Unit 27 task 3 research annex a

1. Unit 27 - Task 3 Researchfor a Factual Documentary Annex A
Topic - Secondary Research
Once I established my topic was London and that I wanted to film my documentary on Buckingham Palace, I thought about what exactly I wanted
to film. I decided that I wanted to film inside, outside and the grounds for Buckingham Palace, so that viewers could have a good knowledge of
Buckingham Palace. If I just film outside, then I think my documentary would have something missing and not give a complete picture of
Buckingham Palace. I decided to split my research into the following groups: - Topic, Audience, Documentary structure and Legal and ethical
considerations. I then sub split into primary research, secondary research and both researches.
In order to do this, I looked at Buckingham Palace on Wikipedia (2016) in the first instance to see what information was listed. Part of my main
script I took from this website and formed the script in my own words. I also looked for information on Wellington Barracks on the same website.
The main trivia fact I discovered from these pages was that ‘two guards would stand outside Buckingham Palace when the Queen was away and
that four guards would stand outside the Palace when she was resident’. (Wikipedia, 2016)
For the room information in my script, I used the Royal UK website, but used my own words to detail that ‘Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, 19
State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms’. (Royal UK, 2016)
I decided to film outside Buckingham Palace and Wellington Barracks myself. I wanted to film inside Buckingham Palace to give a good all round
impression of the Palace, but unfortunately I could not film inside as it was only open from July to October every year to the public. I then
researched online different websites to establish whether any website had any good inside pictures of Buckingham Palace. On YouTube, I
discovered Fiona Bruce presented a program called ‘The Queen’s Palaces – Buckingham Palace’, that contained good footage and pictures of
inside Buckingham Palace. I shall use this website for my inside pictures and give credit at the end of my film for them. I shall also use the same
website for footage of World War two which I shall incorporate into my documentary, as I thought it was important to show Buckingham Palace
history. (MyDigitalrealm, 2011)
I also wanted to have footage from the garden, so viewers could see how vast it was for the heart of London. After extensive research on various
YouTube, BBC and Wikipedia websites, I opted to use Royal UK (2016) for the garden party footage and for footage of the queen walking across
her garden at the party. I thought it was relevant to include the Queen and an event in my documentary, as I was talking about her house and I
wanted to show that the Palace was lived in and not just a museum. Because the footage I used did not give a clear picture on the vastness of
the garden in central London, I decided to look for a picture of all the grounds, so that viewers could understand the size of the gardens. I learnt
of a website called PBS (2016), which had a good graphic picture of the garden. I incorporated this image into my documentary and again shall
give credit at the end of my film to PBS (2016) for using it.
So far, I have thought about a topic to film and then researched the script and found footage of inside Buckingham Palace, (MyDigitalrealm,
2011) ‘the gardens, garden party and Queen footage’, (Royal UK 2016) world war two, (MyDigitalrealm, 2011) and a picture of the gardens.
(BPS, 2016) But I wanted to carry out some sort of audience research to the general public and targeted audience research to members of the
public that were interested in Buckingham Palace. I decided to complete two separate surveys to establish whether my idea and content for my

