The document summarizes the results of a questionnaire about creating a documentary on homosexuality. It found that 16-30 year olds were most interested in learning about homosexuality and would be the target audience. Channel 4 would be the best channel to air the documentary. The documentary should include facts, statistics, coming out stories and interviews with young people but exclude reconstruction, homophobic views and religious interviews. The start needs to be fast paced to engage the target audience who do not regularly watch documentaries.
2. General Questionnaire information
• We mainly asked people in the age range 13 – 16 and
17 – 20 as we predicted that they would be the most
interested in homosexuality.
• Our prediction was correct:
20% of 31 – 41+ were interested in learning more about
homosexuality, with 30% being male.
81% of 16 – 30 year olds wanted to learn about
homosexuality, with 79% being female.
From this it was easy to tell that females are far more
interested in general in homosexuality and that the
people aged 16 – 30 were the most interested, thus
being our target age range.
3. How often do you watch documentaries?
We then asked people; 12
10
Amount of people
8
6
4
2
0
Rarely Occasionally Often Very Often
How often?
‘How often do you watch documentaries?’
From this graph it is easy to tell that most people only occasionally
watched documentary with 50% of 16 – 30 year olds mainly
watching them occasionally and with 80% of 31-41+ watched them
very often and often. So by these results, although we want to aim
our documentary at 16 – 30 year olds, we will need to advertise it in
an interesting way to get their attention as they don’t seem to watch
documentaries enough.
4. The next question was;
What kind of documentaries spark your interest?
Types of documentaries
Reality Television
Fly on the wall
Factual
documentaries
Docudrama
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Number of people
‘What kind of documentaries spark your interest, if any?’
As we can see, most people liked Fly on the wall
documentaries such as Airline, and Passport Patrol. 60%
of those people were aged 16 – 30. Our documentary is
going to be a factual documentary, which 30% of the
people we questioned, liked. With 60% of those being 31
– 41+ people. Again this isn’t looking good for our target
audience but again we believe that if we advertise our
documentary correctly we can draw in our target
audience.
5. The next question was: What channel do you watch documentaries on, if you
watch them?
BBC THREE
Channel 4
BBC ONE,TWO
Channel 5
ITV 1
‘Which channel do you watch documentaries on, if you watch
them?’
The most watched channel for documentaries was channel 4
which suggests that this would be the perfect channel to
air our documentary on especially as 70% of the people
who watch documentaries on Channel 4 were 16 – 30
years old. From our research channel 4 also does many
controversial documentaries on sex programmes such as;
‘More sex, we’re British’ and ‘The Joy of Teen Sex’, in
which our documentary would fit right in.
6. What do they like to see?
‘What do you like to see in documentaries
the most? What do you like to see in documentaries the most?
From the graph we can tell that most Live action
people like to see plenty of facts in
Documentary parts
Fly on the wall
documentaries with 54% of those
people aged 16 – 30 years old. The Facts
second favourite aspect of a Reconstruction
documentary was both interviews with Experts
vox pops and interviews with experts Vox pops
so we will be including those in our 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
documentary. We also asked what Number of people
people least liked to see in a
documentary. They said that 25% of
them dislike to see reconstruction of What do you least like to see in a documentary?
events with 4 in 6 of those people
being aged 16 – 31 and they secondly
disliked the use of live action. We will Vox pops
therefore include less live action and Experts
reconstruction and more interviews Reconstruction
and lots of facts. Facts
Fly on the wall
Live action
7. What grabs attention? Do fast paced or slow paced beginnings of a
documentary drag you in?
25
20
Number of 15
people 10
5
0
S1 Pace
Fast paced
Slow paced
‘Do fast paced or slow paced beginnings of a documentary
drag you in?’
As it is obvious in the graph, 83% of all people interviewed,
knew that a fast paced beginning to a documentary draws
them in. with all 83% being aged 16 – 30 year olds. From
here it suggests that we need to create a fast paced,
upbeat start to our documentary with plenty of images,
facts and more.
8. Do you prefer to hear opinions on subject matters in a
Opinions? documentary from an older or younger generation of
people?
Older
Age
Younger
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Number of people
‘Do you prefer to hear opinions on subject matters in a
documentary from an older or younger generation of
people?’
