Analyze the Traditional Documentary and the Docusoap. Discuss how you would direct your own trailer for a Documentary about your school using storyboards.

Authors Avatar
Analyze the Traditional Documentary and the Docusoap. Discuss how you would direct your own trailer for a Documentary about your school using storyboards.

Ingredients of Documentaries

As with all programmes on the television documentaries and docusoaps have many ingredients. Many of these we don't realise as we are watching our television.

The scheduling of the programme is one of these ingredients. Documentaries are scheduled at different times and at different times depending on their target audience. A docusoap, such as "Making the Band", which is aimed at teenagers will not be scheduled at two o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon because most teenagers are at school. It is actually screened at midday on Sunday; in amongst other programmes that are aimed at teenagers, these are collectively called T4, and are on channel 4. These programmes are shown at this time because on Sunday because on Sunday teenagers just want to lounge about and watch the 'telly' since there is nothing else for them to do. "Making the band" probably wouldn't get high viewing figures if it were screened on Saturday because most people aren't at home.

A docusoap with a different target audience will be screened at a different time and probably on a different channel. "Airport" has a larger target audience. It is aimed at people who are in their mid-twenties or older. "Airport" is screened at eight o'clock in the evening, on a weekday, on BBC1. It is on at this time because this is when the people, at whom this docusoap is aimed, will be settling down for the night.

Traditional documentaries such as "During the War" and "Great White Sharks" are mainly screened on BBC2 or channel 4. These documentaries have a much older target audience of people aged forty or older. These are usually shown after prime time viewing, between half past nine and twelve o'clock at night. They are scheduled at this time because they have a much smaller audience than the docusoaps, which are shown at prime time.

Channels such as the Discovery channel and National Geographic show documentaries all day long. These are usually traditional documentaries rather than docusoaps.

Another ingredient of the traditional documentary and the docusoap is the format. Docusoaps generally concentrate on a couple of people. These people become the main 'characters' of the docusoap. These 'characters' are often turned into celebrities. Popular docusoap "The Cruise" mainly featured the ship's singer Jane MacDonald. "Driving School" turned Maureen into an overnight celebrity because she couldn't pass her test. They usually choose people who are a bit out of the ordinary or have unusual personalities. Although these are the people that are mainly featured the docusoap also shows many different things. It shows how the staff copes with difficult situations in "Airport". "Airport" also shows unusual and funny things that the viewers would not normally see in an airport, when they go on holiday. A docusoap also contains a lot of interviews. These are sometimes rehearsed and recorded over and over again, but some are just on the spot interviews with passers-by and members of the public. This seems more realistic.
Join now!


The traditional documentary also contains interviews. These are mainly the type of interviews that have been rehearsed, although sometimes they do have on the spot interviews. These interviews are shown mainly in between reconstructions or amateur footage.

Traditional documentaries use a lot of reconstructions and amateur footage. This is because traditional documentaries often tackle an issue or something that happened a long time ago. Therefore they can't have the 'live' footage that a docusoap has. Traditional documentaries are planned, docusoaps are meant to look like they're not! This is because docusoaps are about things, which can't be ...

This is a preview of the whole essay