NEA Generic Research - Textual Analysis 1 - Stacey Dooley Investigates: Canada's Lost Girls

       
   Other important aspects which were included within this documentary were:

• Lots of short clips from interviews with different people and also different locations.
• The tone for the documentary is set within the brief intro that is shown and gives a clear and good insight to what is to come up.
• There is a lot of establishing shots used, keeping the audience interested as they switch locations and there is usually a voice over or music over the top of these shots.
• There is montages of pictures that come up and short clips that give insight to reality and helps the audience to remember that it isn't fiction and they are able to relate the case to actual experiences. 
• There is a wide range of different lighting used throughout the documentary as they have shots, as seen above, using the sunset, and the lights on a car. A lot of the shots that are filmed outside are filmed at night, giving off the mysterious style to the documentary.

I want to be able to incorporate the conventions of this documentary into my conspiracy theory documentary by making sure to follow the quick style pace of editing in the intro with multiple locations used with different lighting. I also need to make sure to have different clips from different interviews in my intro, to make sure that the audience is kept engaged and informed of what to come.

Audience Research: Feedback on Pitch

For my audience research, I asked six questions based on my pitch, helping me to decide whether or not my idea would meet the brief etc.

Q1.
Do you think this idea meets the brief? If not, what could be changed?
Out of the 15 responses, all said that my pitch met the brief, one respondent mentioned adding more informational value to make it more upmarket, to meet the brief more. 

Q2.
How much does my pitch sound like a BBC 3 documentary?
On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not at all, 4 out of the 15 responses were a 5, 10 rated a 4 and 1 gave a 3.

Q3.
Should I focus on one conspiracy theory or look at the topic more broadly?
4 of the respondents recommended doing only one conspiracy theory and the remaining 11 said to do the topic more broadly, some notable comments were;

• 'To begin your documentary it might be good to talk about it as a whole and the suggest to the audience that future episodes would target theories specifically.'

• 'Broadly- you only have to do the opening so you can say that you are going to cover more than you actually do. The website is another opportunity to explore those wider ideas.'

Q4.

Do you think my idea appeals to the target audience?

All 15 of the respondents answered yes to my idea meeting the target audience of a socially conscious, 15-25, middle to upmarket demographic.

Q5.

Any name suggestions?

I received a few name suggestions and the bets were Conspire and Corona Clues, which I could use together to make Conspire: Corona Clues and that could change every episode.

Q6.

Any feedback or improvements

Some of the ideas for improvements included;

'Maybe focus less on the technical side of how conspiracies are spread (though it defo should be included)! On more on the conspiracy itself.'

'I think that your mood board shows lots of different responses to conspiracy theories - I would choose to look at one theme i.e coverups, medical mysteries or comedic ones like the Simpsons'

Which is good feedback and will help me to be able to meet the brief in more depth and help to guide me correct direction for my documentary.

Planning: Pitch

NEA Pitch:
Brief 1: Television and online

My initial idea is to create a three-minute opening sequence for a BBC Three documentary on an investigation into conspiracy theories. It will include a look into why people believe conspiracies and how we are led to believe them through social media, leading to the recent conspiracy theory on the coronavirus and the spread of misinformation.

• Appeal to the 16-25, socially conscious, middle-to-upmarket demographic through the investigative style of the documentary and wide range of camera shots which will be used. I will also make sure that the pace of editing and soundtrack match each other and what is going on onscreen.

• By having the subject of the documentary on this topic, it will meet the interests of the age group and also has a focus on social media which is used by almost all 16-25-year-olds, and allow for them to engage with the onscreen content.

• The audience will be able to engage with the documentary by using #'s in which they can share their views on the conspiracies which are mentioned and even share theories of their own which can be featured on the website. Also, have popups at the bottom of the screen which has the handles for the social media pages and the website address. The website will contain easter eggs, behind the scenes photos and a presenter/guests profiles.

• I will use digital convergence to within my product through having a clear link between the documentary and the website, making sure that the website link is seen during and at the end of the documentary. There will also be a link to the BBC 3 website and social media, to maintain that clear link that it is a BBC 3 documentary.

Planning: MoodBoard

Planning: Reflection on moderators report

Useful points from moderators report:

• Well-rehearsed performances were key to successful outcomes - multiple takes may be needed to get the best-looking shot, so a lot of time needs to be put into making sure that everything is learnt perfectly and also executed just as well.
• Mise-en-scene, especially location/setting needs to match what is being portrayed not just in a school setting for example.
• The editing pace needs to not only match the pace of the song but the genre of music it is placed in.
• The narrative needs to be complex and not just follow a simple narrative in which does not meet the genre or match the mood or tone of the track.
• Camerawork/camera movement needs to display a level of skill that is of a higher level, multiple shots must be used and used correctly to give off the correct effect.
• Demonstrate understanding of digital convergence, having a running banner with social media details of presenter for example.
• Need to have representation of necessary social groups with convincing and stylish title sequences.
• The best ones represented genre conventions from the set brief, following the style of the set genre or TV Channel.
• The best statements of intent had great detail and made clear links between the two main products and explained how digital convergence would connect the two.
• In the statement of intent don't repeat the brief unless stating how the requirements and production details were to be achieved.