The document discusses potential topics for a documentary project. It lists three main topic ideas: females in gaming and the threats, misogyny, and sexism they face; the downfall of live music due to a lack of real instruments and increase in autotune and backing tracks; and issues around streaming such as hate, relationship impacts, and cult followings of some streamers. It provides talking points and background information for each topic.

1. FACTUAL PROJECT
Millie Southall

2. Documentary Ideas
• Females in gaming
Talking points;
Threats, misogyny, sexism, stereotypes, lack of girls online, games all targeted towards men
• The downfall of music/live music
Talking points;
Festivals, reasons why people attend festivals, lack of real instruments in live music, autotune, live
autotune, backing track with no live vocals, decreasing number of successful bands, increase in solo
singers, small venues closing
• Behind the screens; streaming
Talking points;
Hate, impact on relationships, monetisation, increase in streamers over lockdown, cult-ish following
of streamers like dream and tommyinnit

3. Downfall of music/ live music
2000 2021

4. Downfall of music/live music
• Festivals used to be about the music and going there to enjoy live music and be
surrounded by people who listen to the same sort of thing as you. Now, the
reasons many people go to festivals is to get the modern “festival experience”;
drinking, drugs and partying.
• There is a lack of real bands now who play real music. A lot of live music is a
backing track with someone singing over it with autotune. Everything is done
digitally.
• There is a decrease in bands and an increase of solo singers (at live venues like
festivals)
• This is resulting in small venues that accommodate small bands closing because
there are less and less of them.
• Interview a local band

5. Females in gaming
• Games are usually targeted towards men. Guns, explosions, naked women (male gaze) and male
characters advertised.
• Because of this (and general fear) there is a lack of females in games.
• When a girl is in a game there is a 50/50 chance that she will receive targeted hate due to the fact
she is a woman or constant flirting and sexual comments towards her that will make anyone
uncomfortable.
• There is a stereotype that women can only play “support/healers”. If they play these characters
they are conforming to the stereotype and will receive hate, but they will also be open to hate if
they play someone not as conventional for a female because most females play “supports”
• Women also receive threats just being online. Some serious threats I have seen people receive
are rape threats, doxing threats and murder threats.
• Part 1 of 2 (second part being my FMP – a more in depth version of this one)

6. Women in gaming (Part 1)
• The first part of my documentary (5 minutes) is going to be about the surface level sexism in the
gaming community. I am going to talk about game design and characters and the stereotypes
around them. I will talk about the male gaze and how even cartoon characters are designed around
men's visual pleasure. For example; Miss Fortune – League of Legends, Lara Croft – Lara Croft Go.
• I will also talk about stereotypes in how people assume only women can play the “e-girl”
characters in games. Game designers make very feminine characters with abilities that only help
out other teammates.There is a stereotype that women can only play “support” characters. For
example; Sage –Valorant,Yuumi – League of Legends, Mercy – Overwatch.

7. What is a documentary?
• A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality,
primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record". (Source –
Wikipedia)
Characteristics of a Documentary
• Clean, readable fonts
• Subtitles
• Interviews
• Voice-Over talking about the subject
• Archival Footage
• Re-enactment
• Real People

8. EXISTING PRODUCTS
Millie Southall

9. “What Girl Gamers REALLY Have to deal
with | OMG a Girl Series [1]”
• This video was released in April 2019.
• Online multi-part series about the abuse and harassment women have to go through just by using
their microphones.
• The audience will be anyone who plays games to spread the word about what others have to go
through. It will be aimed at men so they know what women deal with and will maybe speak up
about it. It’s also aimed at women because most will relate to the hate and will have someone to
talk about it with in the comments.
• There is no use of camera as it is all digitally recorded. It is screen recordings of actual gameplay
and actual examples of the hate.
• There are subtitles to highlight the worst things said.
• https://youtu.be/jL0aVqVslSE

10. • In the video she receives constant nagging for her social
medias like myspace and snapchat and the other people asking
over and over for information about her and her real life.
• It was very constant to the point where she was shouting for
them to shut up and go away.
• When he got no response the same person who was trying to
get her social medias resorted to bullying and throwing insults
and untrue stereotypes at her. For example “Why aren’t you
back in the kitchen” “Go make me a sandwich”

11. "The female Experience |Valorant"
• "Share to raise awareness!The purpose of this video isn't to "expose" anyone or get sympathy. It's mostly for
entertainment with a hint of bringing awareness of the toxicity that can occur. " - Description of video
• Another long, commentary styleYouTube video using real life examples of things said to someone. All these comments
revolve around the fact she is a girl and there is no other motive for these comments.
• The comments rage from sexual to angry sexist comments.
• This video was released in January 2021.This shows how modern-day feminism is still needed because to this day
women are still experiencing things like this, even they do not compare to what women used to go through.This video
just shows how society has not really progressed very far and men still have the mindset that women are inferior to
them.
• The overall tone of the video is comedic, but it has very serious undertones. For example, you can tell the girl making
the video feels uncomfortable when they are making certain comments about sexual assault.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlXPTEJ5eJY&t=493s

