12 sub genres of Factual Television, Codes and Conventions

Docu Drama

Docu Darama's are documentrys that are based on a true event. The documentary would not be a re-enactment but may contain real footage of the event it is about. Due to the documentary not being a re-enactment the narrative of the story will not be 100% fact but will not distort the truth massively.




Examples Of Docu drama's are:

• Titanic (1997 Film)

Titanic is a film baed on the start and end of the ship, the titanic and using survivors how it was like during the time it sank. The story is made up and the characters where not actually on the ship, but it is based on the disaster.

• 127 hours (Film) 

127 hours is a true story about a man who had his arm trapped by a bolder crushing his arm inside of a rervene. The story is created by finding how by the man himself what happened and what it was like. The story is slightly changed to make the film more acceptable and interesting for people to watch.

• Grizzly Man 

The Grizzly Man is a fantastic example of a docu drama about a man who spend several months with wild bears, he was filming his own wildlife documentary about grizzly bears but parish during the time he is recording. The documentary contains a lot of real footage of the man that he recored before he died. The rest of the documentary is mainly interviews to people who knew Timothy Treadwell.
Doco drama's keep the specific conventions such presenting real footage when possible. This docu drama start with real footage 0:19. This allows the viewer to know that the documentary is a true story, and gives them a first impression to what the documentary is about, in this case Timothy, The grizzly man.  Most of the footage is shot with steady hands or a tripod. This is mainly because the footage is interviews that would be shot in only one angle as the main reason of the interview is for information, not to make the film look interesting. This is shown well at 17:59 where an interview with the helicopter pilot is shot in only a few different angels. To prevent the footage from being tedious and boring they use cut away, shown at 18:12, where it shows you real pictures of the situation. The lighting and sound of the documentary is very natural to the environment they are in. for example at 27:33 the lighting of the room is just the natural light from outside coming though the window as well as the lights that are turned on in the room. the sound on the other hand is very quite presides the actual discussion taking place. this is most likely due to them filming the interview in a quite location. But during the Diary footage of Timothy, although the lighting is the same as it is natural lighting, but the sound does not block out any sound that is in the background. shown at 26:37 where a fox steals his hat, there is a lot of rustling as well as hearing him talk. this gives off the effect that it is genially real footage and is not staged, the camera being hand held at this moment also enhances this effect.

Docu Soap

A docu soap is a documentary series about real life people from the everyday society. The show will follow a fixed theme which all the participants are relateable. This is done for the soul purpose of creating entertainment, drama as well as giving us a look at what life is like for them.

Examples Of Docu Soap's are;

• Catfish (MTV Show) 

Catfish is a show where a MTV presenter helps everyday people meet the person they have been dating online to find out if they are who they say they are online. The presenter helps a different person each week who wants to track down their partner.

• Living Without Laws: Slab City, USA (Vice Documentary) 

 Living without laws is a documentary that follows the life of a few people who live where law does not take much effect. The documentary follows a number of charters stores about life where they live.

• Tough Young Teachers

Tough young teachers is a TV docu soup about how hard it is to start as a teacher, it follows the school life of a couple of new teachers and though out the series you witness the progression or downfall of the teachers. The series starts off a montage of what is to come though out the shows length with a voice over narrator who has a clear british male voice. The reason they use this montage is to show what is to come in the show and makes the audience eager to understand why the new teachers and students are reacting they way they are in the montage. for example the audience would like to know at 0:21 why the boy is under the table and why the new teacher cannot get him out. During this montage they also use interviews from the show where the teachers talk about their experience, giving the audience an inside look how they feel it is coping. The majority of footage is hand held unless in an interview. This shows that the footage is legit and gives off a sense of explorations to the viewer as they are getting the vision of a observer on the class, reducing bias siding with either the new teacher or the students. The lighting of the show is fully natural that adds to the realistic footage in addition the background sound also captures noise which is not a part of the situation on camera as the footage is not acted. The music used in cut sense are quite serious yet calm to give off the effect that everything is running smoothly so far but the job is steal hard work and stressful, so they are at the top of their game to keep up the good start. At 21:00 you see that one of the new teachers are talking to the Deputy Head about what he should be doing during brake time monitoring. This is a small interview with an expert that these shows would show to give a deeper and more reliable understanding of the situation the person is going though.

