Model Release Forms for Focus Group

Update

When it came to recording our focus group, we came across a complication as the conference room in which we had booked to record in was needed for an emergency meeting. Therefore, we had to quickly find another appropriate room which was available and suitable for us to record in. We then found another similar conference room which was available and used this to record our focus group, ensuring that we used the same lighting arrangements that we planned to use in the previous room.

Focus Group

Lighting Research and Testing

This is the first shoot we did. This is the conference room where we will be shooting our focus group. We decided that we would take a range of photos and change slight things that would affect the lighting in the room such as opening and closing the blinds and turning the lights on and off so that we could determine the optimum lighting for the footage. We took 8 photos in the end and this is the results we got.

Blinds open and lights off




This is the result of having the blinds open and having the lights above turned off. Having lighting like this proved to be very poor because the window is small therefore it casts a shadow across the room making some of the room very dark in contrast with the light. We therefore decided that having the lighting like this would be unsuitable for filming our focus group.

Blinds shut and lights off






This is the result of having the blinds shut and the lights off, this proved to be worse, even though it got rid of the contrast between light and dark, it did mean that the whole of the room was dark and this meant that it would be difficult to see peoples faces in the focus group. Therefore we will not be using this lighting arrangement when filming our focus group.

Blinds open and lights on





This is the result of having the blinds open and the lights on. This was a massive improvement to the previous two tests, but the problem is that you do get quite a lot of natural light coming in from the window. This created a glare on the table which would interfere with the camera, also there is still a contrast between the light and dark created by this natural light. Therefore we decided that we would not be using this lighting arrangement when filming our focus group as the glare on the table would affect the overall look of the shot. 

Blinds shut and lights on





This is the result of having the blinds closed but the lights on. As you can see this is a massive improvement compared to the previous tests, this is because there is a consistency in light across the whole camera shot therefore there are no shadows which means that all of the focus group will be well lit making a better shoot. Therefore, we will be using this lighting arrangement when filming our focus group as it gives the most professional look.

Planning a focus group

The next step of our research is to plan and organise a target audience focus groups as part of our post questionnaire research. The focus group will contain a small group of people that are the age of our specific target audience; and we will be asking them a handful of open questions that they will be able to answer and have a small discussion with one another. This way we will be able to find out what their opinion is on creating a documentary on homosexuality and also what subject areas they think we should target more. By doing this, we will then be able to plan what our documentary will consist of in more detail as we have information on what our target audience would want to see. 

When the focus group is taking place we will be recording the members of the discussion so that we can look back on what people have said.

Audience Profile

We created an audience profile in order to provide us with details about what our typical target audience's interests are and what their typical lifestyle is like. This helped us clearly understand who our audience is and what they would expect from our documentary. 

Vox Pop

Ancillary Questionnaire Results for Newspaper Advertisement

Ancillary Questionnaire for Newspaper Advertisement

LLIAR Analysis of a Documentary

Media Language

In documentaries, media language includes the way the meaning comes across through the pictures and through the words or dialogue. Seeing the characters in a moving image text allows the meaning to come across as non-verbal communication. This includes gestures, facial expressions, clothing and props as well as how people are positioned in the frame. Media language also includes the way the camera sees the scene through the shot size and camera angle.

A typical camera shot used in documentaries is a high angle shot to normally make the person look small and weak. This normally occurs when there is a documentary about serious subject as it amplifies the meaning more. High angle shots are effective as they look down on the person in the shot which has an immediate effect on the audience as they are seen to be looking down on the person in the shot. This could also lead to the audience sympathising with the character as they see how ‘weak’ they are.

Extreme close ups or normal close ups also tend to be used a lot in documentaries as they can easily and clearly show the facial expressions of someone in the shot. This also allows the audience to take a closer look at the facial expressions on a person’s face which then contributes to a greater understanding of the different emotions that could be present in the documentary.

Hand held camerawork is also used occasionally in documentaries to create a sense of realism in the shot for the audience. When used effectively, a hand held camera shot can make the viewers feel as if they are there themselves which could lead to them having a greater understanding of the topic of the documentary.

Facial expressions in a documentary are essential because they clearly show the emotions of different people in the shots which can have a direct effect on how the audience feel/react to the different scenes.

In terms of mise en scene in a documentary, it is usually subtle and unnoticeable as the main focus tends to be the people in the documentary themselves. However, the mise en scene can be lightly symbolic; for example, the location of an interview, such as a police station would be significant as it shows the seriousness of the situation being shown.

Ideology

The ideology of documentaries are to discover the truth and to expose any wrong doing. It is used to make the public aware of the present issues in society.

