DOCUMENTARY: MY DOCUMENTARY IDEA

When planning out Documentary ideas I had a think about what I could possibly do or the topics I could cover which would not only been interesting to watch, but would also aim to the audience of BBC 3. After looking through the BBC 3 Commissioning guidelines, it states that their target audience is "The channel is disciplined in its focus on young audiences and 16-34 year-olds are its centre of gravity: people who are young in spirit and mindset." But from this I would actually say it's aiming more towards a 16-25 audience as the majority of people will gain full-time and well paid working jobs. As well, a lot of the channel's content, both before and after it went online, aimed at young people, students mostly. 

TV Channel
When it was still broadcasted as a TV channel. BBC 3 was almost like the starter channel, if you pitched an idea and it was a genre that the BBC wasn't sure would fit the typical BBC1 audience, you'd get a slot on BBC3. This could have been because of the content, humour, story, etc. but programmes like Gavin & Stacy, Torchwood, The Fades, Little Britain, Bad Education, Russell Howard's Good News, etc. All began on BBC 3, some stayed their for their entire broadcast time. BBC 3 became known for his 'adult' content and comedy. It was a channel where you would get much more graphic and humorous content. When the programme announced that it was moving online, a lot of programmes didn't want to go with it. Specially, Russell Howard's Good News, Family Guy and American Dad. 3 of the most popular programmes for BBC3 and they didn't want to move as they feared losing audience numbers and moved to different channels. 

Online Channel
Since going online, BBC 3 has (in my own opinion) lost it's popularity. Since it is technically competing with Netflix and Amazon Prime, it's got a lot of competition and doesn't really stand out as a channel anyone. Having lost very popular programmes by choosing to go online. However, it has begun to create more shows that only came about from going online. BBC 3 has begun to commission and broadcast short documentaries now. Between 15-25 minutes as well as longer ones (30-60 minutes). One filmmaker who's becoming well known through BBC3 is Livvy Haydock, she's a self shooting film maker who 

goes for the more nitty and gritty stories, danger tends to be a big theme with her stories as she's covered gang crime, drug dealing and abuse and inside the UK's worst Prison. But all the time focusing on the young generation and how it effects them. She's become really well known for risking her safety and gaining the trust of people such as gang members and drug dealers and interviewing them and talking to them without giving away their identity but still making it interesting to watch.


My Idea
When thinking about what sort of topic I would want to cover. One area that I'd like to cover is Same-Sex Adoption. My reason for this is because being homosexual is completely legal and accepted these days. With same-sex marriage being legalised and also same-sex adoption becoming legal since 2005 but fully accepted in 2009. However, although fully legal and accepted in the eyes of the law, I've had many friends who have come out as gay but have been bullied or shamed for wanting to raise a family by adopting. This still seems to be an issue (socially) even though it's been accepted. But this is only from my friends that I've known back home and I'm not sure if this really is an issue. I've had friends and met people who have been brought up by gay parents. I've also got a friend in London who has been married to his husband for over 3 years now and is considering adopting. They have been really involved in Gay Pride and both have worked and lived between America and the UK for over 5 years so they've both got a lot of friends who are also involved in Gay Pride so they'd be great to help find people to talk to.