Formal Proposal for Documentary

Topic
The theme of our documentary is Sweets. We will explore a number of factors about sweet
which have a broad range from the history of sweets, how theyre made, where they originated
from, and public opinion of sweets. We have chosen this topic due to the popularity of sweets,
leading a majority of people in society to have some sort of opinion about sweets, which creates
other sub-topics to discuss such as the growing popularity of American sweets verses Traditional
sweets in the United Kingdom as one example.
Type of Documentary
Our documentary is going to be filmed in the style type of a mixed documentary. This is because
it is going to include interviews, archive material and narration. This is so that the documentary
is interesting, informative and clear to the audience so that they are able to learn about the key
topics of our documentary such as the history and growing popularity of American sweets
verses Traditional sweets in the Uk.
Style of Documentary
Because our theme of the documentary is sweets, our documentary is going to be of the
informal style but will still follow with the codes and conventions of a documentary by editing
using simple cuts and minimal amounts of graphics throughout. Our style is going to be fun and
quirky so that it still appeals to our target audience of 16-35 year olds. We will try to utilise our
material to create a fun and quirky style for our documentary by adding humour to the
documentary whilst being informative, and also make references to pop culture to interest the
higher end of our target audience.
Channel and Scheduling
Our documentary is going to be shown on Channel 4 at 7:00pm. We have chosen this slot
because we want to utilise inheritance because this slot is immediately after Hollyoaks, a highly
watched programme, therefore hopefully we would inherit their audience as viewers may stay
on the same channel. This is also during prime time, which is the main time that our target
audience would tune into watch television so this would be a suitable time slot for our
documentary.
Target Audience
Our target audience is generally from the age range from 16-35. Although sweets are popular
with most age groups, our documentary target range is 16-35 due to many factors, for example,
this is the prime target audience for documentaries in general. So we would have more viewers
in this age, especially during primetime as most people of this age are watching T.V. The reason
for this is most people of those ages have recently came back from work or college and
therefore this leads to the T.V viewers going up. Our target audience is also aimed at people of
these ages that are more educated as documentaries are usually aimed at that group. Also,
Channel 4s (our chosen channel) target audience during this time slot has a target audience
which is relatively similar to our target audience. Our target audience of 16-35 is the best for our
documentary as we can reference interesting topics such as the references to pop culture and
the informative, but fun, facts. These topics therefore achieve interests which can relate to both
the young in our target audience and the older area of our target audience.

Primary Research Needed

We will need a high amount of primary research to make our documentary as detailed as
possible, we can do this through mainly questionnaires as we can ask many varied questions to
gather data from our sample. We can also collect primary data from observations of sweet
shops. These types of primary research along with our secondary research we will be able to
discuss our topic in depth and in a cohesive fashion. This form of interview also allows a
conversation where other areas of sweets we may not have originally planned to discuss are
discussed and we gain extra information from our sample. This scenario would be most likely
when interviewing an expert on sweets, this could range from a sweet shop owner to a dentist
to a nutritionist, as although we are planning to do much research on sweets prior to the
interview with our expert and the general areas history of sweets, these experts could provide
us with information which is gained through their high level of knowledge and experience.
Secondary Research Needed
Secondary research is important as we have to gain most of our information from these
secondary sources in preparation to our interview with our expert. This is important as we have
to know the history of the area and other information relating to sweets we can have more
possible talking points, gained through our research, to discuss with our expert. We can get this
secondary research from many different places, for example we could find vast amounts of
information on sweets on the internet and also use the library to gain access to the books they
have on sweets or relating subjects such as the health risks accompanied with sweets which
would focus on dentists and nutritionists. Other places to gather secondary research are
research reports, magazines, newspapers and government documents. We could use all of these
resources for different forms of research. The information we have access to through the
internet and the library is vast, which gives us more time to gain primary research and tailor our
research exactly to what information we need.

Narrative Structure
Beginning: A title sequence will begin the documentary, this will then be followed by archive
footage of sweets being made, partnered with a voiceover on the history of sweets, how they
are made, where they originated from and the growing popularity of them. We will then explore
whether the growing popularity of American sweets is affecting the popularity of modern and
traditional sweets and what types and varieties of sweets are the publics favourites and least
favourites. To present our documentary in a cohesive fashion we will utilise both our primary
research along with our secondary research.
Exposition: We will explore our topic further, will we do this by interviewing more industry
experts, including a wider variety of sweet shop owners. We will also gain more interviews with
topic experts who have knowledge on sweets, these people will include dentists, dental nurses
and also nutritionists. These experts provide a different view on sweets, showing them in their
negative light due to the effects they have on your from dental problems to fitness problems.
They provide a different view to our documentary to encompass many different types of
opinions and facts on sweets.
Ending: We will summaries all of the points and arguments that have been made throughout
our documentary. We will draw public conclusions along with expert opinions and discuss the
final effects sweets have on both people and the whole of society through things such as the
effects on the economy. We will aim to leave our viewers both informed and entertained by
structuring our documentary this way.

Outline of Content
Interviews with:

Sweet shop owner (expert)

Sweet shop staff
People who like sweets (including small children, adults, elderly people)
People who dont like sweets (including small children, adults, elderly people)
Dentists (expert)
Nutritionist (expert)
Psychiatrist (expert)

We will use a combination of these interviews to establish expert opinions along with
members of the public, to put these into contrast and make interesting comparisons. We
will also use the sweet shop employees to inform us about the daily working of a sweet
shop and provide us with more knowledge of sweets which we can utilise in our
documentary.
VOXPOP of people answering What is your favourite sweet?
Cut away footage:

Sweets being poured into scales

360 shot of a traditional sweetshop
Footage of children eating sweets
Small slideshows of photos with historical significance to sweets.

Archive footage:
Sweet factory showing the production of candy rock
Sweet factory showing the production of Liquorice
Resource Requirements

HD Video camera
SLR camera
Tie-clip microphone
Tri-pod
Sweets
Mobile phone
Interview questions
Research
Pic n Mix
Scales
We will use these props to fulfil Mis En Scene and use props, which is a convention of
documentary films. We will also use the technology to produce the best quality
documentary we can as a poor quality video will be unprofessional of our documentary.

We will also use the archive footage of sweet factories and old pictures and cutaway
footage to follow another code and convention of documentaries.