Infotainment

Infotainment are documentaries that include information about usually a specific subject but also try in entertain the audience though segments of the show. Some Infotainments are more about entertainment that the information gained from the show but will still offer information.

Examples Of Infotainment's are;

• Mock the Week

Mock the week is a TV discusses show that discusses and makes fun of resent news. They get a few intellectual points across but spends the vast majority of the show making fun of the new and getting sidetracked from the original topic.

• Gadget Show

Gadget show is a magazine show that spends a lot of the time having fun with gadgets, they keep the reviews they do intellectual but go over the top with the testing such as using a fish tank with fish inside to find how waterproof phones are.

• Idiot Abroad

An Idiot Abroad is a television show where a man called Karl travels around the world to visit different cultures. But the purpose of this documentary is not to actually gain interesting and in depth information about the locations and people he meets but to laugh of how stupid he look and act while being on these travels. Ricky Gervais tell us at 01:26 that he wants karl to "hate every moment of it, for my own amusement." proving that the show should not be taken too seriously as it just a "practical joke". A good moment in this episode is at 07:46 where Karl starts having a rather long and  ridiculous discussion with a local shop in china where he tries to make the shopkeeper say his name correctly. This lasts until 08:23, This 40second footage gap give no useful or interesting information but is funny, because this moment was funny they kept it into the show as it makes the viewer laugh. In this show most of the camerawork is hand held due to Karl traveling constantly and the footage is more like a video diary (Vlog), that gives the authentic and non scripted effect that the show actually beholds. Because the footage is a Vlog style all the sound and lighting is natural, this makes the footage seem even more legit as additional lighting and removed background noise would make the situation look like it is staged to follow though the way it does. By making the situation look natural the audience will believe that Karl is being fully genuine and is really like this in real life. Karl even brakes the 3rd wall by mentioning at 4:43 that if it is worth having the show filmed in HD. This Once again gives across that Karl being himself during the series, making the facts that are received though Karl or anyone in the show complete true as far as the persons understand goes. To make the show comical the use of experts are unusually ignored by using Karl who has be labeled and 'Idiot', to be the main source of information. This will drastically reduce the reliability of the facts given to the audience and possibly the majority of the audience will not believe the information given, but that is not a problem for a Infotainment show, as it can rely on the entertainment of the show to bring in the viewers.

Reality TV

Reality TV are shows that follow the "real truthful" lives of people. These are often celebrates or they make minor celebs by basing a reality show about them. These shows do not grant assess to useful information often and are made purely for the amusement of the audience. Sometimes the show contains a competition that one of the participants of the show will win.

Examples Of Reality TV are;

• Honey Boo Boo 

Honey Boo Boo is a reality TV show about a strange redneck family where the little girl, honey boo boo, travel around the country doing beauty patents. The show does not end there as they also track her everyday lifestyle and her abnormal family. The show is purely for the audience amusement.

• My Strange Addictions

My strange Addictions is a show series about people who have odd, wacky, and just plain wrong addictions. From drinking human blood to having an emotional relationship with pool floats.

• Only way Essex

The only way is Essex is a reality TV show that apparently follows the "genuine" lives of a group of essex friends. Their is a lot of controversy with reality TV shows that they are fixed and are at least slightly scripted. This is because Reality TV show use cameras that are always mounted to a tripod which gives the effect that it is filmed in a studio fashion. Although there is background noise it only to set the atmosphere, at 0:00 when the couple walks in the camera tracks them perfectly then after a cut away is in the perfect position to see them be greeted by their friends. This would not be possible to film without planning the scene ahead. And once again at 3:03 there would be no way the camera crew would know one of the older members of the show would come back in a car parking right outside the door.  On the other hand the lighting is not change specifically for the even and is set in a normal night club, giving across that it is an authentic situation. They use a lot of close up shot to express the emotion of all the cast members such as at 3:18 to see Lucy's reaction to the text she got from the person in the car, allow the audience to understand that the situation is serious and she not happy about the situation due to her facial expression been very straight. The music is used to contribute the situation that is going on, most of the time there is no music playing unless in the scene due to a night club ext. But at 3:03 when the person in the car shows up, dramatic opera music fades in telling the audience that something bad or dramatic is about to happen. It amplifies the drama of the situation, making a bigger impact on the audience.

