Research: 3 Minute Wonder Documentary

3 Minute Wonder
A 3 minute wonder documentary is a short documentary made by first time directors that have aired on Channel 4 news on weekdays around 19:55. Karl Pilkington made several 3-Minute wonder documentaries about Health, Holidays, Life etc.

The purpose of a 3 minute wonder is used to introduce new talent get them involved with the competition of the UK Television Industry. Along with other projects such as the Four Docs and the Channel 4 Sheffield Pitch documentary competition.

The kind of topics you would expect to see in a 3 minute wonder would be topics that aren't very popular or current issues that haven't been acknowledged. An example of this would be the 'Carrot Crew' 3 minute wonder documentary in which it follows a group of school students in London called the 'Carrot Crew' who wear carrot necklaces to stand up for healthy eating. They all believe that their opinions and beliefs haven't been taken seriously.

3 Minute Wonder Documentaries

Carrot Crew, ONM (One Note Music) and Pure Evil




The One Note Music documentary managed to explore the change in music from it's golden age up to how youths view music and the difference in what is considered to be good music. In the documentary, it explores the life of a young 'Musician' who believes that One Note Music is the future of music and should be played at Festivals. The 3 minute documentary includes interviews with the musicians and their opinions on music.










After watching the Carrot Crew documentary I have learnt that a very short documentary is able to highlight important topics and cover the most significant aspects of them and that it's not the length of the documentary that matters but is the topic at hand, even if the topic can seem ridiculous.









The 'Pure Evil' documentary manages to present the different forms of graffiti art and the views and opinions that the public have towards graffiti, between if they find it to be artistic and those who find that it it vandalism. The graffiti artist in the 3MW finds graffiti to be 'Gangster' and mentions that instead of running from the police he finds himself having to pose with people and their kids as they love street art. The documentary highlights the issue of graffiti and if it is viewed as vandalism or art.

Peak Time-19:00-22:00

Channel 4- 15