For me, Louis Theroux has a major influence on the products I create and plan for. In my opinion he is one of the most successful and talented journalists within the industry as he takes on a very different approach to others. He specialises on products about more niche and unspoken topics, which may have not been explored in detail before. One of the things that he is most known for, is his style of documentary, which follows a more participatory route. A participatory documentary is where the presenter goes and takes part in what they are covering. For example, one of the most well-known documentaries of his, is where he is in Las Vegas, covering the gambling scene and addiction. During this product, he follows two gamblers on a night out in Vegas, as they head to multiple casinos. Throughout the product, you could see Louis taking part in gambling, acting as if he enjoys the fete thoroughly. This style of presenting is effective, as it gives the audience a unique insight to exactly what the topic is. Researching into Louis Theroux’s style of presenting has dramatically helped my own research as I aim to create my product in a similar style as I feel they help to push across the message onto viewers easier.

Harry Benjamin is an F1 pundit and commentator, who in recent years has been recognised for his commentating ability.  However, for this product, I am focusing on researching Harry’s interview skills. In particular, I find these skills fascinating as he can extract the answers he wants to gain from interviews, with such confidence. For me, confidence in interviews is something that I have struggled with a lot in past projects, as I have found myself always going for the easier answers as well as sort of not allowing time to let my interviewees slip up and give more information than they would like. This is the exact opposite to what the likes of Harry Benjamin are capable of doing, as they allow for this time where their interviewees become comfortable with the situation to the point they let themselves slip answers, which is what people such as Harry are looking for. This is something I aim to practise on and rehearse, as particularly for this product, the flow and depth of interviews are key for its overall success.

Another figure that has inspired my work for this product, is Hollyoaks’ actor and mental health podcast host, James Sutton. For me, I have looked up to James’ work since I discovered his page and podcast. His podcast ‘Men’s Mind Matters’ covers many various topics, amongst the entire situation of men’s mental health, and James talks to many guests who have experienced their own mental health experiences, as well as how we as a society can progress to make the discussion of men’s mental health become a more easily spoken about topic. The topics which James takes on board through pure passion, are something that I want to take on board for my own product, as I feel that having these pure and open conversations that have no real sort of end goal or actual conclusion are something I feel can make a product successful. A reason for this is that it can allow for those deeper topics to form, which can then make the entire product. This is something I have looked up to James for, with his ability to drag a conversation to different levels in an interview to keep the conversation flowing and extract the best possible results out of it by allowing it to expand into the deeper conversations, which inevitably help the overall quality. For me, using this method in a mental health documentary, will be key as it allows for these key moments which could be the factor that makes the documentary memorable.