Intentions
The reason I created this documentary was to teach my audience about the culture of Liverpool. My idea came from my interest in my city and there are different cultures and has a long line of history to it. I considered my audience in the early stages by their interests whether it may be music or football or whether they are just from Liverpool.
I planned to post my product onto a Liverpool related Facebook group as one of the main platforms and also to create a youtube account based on Liverpool and post it on there because younger people who I planned to have as my target audience use both these platforms for social media.
Developing idea
My initial idea was to create a balanced documentary on Liverpool as a city, discussing the history, the different cultures but also the down sides to the city including homelessness in the city and how it has developed to becoming the modern city it is today. I planned to interview a historian, musician, and also a homeless person and what it was like living on the streets.
My idea began to change from my proposal as I began to do more secondary research it began to change into just the culture in Liverpool, this is when I decided to have interviews with a historian, musician, footballer – or someone related to football – and an artist.
The voiceover introduced the whole documentary over a montage which are two documentary techniques, it starts with the soundtrack playing and plays right throughout the whole documentary.
After I had my focus group with Frank, I decided would have him talk about the history of docks and how they developed in the city because they are one of the most iconic locations in the city and the redevelopment projects we have had in the city such as the Anfield project and the Liverpool One redevelopment and which then changed my idea once again since my proposal. I decided instead of using archive and having to contact the owners so I ended up using all of my own shots for the history part, I spoke about it in my copyright considerations.
After deciding we were talking about the redevelopment projects, I decided to interview my grandad who lived in Anfield in the 1950s before its development so he could tell us exactly how it was and what he did growing up there. The interview of my grandad would go straight after Frank talking about the regeneration of Anfield so that the narrative is easy for the audience to follow and so it flows to his interview.
Then it would go to Paul the musician talking about the music and how it started in the city and what effect music had on the city, this is a huge part in the documentary because it plays such a huge role in the city and the culture.
It then went onto the football culture, I was interviewing a past footballer to speak about both teams, Everton and Liverpool. I ended up changing my idea from interviewing someone to having just the voiceover tell it because I thought I had enough interviews and to write the football part in the script, I used the research I got on the football culture in the city.
Right after the football segment, I was going to have the voiceover talk about the art culture in the city, I had lots of cutaways for the art part but I changed my mine when it came to editing and I ended up taking it all out and because it was too long.
I then interviewed my friend to talk about the different opportunities in the city for musicians and artists so that audience know about what there is to do for people wanting to achieve their goals in the city for any ages.
The ending was summarised by Frank which was my idea from the very beginning, I decided this when he said it in the interview. I didn’t want put cutaways over his part at the end because he seemed so happy and looked so proud and I wanted this part in it so it effected the audience so that the ones from the city felt just as proud.
Audience
My original idea for my target audience was going to be high school children for geography lessons, I was going to get in touch with the museum and my previous high school. I looked at what resources I was going to use such as TES. My mind changed once I went to the museum of Liverpool and went in to see what audience there was for a history documentary film made in Liverpool. I noticed that the audience was different compared to secondary students as they were all mostly in their forties and over
I then created a primary research questionnaire and sent it out to many people so that I had a range of ages and their honest opinion to use what they want to see in my work. I got a range of answers as there were a range of ages such as 11-16, 17-25, 26-39 and 40+ but the most popular ages I got out of twenty people was ten. I knew that my target audience were then 17-25 who. Are really young but older than secondary school students.
I had a look into Frank’s Facebook friends and a lot of them are young but most of them are older starting from their thirties and a lot older. The genders are very mixed, there are a lot of males and females in his friends. These people will be my audience for my project and I will be getting feedback from them because Frank’s facebook page is one of my chosen platforms and Frank has uploaded my video and his friends will see it and I will be getting their feedback.
I have also looked at the facebook group members on In My Liverpool Home and their demographics, there are a mix of females and males and they are mostly middle aged or younger but there are a lot of older people. This is my audience because my product has been uploaded to this group and my feedback is based on them. They are all interested in Liverpool’s history and culture because the group is a history and culture based account on Liverpool and my documentary fits perfectly into the group and the members interests and most of them are from Liverpool.
