The likely target audience:
I am planning on focusing my documentary on a feminist issue or an issue relating to sexism in the media, therefore my most appropriate audience would be slightly young adults to adults due to the complexity and maturity of my topic. My topic is relevant to this audience, especially sexism in the media as young people who are digitally literate and predominant media consumers may be familiar with this issue. My target audience is also appropriate for my ancillary products, as the older demographic will be most likely to see the advertisement for the documentary when they read the newspaper, and the slightly younger adult demographic will most likely see the double page spread about the documentary if they read listings magazines. From my initial research and knowledge of the exhibitors of documentaries, I know that BBC and Channel 4 documentaries are targeted at a similar audience age range, which would make my documentary appropriate for these television documentary exhibition audiences.
How the products will relate and support each other:
-The documentary and newspaper will relate and support each other as they are both informative, mature and serious (varying with some informal newspapers, but this is generally true for newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent, which discuss similar political content such as feminism.). Therefore advertising my political documentary in a newspaper is appropriate in relation to the other content in the newspaper, as it will be seen by my target audience.
-Similarly to the newspaper advertisement, the double-page spread in a listings magazine is advertising my product mainly by writing, however the listings magazine is a much more in-depth description of it, with more exploratory content such as interviews, images and quotes. The listings magazine is suitable for my adult target audience who are most likely to read them, and also relates to my televised method of exhibition, as listings magazines fundamentally inform their readers about what will be shown on television.
Potential routes for exhibition and distribution:
My brief specifies that my documentary will be exhibited on television, however I could consider extending this to online streaming and on-demand television services such as 4OD and BBCiPlayer to target more closely at my younger demographic of my target audience who are more digitally literate, to convenience my audience who may have missed when the documentary was scheduled on television, and to encourage word-of-mouth distribution and virility for new audiences who heard about the documentary after it was aired. If I decided to include this method of online distribution, I may also want to consider online distribution methods such as reviews and debates using social media platforms like Twitter.
Skill-sets necessary for production including your own strengths and need for training:
Some of the skills which may be required for production that I am confident in include;
- Writing and communication skills, as the documentary and ancillary products are fundamentally written content. I am confident with this as I am currently taking English literature at Alevel.
- Directing skills as this is an independent task which I need to organise and produce myself.
- Organisation, time-keeping and planning skills, which need to be thorough.
- Some knowledge of the topic I am focusing on for my documentary, a knowledge of the style and structure of documentaries, and the ability to research relevant information for these.
- Camera and editing skills, which I am confident with and have developed from the AS task.
- Debating skills which I may need to use for the content of my documentary, and have developed from taking philosophy and ethics at Alevel.
- Analytic skills allowing me to locate and market to my appropriate target audience.
Some skills which I may need to train and develop for production include:
- My persuasive and advertising skills to create a successful newspaper advertisement, which I will need to research.
- A knowledge of the structure and style of television listing magazines, as I have not investigated these much before starting the project.
Time management:
To manage my time I will need to make allowances for each stage of production and create deadlines for when I need to complete these in order to meet my final deadline for the project. I will use the checklist within the A2 media booklet to regularly monitor my progress and see what I need to complete. Some possible problems which may effect my production time could include pressures from my other Alevel subjects, future personal pressures, and issues with accessing the necessary technology for production; therefore I plan to complete my work in time for all of my deadlines so that I can make time allowances for these possible problems.
