Analysis of Factual Programming Conventions

DocuDrama - The Pope And the Mafia Millions

A documentary about a banker connected to different sources such as the catholic church and the mafia but his death was unknown why, was it a suicide or a planned murder, this documentary goes into details on what happened and why.

At the start from 0:00 we get to see what is to be coming up on the documentary with smalls clips from interviews from people and than a voice over, the voice over is over some of the related archive footage which you can see such as the men who were involved pictures of what happened and the man who is dead which is shown in the thumbnail of the video. The video is very professional as the camera is always still during the interviews and not waving around a lot such as 4:58 where they are settled down and talking, during this documentary we are not sure with that facts but there are a lot of opinions during this so this could be biased towards people who are being interviewed such as 42:40 he does not say they 'did' but they 'may' these are not facts but just opinions.

DocuSoap - A DocuSoap is a combination between two genres which are documentary's and soap operas, the way they mix is basically by showing the life of individuals in a documentary these are usually to entertain the audience as they are not supposed to be as serious as other documentary's which makes it feel like it connects more to the audience.

Vet School

They basically just show what they do in their everyday life and in this clip they show how to work with dogs without harming them in anyway because they could be very ill and restraining them could hurt the dog.

At 0:00 we can hear a voice over which is telling us what is happening in this clip and what will be happening, while watching the clips up to 0:19 we see real reactions which aren't set up, we can tell this by the camera is not set up on a tripod waiting for these reactions the camera is being hand held and this is what we catch, the music is very calming, this is due to the show not being something that makes you need to be on the edge of your seat it is because its kind of a happy show to watch because you get to see a lot of smiles and animals come in and get attention from the people who work there so its a nice feeling to watch seeing that everyone is happy even the animals which is shown at 0:29 where the dog is getting the attention that he wants. At 0:50 we are also watching a live demonstration of a class in progress this allows the audience to see what the students go through during their life's as a vet and how they get taught.

Infotainment -  Myth Busters Season 13 Episode 8 
A infotainment is show is basically two words combined together which are information and entertainment, these type of documentary's are good because they can attract an audience on important subjects.

In this show they go on to see if they find out if certain things are true or just simply myths such as in this episode they go on to talk about if a ping pong ball can actually kill someone, so they take it to the extreme and create machines that can fire a ping pong ball faster than any humans and what happens can actually kill a human. As the two presenters are the main characters in every episode the audience get to enjoy the presenters creating these cool machines that they test if things are true or just simply myths and because they do this all it makes the whole show much more entertaining, this is show at 3:57 where he goes on to say that 'i'm going to build it'. At 6:20 we can see animations with a voice over, this is entertaining because the animations aren't boring, they are made to be funny so while the person who is doing the voice over is telling the information about how things happened back in the old times, the audience get to visually get a demonstration of the animations doing what the voice over says but in a funny way, this keeps the audience entertained because its funny and entertaining to watch. At 19:56 you can see that the camera is being hand held meaning that this show is real and this is good for the audience because if they know this is all real and really happening this means they are more likely to be entertained and more eager to see what will happen so it makes them continue to want to watch.

Wildlife Documentary - Galapagos: Real of Giant Sharks 

Wildlife documentary's show the public audience at home what the wildlife actually is by showing animals or other creatures in their natural habitats for the public to watch, because of wildlife documentary's it allows us to know more about the animals that are shown and how rare they are becoming because of humans destroying their habitats.

Straight away from this documentary we have a voice over, this is at 0:03 also giving us montages of different sea animals, this allows us to see what else is in the sea other than the main subject we are focusing on, the voice over helps allow the audience to be more engaged because they are using two senses rather than one, they are watching the visuals and listening rather than just watching, that voice over also gives us more information about what we are watching such as the location of where this is being shot. At 22:25 we can see that the camera is handheld, this is quite obvious due to the shaking which we can see, this also reassures us that the footage is real and not fake just due to the shakiness of being in the water, this makes the audience feel more engaged because they are witnessing something that is actually happening and not fake. During wildlife documentary's you will mostly hear facts and not opinions, this is to tell you more about the animals and what they are actually capable of and what they do in their life's, because of this it makes the viewers more interested in the documentary because they are learning about something they don't know about.

