Brief Research - Documentary

The third and final brief I am interested in is:

• An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately 5 minutes, together with two of the following three options:

          - A radio trailer for the documentary

          - A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary

          - A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

I watch many documentaries based around human life; many of the documentaries I watch are on e4. Because I have watched many different documentaries I understand the basic content that they need (such as a gripping, real life story or subject with a feeling of empathy and or inspiration) in order to attract the audience. However, I haven't seen any short documentaries and I therefore started my research by looking on YouTube for short documentaries. A few I found include:

Future Learning
Analysis:
- They had many short snappy shots, there was a lot of footage that was often shown whilst people were voicing there opinions. This made the documentary a lot more interesting than if it was just a single shot of the person talking
- They had opinions from many different people including young people who were the basis of the documentary. I think this gave the documentary even more feeling
-Finally, the whole documentary was filled with passion, making it inspirational.

Lost in Transgender
Analysis:
- The technical aspects of this documentary were quite good; there was a good variation in the shots and footage however, I didn't like the narrative feel of the documentary, as though it was more based on the reporter finding her true opinion rather than viewing what life is like for a transgender.
- I also feel that the reporter wasn't as sensitive to the issue as she should have been, this may cause some controversy and therefore if I choose to film a documentary about a sensitive issue like this one I will ensure I am careful about the peoples feelings
- Overall, I didn't particularly like this documentary as I don't feel it realistic and had the same criteria as successful documentaries.

The Janitor
Analysis:
- Although the subject in this documentary wasn't exactly inspiring or very gripping I think it had strong conventions of a documentary and showed varied sides to the story
- I think if I did a a documentary this may be similar to the style I would choose, it will be hard for me to find a very inspirational and 'deep' story to base it on without making it up and although I may and find something more gripping to film about I think it will be along a similar line.

After watching the short documentaries I analysed them as this will help me later on if I chose to go with this brief.

I also searched for previous A2 work that had used this brief, some documentaries I found include: Classics: Restored, Wasted Youth and Ten Years of Music

Although I commented in my first research post that I was thinking of making the music video I am now very unsure. From researching the three briefs I now want to do all of them because I think they all sound very fun. If I choose this brief it is likely that I will base my documentary around the previous A2 work and 'The Janitor' rather than more extreme documentaries because I think it will be hard to make an extreme topic effective.