Educational Television

Educational Television focuses on getting across useful information to people. this ranges though all types of information, but the key point of the show is to educated the audience in one topic such as, manors, how to cook, what is actually going on in the world. Educational television is commonly used for children to teach morals and simple skills like observation and listening.

Examples Of Educational Television are;

• Nick Jr.

Nick Jr. is a Tv channel that shows lots small episodes of cartoon where the audience learns basic skills such as observation, maths and morals. This channel is aim for small children and would only appeal to them due to the simplistic dialogue involved.

• BBC Panorama

BBC Panorama make documentaries that educated people of the major events that are happening around the world, as the news would as well as smaller topics such as what school life is like in other countries such as Korea.

• Jamie's Ministry of Food

Jamie Oliver's show about quick, easy and cheap meal that anybody can cook is a great example of a educational television documentary. The camera language is used very professional thought the video and pays special attention to the food as it is the focus of the show. When explaining how to cook the food the camera focus on the method he is explaining using close ups, clearly shown at 2:13 where he pushing the time down the stem to take it off. Jamie Oliver is a very famous professional British cook that gives the audience a good reason to listen to his instructions as cooking is his skill. Most people would not trust the cooking style if told by an unknown person who is not even in the cooking busy as they don't stand as high on the hierarchy chart. The show could be seen slightly bias as the cook is commenting on his own recipes stating that they are wonderful and delusions mentioned at 0:03. This would usually make people not fully trust the show or be unsatisfied when trying the recipe themselves, but as Jamie Oliver is an expert in the cooking field, the bias opinion of his is overlooked because people would expect him to know what he is doing. There are two cameras used to film this to give live jump cuts between them to capture the best footage and actions from a left or right side view. Both of the cameras are hand held as you can see when the right camera zooms out in a wobbly manor at 3:43, and the left camera shakes a fair amount too, shown at 5:00. The reason they use hand held camera is because it easier to move around if something unexpected happens and gives the audience a sense of authentic quality. Jamie Oliver does not look special, he looks like an every day british man, this gives the audience connection to him and makes them more compelled to try out his recipe as they see him as one of them.

Wildlife Documentary

Wildlife documentaries are shows that are about animals, plants and the environment. It focuses on any topic that is not human based, although it may mention humans due to how we have effected they way the animal lives. These programs are often shown on Television and are put on public broadcasting channels.

Examples Of Wildlife Documentary's are;

• Spain's Last Lynx

The documentary Spain's Last Lynx is a wildlife tracking story where the audience follows the paths of the a few Lynxes journey along their habitats, trying to stay alive. This gives the audience an inside look of the life of this endangered species.

• Penguins of the Antarctic

Penguins of the antarctic is a documentary about how penguins live in the antarctic, and also how they are servicing though the melting of the ice. It follows multiple story lines of main events of a penguins life such as mating season.

• Predators at War

Predators at War is a show about multiple African animals in the wild fighting each other to survive in the difficult conditions they are fasting such as droit, lack of territory and other problems. The documentary cuts between the animals to track the progression they go though over a couple of months. At 0:39:47 the music is ominous creating the atmosphere and emotion that something bad has happened or something going to go wrong for the wild animals, in this case it was lack of rain water. They use the music in wildlife documentaries to create a sense of emotion for the audience to feel while watching. The Narrator of the documentary is an expert in the field of wildlife and knows a lot about what Hyenas, Cheaters and Lions need to survive. This makes the audience trust the facts that the narrator is saying due to them being an expert in the field and has a greater knowledge about these animals than the average person. The camera language is mostly professional but constantly tracks the animals once the narrative focuses on them. Most filming from Wildlife documentaries takes a lot of time to get only a small segment and is usually filmed from a safe distance away. This would result in a fair amount of distorted editing as not all the shots will link into each other smoothly, just like at 0:27:30, they use fades to make the scene into a small montage as it would be hard to compute all the footage to flow, this montage does run in order. The lighting and sound on this documentary varies depending on the segment of the show. When it is watching the wildlife it often has no background music and you can hear the background sound other than just the animal and the narrator, 0:53:23 you see and hear the hyena but the narrator is slightly louder, this still allows the footage and atmosphere of the documentary to stay with the audience while viewing the show as it create a sense of illusion that they are their because they can hear what is their perfectly. The only reason the narrators voice is slightly louder is to be able to explain what is going on clearly, therefore getting the information across to the audience effectively.

