After carrying out my research and analysing the difference in style that each institution portrays through their documentaries I have decided to base my product along the same generic and stylistic devices as a documentary shown on Channel 4 after the nine o’clock watershed. I have decided this through relevant research conducted by myself in a questionnaire (Appendix A) in which most people preferred their style and also that my chosen subject fit’s the genre of other documentaries in channel 4’s schedule. My product was to be about the topic of steroids, as it had relevance to the institutional background of the time slot and channel I was aiming at with my style and genre of documentary. Steroids are a drug and the factor of drugs in society is always a popular issue amongst documentary makers and therefore would not look out of place on the market and fit’s the channel 4 documentary series ’Dispatches’ which investigates similar issues to drug abuse and current news topics, such as the recent MMR documentary for example.
My documentary would be focused around one young man who is psychologically dependant on steroids and therefore the vast majority of the filming would involve him, this idea was gained through research of other channel 4 documentaries which used the same technique, such as the documentary ‘Cathouse’. I would also follow the codes and conventions of documentary making and involve a narrator who would explain briefly the situation and foundation of the documentary in the opening 5 minutes. Therefore I needed to script what I wanted the drug user to say and also what the narrator would say over the top of the filming. The scripting would be long as the amount of time filming in an interview format was going to take up a large proportion of the opening 5 minutes. I set about the scripting with an understanding of what language and narrative style would be relevant for my documentary having researched other similar products. The language used in documentaries varies, it can be either formal or informal and with or without complex grammar and vocabulary, a documentary shown on the BBC about the Royal family for example will have a lot more formal mode of address and more complex educated language than a channel 4 documentary about a porn star, which would have a faux naïve voice over most probably by Chris Eccleston. I decided that the actor playing the steroid abuser would use less formal vocabulary and language and the narrator be more professional and use more educated language and pronunciation.
Documentaries are aimed at a whole range of people. Their targeted audience can cater for a great deal of society and a product that can appeal for the upper class can also appeal for the lower and middle class, though their viewpoints and reasons for watching can differ greatly. Channels use documentaries to engage different demographs. An example of an audiences de-coding of the text is that a mother or a wife of a steroid user would watch for different reasons to a steroid user. The steroid user would probably watch with a negotiated attitude regarding the topic, they would agree with the steroids but also understand that there are side affects and watch for a different purpose to a mother of a drug addict who would watch with a dominant attitude, agreeing with the text that the topic should be discussed and ultimately be represented as a problem society must deter. A persons social and cultural position can also affect de-coding.
Documentaries are and traditionally have been a popular genre of program with the mass audience, this is reflected by the fact that there are constantly documentaries being shown at prime time slots of the television schedule on the major terrestrial channels, including profit driven channels such as ITV and channel 4, the television schedule of channel 4 proves this (Appendix A) by the fact that they regularly have two or more documentaries showing in one night and the BBC are also investing in and promoting more documentaries as a part of their public service remit in an attempt to educate the nation. They cater for all aspects of society, the topics they can cover can be niche issues but can be made to appeal for and be viewed by the mass mainstream audience, either as a primary or secondary audience. The Channel 4 documentary ‘Strippers‘ creates an audience through presenting a rude / dramatic topic. This type of documentary is known as a ‘Shock-Doc’ and generally contains a dodgy title to catch the audiences attention; It is typical of a commercial channel, especially Channel 4 and Channel 5 whereas it would not be screened on the BBC which focuses more on political and current affairs documentaries. Documentaries even have channels devoted to them on satellite television, highlighting their popularity with audiences, channels which have narrow casting like this are, for example, the discovery channel or history channel which are among many hundreds of other channels which constantly show documentaries in their everyday schedule on satellite television. The reason documentaries are so appealing to so many people and so diversely across the audience is that they regularly show and report issues that people can relate to and often have an element of voyeurism for extra intrigue. People also have emotions and passions for (or against) the issues being reported on and also contain a real element of realism which makes them an ideal option for program makers in the major industries. The topics shown in documentaries often have contemporary values and are based on relevant, current news topics and often government issues, the recent documentary shown on ITV about the Tsunami affect or the BBC documentary on Liberia’s war, produced by Hassan Kiawu, for example, which make them all the more appealing to people and especially people who wish to know what is happening in the world around them. Some documentaries do not focus on contemporary issues however as mine will be a contemporary issue my documentary will focus on the style of ones aimed at current affairs than a documentary on the First World War, for example.
As a new product the programme would be scheduled alongside other similar programmes to maintain audience attention, this is known as keeping the broadcast flow. Hammocking would also be a technique programme schedulers would use when deciding the time slot for the documentary to keep audience figures high, this is where they put new programmes in between already successful ones aimed at the same target audience. These would help to get the audience for the new program, the quality of the programme would then determine whether or not the audience is maintained.
After research I then continued my planning by story-boarding. I was able to do this through the knowledge I had gained in my research of what should and shouldn’t be included in my product. The research had allowed me to understand camera codes, the understanding of how long shots should be, how cuts and transitions should be made, what angles the interviewee should be at on the film, the sounding involved and other aspects of the filming I would have to undergo in order to make my documentary as accurate as possible to other successful documentaries carrying the same stylistic devices and generic values as my own. My original and developed story boards are attached with appendix B to show a summary of decisions.
For my filming I realised that I would need an actor who appeared like they could be on steroids to make the product realistic to the main issue. I travelled to Hull to film a friend at university who fitted this description and tried to get as much of the filming done as possible so that I would not have to make the long journey more times than necessary. After filming I linked my camera to the I-movie program and imported it all over and from then on edited my footage. I only had to return to Hull once to get more footage due to my planning being thorough.
After scripting and story-boarding I developed my initial ideas, some just slightly others more majorly, all for the aim of making the most professional looking and generic following documentary I could. I developed my ideas when editing my product on I-Movie and also at the filming stage of production, by filming unplanned footage or from different angles than planned, all to try and imitate channel 4’s house style. An example of an idea I chose to develop was to bring another character into the opening sequence, though only for a short period this idea was encouraged after researching other documentaries which style and theme I was aiming to re-create such as the BBC documentary ‘Skint‘ which involved other characters to inform the viewing audience about other aspects about the subjects life and personality. I would include the drug abusers mother to gain her aspect on her sons life adding depth and understanding to the documentary as other similar products would include. Many ideas were changed and developed during the project all in hope of improving the overall product.
The technology I used in the making of my opening five minutes to a documentary were the cameras for filming the footage used in the product, the I-movie program on the Apple computers for editing the footage and including music and voice-overs for the narrator and also the tape recorder to make it possible to record and analyse other products on the same medium as the one I was producing on.
