Research into 3 Minute Wonders
Go to the Channel 4 website and conduct research into 3 Minute Wonder,
e.g.,
What is a 3 Minute
Wonder?
3 Minute Wonder is television show comprised of short documentaries, allowing first-time directors and assistant producers produce a piece of work that will be broadcasted to a large audience. Channel 4 offers the new film-makers £4000 and assistance in their film-making. It is then broadcast, every weekday, at 7:55pm.
3 Minute Wonder is television show comprised of short documentaries, allowing first-time directors and assistant producers produce a piece of work that will be broadcasted to a large audience. Channel 4 offers the new film-makers £4000 and assistance in their film-making. It is then broadcast, every weekday, at 7:55pm.
What is the aim /
purpose of a 3 Minute Wonder?
The purpose of a 3 minute wonder is to help new
directors/producers break into the industry by showcasing their talent and it
works in the same way as Channel 4’s other talent schemes; FourDocs and the
Channel 4 Sheffield Pitch.
What sort of topic
would you expect to see on a 3 Minute Wonder?
I would expect to see 3-minute documentaries covering a
range of different topics, such as; social, political and environmental issues,
news events etc. However, it can be humorous (as shown in Karl Pilkington’s 3 Minute
Wonders, which tend to be anecdotal), so the creativity is boundless when
making a 3 Minute Wonder as there are no specific guidelines to make them.
2. Watch at least
five 3 Minute Wonder episodes.
3. Select your three favorite 3 Minute Wonder episodes and briefly explain:
why you like them
what you have learned from watching them
3. Select your three favorite 3 Minute Wonder episodes and briefly explain:
why you like them
what you have learned from watching them
Three Minute Wonder –
Elise
In this 3 Minute Wonder you discovered that the interviewee has developed cancer. At the beginning you don’t expect cancer to be the point of conversation, as Elise is talking about the view from her window. Maybe if you lived in London you could guess where she is, but if you aren’t familiar with the area then the short documentary makes you believe that you’re looking out of her bedroom window. This is an component that I really enjoyed in the 3MW – the element of surprise. The documentary forces you to see in a different way – especially when Elise talks about how people should appreciate life more, even just taking a simple walk. They also do this within the camera shot types; within the whole 3MW you are looking at the world within the hospital room, and not once does the camera leave Elise’s hospital room – meaning that you are literally seeing everything from her point of view, even when you are watching the B-roll of people walking, you are watching them from the hospital room.
Although I didn’t learn anything new about cancer, it broadens your view of being a cancer patient and forces you to be more appreciate of the life you are given.
In this 3 Minute Wonder you discovered that the interviewee has developed cancer. At the beginning you don’t expect cancer to be the point of conversation, as Elise is talking about the view from her window. Maybe if you lived in London you could guess where she is, but if you aren’t familiar with the area then the short documentary makes you believe that you’re looking out of her bedroom window. This is an component that I really enjoyed in the 3MW – the element of surprise. The documentary forces you to see in a different way – especially when Elise talks about how people should appreciate life more, even just taking a simple walk. They also do this within the camera shot types; within the whole 3MW you are looking at the world within the hospital room, and not once does the camera leave Elise’s hospital room – meaning that you are literally seeing everything from her point of view, even when you are watching the B-roll of people walking, you are watching them from the hospital room.
Although I didn’t learn anything new about cancer, it broadens your view of being a cancer patient and forces you to be more appreciate of the life you are given.
Three Minute Wonder –
The Wall – Burning Candy
This 3MW series you a different side to graffiti art. Instead of looking at it from an outsider’s perspective, you’re looking at the graffiti artists themselves. This challenges people’s stereotypes of graffiti artists as being young, working class, high school dropouts.
Burning Candy shows 4 men (around their 30’s) who all studied art at university and are currently working selling paints and trying to make their way into the art world. In their eyes, they see graffiti as a peaceful protest to the middle and upper classes and do it in their spare time. Their views were eye opening as they talked about how graffiti art doesn’t hold any value until it is seen as a commodity and is turned into ‘street art’ – that is when the art is taken seriously. This really changed my view on graffiti, and art in general. I learnt that you never know who has done a piece of graffiti and that - instead of looking at it as spoiling the landscape – it should be seen for what it is; a piece of art that should be celebrated.
This 3MW series you a different side to graffiti art. Instead of looking at it from an outsider’s perspective, you’re looking at the graffiti artists themselves. This challenges people’s stereotypes of graffiti artists as being young, working class, high school dropouts.
Burning Candy shows 4 men (around their 30’s) who all studied art at university and are currently working selling paints and trying to make their way into the art world. In their eyes, they see graffiti as a peaceful protest to the middle and upper classes and do it in their spare time. Their views were eye opening as they talked about how graffiti art doesn’t hold any value until it is seen as a commodity and is turned into ‘street art’ – that is when the art is taken seriously. This really changed my view on graffiti, and art in general. I learnt that you never know who has done a piece of graffiti and that - instead of looking at it as spoiling the landscape – it should be seen for what it is; a piece of art that should be celebrated.
