Investigation and Analysis- (Client Research)

 The Client- The BBC 

There is three main areas within this client that suit the younger age demographic: The BBC, BBC Three and Northern voices. I will focus to do my research into these areas as it will help me find out about the client but will also show me how the BBC targeted their shows and documentaries towards a young audience. This will help me generate ideas for creating a documentary for young people

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (The BBC) is the worlds biggest leading broadcaster. They were established by a Royal Charter. They are well known for Creating high quality, world class programs that are broadcasted on the television across Britain. They have a range of portfolio TV services such as BBC One, BBC Three which is the online only youth service. They also have many regional and national TV programs and services across the UK and Northern Island. Their world wide television services support more than 40 languages 

The BBC have 10 UK radio networks to broadcast live music as well as speech radio which educates and informs people. They supply 39 radio stations across England and 2 each in Scotland, Wales and Northern island. 

As well as TV and Radio Services, the BBC also supply a variety of online Digital services like BBC News, BBC Sport, BBC weather and BBC red button. They also have BBC iPlayer which is used to stream programs which arent on the television schedule so you can watch them anytime. They also supply Television services for young children such as CBeebies and CBBC which is used for showcasing programs target towards young children for entertainment. Lots of these services can be accessed on you mobile phone via an app. 

 

The purpose of the BBC is to fulfil their mission and promote their public purposes. The BBC have 5 public Purposes: 

1- To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them 

2- To support learning for people of all ages 

3- To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services 

4. To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom 

5. To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world 

 

BBC Three 


BBC three is a free to broadcast television channel owned by the BBC. It was first launched on 9th February 2003. It featured programs targeted towards 16-34 years old. So it was primarily made for young to middle aged adults. It covers all genres such as animation, comedy, dramas. The TV channel was closed in 2016 and replaced by an online only streaming channel. 6 years later it returned as a TV channel on February 1st 2022. It broadcasts daily from 7pm to 4am

 

BBC Three featured several youth focused documentaries such as Our War and blood sweat and T-shirts which have won BAFTA awards. 


BBC generates its income through a licensing fee 

The public pay for the license fee. The government need to make sure they spend this money wisely, this is through the PSB remit. The BBC is meant to target a specialised audience. They cannot advertise 

 

BBC three starts at 7pm and ends at 4am 

 

9pm- the watershed starts. Ofcom is a government agency who check the content of media content. The watershed ends at 5am 



Northern Voices


Northern Voices is another main campaign in association with the BBC. It is a 6 month speaker training programme Developed by Tech North. They were first established In 2011 and they are based in the North of England. It is an exiting scheme for writers. They help tackle challenges such as racial and gender imbalances in conferences and meetings.

They were 28 women on the first cohort and they went on to secure over 250 speaking and media opportunities which then helped promote diversity in the media industry.


The purpose of their scheme is to beat local companies in the north of England who want to tell unique, young and regional stories in order to make people feel inspired, uplifted and hopeful in order to enhance the quality of media production. Their goal is to inspire and develop young talent in the media industry. Within the new partnership their inviting independent media production companies from around the Local area in order to help share stories of an insight into the life of young people aged 16-24. This would help them with their research into the target audience to find out more about them in order to help make documentaries to show people the life of young people. This scheme helps more and more younger people be heard and spread their stories so they can be more heard and understood. They do this through sharing exiting writing talent


 

Rethian Principles 

The BBC have 3 principles that they associate themselves with. They are:


-Inform 

-Entertain 

-Educate 

 

 The BBC use this to recognise as their main goal when creating their documentaries and shows as they want to go by these principles in order to attract their audience. the word Rethian Originates from "Lord Reith" and his principles of broadcasting



Codes and conventions 


These are some of the codes and conventions that you often see be used within existing documentaries. They are many techniques that make a documentary what it is and attract the audiences attention the way it does.


Vertical Integration 

The BBC use Vertical Integration to Strategically control the stages of their production. They undergo 3 main steps: Production, Distribution and Exhibition. They first plan and produce their shows, documentaries and other products. They then distribute it across their respective TV channels and streaming platforms like BBC Iplayer. They then also Exhibit their products to an audience where they would preview their products to an audience in order to construct feedback to see if they like it.