2. documentary where on the correct lines and it would be something that an audience would watch. But before I completed my surveys, I
researched existing audience statistics for documentaries on the BARB website and audience views on current YouTube videos for London.
Audience - Secondary Research
I then decided to research how big my audience could possibly be, by researching the Broadcasters audience research board. I discovered that,
according to Broadcaster’s audience research board (BARB), ‘documentaries have risen by 0.7% last year, with a 12.9% share of all programs in
the UK from 2010 – 2015’. (Barb, 2016) Under their viewing data, documentaries throughout May, ‘consistently achieved between 0.75 and 3
million viewers per programme, with an average of 1.9 million views per week.’ (Barb, 2016)
Audience viewings for London documentaries on YouTube range from 4,000 views for a documentary on people in London (Discovery World,
2015) to over a million views for motor bikers in London. (Janksolid, 2012) Out of approximately twenty top London documentaries on YouTube,
eleven have over 100,000 views with four of them being over 500,000 views. Only two London documentaries out of the twenty have fewer than
10,000 views. This was encouraging to discover that there was a big target audience for documentaries. I looked at all the reviews under the
YouTube documentaries above and they were all favourable.
To target specific members of the public that I knew would be interested in my topic of Buckingham Palace I stood outside Buckingham Palace
and asked sixteen people three questions. They were the following:-
 How useful would it be to watch a short five minute documentary online of Buckingham Palace prior to visiting Buckingham Palace?;
 Is the history of Buckingham Palace useful; both verbal script and footage;
 Would they want to see inside, outside and garden pictures/footage?
All members of the public that participated in my target audience research agreed to have the following information below, available for public
use. My specific target audience results are below:-
Target audience with an interest in Buckingham Palace to see if they would watch a short documentary like mine
Name Gender Age Ethnicity Lives Occupation Would it be useful to watch a five minute
documentary online of Buckingham Palace
prior to visiting Buckingham Palace?
Is the history of
Buckingham Palace
useful?
Would you want to see pictures/footage of
inside, outside and the gardens at
Buckingham Palace?
Harry Male
Under
20
White
British
South
London
Student Useful
Useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside
Gurda Female 20 - 29
Mixed
race
Spain Housewife Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Harold Male 30 - 39
Mixed
race
Spain Carpenter Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Devon Male
Under
20
Mixed
race
Spain Student Useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden

3. Taya Female 30 - 39
Asian
indian
East
London
Housewife Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Aamir Male 40 - 49
Asian
indian
East
London
Taxi driver Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside
Cameron Male
Under
20
Asian
Indian
East
London
Student Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Rebecca Female
Under
20
White
British
South
London
Student Useful Useful - footage only Yes - inside
Len Male
Over
60
White
British
South
London
Retired Useful
Useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Dorothy Female
Over
60
White
British
South
London
Retired Useful
Useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Mingli Male 20 - 29
Asian
Oriential
China Teacher Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Rong Female 20 - 29
Asian
Oriential
China Teacher Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Dave Male
Over
60
White
Other
USA Retired Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Sheila Female
Over
60
White
Other
USA Retired Very useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden
Carol Female 20 - 29
Black
British
East
London
Student Useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside
Trudy Female 40 - 49
Mixed
race
East
London
Retail Useful
Very useful - Both
narration and footage
Yes - inside, outside and garden

4. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
How useful would it be to watch
a five minute documentary
online of Buckingham Palace
prior to visiting
Is the history of Buckingham
Palace useful?
7
4
9
12
Not useful
Useful
Very useful
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Would you want to see pictures/footage of
inside, outside and the gardens at
Buckingham Palace?
4
12 No
Yes, inside only
Yes, inside, ouside and garden

