us how hard it is for them as they aren't aloud to hold him. After 5 minutes the voice over goes into the history of the incubator. Then goes onto another family who's baby is ready to come out of the incubator. After 10 minutes of the documentary more history is told by the voice over. Goes back to the familys to see how the babies are getting on. More families are introduced after the break with different circumstances e.g. a pair of twins but one different survive but the surviving baby has to go back into the incubator after an operation. After 18 minutes the voice over again tells the audience some facts and history about incubators. We meet another family who has had twins which were born at 6 months, we follow them taking one home. It ends with all the families taking their babies home and the the voice over giving a brief off what they do again.
Camera Work; Starts off with blurry images and cuts of different shots to show what is going on through the babies eye, that they don't really understand. Range of different shots keeping the audience engaged. There is handheld camera work used to show that it is real life and they don't want to make it seem smooth as they want to capture emotion. Close ups of faces are also used to show emotion. Cutaways of the hospital and the nurses doing their jobs. Following shots to show we are following their life. Ending shot, the camera stays still as the family walk away from the camera like they are leaving the past behind and starting fresh.
Mise en scene; Is the hospital to show that is were the babies live until they are well enough.
Cutaways of the roads and streets outside when one mum is thinking about life before her babies.
Sound; The voice-over throughout is robot-like and monotone to show how the babies would hear it. We hear babies crying in the background to show it is a babies ward. The machinery can be heard in the background as well showing that it is an essential part of the process in making them better. The music creates a tense atmosphere and makes us feel sorry for the people when we see the women crying. This music uses the some of machine noises to link in with the storyline. There are family voice overs telling the audience what it is like for them with cutaways of them with the baby. The music for the second family is more upbeat because it is at the stage of being ready to come out.
Editing; Fast editing with different cuts to show how the baby views it. Straight cuts are used to show that is it serious.
Archive Material; N/A
Graphics; The opening credits have a black background with white writing to show the seriousness of the topic. For the advert the same font and colour of text is used, this time over an image of a baby. Ends using the same font and colour as the title with a black background but for facts about the incubators and the families.

Documentary Analysis

Title; That thing Lara Croft
Channel; BBC
Themes; Sexuality, technology, stereotyping of women and Gender.
Narrative Structure; Starts with a cartoon game and goes onto the real life version with Angelina Jolie. It talks about the influence the game has had on both men and women and becomes compared Barbie and being an icon, also like a puppet with psychological links. It ends in a closed narrative structure.
Camerawork; Handheld camera work as if we are watching the people play on the game with close up and medium close up interviews (head shots). Interviewee positioned correctly left or right of the camera and the frame was tilted to make it more realistic. There is an over the shoulder shot and a side view of people playing the game to match the voices.
Mise en scene; Green/blue screen was used as the background was an image of the game to reinforce the message.
Sound; Young male voice over to match the target audience, and the fast paced music connoted the pace of the game. Sound effects are used to make the game more realistic and appeal to the audience. When Madonna is spoke about being an icon her music comes on lightly.
Editing; Straight cuts are used so the documentary is simple and realistic. The cuts are fast motion to resemble the game and lots of cutaway of the game are used to illustrate the points that are made. Also they have super imposed a face onto a laptop screen to show the technology used.
Archive Material; The cutaways are the archive footage of the game, film clips, the website, advert for Nike, interview of Angelina Jolie and extracts of magazines.
Graphics;The opening sequence had "That thing" in a speech box. The name of the interviewee and the name of the company were in titles below and the credits at the end were in speech bubbles.

Everything in the documentary is to reflect the documentary and attract the target audience.