Three Minute Wonder –
This is Our Youth: ONM (One Note Music)
This is Our Youth is a 3MW mockumentary series that seems to take an abstract look at young people by showing things that young people are definitely not doing.
In this 3MW; we follow 2 teenagers who want to make music using only 1 note. I found this one really funny and the teenagers acting were really talented. This shows that 3MW’s don’t have to be serious and, as previously mentioned, there are no strict guidelines that have to be followed. I really enjoyed the humorous element of this 3MW and how light-hearted it was. You could tell they were poking fun at the stereotypical expository documentaries – with the; fast shot changes, close up angles and un-steady camera shots (which is meant to show spontaneity within a shot). The whole 3MW series is overtly sarcastic, so the purpose of this docu-series is to entertain rather than inform or educate.
This is Our Youth is a 3MW mockumentary series that seems to take an abstract look at young people by showing things that young people are definitely not doing.
In this 3MW; we follow 2 teenagers who want to make music using only 1 note. I found this one really funny and the teenagers acting were really talented. This shows that 3MW’s don’t have to be serious and, as previously mentioned, there are no strict guidelines that have to be followed. I really enjoyed the humorous element of this 3MW and how light-hearted it was. You could tell they were poking fun at the stereotypical expository documentaries – with the; fast shot changes, close up angles and un-steady camera shots (which is meant to show spontaneity within a shot). The whole 3MW series is overtly sarcastic, so the purpose of this docu-series is to entertain rather than inform or educate.
4. Market research
into the documentary format and its current viability:
Look at the TV listings for two channels (one should be C4) over the course of a period of time (a day to a week - the more you do the more reliable your primary research findings!). What percentage of television output on your chosen channels is documentary? How many are shown at peak time?
Look at the TV listings for two channels (one should be C4) over the course of a period of time (a day to a week - the more you do the more reliable your primary research findings!). What percentage of television output on your chosen channels is documentary? How many are shown at peak time?
Go to the BARB
website and find the viewing figures for factual programmes in general and then
some specific documentaries.
Figure 1: BARB Viewing Figures
As shown in Figure 1, on the week beginning
10th of February 2019, documentaries made up 15.72% of the viewing figures,
making documentaries amongst one of the most watched forms of entertainment on
TV.
Out of the 26 TV shows on BBC 1 on the 20th of June
2019 11 of these were headed as either a documentary or the news; both of which
are factual programming[1].
This means that on this day; 42.3% of the TV shows were factual programming.
On Thursday 21st of June 2019 there are 28 TV shows
and 1 film being broadcasted on BBC1. Out of these 28 shows, 11 are considered
factual programming (documentary and the news). This means that 39% of these
shows are factual programming.
Given this information we can assume that, on average, around
40% of BBC 1’s broadcasts are factual programming. However, it could be
considered more. My information was taken by what they considered a documentary
and news programme. However, shows such as; ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ are
considered as lifestyle programmes, even though it does have elements of factual
programming. Nonetheless, I think that there are some grey areas when
considering factual programming, because there are no guidelines as to what a factual
programme is, and if any TV programme that shows a hint of being a factual
programme is considered a documentary then documentaries would take up a large
portion of screen time.
According to the Channel 4 TV Guide[2]
there were 35 TV shows broadcasted on the 20th of June 2019. Amongst
these 35 TV shows only 5 would be considered as factual programming. This means
that on this day; 14.2% of the programmes shown were factual programming.
On Friday the 21st of June 2019 31 programmes
were broadcasted on Channel 4. On this day only 3 of these were factual
programmes. This means that on this day 9.6% of the TV shows shown were factual
programming.
Although Channel 4 is famous for broadcasting popular factual
programmes such as; Dispatches and 3MW, they don’t broadcast as many
documentaries as the BBC. At first, this surprised me as I always thought of
Channel 4 as a good place to find documentaries, however it doesn’t surprise me
that the BBC have more.
There was a varied result between Thursday and Friday’s factual programme showings, with Friday showing 2 less factual programmes than on Thursday. I believe that the reason for this is because, generally, on a Friday night people want easy-watching TV programmes and documentaries hardly fall in to that category (depending on what the documentary is about).
There was a varied result between Thursday and Friday’s factual programme showings, with Friday showing 2 less factual programmes than on Thursday. I believe that the reason for this is because, generally, on a Friday night people want easy-watching TV programmes and documentaries hardly fall in to that category (depending on what the documentary is about).
[1] BBC.com.
(2019). BBC1 – TV Guide. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/guide
[Accessed 27 Jun. 2019].
[2] Channel4.com.
(2019). All 4 - TV Guide. [online] Available at: https://www.channel4.com/tv-guide [Accessed
27 Jun. 2019].
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