My decisions were based on the target audience who were interested in history and culture in city documentaries which I discovered in my primary questionnaire feedback when I asked whether they liked city documentaries or not, history documentaries or not and if culture in cities are important and this is why I changed my idea to the culture and history of Liverpool.
Research
The research for both primary and secondary have impacted my decision making. The primary research already influenced my idea from when I had done my questionnaire at the very beginning of the project and this helped me with what I want to mainly talk about compared to my proposal where I was talking about talking about the down side of the city.
The primary research questionnaire helped me decide that to only talk about the history and the culture of the city. The secondary research also decided what topics I would talk about in the documentary, I did research on the history of the docs which helped me decide the questions to ask Frank to talk about in the history of the docks. The secondary research on music and football culture in the city helped me with deciding on what cultures I wanted to talk about and so I could focus on them, this is also two of the biggest interests for most people and they have had massive affects on the city.
I did research on the music venues and the football stadiums and the history of the docks which helped me write my shot list for when I went out to film. This research I did helped me with the cutaways I needed to get to have over my interviews and for the voiceover.
When it came to editing, I created my montage and I explained how the research I did using Bill Nichols theory on expository documentaries which is the reason why I did a montage at the beginning because its an important technique because it gives the audience an idea of where the documentary is set and what it may be about.
I applied a lot of my research when it came to editing
Theory
I did a lot of research on academic theory which I have applied right throughout my project. I did semiotics which is the study of signs used within my work. This theory helped me when it came to filming my interviews because I had to think of the mise en scene, lighting and the framing. I considered this when it came to filming my interviews, with Frank, we filmed in his house and I got him to sit by the pictures he has on his wall that are all of Liverpool and I thought it was relevant to the topic because he was only talking about Liverpool and represents the city; before he starts speaking, they will know that he will be talking about Liverpool because of where he is. The shot I used was a mid shot of him which suggests he is telling a story which he is.
Uses and gratifications is a theory from Biulmer and Katz. Uses and gratifications are what the viewers seeks out for the media source that best fills their needs. It assumes what the audiences choose what they want to watch for different purposes. I decided that my audiences fit into the cognitive needs which is what people watch to get information and fulfil their intellectual needs, they usually watch documentaries, quiz programmes and more. The theory helped me when creating my documentary when it came to filming, writing my interview questions and writing the script for my voiceover because I knew I had to fulfil my audiences intellectual needs so I was continually feeding them information throughout the documentary from both the interviewees and the voiceover. Frank would tell them about why the Albert dock opened in 1846 and my audience would be gaining knowledge from this if they didn’t know it already. My script gave out facts about the music in the city as well as the musician and same for the football.
Reception theory was developed by Stuart Hall which media tests are encoded and decoded. It is where the producer encodes a message and how the audience have decoded it in different ways and not the way the producer intended originally. There are different types of readings in this theory and my audience fits into the dominant, or preferred reading because the audience are able to follow my product easy because they are of the same culture, it deals with themes relevant to the audience who will mainly be from Liverpool and they will get the message that I am giving. I used this theory when it came to writing my interview questions for Frank, Paul, Grandad and my friend. I asked them questions so that the audience can follow what they are saying easily. When I was wiring my script, I spoke about the history of the docks, music and football culture. I have the narrator introduce each part of the documentary and the narrative is easy to follow and they know what is coming up with cutaways to match with what is being said which gives the audience a visual representation of what is being spoken about.
Pre-production, planning and organising
The first thing I did was the production schedule which helps me determine when my product will be finished. It includes everything from context to there presentation stages. My treatment is part of my preproduction which discusses my target audience, the research I did in the beginning and how it will turn out, the break down of my whole project, problems, timescale and budgeting.
The shot list is a huge part for planning because the shot list helps me visualise the places and locations I will need to film for my cutaways to put in my voiceover and over the interviews. They help me with the amount of shots I will need and where about they will go, I got the ideas for my cutaways from looking at my interview questions as well as the research I had done on different places such as the music venues and the football stadiums.