Special Interest Documentary

special interest documentaries are often one off shows, that focus on a topic that would only appeal to a very niche audience. Usually these would be aired on a small broadcasting network on Television or posted online. 

Examples Of Docu drama's are;

• Carthage : the roman Holocaust

Carthage : the roman holocaust follows the story of back in the roman era where Carthage was destroyed, killing plenty of people. It visits location where events happened hundreds of years ago while explaining what happend.

• Frag Documentary - History of pro-gaming

Frag made a documentary showing the timeline of how Pro-gaming became and how it has developed over time. It shows how the introduction of multiplayer games has vastly escalated and improved the life of hardcore gamers and how they make money by just being good at a game.

• Bungie Documentry : O brave New world

Bungie is a gaming company the produced one of the biggest games to ever hit the market, Halo. This documentary is a inside look on how the company was founded, and how it grew into what it is today, following the history of the company. This documentary would not appeal to most people and only gamer or fan of the company. The language they use during the entire documentary is spoken in a technical quality that only people who knew a fair amount about games wound understand, although the common person could understand some of the documentary without any issues. an example of this would be at 3:50 where they discuss a few games bungie made, especially Myth, which was a big success  due to how it change how RTS, (real time strategy) game where played. Most non-gamers would not understand what is meant by shortened terms like RTS. The documentary uses archive footage to present moments in the past and gameplay of the games they are talking about to give the audience a sense of relation to what the person is talking about, as they can physically see what they are talking about. They use music from the games Bungie have created as it is a relevant soundtrack to use, and it links the documentary even more with the company. When they play the theme of Halo at the start of the documentry at 0:00 the fans already know they are going to mention halo without anybody saying anything about halo, this keeps the hard core fans hooked to the documentary. The use of Archive footage is done to give proof and a inside look of what the company was really like back when it started out. This is shown though out the documentary for example, 11:47 shows the Bungie team testing there game mechanics, allowing the audience to understand what conditions they where in as well as proof that these people are the actually people who made Halo. The use of interviews are from people who where in close development with bungie or a part of the one of the games. This once again gives the audience an inside look at what a cast members experience was like, shown at 17:35 where the voice actor of Cortana is interviewed about how she auditioned for the role and how she managed to get it. The interviews with the game developers such as Mach Russell at 22:29 mentioning how amazing it was to finally get multiplayer to work. These interviews allow the audience to gain an understanding how the company felt at certain breakthroughs and milestone. 

Make Over Show

Make over shows are a branch from the reality TV genre where the people in the show's lives are changed though the period of the series, but usually episode to improve their live.  It also can be educational to the audience as it can show them how to improve their own lives.

Examples Of Make Over Show's are;

• Snog Marry avoid

Snog Marry Avoid is a BBC three show where people are transformed in their appearance by taking off make up and assures to make them more desirable to the public. Finding out the before and after effects by getting rated with either snog marry or avoid.

• super size Vs super skinny

Super size Vs Super skinny is a show where two people on the opposite ends of the health scale are both in dangerous territory for completely opposite reasons so they find out what life is like for the other people, eating wise, and learn how to sort out their weight issues.

• Extreme makeover home edition

Extreme makeover Home Addition is a show where a group of construction workers help people who have made an inspirational mark on local society and is leaving in a poorly kept together house. The team set out to make the family’s life better by reconstructing a fantasy-like house for the family while they are sent away to an amazing holiday for a week. The show starts off explaining the background of the person who they are doing the renovation for to allow the audience to connect and understand the situation; it explains why this person is special and why the team wants to help. After this they emphasise on the livening conditions of the family by cutting to many shots oh how their house look. This is to entice the audience to see how the house is transformed at the end of the show. By focusing on the details using close up like at 17:26 it forces onto the audience the before and after effect of the renovation to show how much better the makeover was. This is shown when the house is finished at the end of the show as they use fading transitions to show before and after pans of the house, show clearly at 1:04:42. The lighting and camera language looks rather professional due to the camera focusing on certain parts of construction at any given time instead of the camera waving around trying to capture everything. They use a lot of close up to show detail into the making and final product. It clearly shown at 1:17:36 when the father enters the Packhouse 2000 as the camera cuts to do a professional view of the room with a slow pan around it, this would be done to show the detail and capture the beauty they were trying to create, although at time the camera is clearly hand held as it follows the host taking a tour of how the construction so going. The lighting of the show is fairly natural but does look like they add filters when doing a tour of the final house to add to the stunning aesthetics of their hard work.