5. Overall I concluded out of the sixteen people I surveyed in my target audience with an interest in Buckingham Palace, seven thought it would be
useful and nine thought it would be very useful, to watch a five minute documentary prior to visiting Buckingham Palace. This meant that 100% of
the target audience thought that a documentary would be either useful or very useful to watch prior to visiting the place.
Three people thought the history of Buckingham Palace was useful to see both narration and footage and one person thought that footage only
was useful. Twelve people (75%) thought that narration and footage was very useful to see in the documentary.
Four people (25%) wanted to see just inside Buckingham Palace in the documentary and twelve people (75%) surveyed wanted to see inside,
outside and the garden within the documentary.
Audience - Primary Research
I asked twenty two random people that I met on Oxford Street, London to answer a short audience survey to establish the following four main
questions: -
 How much television they watched;
 If they watch documentaries;
 Would they watch a short five minute documentary on London;
 Would they watch online?
I also highlighted my documentary idea, to see what feedback I received. I knew that the statistics stated that ‘60% of programmes currently on
the television are factual programmes’. (BBC, 2016) I wanted to discover for myself, how many people actually watch documentaries and what
they watched. I thought that if I asked people directly, I would be able to decide whether it was a good idea to film a documentary on London. All
people in my audience research agreed to have the following information below, available for public use. My audience research is below:-
Audience survey to see if they would watch a short documentary like mine
Name Gender Age Ethnicity Lives Career Usual TV
stations
What time
of day do
you watch
TV?
When do
you watch
TV?
How many
hours of
TV per
week?
Which types of
genres do you
watch?
Which media
do you use
the most?
Do you watch
documentaries
How often
do you
watch
doc’s per
week
Out of the
following
which do you
find the most
interesting
Do you
prefer to be
entertained
or
informed?
What do
you like the
best about
a doc
Would you
watch a
documentary
about
London?
Would you
watch a doc
of five
minutes, 60
minutes or
both
Do you
watch
TV
online
If so, what Have
you
heard of
the C4
online
‘shorts’
Would
you
watch a
five
minute
or less
doc
online in
the
future
Would
you
watch
my doc
Emma Female
Under
20
White
British
South
London
Student
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Other
Daytime/
Evening
Everyday 36 - 42 Most TV Yes 1 - 2
Big Brother
(C5)
Both Locations Yes Both Yes On demand Yes Yes Yes
Clare Female 30 - 39
Mixed
race
USA Clerical Other Evening Everyday 22 - 28 Soaps TV No 0
The Office
(BBC)
Entertained Don't watch Yes 5 minutes No No Yes Yes

6. Steve Male 40 - 49
White
other
USA Banker Other Evening Most days 11 - 14 Documentaries Newspaper Yes 7 - 10 Life (BBC) Informed Facts Yes Both Yes Sky Go No Yes Yes
Tom Male 40 - 49
White
other
Ireland Sales
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Other
Evening
Mon -
Friday
15 - 18 Sport TV No 0
Top Gear
(BBC)
Informed Don't watch Maybe 5 minutes Yes On demand Yes Yes Yes
Gbericho Male 20 - 29
Black
British
East
London
Corporate
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Sky
Daytime/
Evening
Mon -
Friday
15 - 18 Sport TV Yes 3 - 4
Top Gear
(BBC)
Both Facts Maybe Both Yes Netflix Yes Yes Yes
Chad Male 20 - 29
Mixed
race
East
London
Marketing
BBC/ITV/
Ch4/C5/
Sky
Evening
Mon -
Friday
8 - 10 News Online No 0
Dispatches
(C4)
Informed Don't watch Maybe 5 minutes Yes YouTube Yes Yes Yes
Karen Female
Under
20
White
British
North
London
Student BBC/ITV Evening
Mon -
Friday
8 - 10 Soaps Magazine No 0
Big Brother
(C5)
Entertained Don't watch Maybe 5 minutes Yes On demand Yes Yes Yes
Chris Male 20 - 29
White
British
South
London
Student
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Freeview
Afternoon Most days 11 - 14 Sport Online No 0
Top Gear
(BBC)
Both Don't watch Maybe 5 minutes Yes On demand Yes Yes Yes
Paul Male 20 - 29
White
Other
East
London
Student
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5
Daytime Most days 15 - 18 Game show TV No 0
The Office
(BBC)
Entertained Don't watch No 5 minutes Yes Sky Go Yes Yes Yes
Mark Male 20 - 29
White
Other
East
London
Student
BBC/ITV/
Ch4/C5
Daytime Most days 15 - 18 News TV Yes 5 - 6
True Stories
(C5)
Informed Facts Maybe 5 minutes Yes YouTube Yes Yes Yes
Sally Female
Under
20
White
British
South
London
Student
BBC/ITV/
Ch4/C5
/Freeview
Daytime/Ev
ening
Everyday 50 - 59 Most TV Yes 7 - 10
Henry VIII
(ITV)
Both History Yes Both Yes Netflix Yes Yes Yes
Stella Female 20 - 29 Mixed
race
South
London
Student BBC/ITV/
C4
Daytime/
Evening
Everyday 29 - 35 Soaps TV No 0 Big Brother
(C5)
Entertained Don't watch No 5 minutes Yes YouTube No Yes Yes
Crystal Female 20 - 29
Mixed
race
South
London
Student
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5
Daytime/
Evening
Everyday 36 - 42 Most TV No 0
Big Brother
(C5)
Entertained Don't watch No 5 minutes Yes YouTube No Yes Yes

