Audience Review

In making a documentary, the audience need to be taken into strong

consideration as they play the most important on helping us making a good
documentary. They are viewing it so therefore their needs need to be met. I
wanted to find out what the audience would expect to see in a good
documentary. To help me find out what the needs of the audience were, I
provided them with questionnaires. These questionnaires were given out with
a copy of our documentary proposal. This will help us adjust our plans
towards our filming.

We handed out our questionnaire to 18 people. We printed out the questions

and gave them out to several different people in and outside of my college.

The fist question asked was ‘Are you male or female?’ This question was
asked to find out what type of sex agreed with our topic the most and whether
this was a biased decision or a factual one. We found that a majority of the
people asked, were female and that they were semi-biased.

1. Are you male or female?

Male
Female

The second question asked was ‘What age category do you fall in?’
This was asked as a general question. This established what types of ages
understood the real meaning of a documentary. I wanted to see if the level of
interest when it comes to different age groups.
The Most common age was the ages 15-17.
 2.Which age catergory do you fall in?

12 to 14
15 to 17
18-21
22+

The third question asked was’ What are the main features that you look at in a
documentary’. This was asked to find out what people honestly look at as
soon as they turn to TV to watch documentary. Most people chose the ‘facts
and figures’.

3. What are the main features that you look

at in a documentary?

Interviews
Cutaways
Facts & Figures

The fourth question was ‘Do you think the topic of black underachievement is
relevant in today’s society. This was to establish whether our subject is
actually relevant and does play a big part in our society, more than just a topic
to focus on. 80% of the questionnaire’s given out said yes that it is relevant in
today’s society. Most said this because they believe that it is something that
should be looked at and helped as this is leading to a more corrupt society.

4. Do you think the topic of black

underachievement is relevant in today’s
society?

Yes

No

It needs to be more established

it is very relevant because it is

happening

The 5th question asked was ‘What would you expect to be explored within this
documentary?’
They had 3 choices. The most common option chosen was ‘Interviews with
people that relate to underachievement’ 40% chose this which was the
majority as the rest of the options were varied.

5. What would you expect to be explored

within this documentary?

Interviews with people that

relate to underachievement
Footage focusing on the black
community
Responses from influential
figures in society

The 6th question was ‘Are there suggestions for other issues that you would
like you be explored within the documentary’ most people chose ‘how other
races underachieve also’. This was chosen because a different amount of
people watch documentaries and un-biased different opinions are
necessary.

6. Are there any suggestions for other issues

that you would like to be explored within
this documentary?

Yes

No

How other races underachieve

also
More about how black boys are
improving

The last question was ‘Do you agree that there has been an
underachievement within the male black community’ 65% of the
questionnaires I gave out said that there is. This was interesting to see as it
helped us confirm that our documentary topic was effective and essential to
investigate.

7. Do you agree that there has been an

underachievement within the male black
community?

Yes
No

After receiving the results of the questionnaires, pie charts were created to
provide a visual representation of the results. The results allowed us to have a
better understanding for what is important when producing a film for our target
audience. We were also able to alter parts of our script and make appropriate
changes to our documentary proposal.