Questionnaire results and analysis

1. QUESTIONNAIRE
RESULTS
AND
ANALYSIS
By Emma and Felan

2. Question 1:
Do you enjoy
watching
documentaries?
Do you enjoy watching documentaries?
Yes No
85% of people that we asked said that they did enjoy watching documentaries.
The other 15% percent said that they didn’t enjoy watching documentaries and would most
likely enjoy watching something else.
This feedback helped us decide that we need to make our documentary as interesting as
possible from the outset.

3. Question 2:
What genre of
documentary do you
prefer?
Human behaviour
Nature/Wildlife
Medical
Crime
Reality TV
Other
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Out of the 100 people that we asked;
– 15 people said they preferred Human behaviour documentaries.
– 3 people said they preferred Nature/Wildlife documentaries.
– 27 people said they preferred Medical documentaries.
– 30 people said they preferred Crime documentaries.
– 22 people said they preferred RealityTV documentaries.
– 3 people said they preferred Other documentaries.
This feedback helped us to conclude that the best liked genre is crime, this has helped us to
pick crime as our genre, we were torn between crime and human behaviour this helped us
to choose.

4. Question 3:
How long is the ideal
documentary duration
for you?
30 – 40 minutes
45 – 50 minutes
1 hour – 1 hour 10
1 hour 15 – 1 hour 25
1 hour 30
1 hour 35 +
Ideal Documentary Duration
30 - 40 Minutes 45 - 50 Minutes 1 Hour - 1 Hour 10
1 Hour 15 - 1 Hour 25 1 Hour 30 1 Hour 35 +
Out of the 100 people we asked
- 11 people said that their ideal documentary running time was 30 - 40 Minutes
- 9 people said that their ideal documentary running time was 45 - 50 Minutes
- 23 people said that their ideal documentary running time was 1 Hour - 1 Hour 10
- 17 people said that their ideal documentary running time was 1 Hour 15 - 1 Hour 25
- 28 people said that their ideal documentary running time was 1 Hour 30
- 12 people said that their ideal documentary running time was 1 Hour 35 +
This feedback helped us decide roughly how long we should be making our documentary.
We used this questionnaire feedback to help us decide what was too long and what would
be dragging it out, making it boring.

5. Question 4:
Do you prefer
informative or
action-based
documentaries?
Do you prefer informativ or
action-based documentaries?
Informative
Action Based
Out of the 100 people we asked
37% of people said that they preferred informative/factual documentaries.
Whereas 63% of people said that they prefer action based documentaries – these
documentaries are the kind that may include facts and be informative but there primary aim is
to show action.
Using this feedback has shown us that our documentary needs to be exciting. One way we
have considered adding action into our documentary is by using re-enactments. However
looking at this data we have decided that we can still be informative without being boring.

6. Question 5:
What institution's
documentaries do you
watch most regularly?
(Ranking Order)
BBC
Channel 4
ITV
Sky
MTV
Other
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
BBC Channel 4 ITV Sky MTV Other
Out of the 100 people we asked
30 people said that they preferred BBC documentaries.
27 people said that they preferred Channel 4 documentaries
16 people said that they preferred ITV documentaries
5 people said that they preferred Sky documentaries
14 people said that they preferred MTV documentaries
8 people said that they prefer Other documentaries.

7. Question 6:
Do you find that
documentaries
with a narrator are
easier to watch
than one without?
If so why?
• 84% of people we asked said that having a narrator made it easier
for them to follow the documentary.
• The main feedback that we received from this question was that a
narrator was very effective and helps the understanding of what is
being said become more clearer for the audience – especially in such
shows as
• -EducatingYorkshire, viewers said that sometimes it is hard to
understand the accents and so a narrator really helps.
• -Another comment was that for shows like Big Fat Gypsy weddings it
is a lot easier to follow as you are told what you need to know about
the upcoming scene, it was said that with a documentary show like
this a narrator is imperative because there are different groups of
people that are being documented and it is very easy to loose track
of who you are looking at.
• 16% of people said that they would prefer to not have a narrator.
• -One piece of feedback that we got was that having a narrator can
sometimes distract from the documentary itself.
• -Another comment that we got was that if there is a presenter then
the narration can become pointless and a waste.

8. Question 7:
Do you like to
see recreations
in
documentaries
of past events?
Yes or No?
Do you like to see recreations in
documentaries of past events?
Yes No
80% of people said that they did like to see recreations in the documentaries that they watched.
However 20% of people said that they did not like them.
We had planned on using recreations as we felt that it was an effective convention to use.
Looking at this research we decided that to use recreations of past events would work
really well and interest our audience.

9. Question 8:
Which media device
do you like to see in
the documentaries you
watch?
Voice Over
Cross Cutting
Hand-held camera
Subtitles
Inserts of interviews
Soundtrack
Reconstructions
Voice Over
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| ||||
Cross Cutting
|||| ||
Hand-held camera
|||| |||| |||| ||||
Subtitles
|||| |||| ||||
Inserts of interviews
|||| |||| |||| |||| ||
Soundtrack
|||| |||| |||| ||
Reconstructions
|||| |||| |||| |||| |
• Out of the 100 people we asked
• 25 people said they liked to seeVoice Over’s in
documentaries
• 7 people said they liked to see CrossCutting in
documentaries
• 19 people said they liked to see Hand-held camera’s
in documentaries
• 14 people said they liked to see Subtitles in
documentaries
•22 people said they liked to see Inserts of interviews
in documentaries
• 17 people said they liked to see Soundtrack in
documentaries
• 21 people said they liked to see Reconstructions in
documentaries
From analysing this feedback we have decided to
incorporate music into our documentary and also
hand-held camera shots .We feel more confident
about our ideas to use inserts of interviews since
evaluating this feedback.

10. Question 9:
What do you
personally like to
see in
documentaries?
• We got a variety of comments from this question.
• The main thing that was mentioned was that people feel that
documentaries can very easily become boring and so they need to
have exciting content before any devices or conventions added to it.
• Also we were told that a lot of people enjoy documentaries more if
they are broken up, for example people like when there are
interviews inserted or cutaways to other footage like; recreations or
old news items like footage or newspaper articles.
• Another comment that we got mentioned to us was that people felt
documentaries needed to include was music – whether its to make a
scene more tense or to change the mood completely people said
that having music changes the tone of a documentary more than one
without, it can also interest people more because their senses are
experiencing how the producer is trying to make us feel more
through their choice in music.
This feedback helped us to understand what the audience wants to see.
Since analysing the main feedback that we got we decided to decide what music would be
most effective in more depth than we already had – we decided that since it was such a
crucial part of our feedback we needed to incorporate more of it – and more carefully.
We also decided to include other things like text and different transitions to try and break
up the documentary without disrupting it.