Educational Television -Richard Hammond's Blast Lab

 Educational television is designed to teach kids a new way and fun way of learning by watching TV, this shows usually are made for children to help them learn, as children nowadays watch a lot of TV this would help them understand things better in school and maybe help them through out their life's because they are learning at home in a fun way and at a young age.

This is a Educational Television show which teaches children about science in a fun away, this allows children from all over the country to sit down and watch science in a fun way that maybe they don't experience in school allowing them to learn something new everyday.

0:19 we can hear the music is quite upbeat and energetic, this is due to the show being more kids and to be fun and kids have a lot of energy so they want them to feel pumped to watch this rather than playing some sad music which would just bore them, this is all to make the audience to feel more engaged with the show and see it in a fun way, no one likes boring education. For education shows you will obviously hear the presenters stating facts because like it says, it is an educational show, it is supposed to help kids all over learn more about science so telling them the wrong information would be very misleading as to be calling it an education show such as we hear at 1:18.

Reality TV - Rich Kids of Beverly Hills

Reality TV allows you to get a insight of peoples life's such as celebrity's and you get to see how they live their life's and what they do, the humor is kind of dependent on the show and the people, these types of shows tend to give you a really close up on their life's which the audience will enjoy.

This show has a lot of close ups such as at 2:03, 2:10 you can see their facial expressions and by doing this it helps the audience understand what kind of person they are and how they are feeling right than and now, there are also a lot of sitting down and talking to the camera which is also show at 2:25 where they sit down and talk about how their life is going and what just happened and informing the audience about the situation at 4:00 you can hear the music is quite upbeat and fast, this is due to their being a lot of things going on and a lot of editing where the camera has to keep switching to person to person due to them all doing different things at the same time but the music being upbeat and fast creates a mote energetic feel to it making it feel interesting even tho its not.

Special Interest Documentary - Breakout From Alcatraz

As it says in its name, this is generally about 1 certain thing and it just focuses on this point so in a way this is only for a small audience and not a large audience due to the fact that the documentary is specific which means it won't go on to something else that is not relevant.

This documentary shows you about how a group of prisoners came up with a master plan to escape one of the most highly secured prison in the world, the three men who attempted this grand escape were called Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin and they created history with this grand escape. At 15:50 we get to hear a voice over, in this voice over we get information while getting a visual re-enactment of what actually happened, this is good for the audience because they can visually watch what happened while listening to how it happened due to the voice over, this helps the audience gather a lot of information on how they worked their way through the plan of escaping Alcatraz. At 0:31 we get archive footage of the people on Alcatraz and what Alcatraz used to look like back than, this helps the audience understand more about Alcatraz and its history, such as we see that the prison is just on a rock in the middle of the sea, the audience actually get to see footage of the prison. In this documentary they use a lot of experts to talk about the subject because than the audience can get a better understanding and it makes the documentary sound more believable when you have experts telling you what happened, for example at 0:49 we have someone who knows what they are talking about talking to the audience and telling them information, this is far more believable than getting someone off the street and having them talk about what they think went on in Alcatraz cause most likely it wont be a good source of information, therefore using experts allows the audience to feel reassured that the documentary is a truthful one.

Make Over Show - Extreme Makeover Home Edition S05E22 The Latif Family

A make over show is basically where they pick someone from the public and they basically make over their life style which could be done with their eating habits or the way that they live at home for example if their house is messy they will try and make it clean for a make over this usually helps the individual sort out their life's and live a more happier life style.

In this show they basically re design the house so its much nicer for the family, but while they are re-doing the house the presenter sends the family on a nice holiday and when they are finished with the house they surprise the family with what they have done when they get back, 19:53 you can see that the house is being built in fast motion this saves the audience time than watching the whole house slowly being built, they get to see it being built faster with the edit that is used. At 0:14 we get fast editing cuts with intense music which grabs the audiences attention and makes them feel like something big is going to happen so it makes them want to continue to watch the show and see what actually happens. 34:23 we see a close up, by doing these close ups on the individuals it helps the audience engage with the show because it shows how the audience how the individual feels about the situation and from this clip we can see that they are extremely excited and happy and by seeing this it helps the audience catch the feel of the mood and could trigger them to be happy for the people on the show.

Discussion - Question Time 14 May 2015 - Brian May on Panel

A discussion show is just full of opinions where they all sit down and talk about one topic, and due to the discussions being full of opinions this can make the arguments biased and make them lean to one side but by having people on the show you get different opinions and it makes the show more interesting because you are not sitting and watching a one sided argument.