Documentary Analysis

Title; The Marketing of Meatloaf
Type of Documentary; Expository- making us think music is all about making money.
Themes; Music , Money
Narrative Structure; Opens with awards evening and the music industry, then goes onto Meatloaf. It goes onto the record companies spending alot of money and being worried, then the success of the album and the ending is the climax as the album got 8 weeks at number 1.
Camerawork; Handheld camerawork to make it seem more like reality as if we are there. The opening sequence puts us in a position of being a reporter engaging the audience and involving them from the very start. The interviewee's are placed on different sides of the camera to make the documentary look more like a real conversation.
Mise En Scene; About 7 minutes into the documentary the interviewee's were placed in front of blue/green screen technology getting the still images of Meatloaf and his album/CD cover on the background.
Sound; Male voice over which sounds authoritative and probably relating to the male star and the male target audience. This voice over makes us think music is all about money. We can hear the diegetic sound of the fans screaming at the Brit Awards 1994. Later on, the song "I will do anything for love." is played to relate to the imagery with different clips of the music building up to the chorus to keep the audience interested.
Editing; People fade in and out from interviews as they are only on for a few seconds then the sound is overlapped onto cutaways which is more archive footage. Cross fade helped the editing of different things to shown what the person was saying.
Archive material; There was a lot of archive footage such as; performances, videos, still images and CD images.
Graphics; Opening credits and the title sequence had a few of magazines spread out, there was a lot going on to grab the audience's attention with different sound bites from people that might be in the documentary. MCA and Virgin were both record labels that signed Meatloaf to produce him all over the world and to show this the name of the programme with a caption of the title came up such as; Paul Conroy - Virgin Records. Another graphic design was quotes that streamed across the screen to show in a clever way what the newspaper had said.

Content, topic and theme should be engaging for the target audience.

Documentary Analysis

Title of programme; "The Devil Made Me Do It"
Channel; 4
Type of documentary; Expository using the "voice of god", and images to illustrate the voice.
Audience; Is not a mass audience, niche target audience as it has serious messages. The audience is encouraged to feel shocked throughout.
Themes; Serious tone about death so it would be shown after the watershed at about 10pm because of the language, images and messages being portrayed.
Narrative Structure; Starts with Marilyn Manson and his fans showing us archive footage and interviews of him and his concerts. Then went onto the death of a nun, this sets off an enigma code because we don't know how Marilyn Manson and the nun are connected. After this we find out about the 3 girls that killed the nun. 13 minutes into the documentary a connection is made and the enigma code is answered with a voice over. The interviews within the documentary are both informal and formal to show the status of different people, also each part in this documentary is split up into segments. At the end it gives us a conclusion and tells us what happens to close the narrative.
Camerawork; Handheld camera work in the wood makes it seem more realistic, and makes us feel like we are the girls going into the woods. Handheld camera shot out of the courts help us to understand it's real elements, how frantic it was as a decision was not made and to help the camera move.
Mise en scene; Background as a book shelf to show he is serious also with religious references to the Vatican by the poster (close up of Marco Politi - Italian Reporter). The phone box shot is dark and scary to relate to the voice over also to communicate the death creating a sense of drama. The mise en scene changes to show the difference in status for example; the detectives mise en scene is serious and dark whereas, with the girl's friends the atmosphere is more laid back as if they don't care as one is smoking and one is laying down on the bed, there is three in a shot together showing their not as important.
Sound; Expository voice over which is a male authoritative voice as it could connote a more serious tone to the target audience. The sympathetic, gentle music was chosen to signify how we feel. The church bells establish the shot at a high angle to create a new sequence/segment. The phone ring works well with the mise en scene as it creates a spooky atmosphere. There was a heartbeat and sound of stabbing over the translated confessions to create a sense of the murder.
Editing; Straight shots to connote the serious tone of it, and the interviews with cutaways to illustrate what the voice overs are talking about. E.g. when the voice over says "Praying" there is an image of a coffin.
Archive Material; Video footage of place and the funeral for the nun. Marilyn Manson footage of his concerts and his videos.
Graphics; Opening credits are black and white and stereotypical typeface with crosses on. The dark background signifies the music genre and the font always stays the same throughout.

Codes and Conventions of television documentaries 2

The Documentary Genre

Expository
This is defined by the "voice of God" narration which addresses the viewer and anchors the meaning of the images to make it seem more objective and honest.

Observational (fly on the wall)
This style began in America (1960s) using lightweight equipment to allow mobility. These documentaries avoid voice-overs and the camera is as unobtrusive as possible. Observational documentaries often tend to focus on specific individuals during a crisis. Events unfold in front of the camera and the makers do not no the outcome.