7. Richard Male
Over
60
White
British
Surrey Retired
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Sky
Daytime/
Evening
/Night
Everyday 29 - 35 Most Radio Yes 11 - 15 Life (BBC) Both Locations Yes Both No No Yes Yes
Cleo Female 20 - 29
White
British
Hampshire Student
BBC/ITV/
C4/Ch5/
Other
Daytime/
Evening
Everyday 29 - 35 Soaps TV No 0
Big Brother
(C5)
Both Don't watch Yes 5 minutes Yes On demand Yes Yes Yes
Lucy Female
Under
20
White
British
Hampshire Student
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Sky
Daytime/
Evening/
Night
Everyday 50 - 59 Most TV Yes 7 - 10
Big Brother
(C5)
Entertained Presenter Yes Both Yes YouTube Yes Yes Yes
Alex Male 40 - 49
White
British
Hampshire Builder BBC/ITV Evening Most days 8 - 10 Sport TV Yes 1 - 2
Top Gear
(BBC)
Informed Facts Yes 5 minutes No No Yes Yes
Debbie Female 40 - 49
White
British
Hampshire Housewife
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Sky
Daytime/
Evening/
Night
Everyday Over 60 Most TV Yes 16 - 20
Big Brother
(C5)
Entertained Locations Yes Both Yes Netflix Yes Yes Yes
Phil Male 30 - 39
White
British
Luton Postman Sky Afternoon Most days 8 - 10 Travel Online Yes 3 - 4
Dispatches
(C4)
Both Locations Yes Both Yes On demand No Yes Yes
Ann Female 20 - 29
White
British
Luton Nurse Sky Night Most days Under 7 Reality TV Magazine No 0
True Stories
(C5)
Both Don't watch Yes 5 minutes Yes On demand No Yes Yes
Colin Male 50 - 59
Black
British
Wales Factory
BBC/ITV/
C4/
C5
Freeview
Daytime/
Evening
Everyday 36 - 42 Sport TV Yes 11 - 15
Henry VIII
(ITV)
Both History Yes Both Yes YouTube No Yes Yes
Barbara Female 50 - 59
Black
British
Wales Teacher
BBC/ITV/
C4/C5/
Freeview
Daytime/
Evening
Everyday 29 - 35 Game show TV Yes 7 - 10
Henry VIII
(ITV)
Both History Yes Both Yes Netflix No Yes Yes

8. 1
4
2
4
0
1
4
3
0
2
1
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
How many hours of TV do you watch per week?
How many hours of TV
do you watch per week?
12
10
Do you watch documentaries?
YES
NO
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Yes No Maybe
13
3
6
Would you watch a documentry aboutLondon?
0
5
10
15
20
25
Do you watch TV
online
Would you watch
documentaries online
in the future?
19
22
3 0
Yes
No