During this show they have different guests on the show who have their own specialist thing that they can discuss about as they are all completely different people meaning it will allow a much more wider discussion as people will be trying to put their point across rather than them always agreeing with each other, this could be entertaining for a few people but not everyone. At 13:00 you can see that they are already sort of disagreeing with each other making their argument biased as they are not stating facts but just opinions, so on this show you do not really get facts for information but you get the guests opinions on what they think of the matter and this could be interesting for the audience as maybe they want to hear what other people think about the situation. At 13:13 you can see that the camera switches from person to person this allows the show to feel more real as you can see each person talking close up rather than having the camera sat still and watching all of them wondering who is speaking, you get to see their facial expressions while they speak and this helps the audience feel how strong the guest feels about their opinion and this makes the show feel much more real.

Review Show -

This type of show is basically what it says, it reviews new products that have recently come out and gives a audience a better understanding about the product and everything that they need to know about it, by having review shows like this it helps the audience decide if they actually want to buy this because the people who review these new products go into a lot of detail about it.

In this show QVC they are trying to sell you a Blender and the way they are doing this is by giving you a review of it by showing you everything that it can do, and by doing this it can catch a audience as people who want a new blender and what to know the best one out there is they will watch this and if the review is good they will go on to buy it. At 0:50 you can see the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger, by including him in the show it catches more peoples eyes because everyone who knows who Arnold is and later on in the show he goes onto say his most memorable lines 'Get to the CHOPPER!' which is very punny because that is what the next item is, it chops stuff up, so by doing this it adds a bit of humor into the show which makes the audience feel entertained because Arnold is adding humor into something that most other people think would be boring, watching a review about a blender and a vegetable chopper this is shown at 1:40. At 2:20 you can see a close up on Arnold's face, even tho this is all a act, having a close up of his face when he looks angry helps the audience understand what is going on because they haven't got to the CHOPPER! yet so Arnold pretends to be angry and this is entertaining because its funny and this is what the audience want, they want a show that reviews items to have some sort of entertainment because let's be honest, watching a review about something when having no humor is no fun to watch at all, so by doing this it allows the audience to enjoy the show.

Chat Show - 

On chat shows you can get people getting interviewed on the show and express there opinions on certain subject, usually you would get a celebrity on the show which come on as the guests of the show and they are the ones who get interviewed, on chat shows they can ask the guest what they are planning for the future, what their currently doing or what they did in the past that helped them get to where they are today.

During this show you get to see Jonathan Ross interview Eminem live and get real reactions, by doing these type of shows it allows you to know more about the celebrity/artist and this is what the audience wants, they want to know more about the person they look up to and what they are like in person, are they someone who is calm and chill or are they a angry person, it allows the audience to discover more about the person they enjoy and look up to. Through out this whole show you get close ups of Jonathan Ross's face and Eminem's face all the way through the show for example at 1:13 you get to see Eminem's facial expression, by having close ups on peoples faces for reactions is good for the audience because they get to see how the person is responding and how they feel about what has just been said just through their facial expression, this lets the audience feel more involved with the show because they can see the two people up close rather than sitting in a crowed and watching. During this show you can see that Eminem is constantly getting asked questions just like a interview but more of an informal way which is shown at 1:19 by doing this it allows the artist Eminem to express himself freely as he can speak as he likes and answer the questions as he likes and this is good for the audience watching because it allows them to see their favorite artist acting as how they truly are and this is what everyone wants to see from Eminem, to see him act as himself and see how he truly acts. Using a expert like Jonathan Ross is good because he knows how to ask questions and not hesitate when asking, if you had a amateur up their talking to Eminem i doubt they would be able to keep an uplifting funny mood and keep the chat going as long as Jonathan Ross can, Jonathan Ross has been doing this for years and for this it gives him a lot of experience in what to ask about and this is good for the audience because if Jonathan Ross knows how to ask questions well it allows them to get more information about Eminem.

Magazine Show -

On a magazine show they tend to have guests that come on to the show and with them being on the show they tend to show clips of what the guest has done and they talk about it, magazine shows tend to have a lot going on in them so it keeps the audience entertained all the way through due to something different happening every time.