Discussion 

Discussion shows are documentaries where a studio panel share, discuss and debate topics. Often there would be a live audience that would get involved and is if not always shot inside a studio. Commonly they would put people of opposite views on the panel to strike arguments and debates.

Examples Of Discussion 's are;

• Question Time

Question time is a Discussion show where experts in important topics in the Uk politics and solitary are discussed between the experts as well as allow the public to get their word in.

• Room 101

Room 101 is a show where minor celebrates come onto a show to discuss annoying and terrible things that should be removed from sociality and the world in genial by putting it in room 101.

• Real time with bill maher

 Real time with Bill Maher is a discussion show in america about resent events that are happening in the work at that moment in time. This episode is about 9/11 and how people are blaming each other for the tragic situation. The show has a very serious tone and is set inside of a studio with a live audience. The guest on the show are experts from different degrees, from a member of the Islamic Institute and an author than believe that the US is being bias on how they report terrorism. This is done purposely to create arguments and debates between the guests and presenter, this keeps the discussion active, interesting and less bias as we get more than one opinion with a fairly good reason why they are stating their point. This makes Discussion shows a very intellectual and informational show to watch to gain knowledge about serious situations. You can see an argument between two of the guests at 2:05 where the female makes a point how there is only propaganda on one side, the blond haired male steps in disagreeing. The camera language is commonly mid shots as it allows body and facial expressions to be captured, emphasizing the emotion and points the members of the pole are putting across. The lighting in the studio has no special effects and is used purely for the effect of letting the viewer see the host and guest, in the background you can see the audience but you don't get to see them clearly as it is darker, this is done so you focus more on the facts and opinions of the experts and do not get distracted by the less relevant public audience. The facts of the discussion are given out though the debate of the discussion as each cast member fights to get their personal side across, this would create huge bias information alone, but because their are other people counteracting the point just given, shown at 0:48 where Bill Maher interrupts explaining on a neutral stance to counteract the bias view of the pervious speaker. By having the controversy it allows the adueicne to make up their own decision which side they are on and what they think is right by collectively using information from all sides of the debate.

Review Show

Review shows are shows that analyse products or places within a specific field, for example waterspout equipment. They often do a test on the show to demonstrate the product to the audience.

Examples Of Review Show's are;

• QVC

QVC is a TV channel that makes shows about many different products to see if they are worth the price, and how they actually work.

• WTF is ... (Totalbiscuit Youtube)

WTF is... is a review show on youtube that gives a professional game reviewer opinion on a game by showing his first impressions of the game where he has live voiceover of himself reviewing the game as he plays them. This gives the audience the conclusion to buy or ignore the game.

• Will it Blend

Will it blend is a review show that does what in says in the title. The host, Tom Dickson, blends items that are not usually bended just to find out if it will blend. It is not really useful information to know but it is interesting non the less. The show starts wit ha small montage of his previous episodes where he has bended items such as pills and laser pointers, shown at 0:03 until 0:18. This gives the audience an understanding of what is expected in the show. He takes a less serious, calm approach to the testing and make jokes during it, for example at 1:05 he said, "I think I'll pull the trigger." this is a clever pun about guns that most people would pick up. This reminds the audience that the review show should not be taken too seriously and that it meant for a bit of fun and curiosity about what would blend. During the testing the camera does multiple close ups of the bending to show the product at work. This allows the viewer to see more detailed what they are watching for, giving them a better understand and view of what happens when the air gun is blended, shown at 1:13 and 1:21 and a change in the experiment has taken place. The music used has an old fashion elevator-like sound giving off a all round simplistic background sound or an instructional video soundtrack. This music converts the audience to believe that what is being shown is for entertainment purposes and should not be taken seriously. This is because the music is light hearted and fits with the characteristics of the host, being calm, laid back but serious when it comes to safety. Other than the music the sound quality is not too great during the blending as the blender makes a lot of distortion sounds. This is actually a positive as it proves that the blender is actually doing the job shown instead of it being framed. This gives the audience more reason to believe the denomination as well as convincing them it is the top blender on sale, making them more likely to want to buy one.