9. (After highlighting what the documentary was about and how long it was)
Overall, I concluded that out of the twenty two people I asked, they all watched between a few hours and over sixty hours a week of television.
The top three groups however were eight to ten, fifteen to eighteen and twenty nine to thirty five hours of television per week. Eight to thirty nine
hours was a considerable difference in the amount of television that people watched.
Out of the twenty two people, twelve people watched documentaries, which equated to 55% of the people that I asked in my survey. This
confirmed my research in task two, on codes and conventions, as I discovered from the BBC (2016) that it stated that ‘60% of viewers watch
factual programmes’. However, 55% was quite a high figure as documentaries are only a part of factual programmes.
I discovered from my research, that thirteen out of twenty two people asked, would watch a documentary on London. As this was 59% of the
people I asked, it was a good indication that completing a documentary on London was a good idea.
Most of the people I asked watched television online and all confirmed that they would watch a documentary online in the future.
I highlighted my documentary contents to all of the twenty two people I surveyed to establish whether my London documentary contained the
correct information, before I proceeded further with my idea. I informed them that it would be me narrating an introduction in different locations in
Westminster, before standing outside Buckingham Palace to narrate the history of the Palace. I also stated that it would contain footage from
years ago as well as present day, and that it would contain inside and outside footage. The overall conclusion was that they all thought it was a
good idea and they could see such a documentary on television. They said because it was only five minutes and it was about London, they were
very likely to watch it. This was very encouraging results and I was happy overall to proceed with my London documentary idea.
Documentary Structure – SecondaryResearch
I wanted to establish some sort of structure for my documentary and researched what were the most important things when creating a
documentary. I travelled to the library and discovered that there were two books that covered three main aims in making a documentary. They
were the following:-
1. ‘Informing the viewers with information that they are not normally aware of to improve, reveal, change or educate/entertain society.
22
Would you watch my documentary?
Yes
No

10. 2. ‘To inform the viewers of one particular focus in everyday life that they may not notice or discover for themselves and what those things
have to teach them’. (Nicholls, 2002)
3. Lastly, I discovered that a main aim was to ‘draw the viewers’ attention to the whole process and ‘not just the end goal’. This is achieved
through history – the way things were and how they are now or showing the viewer how things work. (Winston, 2013)
In my documentary, I am informing the viewer to reveal and educate information that they may not have known through my narration of the
history of Buckingham Palace. My focus is on Buckingham Palace and showing the viewer inside the Palace as they may not have seen it
before. And finally my whole process is shown through narrating about Buckingham Palace from King James I to present day, which incorporates
lots of history in five minutes.
Documentary Structure - Primary and Secondary Research
The only similar documentary currently available is ‘The Queen’s Palaces – Buckingham Palace’, presented by Fiona Bruce that was produced
by MyDigitalrealm, (2011). This showed all the rooms available to the public and some unseen rooms inside Buckingham Palace. I thought this
was a good idea but lacked the history or outside views that a tourist would look for.
It also portrayed Buckingham Palace as all glitz and glamour, with footage of the presenter standing next to a chandelier that had been taken
down for cleaning, so that the viewer can compare the size of the chandelier against the presenter, to emphasise how big it was, when the
presenter is saying “how huge the chandeliers are”. This is further emphasised by focusing on a close up shot of the big chandeliers in each
room as the presenter walks from one room to the next and looking upwards at them.
The presenter also walked round Buckingham Palace when it was empty and it only emphasised the fact that it looked like a home that was not
lived in, as the viewer could see big, empty rooms, which only added to the image of a lonely, unlived in home.
Whereas, I wanted to portray Buckingham Palace as a place that was lived in by the Queen and a place that held parties and public events. I did
this by showing footage of people attending events at the Palace.
The presenter talked very calmly, slowly and clearly whilst she was walking round and ensured she was looking at the camera at all times.
(MyDigitalrealm, 2011) I noted that this was a good way to inform the audience clearly by always knowing where the camera was at all times and
not to rush the narration, but take my time.
I was happy after looking at this documentary that I would still keep to my original plan and film outside Buckingham Palace, but obtain footage
for inside Buckingham Palace and for the gardens. (MyDigitalrealm, 2011) I shall still keep to my original idea of narrating the history of
Buckingham Palace alongside showing matching footage of the Palace so that my documentary shows the same footage as to what I am talking
about.

