Initial Plans

For our documentary we have chosen to explore the topic of senses (sight, touch, taste, hear and smell). We have decided that to make the first 5minuets of a documentary containing all of the senses it could appear a little hap hazard so our documentary will be part of a series and we intend to make the first five minuets of the sight idea. Our target audience for this will be people aged 17 and onwards and will be shown on channel four, we chose this channel as it was the most popular when looking at the results from our questionnaire; we also found that most people watch TV in the evening, so we are scheduling our documentary to be on channel four after wedding house in order to inherit some viewers and before Ramsey’s best restaurant in order to pre-echo viewers.



Planning
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-Topic is important.

-use personal experiences and influences

-choose a manageable topic

-look in newspapers, magazines and notice boards for inspiration

-do I know about my topic? Choose something you have some knowledge on to avoid hours of research

-what can be shown concerning your topic, what evidence can I use in the form of images and action based footage or archive footage and is it all accessible.

-interviews can be held anywhere but where it is held can effect the meaning behind what is being said and the way in which the audience inter operate it.

-vox pops don’t need to be staged and are more spontaneous and interesting if aren’t

-unusual settings can create drama without having to do much at all

-start with factual everyday questions when questioning in order to relax who you are asking and then become more detailed and focused with your questions

-vox pops can be light and humorous in order to detract from whatever the topic is and give a sense of relief

-street interviews of the public can add another dimension to your questioning and cutaways


Narrative Conventions
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-documentaries must always have some form of conflict within them because without it would just be people agreeing and that would not be interesting to watch, narrative conventions are used and followed to highlight this conflict as well a s the evidence and the filming.

-documentaries like stories have a beginning middle and an end and must have this in order to make your topic understood and your documentary watchable.

-the topic needs to be made clear at the start I order to give the middle something to build on

-always start your documentary with something hard hitting because this will be the first thing people are going to see it should grab there attention and make them want to see more and what you have to say

-the middle needs to be complicated enough to follow and must focus on people opinions as this is where most of the discussion and facts will be given

-it is always good to have some form of “twist to the tale” that turns the whole thing on its head as it makes it interesting and gives the opportunity for future questioning

-the end is all about the exposition and at the end it must be apparent, it is also where you should round up your topic either by offering the audience a solution or opinion or letting them make up there own minds.