2. Analysis of Documentaries
Before we began to form our products, learning the narrative forms and construction of documentaries became an exigency. The
online streaming service Netflix became the provider of such documentaries due to the fact that its expansive and diverse
catalogue of documentaries allowed for a larger pool of codes and conventions to learn from.
The three principal documentaries that were analysed were as follows:
Biggie & Tupac (Nick Broomfield, 2002)
Broomfield’s documentary taught us of the importance of sound design within a documentary, as it utilised songs of the US rap
scene to create an enchanting atmosphere.
American Anarchist (Charlie Siskel, 2016)
Siskel’s documentary presented to us the importance of cutaways in compounding points made, and making information easily
digestible to an audience. As this documentary attempts to present a niche concept to a mass audience, plentiful cutaways
were interspersed to make the documentary more accessible.
The Most Hated Family In America (Louis Theroux, 2007)
Theroux’s documentary showed us the importance of a strong, guiding, ‘voice of God’ –styled voice-over, his interjections gave the
documentary clear context and clear direction,; a facet that we wanted to include within our own documentary.
The analysis of these three documentaries were presented through a variety of presentation methods. These methods were,
respectively, Visme, AuthorStream, and Emaze. These presentational methods allowed for a more dynamic, interactive form
of engaging with our research than a banal list of our progress. In this way we aimed to incorporate a sense of entertainment
and artistic flair into every stage of our documentary’s life cycle.
Digtial technologies again proved to be an instrumental tool in the stages of researching and planning our documentary skills,
providing us with a library of products and an ease of collating information that decades prior would have been
unattainable.
3. Deciding Our Content
When it came to deciding what sort of content should be featured within our documentary, we
conducted audience research through questionnaires created within Microsoft Word.
These questionnaires contained such questions as “What colour do you most associate with
coffee?”, “Do cutaways distract from interviews for you?”, “Do you find music beds to be
distracting?”. The results of these questionnaires were collated into a Microsoft Excel document,
which enabled for us to create dynamic charts representing our results. After this stage of
research, the charted results were placed into a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation and
converted into an Emaze presentation to be embedded into our blogs.
Through this process several pieces of digital software and presentational methods allowed for
an extremely dynamic representation of our audience expectations and desired content,
allowing for a greater understanding of what our documentary should entail – presented in a
cohesive, stylistic package.
4. Topic Research
The initial stages of our secondary research consisted of gathering statistics pertaining to the consumption of
coffee, café culture, the coffee market, and the issues surrounding mental health (which would be a thematic
inclusion in our closing interview).
Three articles proved instrumental in providing our documentary with factual evidence to bolster our
purported message. The three articles were as follows:
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41251451 (In regards to the coffee market, provided such evidence as
there currently being 22,000 coffee shops in the UK)
The British Coffee Association
http://www.britishcoffeeassociation.org/about_coffee/coffee_facts/ (Concerning statistics related to the
consumption of coffee, provided such evidence as the annual consumption of coffee by the cup to be
25,000,000,000 in the UK)
Mind
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/statistics-and-facts-about-
mental-health/how-common-are-mental-health-problems/ (Relating to the theme of our final interview,
mental health, provided such evidence as 1 in 4 UK citizens being affected by a mental health issue annually)
Through researching our topics through the internet we were able to support our documentary’s message
with evidence from respected, validated, and expert sources. This stage of research proves crucial as its
subsequent implementation of knowledge into the documentary proper produces a more refined,
sophisticated, and educationally engaging product for the audience to consume.
5. RECCE Equipment
Before we began recording our documentary, it was imperative to determine the locations of our interviews.
The location and mise-en-scene of an interview is crucial in establishing the tone, atmosphere, and
candour of an interview – working on a subconscious level to influence audience opinion.
In order to choose the appropriate locations for our documentary interviews several pieces of digital
equipment were utilised.
Canon EOS 5D Mk3 – This was the model of stills camera we used to survey the area, taking images of items of
interest that would make sufficient cutaways, and experimenting with angles and different shot types in
order to ratify the best way to film our interview subjects. The test images we took throughout our RECCE
experience would also show us the light levels of the area in question, whereupon we would determine
whether or not it was viable to stage the interview there, or look for a different part of the location which
would serve to purport our intended light-hearted tone.
SanDisk 16GB SD Card – This SD card was used to transfer the images captured by our stills camera onto a
computer, allowing for our stills camera to have memory.
HP prodisplay p222 Moniter & HP Compaq Elite 8300 PC – This combination of HP monitor and PC allowed for
us to view the images we had taken as part of our RECCE on a HD screen, much as they would be viewed
on television. The PC RAM allowed for a library of such RECCE images to be stored, as well as quick and
simple viewing of the images to allow for decisions to be made more efficiently.
During our RECCE stage digitial technologies proved to be vital, the accessibility of such equipment
maintained that our experience remained simple but effective. Included below are images of the
equipment used, as well as images taken as part of our RECCE expeditions.
6. Interviewees & Interview Questions
Our next step was to conduct primary research, namely to procure interviewees and subsequent interview
questions to include within our interviews. Selecting interviewees was relatively easy, considering the
surplus of coffee shops in the local area.
Before long we had used Google Maps to procure the addresses, phone numbers, and email contact
information of three individuals from three businesses to be included. After having parlayed with them
over a series of emails and phone calls, our interviews were confirmed for a date to be arranged. Our final
interview was arranged through a series of conversations of Facebook with an individual noted for his
predilection for coffee, having been engaged in a few groups for coffee lovers on the site, which was also
to be dated at a later time.
Through researching the background of the coffee market, café culture, coffee consumption, and mental
health, and also having conversations with the interviewees beforehand, creating our interview questions
was not an overtly difficult or long process. Through using Microsoft Word we soon created documents
entailing 10 interview questions for all 4 of our interviewees, these hit on points pertaining to the research
we had previously conducted (i.e ‘Does the community need to look out for one another with issues such
as mental health?’, ‘Is there something about your business that others won’t find somewhere else?’,
‘What is it about coffee that atttracts?’) In this manner we ensured that all of our questions were relevant,
and built upon the foundations that would be laid out in our factual voice-over.
Digital technologies at this stage proved to be significantly helpful, connecting us with individuals and
establishments that we very may well have never came into contact with without the aid of the internet.