11. I have carried out research on an existing documentary (MyDigitalrealm, 2011) and the meaning (Nicholls, 2002) and structure to a documentary.
(Winston, 2013) but I wanted to consider the legal and ethical considerations, especially whether I could film my documentary in public with
people on camera, or would I have to gain permission or blur them out. This was something I looked into next.
Legal and Ethical Considerations – SecondaryResearch
I started with trying to find out the most important question, and that was what clearances and permissions did I need to film in a public place. I
searched online and found the British Film Commission, (2016) stated that, ‘I did not require permission for members of the public seen in the
background of my film.’ It stated that “Under UK law, the copyright of film shot in a public place resides with the filmmaker.” (British Film
Commission, 2016)
According to the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC) (2016), “Britain does not have privacy laws, so no one can stop you filming them
… provided you are not breaking some other law to do so - such as trespassing”.
I did not require researching any libel and defamation laws as I was not giving my opinion on this documentary, merely stating information about
Buckingham Palace. Therefore I was happy to proceed with the filming of my documentary, knowing that I would not be breaking any laws and
that I would not have to blur out any faces accidently caught on my camera.
Summary – Primary and SecondaryResearch
 All producing, directing, narrating, filming and editing shall be completed by me.
 I shall use my camera and tripod for when I am narrating and I shall hold my camera for filming my footage.
 I am not participating in any interviews but I am undertaking audience research and target audience research in the form of surveys and I
am compiling this information afterwards.
 All my locations in Westminster have been sourced by me and documented in my pre-production portfolio.
 No clearances are needed as all my footage is outside in a public place and I am not being paid for this documentary.
Research Evaluation
Secondary research
I found the Wikipedia to be quite useful but lacked some of the information I needed, such as inside Buckingham Palace. It was formal and
concentrated more on the history than on facts about Buckingham Palace. It would have been a weak script if I had only used this one website
and made me realise that I needed more information for my narration in my documentary.

12. The Royal UK website was useful as it contained the missing inside information that I needed and it also had facts about the Palace that were
interesting, such as two guards were used when the Queen was away and four guards when she was resident. I found this to be very useful and
it was very relevant for information on Buckingham Palace as the whole website was all about the Royal family and their houses. I would like to
include more facts about Buckingham Palace, but am unable to, due to time restraints of only having a five minute documentary. If my
documentary had been for one hour, then I would have included more interesting facts. I timed myself with the script that I wrote in my own
words and realised that I had five minutes of narration. This was the only website that had good footage of a garden party at Buckingham Palace
and the Queen in attendance. To use this footage in my documentary, gave the viewer the ability to see the Queen socialising in her home. It
was important to me to have Buckingham Palace seen as a home and not just a building. Overall, I liked this site for information on the royal
family as it gave detailed information about Buckingham Palace, and this is what I was looking for.
My Digital Realm footage was very detailed and contained everything you could need to know about the inside of Buckingham Palace. However,
because it showed all the glamourous size, like the ostentatious furniture, I thought it was too formal and over the top and it confirmed to me that
this was not the type of documentary that I wanted to show. I wanted to have more of a ‘down to earth’ feel to my documentary, so that it could
be seen by a larger audience. The footage I used was just for a state room, art gallery and close up shots of the detailed gold sculptures, that I
may not have previously been allowed to see. The footage for world war two was very clear and comprehensive with just the right amount of
information I was looking for in my documentary. It gave clear precise footage and strong narration, which was what I was looking for, to use in
my documentary. I felt that by using world war two footage, it gave the viewer the ability to visualise the old and the modern Buckingham Palace
and for them to see what Buckingham Palace had endured, in the hope that they would like it even more.
For BPS 2016, I used a graphical picture of the gardens because I wanted the viewer to see how vast they were, despite the fact that they were
in central London. I thought this picture represented what I wanted the viewer to see and gave a clear indication of how big the grounds to
Buckingham Palace actually were. I don’t think this would have been portrayed to the viewer, as clearly, if I had not used this picture.
I used the Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board (BARB), for statistics on audiences that watch documentaries. I found this website to have a
vast amount of information but it was very technical and wordy for the average user. This was more catered for other industri es or companies to
use the data in market research. Although I was using this information for the same reason, it took quite a while to look through all the headings
and sub headings in order to find out the information I required. It did however have some graphs that contained basic information but these were
more suited to the viewer at home, curious as to what people were watching. They did not contain enough information for the research that I
needed. The only negative thing from using this site was that it either had too much information that was difficult to sort through or it did not
contain enough information for the one query, that I was trying to find.
For both the YouTube websites; Discovery World, (2015), which was about people in London, and Janksolid (2012), which was about motorbikes
in London, I only looked at the content of the video, when it was produced, how many views they had received and the comments left by viewers.
I looked at these websites because I wanted to establish how many people viewed documentaries on YouTube about London. This helped with
my research greatly, as I discovered that viewers would watch a documentary about London. I found both videos to be very subjective to the
filmmakers view and overall the videos were very opinionated. This confirmed to me, that in my documentary I did not want to give opinions

