Creative media project: initial research

Once having a concreted idea for my documentary meant getting research in place so I can start scripting and storyboarding before the production stage kicks in. This initial research is crucial due to needing the documentary to come across in a clear and understandable manner, I also need to think about how and what I say due to the factor of it being understood by the audience. I have to use language that will appeal to my target audience as well as effectively reach and engage with them.

Before starting academic reading and beginning my journey there was one video that stood out and I thought was relevant to what I was trying to achieve. This idea that you can make a documentary about anything really stood out as well as it showing typical conventions that are in a Netflix documentary. After seeing this I knew that I wanted to create something like this for my own piece, tailoring it to content that directly links to my project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BUrNe3Vhtk

Considerations when making a documentary:

Making a documentary is very similar to any other practical work when it comes to the production of it, specifically anything involving filming. Things I need to make sure I have done before filming include; script, storyboard, risk assessment and any ethic's along side, equipment list, production schedule and people if needed. Once the documentary has been filmed there is then editing both visual and audio changes could occur in this process. During this I would also want to gather feedback to make sure that my idea is clearly

understood and will engage an audience.

Even though I understood the basic concepts of what would go into a documentary I still wanted to do some research into how to make a documentary in particular. After looking at various sources I found that they all sort of said the same sort of process. A simple step by step was from Desktop documentaries (2022).

• The first step being getting a story or topic for the documentary.

• Second step is the research- having as much information on the topic, gather facts and interesting stand out points.

• The next step is the planning. Asking questions like How am I going to do it? And plan core points as well as pinning down the intended audience. (Alongside planning legal, copyright and ethics are all things that should be considered).

• After the planning its then the shot list- what sort of footage am I going to include, considerations like whether interviews will be included.

• Once this is done the shooting can commence- Including a variety of shots for b-roll just to make it more interesting and allowing more options.

• Along side shooting writing a script is important- Write points pre-shoot to help structure and create ideas for content but also whilst filming almost as a commentary.

• After doing both of those steps its then time to edit all components together, making sure the final product is the best it can be.

(if there's time for feedback and changes then that is beneficial)

• The last step is distribution.

By using these categories to help me plan will hopefully increase the quality of the final product. As I already went through many ideas to get to my chosen topic I realized that I have not done enough in-depth research on the topic and this is the next step that I should do based on this plan.

My target audience:

For my target audience there are two things that I have considered the first being the platform in which I am going to distribute it on; this platform being YouTube. As part of understanding the platform I am going to use I did some research on the demographic to find which audience members use it the most. According to Cybercrew (2022) "The demographic which used YouTube the most in the UK are people aged 25-44" this surprisingly beats the amount of users in the 16-24 category.

My second consideration is the type of people will be attended my degree show; using the exhibition to showcase my work could create interest in the professional world. The main audience for the degree show will be graduates and potential employers which very closely fits the demographic that Cybercrew talks about. Aiming for a similar audience for both will make it easier to make the documentary.

References:

Cybercrew (2022) 10+ Cool Youtube Usage Statistics in the UK [2022] Available at: https://cybercrew.uk/blog/youtube-usage-statistics-uk/#:~:text=The%20demographic%20which%20used%20YouTube,16%E2%80%9324%20in%20the%20UK (Accessed: 02/04/22)

Desktop documentaries (2022) Making Documentaries Step-by-Step: How to make a Documentary. Available at: https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/making-documentaries.html (Accessed: 30/03/22)