Docusoaps
This a development of the observational documentary, these are a popular combination of documentary series that follows a group of characters that are entertaining and quirky, like soaps. Whats sets docusoaps apart from their predecessors is their prioritisation of entertainment over social commentary. E.g. Airport, Driving School.

This type of documentary was made possible by lightweight camera equipment making intrusion to the narrative minimal. These have a soap-like structure with several different plots with different people.

Reality TV
This is real people in an unreal situation, reality television is now a combination of many different programme types as it's often referred to as "infotainment". Programmes such as; Emergency 999 and Police, Camera, Action.

Reality TV is a mix of raw and authentic material with the seriousness of an information programme and the commercial success of tabloid content.

Reality TV is characterised by;
Surveillance or observational camera work
Primary event, eye witness testimony
Studio to camera links with commentary from presenters.

Interactive
The style of documentary acknowledges the presence of the camera and crew, this means that the documentary can focus on the information rather than the objective view. E.g. The Saturdays 24/7.

The multiple viewpoints constantly remind the audience that this is different to the other genres without the "voice of God".

Drama-documentary
E.g. The Office

There is a difference between docudrama and dramadoc;
Docudrama - fictional story using techniques from a documentary to make it seem real.
Dramadoc - reconstruction using techniques from fiction cinema.

Current Affairs
E.g. Newsnight
This genre debates that days news.

Documentary Dilemmas
Footage is rarely unedited when it is broadcast therefore, the film-maker has to balance their responsibility of the legal obligations and making a successful programme, also responsibility to entertain and inform.

Codes and Conventions of television documentaries

What is a documentary?

• Documentaries focus on and question people and real life events by placing the audience in a position to create a point of view about what or who they are seeing.
• Documentaries produce factual information about the world, we can tell what we are watching is a documentary by the on-screen titles for the name of a person we are seeing on screen. This makes the audience believe what they are seeing is real and factual.
• A number of devices are used when presenting information E.g. Primary recording of events, Information shown through charts and maps and also the reconstruction of an event. E.g. Historical.
• So that the crew can stay mobile whilst filming to give a variety of shots, the documentary will only usually consist of one camera operator and a sound person.

Documentary Techniques

There are 3 types of documentary;

• Compilation film - made up of images
• Interview/"Talking heads" - testimonies are recorded about the event
• Direct cinema - event is recorded as a primary source/ when it happens

Documentaries use narrative form as they tell us a story, this usually shows different characters point of view/tension. The story can be planned or improvised, use a voice over with interviews or maybe just observe using found footage.

Modern documentaries are less scripted making today's seem more observational, therefore the audience is put in a more voyeuristic position. E.g. Big Brother, CCTV.

Also using parallelism, documentaries ask the audience to draw parallels between characters and situations. (Connect people together by editing them together.)

Narration

Documentaries sometimes use a narrator, this helps the audience receive information about the show and what it involves. The "voice of God" is the commonly used non-character narrator who is anonymous throughout.

However, many documentaries use an authoritative voice who we already know as a character or from previous series. This makes the audience trust the information they are taking in because of the familiar voice, predominantly voice-overs are male although recent documentaries aimed at younger audiences have introduced female voice-overs.

Lighting

Usually throughout a documentary the lighting is natural with minimal additional light, this helps the audience to realise that the footage hasn't been manipulated.

Camera work

The hand-held camera is the most commonly used camera as it allows the crew to stay mobile while filming. It also authenticates the shots and the shaky, less steady movements makes the footage real-life. This shot creates a subjective point of view which aims for an intimacy between the audience and the film.

Editing

This is a vital component of a documentary and there are several types of it;

• Fade out - image gradually darkens into black
• Fade in - image gradually lightens from black
• Dissolve - end of the shot is mixed with the beginning of the next
• Wipe - when the shot is replaced by another using a line which moves across the screen

Editing is a way of interpreting an event in an understable form. During this process material is selected, ordered and place in to a sequence and therefore is mediated. (Version of reality)

Sound

Documentaries rely on non-diegetic sound to prompt the audience to respond in a certain way. Documentaries help form a public opinion and with the growth of video more and more people can express their opinion. This genre shows the truth in a way which is flexible yet understood by audiences.