Audience research questions

1. Would you be interested in watching a documentary about addiction?  e.g. gambling, sex, shop-lifting, self hariming and gaming

2. Does the documentary idea interest you even further because it focuses on less covered addictions unlike alcohol or drugs?

3. Which one of those addictions would you be most interested in watching.

4. Would you prefer it to be helping people out or to be purely observational.

5. Would you prefer it to focus on a specific person or a group.

Production Plan

Monday - Walked around and asked some people questions about our documentary while they were being filmed. This was part of our audience research. We also filmed the outside of betting shops and got some footage of online roulette.

Tuesday - We began the cutting and editing of the videos we got yesterday. Later on, we got an interview with a gambler that we met outside Coral.

Wednesday - Updated our blogs.

New documentary idea

Title: What's your addiction?

Synopsis:

Our new documentary is going to be about addiction; but neither drug or alcohol addcition. These are two widely covered areas about addiction and it would be boring to do a documentary about them. We decided to go for a make-over approach in which our program helps people get rid of their problems. The five part documentary deals with the different addictions that are listed below.

These are the different addictions that would be covered;

• gambling
• sex
• gaming
• self-harming
• shop-lifting

Gambling would be the first addiction tackled in the series.

Change of documentary idea

My group and I have decided not to carry on with our original documentary idea. This is because John Kamyuka, the athlete which the documentary's first episode was about, tore his ligaments. He flew back to Botswana immediately after the rather unfortunate incident.

Was 7days a flop? Why?

During the first week, the show was watched by 1.115 million viewers on Channel 4 and Channel 4+1, attracting a 6.6% audience share from 10pm. This was almost 50% down on Channel 4's average share in the slot over the past three months.

By the third week the show had lost more than half of its viewers plummeting audience viewing figures to 646,000.

Coursework: documentary idea

Title: The Unsung Hereos

Synopsis:

• Interviews of John and his Personal Trainer
• Archive footage of olypmpics and previous local events
• Present day footage of his training for London 2012
• Using various London sites being built as pillow shots.
• Voiceover
• Intoduction of series
• Credits - Use Olympic logos and symbols
• Modes - Expository, Interactive

This documentary is about 5 Olympic competitors that participated in the Beijing Olympics. It follows their various paths and struggles leading up to and after the sporting event.

DIfferent modes of documentary

Expository - London Can Take It

Observational - Listen To Britain

Reflexive - Man On Wire, Camouflage

Parcipatory (Interactive) - Seven Days, Ross Kemp on Gangs

The Five Modes Of Documentary Typical Conventions

The Five Modes Of Documentary Typical Conventions

View more presentations from Catford High School.

Seven days article by Andy McSmith. The Independent media.

This is article is a negative review on Seven Days. The show is apparently losing more and more viewers every week...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/the-painful-reality-no-one-is-watching-seven-days-2100992.html

Stephen Lambert Seven Days: The Guardian article by Ben Dowell

Stephen Lambert is the executive producer of the new show Seven Days. In this interview he argues the reasons he thinks Notting Hill is the perfect location for the show. One of his points was that the diversity made it a prime area in London for the show to be filmed in.

Unfortunately, he never mentions or gives an estimate of the budget for the show and only says the show is on a 'tight' budget.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/27/seven-days-channel-4-stephen-lambert

Second Seven Days review: Beehivecity

This is another review on the Seven Days documentary but it's different from Tim Dowling's article. It is very negative and the reporter, Tim Glanfield, slays the idea that there only three camera crews and that it is impossible to record up to thirty individuals in London without set-ups etc. Another point Tim made was the show already revolves around Samantha and her friend, and Malcolm. This is solely because they seem to be more interesting on camera whereas Moktar and Javan may have inspiring stories to tell.

http://www.beehivecity.com/television/tubeview-channel-4s-seven-days-reviewed-the-new-reality11412232/

Tim Dowling article on Seven Days, The Guardian.

This is an article on Seven Days by Tim Dowling. He states that it is 'compelling' and refers to the show as an 'old-fashioned docusoap'. He also makes a point about seeing the characters reacting to audience feedback
every week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/23/seven-days-tv-review

Seven Days: Channel 4 documentary

This is a new show that follows a group of people from Notting Hill, London. The characters all want opinions from the viewers on what next they should do with their lives. To do this, ChatNav was created and this has made interaction with the people on the show relatively easy. All you have to do is go on the separate ChatNav page, click on your favorite character and give them advice on what step you think they should take next in life.

http://sevendays.channel4.com/

I decided to interact with Malcolm from Portobello and share my thoughts on his work and love life.

http://sevendays.channel4.com/characters/malcolm/thoughts/all

Comparison of London can take it & Listen to Britain

These two documentaries were made in 1942. They're both propaganda short films with different target audiences. London can take it is targeted at American as well as British audiences. America is a targeted nation to show that despite the constant attacks from Germany, every day life was still pretty much the same. The documentary starts off in the late hours of the evening and goes through the night whilst showing different parts of the city. This is happening as the explosions are heard in the background and the reporter, Quentin Reynolds, actually says 'These are not Hollywood sound effects'. He is reiterating the reality if the situation to the Americans. The documentary ends in the hours if the morning just as the sun rises to show that it is yet another day. Another quote from the reporter is 'London picks herself up'. This is the upward trajectory in which the documentary is presented. However, the voice over from Quentin Reynolds is unexciting, boring and unemotional. This is a performance from him because he conveys the everyday persistent nature of the experience. It is an act of stoicism.

On the other hand Listen to Britain is quite different. Although it is filmed in the same year, it depicts a day during the blitz and shows how unconcerned the people of Britain are. What makes this documentary different is that there is no voice over but rather a sound collage. Throughout the short film we get diegetic sounds either from the concerts or radio etc. The structure is non linear and the use of sound is unusual. Listen to Britain portrays the national pride of the people and even without words, Humphrey Jennings, the director made this very clear and understandable.

Another point about Listen to Britain is that it gives the impression of different cultural values. During one of the musical performances you have Myra Hess playing the piano. Furthermore, on the radio, you hear various languages being spoken on the London Calling section. This is surprising in a British documentary but it shows The BBC World Service spreads its message around the globe.

Research and planning of documentary (London can take it & Listen to Britian)

In the last few weeks of school, we have seen the a few documentaries from various years and how different they are to each other. These two in particular were made in 1942 during the war and have a few similarities.

London can take it:




Listen to Britain:



Unfortunately there wasn't a full version of the video on YouTube. This is only a 2 minute extract.