Was seven days a flop?

After 8 weeks the reality documentary seven days comes to an abrupt end after the viewing figures have severely decreased. The question to be asked is whether this was to be expected? After the first episode was showed on the 22nd of September 'The Guardian' claims that ' Seven days makes disappointing start with only 1.115 million viewers which is nearly less than half of the Viewers channel 4 usually has at this time slot.

Another factor indicating seven days may be unsuccessful are the Guardians reviews claiming the location chosen (Notting Hill)  is not the most convenient as this area of London is already renown for Films and Carnivals.

'But why Notting Hill? Comments on the Guardian's review the day after transmission revealed almost universal fury that the London neighbourhood already famous for its carnival and the sort of poshness associated with a Richard Curtis film starring Hugh Grant should have been picked.'

Stephen Lambert claims that the show was fine and that it was simply not marketed well enough and it was misjudged as the audience expected a programme similar to big brother. He argues that the project was great and very interesting for him and he also suggests that 'it has delivered in all respects apart from the audience.' After the end of the Show however even he admits that Notting Hill wasn't the best location as

'I hadn't appreciated the intensity of people's dislike for people living in Notting Hill'. However reading viewer comments you can see a strong disagreement. Many people just think its really boring and was a terrible programme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/23/seven-days-tv-ratings

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/27/seven-days-channel-4-stephen-lambert

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/05/seven-days-channel-4

Planning the Documentary

In class we have discussed the issues we need to analyse in order to have a successful Documentary.

Form and Conventions

• Observational\ Expository documentary mode
• Voice-over
• Not A series- One off
• Interviews
• Archive footage

These are our initial ideas which will be developed into our documentary. We have decided to produce our documentary partially in an observational mode because we want the Viewer to make his mind up himself rather than being influenced by our opinions. We want it to be a One off because 1. I don't think people would be to keen on watching a series of documentaries about Christmas and 2. to put impact on the importance of our subject. The interviews we are going to show

Institutions

• film four
• Sponsorship

These are the initial idea about how our documentary will be financed and produced. However I think after further research our Idea will change.

Audience

• TV audience - possibly 20-35 years of age ?
• Middle-class
• Family-orientated

The audience we are trying to target is middle-aged and relatively mature. We want our audience to have basic knowledge of sociological aspects in order to understand the point we are bringing across. I think our documentary could be of interest to younger generations too, however we want our documentary to be at an intellectual standard that one would need simple understanding of the economy, religious values and society in order to be interested.

Representations

• Messages and Values -> children -> Socialisation of children in traditional/ non- traditional Christmas
• Religious diversity
• Commercialisation
• Capitalism

What we are trying to show is the Perception of Christmas in society. Another issue important to us is to try and portray whether Christmas is an invention of capitalism and how much today's Christmas still has to do with its origin, the birth of Christ.

First Documentary Idea

The process of producing a documentary has started a while ago in class. Over the past weeks we have watched various different documentaries and researched the different modes documentaries can be found in.
After long discussions about the different subject we could base our documentary around we finally came up with and Idea.

As Christmas is approaching my Partner, Danielle, and I have decided to research and portray the Commercialisation of Christmas. We want to show whether Christmas has lost his true meaning and how much it actually still has to do with its religious origin. Also it would be interesting to show the perception of Christmas in today's society especially through a generation gap.

The Five Modes of Documentary

1. One mode of documentary is Expository documentary. To get a clearer view on the feature of this mode we have watched the World WAR II propganda documentary 'London Can Take It' created by Humphrey Jennings in order to get the Americans to support and Help the War effort. Creating a Expository Docum



2. Another mode of Documentary is Observational Documentary. The disctinctive features are the fact that there is no Voice- over and the subject is mainly portrayed through strong images. These images vary from different loaction shots as well as showing the people who are affected by the situation. The documentary we have watched in this Mode has been 'Listen To Britain' another World War II propaganda documentary also created by Humphrey Jennings.





3. Another common mode of doucmentary is the Reflexive Mode.