This show uses VT a lot and is a funny show, this is simply just to entertain the audience and make them have a good time while watching, they do not talk formal by any manner they simply say what they believe is funny and this could lead to dirty comments which make the audience laugh which is what makes this show great, it doesn't appeal to everyone such as children because parents wouldn't want there children half the stuff that is said on the show because it is too inappropriate. At 3:57 we can tell that all the cameras are not hand held but rather set in position ready to capture everyone's movements, this allows the show to run more smoothly as you can cut from one to another camera without it being shaky and confusing the audience, they are well stationed and ready to capture any footage that happens on the stage. At 4:27 we get small interviews simply just to get the audience to know more about the guest on the show and it lets the audience understand more about them, simply for the audiences entertainment as they know more about the people on the show because it would be awkward if you didn't know who that person was just sitting there on the show. At 0:08 you can hear music that makes feel like this is some sort of game show, just by this it makes you automatically think that this show is based around your entertainment and by doing this is makes the audience stick around and see what the show actually is like and by doing this they get to find out one of the best shows

North Korea

Role of presenter - The presenter is who makes the documentary because he has a huge involvement with the documentary as he is in the shot mostly every minute but if he is also not in the shot you can hear him speaking over the footage, he always speaks to the camera, by him talking directly to the camera it makes us feel as if he is talking to us one to one making us feel more involved and interested in the documentary. The presenter is also informal when he speaks as through the video you can hear him swearing, this is because we get to see what it is like to be in North Korea because through him swearing it allows us to really experience and weird North Korea is rather than a formal presenter having to choose his words, with this it gives us a more realistic view on how North Korea is.

Techniques - The camera you can see is mostly free hand, this gives it more of a realistic feel as you can see what it is like from the camera mans view which allows the audience to feel more involved as they can get that actual view and see what the camera mans sees in front of him, this is shown a lot through the documentary but for an example here is a time code of free hand recording 18:45. For editing there really isn't that much in the documentary, in general it is all just cuts from one thing to another about North Korea, this is most likely to do with that the documentary is not supposed to be an intense one because they are doing this recording when they are not suppose to and the presenter himself is informal throughout the whole thing so this would most likely not be aimed to a large audience unless they are interested in North Korea.

Techniques - Throughout the documentary there is quite a bit of voice over, for example at 8:35 he is talking but on the screen you don't see him talking, but what this does is, it allows you to visually see the journey while he can tell you information about his journey, its a kind of way of multi-tasking and fitting it information to keep the audience entertained. The music they use in the documentary is Korean which is show at 8:20, this is because the documentary is about North Korea so it would be weird if they started using music from America or England because it has nothing to do with North Korea, so why they have done this is because they want to keep everything related to North Korea and it also allows you to hear what North Korean music sounds like.

Balance of archive footage vs original footage? - The original footage is where the presenter is talking to the camera and you can see the presenter in the shots, this is original because this is them filming it first hand and it is their own footage this is shown at 4:06 where you can see him talking to the camera, this is original footage because it is their own footage, the archive footage is of when we see clips of things such as the North Korea army because the presenters crew did not record this first hand, they are older clips that they have added into the documentary for information purposes this is show at 0:44 where you can see the North Korea army marching, this is archive footage. But through out the whole documentary i feel like it was mostly half half with the archive footage and the original footage.

Interviews - From what i see there are no interviews, as he is just talking to them and not really sitting them down and asking them questions, and this is what i saw from the whole documentary, there are no interviews. Apart from when he said he interviewed North Korea refugees in South Korea but we don't see this.

Exposition - We are given information through the presenter who talks into the camera telling us where they are and what this place is, the presenter also has a tour guide who also tells him what these places are and the history, he than tells us his opinions about it and what is going on, we also get to see what North Korea looks like through the camera, from what we see we can tell that North Korea is a strict country, the most secretive country in the world as they still go by the communist rules they seem more like they are isolating themselves from the rest of the world.

How are we engaged - I think what keeps us interested is that the Presenter himself is informal and acts more freely on camera because in my opinion i do not want to watch a hour documentary of a formal person who looks like they are trying to stay inform, i also think that the fact that your not allowed to record in North Korea also comes into factor because it allows us to see what you wouldn't be able to see because North Korea are an isolated country who keep to themselves, so because we are able to view what we wouldn't be able to view before makes us more interested, another factor is the fact they are a strict country and you wonder why, this makes you want to see how North Korea is run and how they live life and this keeps us entertained.