13. throughout my documentary, but just narrate the facts to the viewers and they could form their own opinion as to what they thought of
Buckingham Palace.
I wanted to ask people that had an interest in Buckingham Palace, whether my documentary would be of use to them. I did this by standing
outside Buckingham Palace and asked sixteen people whether they would watch my documentary, were they interested in the history and would
they want to see inside, outside and garden footage. The conclusion was that 100% of the people asked in my target audience, would have
found it useful or very useful to have seen a short five minute documentary of Buckingham Palace prior to visiting. This confirmed to me that my
idea was a good concept and I was happy to make preparations to film it. Because the majority of people I surveyed, at 75% would like to see
the history of Buckingham Palace, both in narration and footage forms, I decided to maintain my original idea and have the history in both my
narration and footage equally. My original idea was to have inside, outside and garden footage in my documentary. This was confirmed as a
good idea after 75% of people I surveyed, agreed with me. I was aware that because my audience were visiting Buckingham Palace then they
could be bias with their views on my survey or they could just inform me what they thought I wanted to hear. Overall, asking members of the
public outside my chosen topic was invaluable research in understanding whether I had the correct information for my documentary or whether I
had to change some or all of it. I concluded that this research influenced my original ideas and my concept for my documentary was clear and
concise.
I wanted to establish what exactly a good structure for a documentary was and decided that the library was the best place to discover this. I
found two books, one by Nicholls (2002) called the ‘Introduction to documentary’ and the second book was by Winston (2013) called, ‘The
documentary film book’. Both books were very technical based and contained a massive amount of information. They were both very relevant to
discovering the structure of a documentary and helped me to set out my documentary and ensure that I covered all the areas that I wanted to
cover in my documentary. At the end of my research I had a clearly idea of how my documentary would unfold after having read the books.
I used the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2016) to establish how many viewers would watch factual programmes because I had already
researched how many people watch documentaries through the BARB website. I discovered that 60% of viewers watch factual programmes. I
thought that this was a high figure and without my research, I would have thought that it had been much lower than this. I found this information
useful as it ensured the size of my target audience that could possibly watch my documentary. I did find that the website as a whole was very
detailed and time consuming to hunt through the massive amounts of information to locate what I was searching for.
I wanted to research the legal and ethical considerations before I filmed my documentary to try and discover if I could film in a public place, as I
wanted to film in St James Park, outside Buckingham Palace and outside other places in Westminster. I used the British Film Commission, as
this seemed an obvious choice in order to find out the information required. I discovered that I didn’t need permission if passers-by where in my
documentary in the background. This was a good discovery and very useful information, as it meant that I could film in London. Those few
minutes of research have saved a large amount of time, as I did not have to write to the local council or to Buckingham Palace. It also meant that
I did not have to blur out any passers-by faces, which would have been time consuming in editing.
Primary and Secondary Research

