The document discusses Louis Theroux's documentary style of immersing himself with subjects for a few days to gain insight into their lives. It focuses on his episode with a neo-Nazi family. The author believes this style allows for a more impartial and natural representation compared to talking head interviews. Research is also done on camera angles, lighting techniques, and conventions used in documentaries, particularly social/cultural ones. Audience research through surveys and interviews helps determine the target demographic and their preferences to inform the documentary's content and style.

1. Research
Jamie Holland

2. Existing Product: Louis and the Nazis
In this episode from Louis Theroux’s self titled documentary series, he
visits a family that are openly neo-Nazis. He stays with the family for a
couple of days and accompanies them to events such as ’skin-head rallies’,
all whilst asking them about their choice of lifestyle and gaining insight
into how they live day-to-day. Louis does this for most of his
documentaries. I think this is one of the best forms of reporting. It allows
an impartial insight into a topic that may not affect everyone and has a lot
of stigma/stereotype. It allows questions such as how do they live their
lives? and how do they think? It also lets us experience the subjects in
their most natural surroundings, instead of using talking head interview
styles. Ultimately this results in a much truer representation of a topic as
the viewer experiences it with the reporter. This makes it harder for for
manipulation of information to occur.

3. Existing Product
The camera angle here is something I wish to replicate. Its almost an
over the shoulder shot but isn’t quite there. The camera is angled so
we can see the interviewees full faces but only the back of the
interviewers head. This allows the focus to be completely on those
being interviewed, yet is still feels conversational. Talking head
interviews feels very staged and forced yet this seems very natural
and the pov of the camera allows the viewer to feel like they are the
one involved in the conversation.

4. Existing Product
Natural lighting occurs quite a bit in the
documentaries I’m taking inspiration from. This
means they don’t use any lighting set ups to
make the subject look favourable. Instead,
they use the light the have available such as
sunlight, moonlight and other light sources
that are out of their control/not part of their
equipment (i.e. lamps, streetlights, light from
buildings)

5. Research Analysis
Each of the researched products involve an immersive style of documenting. This is
something I definitely want to replicate.
Another thing they have in common is the lack of talking head interviews. This game
interview style seems too staged and forced for me and so their lack of appearance is
something I will definitely be using in my own project.
The existing products both use natural lighting when filming, whether it be sunlight or
the light from a lamp, no industrial lighting is used. This is another aspect that will
appear in my documentary. I feel as though it again reduces the staged aspect. If lights
have to be set up etc, the moment will have left and the subjects may have time to
alter themselves to portray a certain image. Not setting up lighting allows for a more
raw experience as it wastes no time and filming is immidiate. It also looks natural too,
allowing the audience to connect with what is happening onscreen.

6. Audience Research

7. Primary Audience research- Survey
To begin conducting my own research, I asked several members of
the classroom and other peers of mine whether they enjoyed
documentaries. This was so I could release my questionnaire to
those that were interested in the topic. Sending the questionnaire
out to people who aren’t interested in documentaries would
render their answers useless to me as they wouldn't be my target
audience. I wouldn't be able to differentiate between answers
from my target audience and those from uninterested in
documentaries.
I then created my survey and sent it to those interested. The first
two questions asked about gender and age. These are two basic
categories for audience. Finding out the majority demographic
would allow me to tailor my final product, as well as my
advertisements, to be most appealing to them.
The results I received showed me that my majority audience are
males that are around the ages of 18-24. Those that answered
under 18 were about 17 as I didn't ask anyone younger than that
so that is why I am suggesting my audience are around 18 years
old, despite the under 18 and 18-24 being at 46%. This may be a
setback as I have limited who has answered my survey, however,
the content of my final product may be a bit more mature in
terms of subject and language, and may not be suitable for a
younger audience.

8. Primary Audience research- Survey
After establishing the main demographic for my product, I decided
to ask what sort of documentaries appeal to them the most. It is
important to understand your audience as much as possible.
Hearing what they wanted to see the most would give me an insight
into what my audience were interested in, thus allowing me to tailor
my final product to their desires. It also broadens my horizons when
it comes to deciding what documentary to make, by making me
think of various topics.
The survey shows that my audience are interested in news,
scientific, and social and cultural documentaries. Using this
information, I have decided to create a social/cultural documentary.
This fits perfectly with my Louis Theroux style of interviewing as I
can immerse myself in a social group or culture for a day or two and
experience their lives.

9. Primary Audience research- Survey
I wanted my audience to have a say in what they’d be
interested in seeing and so with question 4, I asked them
and gave them the opportunity to reply with whatever they
wanted. Most replies I received seemed to relate to the
social and cultural topic more than any of the other most
popular answers. This question further increased my insight
into what my audience want from this documentary.
The majority of answers that relate to the social/cultural
aspect mention certain groups of people and other cultures.
These interest me as well so I feel confident about creating
a documentary about these.
This is where my survey ended however it didn’t feel
thorough enough and so I designed an interview that acted
as a follow up to this one. It ended up being based around
the social/cultural topic as that’s what my audience seemed
to enjoy the most, based on question 3 and 4.