12. “What happened to the all female League
of LegendsTeam?”
• This is a commentary styled video made in June 2020. In 2020 commentary videos became more
popular because nobody could ger real life footage because of lockdown. So they generally had
gameplay or already filmed footage in the background.
• In this video the audio is the most important element. Because it’s a commentary video his audio
has to be extremely clear so the audience can hear exactly what he’s talking about.
• The editing is not fast paced and it lets clips play for a fair bit before it cuts off.
• The tone of this video is a lot more serious than the other existing products I have studied because
it is more factual and people are clicking on the video to be educated about the subject.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbH8BhgKXbM

13. “What professional Fortnite
Looks like for women”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmAq
dL9gQLA
• This video is more of a true documentary
styled video. It is more professional and
has higher production value.
• The target audience is probably more
professional players because it is all about
competitive play rather than casual play.
• There are actual in person interviews with
multiple people and this documentary
might feel more personal than the other
videos because you can see their faces.

14. AUDIENCE RESEARCH
Millie Southall

15. TargetAudience
• My target audience is anyone who plays games from ages 15-25
• The reason I haven’t specified a gender to target is because my documentary will effect different
genders in different ways. I want women to feel like they are heard and they are not alone in what
they are going through. I also want men, even if this they don’t do this, to know what girls have to
go through just by the sound of their voice. I am hoping that if a guy sees this he will be more
encouraged to stick up for a girl who is being targeted in game.
• I want to make it in a commentary styled video which are the types of videos people aged 15-25
will watch.The message I am trying to send is more likely to be received if they are visually
entertained by gameplay in the background and lots of photos. It will be less interesting and more
difficult to watch if it is just me sat interviewing someone on camera for long 30 second shots.
My target audience are more likely to watchYouTube over
documentaries. If I somehow manage to make it more lie a
YouTube video but more “professional”. If its in the style of a
commentary video it will have more viewership of my target
audience therefore I will be able to get my message across to
more people.

16. Distribution of video
gamers worldwide in
2017, by age group and
gender
• Most people who play games are men
(excluding 51-65 group)This makes the
gaming community a more male oriented
place and there are generally less females
in lobby's or who use microphones. This
could make it feel like a more exclusive
place for men so when a female
interrupts, they are more inclined to be
hateful towards her.

17. DocumentaryAudiences
• “Over 50,000 surveys were sent out and the survey was active between April and June 2014. Respondents
were invited to respond to the survey on an opt-in basis and recruitment surpassed the original objective of
3,000 responses, achieving a total of 3,271 responses and yielding a high level of reliability.”
• This survey is useful because it shows how the majority of documentary watchers actually view the media
itself.The majority of people (95%) watch documentaries at home.This is fromTV, DVD, Blu-Ray or online
(downloaded from the internet). Only 10% watch them in a classroom or educational setting.This means
more people watch documentaries they are personally interested in and actively want to watch by their
own decision.
• The most popular type of documentary for all ages is feature length documentary.The least popular type is
short-film documentaries. Because I am making a short film documentary, I need to make it as interesting
as a feature length, I the short time I have.

18. Survey
• I posted a survey of questions to people my target audience to help with my research because I will
know more about the extent of the knowledge of my audience.
1) I asked this question to get a general feel of what gender Is going to be seeing
my documentary.This would change the tone of the way I narrate. If it was a
more female viewer base I would make it more sympathetic towards them
because I know they will have received hate too. If it was more male based I
would make it more factual and have more examples from my point of view so
they can see from my perspective.
2) Knowing the male to female ratio of people who have responded, I
want to know how many of the above have received hate in a game
because I believe that females are more open to receiving that hate.
The results were almost 50/50 so that could mean that less women
have received any hate than I would have thought.
3) I asked this question to see how many people have actually first
hand witnessed or experienced sexism in a game. Just less than half
had.That number is lower than though but a lot of the games people
play didn’t have any form of voice comms. My survey could have been
better if I sent it tot people who specifically played games where you
have to speak to people using a microphone.

19. Survey pt.2
4)The results of my survey showed that more then 3/4th s of people
agree that women are more open to hate online.This is important to
my documentary because it shows the target audience agree with the
message of the documentary.
5)The majority of people said no to making comments about gender
during games. Statistically, someone who thought women are more
vulnerable online has also made comments about women online,
which I think is really interesting for my documentary.
6) I wanted to get some real life examples of things that have been said to people
online.A lot of responses were misogynistic comments like “Get back to the kitchen”
and other people saying they have had sexist things said to them and also lots of
racist slurs.

