Factual moving image productions
Introduction
There are many types of genres that come under the overall category of ‘Factual’. There ones that inform the viewers, educate and provide solely as entertainment.
The variations of factual productions are: Documentary, News-Broadcasts, Fly-On-The-wall, Biographical, Public participation, chat shows and fact based entertainment. These tend to include key features such as psychographics, persuasive devices, provide information, and attend to a target audience. A factual product differentiates from a promotional/fictional product. A factual product is designed to inform and educate the viewer; however, a fictional production is more towards entertaining the audience.

Overview
There are several types of factual moving image productions. One of these is a news broadcast.
A news broadcast is a programme in which informs the audience on the current events happening around the world today. Examples of a news broadcast would be: BBC news at six, Good Morning Britain and ITV News. The general objective of a news broadcast is to educate and give information to the viewers. The audience profiling for a news show, ‘News at Ten’ for example, would be: working class, due to it being on so late in the evening (A person who works would not have enough time to watch news broadcast in the afternoon). However, a news show broadcasted in the early morning could be targeted at students due to their early schedules. The gender profile for a news broadcast wouldn’t be any in particular. Overall, the audience profile for a news broadcast varies, there is no one designed audience… it is for anyone and everyone in general.
Millions of people tune into a fly-on-the-wall show every single week. A fly-on-the-wall programme is something in which the public can watch to keep up with someone’s (normally celebrities) life. Examples of this type of production would be: I’m a Celebrity and The Only way Is Essex. The main purpose of these types of shows is to entertain the viewers and inform the audience of their lives. This type of show is commonly known as a reality show. However, it is said that many parts of the shows are scripted. ‘Big brother’ is one of these shows. The show is generally targeted towards teens and early 20’s who are more likely to stay up late at night (after the watershed of 9pm). The general viewers are female rather than male. Also, the person watching is more likely to be single than in a relationship of married with a family.
Public participation is also a common type of show produced for TV. These shows attract millions of viewers and are generally aired on a Saturday night. This portrays that the audience profile would be more towards families. Shows like this would be: X Factor, Total Wipeout. These shows must include the public by either having them as contestants or allowing them to vote. The range of an audience becomes wider due to the relatives of the contestants watching and spreading the show through word of mouth.
Talk/chat shows are widely popular. Shows like ‘the Jonathan Ross Show’ and ‘Graham Norton Show’ are well-known. Their purpose is to entertain the audience. Young adults and teenagers would be the main audience profile for these shows as the chat show hosts target celebrities that are well known among this age range. Families aren’t likely to watch this type of show together due to children being unable to watch as the show may contain explicit content. The gender for this show wouldn’t be any in particular out of male and female. However, when researching, it becomes apparent that the celebrities are more targeted towards to a female audience.
Fact based entertainment would be shows that don’t generally fit into the typical genres. These would be shows such as: Top gear and Antiques roadshow. These shows are designed to entertain yet inform at the same time. They are generally on throughout the daytime, meaning that the audience profile would be the retired of the elderly. However, Top Gear is put on in the evening and is portrayed as a ‘man show’ due its specified content on cars. Thus meaning that the gender profile would be male, and can include young and older generations.
Many channels are dedicated to documentary based programmes. Topics included within a documentary could be: Wildlife, History, Science and Crime. The main objective of a documentary is to educate the audience. Although, interest must be maintained by making the show entertaining or the show will not have a sufficient amount of viewers. An example of a documentary would be: David Attenborough’s Life Story. The audience profile for this show would be, a knowledgeable person as someone with a low intellect on the topic is unlikely to understand what is happening and they may be unable to be educated throughout the programme. Documentaries may have separate gender audiences depending on the subject they are focusing on. If the show was about cars then this may allow the male gender to overtake the female gender for that programme. However, a wildlife documentary is not targeting the male gender or the female gender. It is for anyone.

Documentary Case Study 1: Life Story
Life story is a wildlife documentary narrated by David Attenborough. The show uses an audience profile through the use of psychographics to interest various types of people. Camera angle, lighting, colour, special effect and music techniques are used throughout this documentary.
The audience profile for ‘Life Story’ would be people with a fairly high intelligence in order to understand what Attenborough is talking about. However, anyone can merely watch the show for entertainment but the main purpose is to educate the viewer on the topic of wildlife.
The camera angles are an important feature in order to get the audience intrigued and interested. Throughout the programme, close-ups were sued in order to get a reaction form the viewers. Slow motion was used when an animal or insect was performing a movement that the producers think the audience would find mesmerising. Wide angle shots were used in order to see the landscape in its entirety, this may allow the audience to believe it is beautiful.
The lighting that was used was natural. The lighting was not synthetic and artificial, its came about naturally along with the animals. This allows the audience to believe that the show was completely factual which is a main feature of a documentary.
Music in the documentary created an atmosphere. The music was slow and generally created an effect that what was on the screen was beautiful and important. The music was all instrumental due to the fact that there was a narrator doing a voice over throughout the documentary. When significant points in the show were to be made, the music got louder and tenser in order to create an effect that something grand was happening. However, the music did not interfere with the voiceover.
The narrative/voice over was calm and serious. However, the slow and mesmerising voice took over from the music, they did not interlock with each other. The slow voice of David Attenborough allows the viewers to take in what he is saying and be relaxed and interested at the same time. The seriousness of his voice puts across what type of documentary it is going to be. It gets the serious kind of atmosphere message clearly through; that what is going to be shown is extraordinary and serious.
The setting of this documentary was a natural set: A forest. This is to keep in check with the ‘real’ message that the producers were trying to put across. It shows that everything to be seen is reality and that this is how the wildlife acts in its natural habitat. It allows the audience to see something how it is. It enables them to get more interested too due to many of the viewers having not seen this type of setting before.
As the programme is a documentary, the only special effects that were used was the slow motion. This enables the audience to pay more attention to this particular part and be more observant towards it. It also puts across that the segment is something magnificent to watch. This allows the viewers to keep interested, as no special effects would be labelled as ‘boring’.
The colour used within the documentary is bright. This creates the effect that the programme is something unique and should create a happy feeling.
Overall, all of these techniques create a distinct mood for the documentary and still remember to entertain but most of all educate the viewer.