10. Primary Audience research- Surveys
The answers to my survey allowed me to get a grasp of the main demographics of
my audience. My audience are mostly male (only by a small percentage) and are
between the ages of 18-24 (again only a small percentage taking over the under 18
category). This means that there needs to be a somewhat high energy with certain
parts of my documentary. I think I will open my documentary with attention-
grabbing clips, accompanied by tense music. Male audiences tend to favour
violence and aggression and so clips of that will be included within my project.

11. Primary Audience research- Interview
What conventions do you expect to see when watching a documentary? (Interviewees were
shown the conventions show in the preproduction powerpoint)
I always expect a narration in a documentary because it sets the scene and gives us information
that isn’t shown on-screen.
Are all these conventions necessary for a successful documentary or are a select few okay?
Not all because some don’t seem fitting for certain documentaries. It would be weird to see a
reconstruction in the one you’re filming because it wouldn’t make sense.
What conventions are most apparent in social/cultural docs?
I think talking head interviews seem to come up in the ones I’ve seen. Also archival footage also
shows up a lot too, especially whilst a narrator is explaining some past events involving the topic.

12. Primary Audience research- Interview
What conventions do you expect to see when watching a documentary? (Interviewees were
shown the conventions show in the preproduction powerpoint)
I would usually expect most of these.
Are all these conventions necessary for a successful documentary or are a select few okay?
I think only a select few are okay but as long as there is a good balance between visuals (such as
actual or reenacted footage) and graphics or captions to fully engage the viewer and not bore
them
What conventions are most apparent in social/cultural docs?
I think statistics would be good to include in your documntary, either on a graph or spoken. I’ve
seen them used to give some more background on the subject in most social documentaries,
especially ones done by BBC Three.

13. Primary Audience research- Interview
What conventions do you expect to see when watching a documentary? (Interviewees were
shown the conventions show in the preproduction powerpoint)
All of the ones shown, except for graphics, I don’t think they’re completely necessary.
Are all these conventions necessary for a successful documentary or are a select few okay?
Not at all. Only use the ones that seem relevant to what is going on in the documentary. A select
few are definitely okay but for yours I think you should definitely include actuality footage and a
voice over.
What conventions are most apparent in social/cultural docs?
Actuality footage and archival footage because the archival footage paints a picture of what
you’re investigating and actuality footage because it will show your findings, which lets you create
a conclusion.

14. Primary Audience research- Interviews
The interviews have shown me what my audience expect from my documentary in
terms of conventions. They seem to definitely expect a narration of some sort and
archival footage, as well as actuality footage. I will include these three for sure in
my product. It is important that I take these interviews into account as it will help
the reception of my documentary to be positive. They have expressed what they
think a documentary should include, letting me know what they would enjoy to
see. I am trying to make this feel like a documentary as much as possible for them.

15. Secondary Audience research
I viewed the audience analytics Vice have via a
media kit Vice provide for new employees. I
discovered that their audience are young and
typically millennial. By this I mean they are
left-wing young adults that have an instant-
gratification mindset.

16. Secondary Audience research
This screenshot from the media kit
shows us the socioeconomic group
the target audience belong to as
well as their education and gender.
From their statistics it is easy to tell
that, due to their average income
and their level of education, their
audience is part of the ABCD1
group. They’re also predominantly
male. This part of the secondary
research compliments my primary
research as I also discovered that
most of my audience were male.

17. Secondary Audience research
From the research I have learnt that my audience are young adults belonging to
the millennial generation. The mindset of this generation is progressive and they
are very aware of subjects such as politics. Millennials also research topics in
order to understand them better in order to form their own opinions. This means
it is important for my documentary to be entirely truthful and representative. If I
were to impose a false ideology onto my audience, they would become aware of
it and ultimately help my documentary to fail.

18. Subject Research
Naturalistic Filming Techniques:
-Natural Lighting
-Everyday clothing
-Handheld Camera
-Opportunistic/unplanned shots

19. Subject Research
Documentary Styles
Objective
-unbiased
Cinematic
-focused on aesthetic rather than information
Non-Fictional
-tell true events in their entirety

20. Subject Research
Conventions
Archival Footage: footage taken from sources such as the news/not
taken by the director
Actuality Footage: Footage filmed by the director for the documentary
Voice Over: Non-diegetic narration, often explaining what is happening
on-screen
Reconstruction: a scene acted out depicting real-life events
Talking Head: an interview style filmed using a medium close up

21. Practical Research

22. Practical Research
The video on the left was taken using my phone and the video the the right was
taken using a camera. I wanted to see what image quality would seem better. I
decided from this to use a camera as the camera has a locked focus option which
would mean the subject of my shots wouldn’t shift in and out of focus. Autofocus
is a big feature in phone cameras and it is difficult to keep the focus on one
specific subject. The colours of the camera also appear more realistic whereas
the phone seems too saturated.

23. Bibliography

24. Bibliography
1. Jamie Holland. (2019) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on 1
April)
2. Louis and the Nazis. (2003) BBC2. 21 December.
3. https://upload-
assets.vice.com/files/2016/01/15/1452894236compressed.pdf
4. Sex, Drugs & Murder: Life in the Red Light Zone (2016) BBC Three