14. My Digital Realm (2011), ‘The Queen’s Palaces – Buckingham Palace’ was a similar documentary to mine because it was a detailed
documentary on Buckingham Palace. Although mine would only be for five minutes, it was still very detailed for a short documentary. The only
difference between my documentary and theirs was that they filmed only inside, whereas my documentary would show inside, outside and the
gardens. This programme was very useful to learn how much information they narrated on their documentary and what they showed in their
footage. This influenced me because their documentary showed all the gold, art, flashy chairs and curtains and it confirmed to me that I wanted
to show the Palace itself and not what it contained.
It was useful for me to have a summary to establish whether I had covered all the areas prior to making this documentary, as I was completing
everything myself, with no outside help. This gave me a clear vision to confirm that I had thought about the producing, directing, camera –
whether I would need a stand or hold it myself and I was happy with all my location choices. Overall it was a quick way to confirm that I had
thought about every angle prior to creating my documentary.
Primary Research
I wanted to ask members of the public that had no plans to visit Buckingham Palace whether they would watch a short documentary on
Buckingham Palace. I surveyed twenty two people on Oxford Street, London and asked them how much television they watched, if they watch
documentaries, would they watch a short five minute documentary on London and would they watch a programme online. I asked them at the
end of my survey, if they would watch my documentary, after explaining to them the general outlay of what my documentary would contain. I
asked my question at the end to try and remove bias. If I asked them general questions first, then they might not discover what the real question
was, that I was most interested in finding out about. This survey was very useful in determining people’s opinion and it gave a good indication of
how much television people watched and whether they watch documentaries within that time. I wanted to discover how much television people
watched to understand how many possible hours of television there could potentially be to watch documentaries. I was aware that twenty two
people were a very small number of people to form an opinion, but I think it still gave a clear picture for me and my needs. I would have
completed a bigger survey, over a longer period of time, if I had more time, but I was happy with my results and I thought they were relevant and
not misleading for my needs in order for me to produce my documentary.
I have researched information through online websites, books and audience and target audience surveys. I found that this was all the information
I needed to carry out my film documentary. I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve after having researched all the i nformation above. I
thought it was a very good idea to split my research into different groups of topic, audience, structure and legal and ethical considerations;
otherwise I may have missed vital information, if my research did not have a clear structure to it. All the books, websites and surveys gave a
clear indication as to what was required and how I could achieve this. I had a clear vision of how my documentary would look after undertaking
extensive research and thought it would turn out quite well providing I had good weather to film on the day and it was not too noisy with voices of
passers-by and traffic noise.

15. Bibliography
British Film Commission, (2016) ‘Filming in public places’. Available from: http://www.britishfilmcommission.org.uk/crew-
facilities/locations/filming-in-public-spaces/ [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Broadcaster’s audience research board (BARB), (2016), ‘updated insight - Here is the news’. Available from:
http://www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/analysis/share-by-genre/ [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Broadcaster’s audience research board (BARB), (2016), ‘Weekly viewing data. Available from: http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-
viewing-summary/ [Accessed 19th May 2016]
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), (2016), Available from: www.bbc.co.uk [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Discovery World, (2015), Megacities – London. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFQ1W1JZ0w [Accessed 19th May 2016]
IAC, (2016), ‘Advice on filming in public - to film or not to film’ Available from: http://www.theiac.org.uk/resourcesnew/filming-in-public/filming-in-
public.html [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Janksolid, (2012), BBC documentary - Hells Angels – London – 1973. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng8Ll7x08Vk
[Accessed 19th May 2016]
MyDigitalrealm, (2011), ‘The Queen’s Palaces – Buckingham Palace’. Available from: https://youtu.be/Tvx3o48Rc1U [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Nicholls. B, (2002), Introduction to Documentary’, Bloomington: Indiana University Press
PBS, (2016), ‘The Queen’s garden’. Available from: http://www.pbs.org/program/queens-garden/ [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Royal UK, (2016), ‘Royal residences: Buckingham Palace’. Available from: https://www.royal.uk/royal-residences-buckingham-palace [Accessed
19th May 2016]
Wikipedia. (2016), ‘Buckingham Palace’. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace [Accessed 19th May 2016]
Winston. B, (2013), The Documentary film book’. Palgrave Macmillan