2. INTRODUCTION
During my research into British institutions, 3 popular television broadcasters jumped out to me straight
away:
I. BBC
II. ITV
III. Channel 4
These three institutions was attractive to me almost immediately for I have strict memory of quality
documentaries of all genres being produced and distributed by the companies. All of which when
watching, I found the documentaries easy to watch and understand therefore the enjoyment for the
programme came naturally. Specifically channel 4, producing the following:
24 hours in A&E
First dates
Educating Cardiff
Educating Yorkshire
Educating Essex
Educating the East end
Five of the documentaries named above (First dates, Educating Cardiff, Educating Yorkshire, Educating
Essex & Educating the East end) are of the genre human behaviour. This allows me to see that channel 4
are clearly successful for this particular category of documentary other wise they would not be so popular.
3. After researching into genres/styles of
documentaries I made the final vital decision on
which type of documentary I am to approach. A
documentary based on the behaviour of human
beings searching deep into physiological questions
that have not yet been answered. Not only is this the
documentary category that I take pleasure in
watching, I have some amazing ideas installed for
the time in which creating the footage is inevitable. I
hope to bring these ideas to life through live
footage and distribute the documentary taking
inspiration from Channel 4’s techniques. The next
enquiry that I am to evaluate is, how does Channel 4
achieve a successful human behaviour documentary
which impresses various British audiences?
Channel 4
4. EDUCATING CARDIFF
The documentary which I look to inspire me is educating Cardiff.
Educating Cardiff is the British documentary television
programme Educating broadcast on Channel 4. The documentary
trails past instalments in the Educating series, containing the
BAFTA Award-winning Educating Essex in 2011, Educating
Yorkshire in 2013 and Educating the East End in 2014.
Filmed at Willows High School in Cardiff, the documentary
captures surprising details of life in a modern school. Whether it
be of a teacher in a powerful role or as a student. Educating
Cardiff follows specifically the life of Head Teacher Joy Ballard
behind the School’s closed doors. This involves experiencing
other perceptions of the school’s environment such as, the team
of teachers and support staff. Willow high school is on record as
one of the worst performing schools in Cardiff, therefore the
main purpose of the documentary is to see in the eyes of all
which in habit the area and see if key individuals like the head
teacher can change the school into something to be proud of.
5. EVALUATION
Prior to recent research tasks involving myself to research into British Television institutions. I have
considered possible contenders to look to fro inspiration when coming to finally creating my documentary
in full. These include specifically, BBC, ITV & Channel 4.
The BBC, strong contender due to its history behind the corporation. The BBC is the world's oldest
national broadcasting organisation along with proudly representing the largest broadcaster in the world
by number of employees. Strong history equals strong experience, however is this experience in
documentaries. I found that although the BBC has produced and distributed pure talent even when
considering documentaries. However, the BBC presents documentaries of very little human behaviour
grounds compared to other potential institutions. For example, the following are documentaries produced
by BBC: WW2, The Celts, the seven wonders of the world, Vladimir Putin The World Most Powerful
President.
All of which stated above are history based documentaries, unfortunately, these are not the
documentaries that I look for as I am looking to create an education ground looking into human
behaviour.
ITV is the most popular commercial television channel in the United Kingdom. Operating in England,
Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man. ITV and its predecessor channels (ITV 2, ITV3 & ITV 4) have
contended with BBC One for the position of the UK's most watched television channel since the 1950s.
Another massive network to consider, however much like BBC, ITV I found produced and distributed
plenty of documentaries across the UK year by year, I also witness numerous genres on offer to audiences.
Some of which were human behaviour based, such as ‘Residents on a Grimsby estate’. A home to some
citizens that are under the consistent control of poverty, most residents forced out by fear and violence.
Unfortunately, ITV could not compete with Channel 4 who I found specialise is human behavioural
documentaries.