The legal and ethical constraints talks about the human rights act and the privacy law which is about protecting other people in my work due to copyright and filming people which I did a lot because I was filming in public places in the city centre.
I did practise shots around Liverpool before I filmed my proper shots so that I was prepared for when I went out to film my proper shots and I knew what shots I was using when filming the proper thing.
The soundtrack and audio planning sheet I used in my work as a rough idea of when my audio was going to come in and out throughout my documentary, it helped me when it came to editing so I knew where about to put the soundtrack and audio into my work.
The script for the voiceover I wrote I got the idea from my research on the culture and history in the city so that I knew what to write for the music part and the football part but I also had to
watch what was said in the interviews.
I had to film around Anfield later on in the project because when I realised I didn’t have enough cutaways when it came to editing. I hadn’t put enough on the shot list when I went out filming and I didn’t get everything I needed so I had to go out to go out and film some more which was a problem because it was last minute but I did it.
Production and practical skills
My editing skills have developed once I came to this project, I edited each interview by cropping them, flipping them like I did with my grandads one to match the interview conventions, explained how much I flipped it by and then changing the scales of the shot so it looked better than it was originally.
After creating the equipment and resources blog, I booked out the equipment I needed and went out to do some practise shots which helped me in preparation when it came to filming my actual cutaways because I then knew what types of shots to get of different locations. It also helped me with writing my shot list as well as my research and I had to put what types of shots I will be using to film.
I knew how to work the camera, so I practised doing different shots when I went out filming, I went to the cavern pub and did some shots that are pull focus so that I was getting different techniques within my work.
I applied my interview techniques and research I had done on them and I applied then when it came to filming when setting the camera and tripod up on one side of the interviewee and them having enough looking room, the lighting and the framing of each one.
Audience feedback
I have had my audience feedback for my final product from the questionnaire I and Frank both sent out and the chosen platforms feedback. I had people who answered the questionnaire to put their age so I knew my audiences were all of different ages. They had to answer yes or no if my documentary taught them anything and most responses were yes out of 36 people which is what I originally intended from the very beginning in my proposal which also links back to my uses and gratifications which is where I speak about fulfilling my audiences intellectual needs as they fall into the cognitive needs section of the theory.
I asked what they learnt from my documentary and their replies were the importance of the Albert dock, how music in the city has impacted young people and this is the type of responses I wanted because I wanted to teach people things they didn’t know about before. I got different responses from my audience from the platforms such as facebook who spoke about being proud of where and how proud of their city they are.
From my audience feedback on Facebook, I have linked it to reception theory because the audience found it easy to follow because they are all of the same culture and the message was clear to them because the themes were relevant to the audience, to their city, this is where they fall under the dominant, or preferred reading section of the theory. I thought of them when writing my interview questions and voiceover so they can follow it because they are all part of the same cultures.
On my youtube channel, I had over 100 views, I had 8 likes and 10 subscribers and 3 comments. I have looked at the analytics on YouTube of the views, audience retention and realtime activity. On the views graphs, it shows that on the first day I got 73 and within 5 days I got 111 views. The audience retention shows that 37% was the average view duration and it got lower as it came towards the end of the video.
Final Thoughts
I think my project went well, the finished product has come out better than I had expected and had better audience feedback than I imagined. My idea from the very beginning has changed right throughout from context and theory to planning, to production skills and problem solving.
My proposal at the very beginning of the project has changed a lot compared to my final product. In the proposal, I spoke about talking about the down sides as well as the good side of the city but as I began to do more research, I ended up changing my ideas from interviewing homeless people, I stuck to wanting to teach my audience about the culture of Liverpool which is what i did until the end but it is only based on the culture and no down sides. There was an emotional part when Hillsborough was mentioned which I mentioned in the proposal on how I wanted the audience to feel. I also said I wanted to show how Liverpool had developed as a city which was when I had Frank talk about the regeneration projects but I ended up taking them parts out after writing my transcripts.
My final product is a documentary based only on the culture of Liverpool and some history on the docks, it has taught my audience many different things about the city which isn’t much different from my proposal as I still had the same aims right throughout it.
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