 

 

Direct mode of address is where a character is looking directly at the camera 

Indirect modes of address= looking away at another background or object 

 

Selective focus is used to focus on the person in subject and the background is bury. This is done so the attention is focused onto the main character by blurring out the background. This could also be the other way around where the character is blurry and the person in the shot is blurry and this would be done in order to focus the viewers attention onto something that is happening in the background.

 

Cut away to archive footage is used to give you background Information into an individual about that individual about their experience. Archive footage is actual footage that happened. It would of been recorded at the time and is re-used in a documentary

 

most of the time when you watch a documentary you will hear "Voice of god" which is a voice playing over archive footage to give more footage as the know everything that goes on. this gives the audience more detail about what is happening which can explain what is happening from every perspective and

 

Documentaries include lots of sounds to create a sense of immersion and realism. types of sounds include Diegetic and Non-diegetic sounds. Diegetic sounds are sounds that are happening in the scene and have been recorded with the footage. Non diegetic sounds are sounds that have been recreated and added it. This is done so a sound that is far away and might be quieter in person can be heard way more and is louder in the video due to it being recreated to create suspense and immersion so you feel like you are living the scene in the shot.

 

An Establishing shot is a big vast shot to gain the audiences attention which shows lots of vast scenery which is very eye catching and grasps the audiences attention into wanting to watch more as you want to know more information about the characters, setting and what happened. it has a follow up effect as when you see the scenic shot, as an audience it makes you want to find out more and watch on. 

 

Documentaries use Reenactments most of the time. this is done by reenacting some backstory to let you know what happens. It helps you Imagine and get an idea on what happened and puts you in their position

 

Score is a type of music that has been conducted particularly for that piece/ product 

 

Synchronous sound is where the the voice over matching what is on screen. 


Different Documentary types


To get an idea on how i might decide to layout and plan my documentary, i decided to research into the main 6 styles of documentaries to see how they are organised. This will help me to plan my documentary and start to come up with some brief ideas on what i am going to include with my documentary



  1. 1-Poetic Documentaries 

Poetic Documentaries focus on experiences and images by showing the audience the world through different angles using different peoples perspectives. It is a very abstract perspective and uses a very experimental narrative. The purpose is to create a feeling in the audience rather than coming to a truth. This is done to get the audience speculating. Creators see this as a lesson for experimenting by trying different compositions using different styles of cinematic storytelling. An example of this style of this type of documentary would be “a voyage in time” 

 

 

  1. 2-Expository Documentaries 

Expository documentaries are used for a direct Storytelling style of documentary which is a type of documentary set to inform or persuade through “Voice of God” which is narration which gives the audience information It is one of the best ways to spread an important message or give information to an audience. To put it in simple terms it is a video essay as it shares a lot of information to the audience in order to tell the story or message. 

 

 

  1. 3-Observational documentaries 

Observational documentaries cover voices from all sides to show the persons most important moments. It is used to create a sense of realism and to show the audience the truth as it is from a 1 on 1 perspective as the person is being interviewed so you know it is more formal and serious. In the past this style has been influential to an audience. Observational documentaries often follow storytelling with an objective view showing one persons perspective at a time with an empathetic tone 

 

 

  1. 4-Participatory documentaries 

Participatory documentaries include the filmmaker within the narrative. This could be something such as them using voice to give the people in the documentaries questions, or influencing the narrative. That’s why it is called a participatory documentary because the director/ Filmmaker is participating. 

 

 

  1. 5-Reflexive documentaries 

These are similar top participatory documentaries as the filmmaker is in the documentary, however, they don’t include an outside subject/ person. Instead they mainly focus on themselves making the film. An example of this is 2002 Biggie and Tupac 



  1. 6-Perfomative documentaries 

Performative documentaries are an experimental style of documentaries which are used to stress a persons experience by sharing an emotional response. They often do this by connecting personal experiences with historical or political issues. This is often known as “Michael Moore style” as he often uses his personal stories to construct truths. 



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