Chat Show

Chat shows are similar to discussion shows but instead of talking about a topic, they often talk about the person who is the guest to the show, this would usually be due to news about a celebrity or to exploit the genial publics life for the soul purpose of entertainment. Commonly chat shows are used to discuss 'everyday' issues.

Examples Of Chat Show's are;

• Alan Carr chatty man

Alan Carr Chatty man is a chat show where Alan Carr talks to celebrates about the latex gossip about them. He tries to get the personal details out of them by using humour and light hearted chatter.

• Backchat

Backchat is a show hosted by Jack Whitehall and his father to give a controversy of young modern and up to date hosting with a charter who is very out of date with the mainstream media. The due interview celebrates about their lives and upcoming events as well adding humour into the show with the controversy of the father and son.

• Jeremy Kyle 

Jeremy Kyle is a chat show where 'ordinary people' come on to talk about their problems in life. Jeremy tries to help them through their 'everyday' problems in life, which are effecting how they live in a negative way. The chat show, like any other, is set in a studio with Live multi camera techniques being used, as a spontaneous action could happen at any time. This also allows professional camera language, such as lots of close ups that flow together, and jump cuts when necessary. An example of this would be the common event of people talking over somebody else. An example of this would be 19:13, where the mother interrupts Jeremy. As it is in a studio, there is no background noise allowing the discussion to take place. Occasionally, the live audience would intervene to give the viewer of the show the sense of emotion they should feel about what had just happened, for example,  at 06:19, as the first son walks out, the crowd boos to tell the viewer that they should have a negative opinion on him. At the beginning of the show their is a montage with ordered footage to show what order the interview will come up in. The use of the montage is to give the audience a sneak peek of what is to come up in the show. During the montage they use climatic parts of the stores to keep the audience hooked and to see the reaction when it happens in the show. An example of this is at 0:24 where the mum quotes the son telling her to drive off a canal. The audience whats to know the response of Jeremy Kyle and the son from this shocking piece of information. The montage is used to keep the audience hooked onto the show and to drive them forward into making pre-judgement on the charters before they are even introduced. The voice over in the montage is the host himself so the audience releases that this is real and intense as the the host was a part of the situation that is going to be shown in a matter on minutes.

Magazine show

Magazine shows are a combination of many sub genres of documentaries as it often uses a chat or review shows as it main genre but has many branched off segments where they introduce other sub genres such as discussions, make over or sometimes special interests.

Examples Of Magazine Show's are;

• Daybreak

Daybreak is a Morning magazine show where it informs the audience of the latest news that includes, Top new reports, local new reports, celebrity gossip and wether. It is hosted inside of a studio and usual has a few guests on that are their to tell their story or to do a live performance. The tone is lighthearted and aimed towards children and mothers as it is on just before typical UK school schedules.

• The One show

The One show is a magazine show that mainly focuses on celebrate news and other news that is lighthearted and entertaining instead of the deep and depressing subjects such as death. They have interviews in the studio as well as using archive footage to show news that has been pre-recored. It is very similar to the new but takes on a much less serious tone.

• Top Gear

Top Gear is a Specialise Manganese show about mainly cars. In this show they do multiple segments which are from different sub genres of documentaries such as review show, chat show and also a small segment of a discussion with the other host of the show. The Location the show is taking place in is usually a studio but Top Gear has their own warehouse which is transformed into a studio so they can have easy access to moving cars around. From the studio they cut to the pre-recorded segments, like the review show at 3:30 where they take the car out on the road to see how it drives and what perks it has. The language the hosts use are more for entertainment as they describe the car basically so anybody could understand, this implements infotainment to the show as the manganese show is more entertaining to watch in relation to the useful information you get out of it. At 20:58 Jeremy has a guest on the show where he talks about the guest and the relationships with cars. After a short interview you see a small contest the guest does at 28:45 where they do a race around a track to see how quick they compare to other guests. The camera language is all professional and uses a lot of close up of the presenters, the cars and the guests. This is used to create the most amount of impulsive and powerful impression of the character or car. The use of music in the magazine show is to emphasise the emotion the car is trying to present it as. During the reviews of one of the cars, very intense, connoting that the car is a powerful and runs smoothly. The presenters are clearly bias on their options on the car as if they do not like the make or they would not give it as nice of a review, but they are experts in the subject so they are still a reliable source of information about the cars.