20. SUBJECT/TOPIC
RESEARCH
Millie Southall

21. Gaming industry
• As time progresses, more and more people are playing
games. Just in 2016, 2.5 billion people played video
games. 52% of people play on their PC’s.
• Mobile gaming has become more popular in recent
years as mobiles are more accessible to the majority of
people without them having to spend additional money
on a gaming system. 60% of American adults prefer to
play games on their smartphones.
• The majority of gamers are male, 46% of people who
play games are female.The average age for a male
gamer is 32 but the average age for a female gamer is
34.
• In 2019, 63% of mobile gamers are female.This makes
mobile games a more female dominated industry.

22. Vladimir Propp
• Vladimir Propp was a folklorist researcher who was interested in the relationship between
narrative and characters. Propp argued that stories are character driven and that plots develop
from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story. He claimed
characters could be classified into certain roles that progress a story.The roles are;The villain,The
donor, the helper, the princess, the false hero, the dispatcher and the hero.
• In history, games tend to follow this narrative. For example, Super Mario.
Bowser
Luigi
Peach
Toad
Mario
“In the original Super Mario Bros., solo players
pilot Mario, and an additional player can play
as Luigi.The game is based on a series of side-
scrolling levels, each filled with enemies
ranging from mushroom like Goombas to evil
turtles known as KoopaTroopas.The levels
take place in different settings, some in
dungeons and some above ground, with fights
against Bowser impersonators at the end of
castle levels. Once the imposter is defeated, a
Mushroom Kingdom resident informs Mario or
Luigi that the princess is in another castle.The
game is completed with the defeat of the true
Bowser and the rescue of Princess Toadstool.”
Created in 1985

23. Most played games in 2021
The most played game in 2021 is Fortnite.This is a battle royale game in
which you can play solo or play in teams of 4. In the teams of 4 you can
use voice communication. League of Legends is the second most played
game of 2021. In the normal game, you play in teams of 5 and you can
play with your friends or you play alone. However, if you play alone the
only means of communication is through typing and there is no form of
voice chat.
“Fortnite player distribution in the U.S. 2018, by gender
Given the nature of the gaming world and of shooter games
in particular, it comes as no surprise that the majority of
Fortnite players are male – 72.4 percent of the game's
players in the United States are male, in comparison to 27.6
percent who are female.”
In both of these games they have a
majority male player base and lots of
revealing female skins.This conforms
to the male gaze, as it is men enjoying
these cartoon characters and using
them.They are designed and targeted
towards the male part of the fanbase

24. EXPERIMENTS
Millie Southall

25. Experiment Interview
• https://youtu.be/eEA9Br_cEcs
For my research I did an experimental interview on someone else's
topic of choice so I could try interviewing out for the first time. I
Interviewed a classmate on horse-riding and horses in general. In my
opinion it was a difficult task because I do not know anything about
horses. I learned that to conduct an interview I have to act clueless
about the subject and ask the most basic questions, this will help me
gather information which helps with my later questions.
For this interview I researched the topic of
horse-riding and tried to learn as much
information about the topic as I could in the
short time I had, so I could make me a better
interviewee. Doing research on the topic helped
me out because I originally knew nothing about
the subject. It was a good experience because I
have realised that I should make an interview
flow like a conversation rather than a Q and A.

26. Proof of concept
• For my experiment I am going to record a face-to-face
interview, get some game footage and record a narration
and try and edit a 30 second clip in the style of the video I
want to make. I want to make a commentary styled video
and this will help me visualise the style of the video. If it
doesn’t fit what I am imagining, then I will have to re-
evaluate the style I am going for.
• I am going to write a list of questions and a short script for
my narration over the top of the video.This will help me
be more organised rather than being lost and not knowing
what to say and wasting time.
• I am also going to experiment with gameplay in the
background because I am worried that it won’t look
professional. I think it fits in with my target audience and
my vision, but it might not fit in with the documentary
brief.
I have never done a face to face
interview so this experiment is
going to help me experiment with
lighting, questions and learning
how to have a conversation rather
than just asking constant questions
like an interrogation.

27. Bibliography
• Burgess, M. De Rosa, M. (2014). Learning from Documentary Audiences p1-p12.
• Clement, J. (2021). Global gamers by age and gender. Available:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/722259/world-gamers-by-age-and-gender/
• Sukhraj, R. (2021). What are the most popular types ofYouTube videos in 2021?. Available:
https://www.impactplus.com/blog/most-popular-types-of-videos-on-youtube-infographic. Last
accessed 29/09/21.
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zgydhv4/revision/1
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/865625/fortnite-players-gender/
• https://financesonline.com/number-of-gamers-worldwide/