GAY RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY

1. Gay Rights Documentary

2. Out of our 15 responses,
8 were female and 7
were male. It was
important for us to get
an equal amount of
feedback from both
genders as it meant our
research was applicable
to both sexes and we
could then adapt our
documentary to suit the
needs of everyone.

3. As our target audience is
primarily older teenagers and
young adults, it was vital for us
to collect information from
these people, with 64.29% of our
responses coming from members
of this age group. The reason we
have chosen to have our
documentary aimed at these
people is because they are the
next generation and they have
the power to change society and
make it more equal and safe.
However, it was also important
to gain the opinions of other age
groups, as they too may wish to
watch our documentary.

4. It is important to know whether
people actually enjoy watching
documentaries, and would
therefore be interested in our
genre of TV programme. The
results were relatively positive,
with 8/15 claiming they loved
them. This will then increase the
chances that our documentary will
receive viewers as people like the
format of documentaries. 5/15
said they liked to watch them
which is also good news as they
would then be willing to
watch our documentary, given that it is produced to a high standard.
One said ‘they are okay’, with none of our respondents giving negative
feedback towards documentaries, which is also positive as this will
then perhaps equal more viewers.

5. In order to create an effective and well received documentary,
it is important we first understand our market. By knowing
what documentary they prefer we can then adapt our own
documentary to have similar traits or characteristics as popular
documentaries, intriguing and enticing more viewers. Although
the results showed a mixture of preferences, a majority
appear to have a taking to David Attenborough- Africa, having
6/15 votes. According to previous research carried out on this
BBC documentary we know it is extremely factual with a
stunning variety of shots. We shall then attempt to apply this
to our own documentary. The Undateables, a Channel 4
documentary, also proved to be popular, showing to us that we
should try to include some more light-hearted, humorous
scenes to counter react the extremely sad scenes we wish to include. We can learn a lot
from this documentary as it shows us how to handle delicate issues. The Undateables
focuses on people with disabilities, both physically and mentally, which is quite a
controversial topic to some, which our documentary topic is too.

6. By gaining this knowledge, we know
which approach to take when
documenting and conducting
interviews. For instance, with a
majority of respondents saying they
prefer David Attenborough, we then
know that people perhaps prefer a
much more calm, knowledgeable
approach as well as a character they
know and trust. Louis Theroux had
5/15 votes, which tells us our target
audience may prefer a more naive
approach to interviews and a
character who isn’t afraid to ask the
most personal questions. Stephen
Fry, Billie JD Porter, Ross Kemp and
Nick Broomfield all received one
vote each.

7. We have already gained some background knowledge on
more general elements of what to include in our
documentary, but this question, and the others to follow,
are much more specific. This question was or extreme
importance as it told us whether people thought our topic
choice was good, and therefore would perhaps be
interested in watching our documentary. The results were
positive, with 12/15 stating it is a good choice. However,
as it is quite a controversial subject we knew it would be
susceptible to people who would be negative towards the
topic choice, with one person stating no. We were
already prepared for such opinions, although we are pleased it was such a minority. This
particular person may be a homophobe, or simply not interested in gay rights .Two
people responded with a ‘maybe’, which suggests to us that these people perhaps have
concerns with how the documentary may be produced, and it proves to us how delicate
this matter is and how our documentary must be made tastefully.

8. This question meant a very personal opinion
from the respondent was required. A great
majority of the responses stated things such
as ‘Yes, they’re the same as every other
human’, which suggests to us we are on the
right path of documentary choice, as people
are very open minded about gay rights.
However, we did receive one extremely
negative comment, (top comment)
enlightening us to the homophobia that still
exists in modern day society. We understand
the people that will be against our
documentary, and this makes us even more
determined to produce a top standard,
informative documentary in an attempt to
unite society against homophobia. This also
tells us how important this documentary is as
it is clearly still an issue. We will not adapt
our documentary to suit the needs of
homophobes.

9. Again, the opinions were all relatively
positive, with 14/15 people supporting
gay rights, believing we should all be
equal. However, one was very much
against gay rights, but this is an
opinion that unfortunately many still
have nowadays. This opinion is one of
the fuels of our passion for this
documentary and is what we hope to
overcome. This opinion is what makes
us realize our documentary must be as
knowledgeable and touching as
possible in order to shine the light on
the hidden areas of modern day society
and gay rights, and sway opinions.

10. This has shown that if done well and
appropriately, our documentary
should be well received and popular.
Like the previous comments, only
one was against the concept, but we
understand our topic may not be for
everyone, but we do hope to
encourage safer, more equal
societies. One person raised the
point that they hope this
documentary will make people
actively support gay rights, rather
than just saying they support it but
not actually putting this to action,
which is also what we hope to do.
Many people seem to understand
the influence this documentary
could have, and we plan to do it
justice.

11. The results for this question were relatively
mixed, however the majority stated that Channel
4 would be the most appropriate channel,
receiving 5 votes. Channel 4 is famous for its
documentaries, and we too think it will go well
with the informative, sometimes controversial
documentaries Channel 4 already has to offer.
BBC One was the next most popular choice with
4/15 votes, however the programmes featured on
BBC One are perhaps more serious than we intend
on making our documentary, as we plan to bring
humour and light hearted scenes into the mix.
However, all channels would be appropriate as
long as we can convey our message to as many
people as possible and influence them to support
gay rights.

12.  The results we gained were extremely enlightening and
useful, and we plan to use them in order to adapt and
change our original layout in order to suit the audience
more efficiently. For instance, the most popular
documentary was David Attenborough- Africa. This suggests
to us that more a variety of shots must be used in order to
capture the viewers attention. An idea for this may be of
views of London. In terms of the most popular
documentarian, Attenborough and Louis Theroux came out
on top. We feel that Theroux’s approach to interviewing
and documenting will be most beneficial to gaining the
best information possible and conveying our message to
the audience, so we plan to adopt his style. The results
also enlightened us to the extreme opinions we still face
and that we will attempt to sway. Although difficult, it is a
cause very much worth fighting for, as supported by the
opinions of a majority of our respondents.