It is easy to tell that we need to get interviews and vox pops
from a younger generation of speakers. 100% of the 16 –
30 year olds wanted to hear from younger speakers so
that is who we will definatley need to ask questions to.
9. Homosexuality?
Do you think you know much about homosexuality?
16
14
Number of people
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Not much Small amount A lot
Amount of knowledge
‘Do you think you know much about homosexuality?’
Most people seemed to know a small amount with 100% of all people
aged 31 – 41+ seemingly knowing not much at all. 16 – 30 year olds
that were interviewed seemed to know the most about
homosexuality with 50% of them knowing a lot about it. This seems
ironic, as although the 31 – 41+ year olds know the least they also
do not want to know any more as only 20% of them wanting to learn
about homosexuality.
10. Homosexuality?
Do you think that you would watch a documentary about
the lives of those who are homosexual?
Maybe
Answer
Definatley Not
Yes
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Number of people
‘Do you think that you would watch a documentary about the lives of
those who are homosexual?’
100% of our target audience aged 16 – 30 year olds would watch a
documentary on homosexuality which is a good find and with 50%
male and 50% female the documentary can be aimed at both
gender. Although, which we predicted, 80% of 31-41+ year olds
would definatley not watch a documentary on homosexuality which
rules them out of our target audience for definite.
11. Homosexuality? Where would you imagine a documentary on
homosexuality would be shown?
Channel 5
Channel 4
Channel
BBC 1 / 2
BBC THREE
ITV 1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Number of people
Where would you imagine a documentary on homosexuality would be
shown?
As we can see, Channel 4 is the channel people believe that would show
a documentary on homosexuality probably due to their controversial
nature. 80% of our target audience also believed that this would be
the right channel to show our documentary on. The least chosen was
BBC one and two, most likely because their documentaries cover
nature mainly such as ‘Richard Hammond’s miracles of nature’ and
‘Nature’s Miracle Babies’.
12. Homosexuality?
What do you think should be included in a documentary
What do you think should be included in a about homosexuality?
documentary about homosexuality?
Homosexual interviews
Homophobic interviews
From the graph we can see that again, the most Religious interviews
wanted aspect of a documentary is facts Reconstruction
and statistics in which 50% of 16 – 30 year Coming out stories
olds wanted to see. The second favourite Facts and statistics
aspect was coming out stories, so we shall Young people interviews
Older people interviews
be including those in our documentary too Fly on the wall footage
as 29% of 16 – 30 year olds want to see this Live action footage
in our documentary. Interestingly enough we
had an anomaly of 1% of 16 – 30 year olds
wanting to see homophobic views, maybe What do you think should not be included in a
they were a homophobic individual documentary about homosexuality?
themselves, although we will try to add
some of these views in for dramatic effect. Homosexual interviews
The least wanted aspect of a documentary on Homophobic interviews
Religious interviews
homosexuality was live action footage, Reconstruction
maybe because it isn’t appropriate for this Coming out stories
kind of documentary . 40% of the 16 – 30 Facts and statistics
year olds didn't want to see this aspect Young people interviews
either. The next least wanted to see aspect Older people interviews
was religious interviews, maybe suggesting Fly on the wall footage
that religion plays a little part in our views as Live action footage
individuals so we wont be using much of
those opinions in our documentary.
13. Results
• We are aiming our documentary at 16 – 30 year olds.
• We will be most likely airing our documentary on channel 4.
• We will make sure our documentary has a fast paced beginning to capture
viewers.
• As documentaries are rarely watched by our target audience we must make
sure that we advertise our documentary as best we can to get a good sized
audience.
• We will be using plenty of facts, statistics, interviews from young vox pops
and coming out stories.
• We will highly unlikely use reconstruction of events, homophobic interviews,
interviews from religious interviews and interviews from an older vox pop.
• We have also proven that 16 – 30 year olds would be the best target
audience as they want to learn more about homosexuality and would be
likely to watch a documentary on homosexuality unlike 31 – 41+ year olds
who don’t know much, yet don’t want to learn more either.
• It will also be aimed at both females and males in the age range of 16 – 30
as 50% of both males and females wanted to know more about
homosexuality so it seems they have equal interest in the subject.