Within this section, I shall discuss relevant and similar documentaries to what we are trying to achieve in our own series of podcasts. Whilst our project is podcast based there is a large amount of crossover between the podcast idea and documentary, be this short or long form alongside being both visual or audio based.
Guide Dogs Victoria
This documentary was made by an Australian charity to put on Youtube and explain the benefits that guide dogs bring to people if they are given the chance to be able to have one. This documentary follows four people/children ranging in age ranges through their journeys in learning to live with blindness. It does this by creating a good personal connection with the four people they follow within this documentary, with one being a toddler, the other being a child going into school, a university student and a middle-aged woman.
I liked this documentary because of each of these different people have different stories to tell and the way the documentary jumps from person to person is done in a manner that keeps you being able to follow each story and not forget the people. Another good element of this documentary is the age ranges it shows as this allows the viewer to understand the process of how a child grows up with blindness, goes through school alongside the hardships of trying to find a job when you are blind and finally what life is like when you are middle age. While we are not intending to talk to jump around with who we talk to, as we will be focusing on a blind or partially sighted person within the age range of Siren FM’s target audience and sticking with this person to lead the story. However, I am keen to implement the way in which this documentary jumps effectively and I believe this do-able as we will be speaking to relevant people such as support groups and there will also be my narration mixed with this.
The next documentary I looked at was a BBC Three One called Blind Me:
https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/01632759?bcast=50263665
This documentary was aired in 2010 as part of BBC Threes Adult season at the time. The documentary again follows four blind people but all within the young adult age range and shows their struggles in being able to enjoy an ordinary life and growing up into a fully fledged adult. Every one of the people featured in the documentary has differing stories with each of them wanting to achieve something different in their life, for example, one girl Karen wants to be a fashion designer but realises it would be near impossible.
The reason this documentary was good to analyse was due to the fact that it is very similar to what we want to try and achieve with our piece this is because it gives you a sense of being able to relate to the people that are featured within the documentary, this is done through seeing someone on the programme do something which is very easy for a sighted person to do alongside things that both those with and without sight struggle at for example getting a girlfriend. The documentary also mixes with the emotions of those who view it, because it shows people not being able to achieve their goals, but at the same time, there is also a positive outlook presented at times via their being funny elements within it.
More relevant is this documentary/podcast series produced by BBC Newsbeat on psychosis, it is narrated by Alice who takes us through her own experiences and stories, with her story being that she hears voices. Each episode talks about a different voice and the way it makes her feel and that voices characteristic, in the episode linked it is Donna, a voice that makes Alice feel hateful and resentful. This podcast is effective due to the use of just one voice, with it being an own voices podcast, meaning that it doesn’t feel cluttered and gets straight to the point. Furthermore, the lack of sound effects and the music being used sparingly means that the point isn’t lost and doesn’t introduce cliches which would otherwise make it lose meaning. This is also the podcast series that I will using to benchmark our own podcast.
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