Institutions

One of the most popular institutions for documentaries is Channel 4. The documentary that we will be creating will take its inspiration from some Channel 4 documentaries due to the typical conventions they use as we think that they will be effective in creating a documentary that is appealing to our target audience.

Channel 4 typically uses interviews within their documentaries to show people’s personal opinions on specific topics. This is something that we wish to use when creating our own documentary as it will connect well with the audience and potentially result in them empathising with the speaker.

Audience

As documentaries tend to have an element of seriousness about them due to the range of subjects they cover, it implies that the target audience for most documentaries should be 18+ as sometimes they are unsuitable for children to see. Therefore, mature adults are the typical audience of documentaries, especially if it was about homosexuality as that is a topic that younger children may not understand and could become emotional and personal etc.

Representation

In relation to other documentaries about the topic of homosexuality, those who are homosexual are often represented as being different to everyone else and also tend to be treated differently to others just because of their gender. They are often represented to be unimportant and occasionally in media different elements show this such as low key lighting and high angle camera shots as it makes them look smaller and makes other more powerful than they are. 

LIIAR Analysis of a Radio Advert

Media language

Length- there is no specific length to a radio advert but the average, especially for a Channel 4 advert, is about 25-35 seconds long, this means that we have to include a lot of information in a small amount of time.

Music bed- this is music that does not include any lyrics and normally is in the background. Normally not copyrighted.

Voice over- a narrator will normally speak to the audience and state relevant information such as the programmes title, what Channel I will be on, time and date it will be aired etc.

Heavy persuasive language will be used because it is trying to influence the audience to do something.

Ideology

The ideology of Channel 4’s radio adverts are the same as the newspaper adverts, but they obviously are put across in a different way, this is because radio adverts can only rely on audio to influence an audience whereas a newspaper advert can rely on visuals.

Institution

Channel 4 tried to launch their own radio station in January of 2007 called Channel 4 Radio, it tried to incorporate Oneword radio, in which Channel 4 purchased 51% of their shares in 2005. Oneword radio was a British commercial digital radio station featuring books, drama, comedy and discussion but became defunct after Channel 4 withdrew their funding.

The down fall of Channel 4 radio was that it made its listeners register their email address unlike their competitors like BBC or Heart, in October 2008 they closed production.

Audience

The target audience for Channel 4 are adults aged between 18 and 30 year old, this can be identified by the types of programmes and characters that they show in their documentaries. But because we are doing a Channel 4 style advert we will be looking to aim at a large, mass audience because Channel 4 is a large commercial company so they will only air programmes that brings in a large audience.

LIIAR Analysis of a Newspaper Advertisement

Questionnaire Results

Influential Figures - Nick Broomfield

Nicholas "Nick” Broomfield (born 30 January 1948) is an English documentary filmmaker. His self-reflexive style has been highly influential, and was adapted by many later filmmakers. Nick first got interested aged 15 when discovering his love for photography on a foreign exchange visit in France. Nick was originally influenced by the observational style of Fred Wiseman, and Robert Leacock and Pennebaker, before moving on largely by accident to the more idiosyncratic style for which he is better known.

Nick Broomfield’s style of work conforms largely to the performative mode of documentary. His earlier work may differ, it wasn’t until 1988 that Broomfield first appeared on camera in his film ‘Driving Me Crazy’ because of a longing to show the process of the making of the documentary, with the dead ends they hit, the failed interviews and the arguments.

In his more modern work, Broomfield has taken up the style of ‘Direct Cinema’ in which he gets non- actors to play themselves in realistic situations based on real events with pre written scripts based on research and actors accounts of what has happened to them. Real locations are used and only a very small documentary crew are involved in the making.

The work of Nick Broomfield has influenced us to not use actors but to find people to play themselves so that in our documentary they can speak from experience and from their own opinion. We think that this will have more of an effect on our target audience because it will show true emotion which would be difficult to show if we had actors that hadn’t experienced the situation in their life.

Nick Broomfield made three very successful documentaries in which is best known for. These three documentaries are ‘Kurt & Courtney’, ‘Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer’ and ‘Biggie and Tupac’. Two of these are crime based documentaries (‘Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer’ and ‘Biggie and Tupac’). Nick Broomfield starred in these documentaries himself which makes them seem more realistic and true to the audience.

Link to our own work

Within our own documentary, we will be following the style of a ‘Direct Cinema’ as we will be getting non-actors to play themselves. The reason that we are doing this is because we believe that non-actors will give a true meaning and understanding of what they are saying which will have more of an impact in comparison to having actors. 

Documentary Theorists