Research
Research is the base level of any project. It's a foundation you can go back to if you ever get stuck and it's a fundamental step that we will all do at some point in our lives. Without the research stage we could end up with inaccurate or incorrect work. We can also learn from other projects.
We should be educating ourselves on the potential topics we could end up choosing. There is no point attempting to teach someone how to do something if you, yourself, do not know.
Choosing a topic it worth researching due to the risk of it being unnecessary. This stage will define if it's worth doing. We should know how many have been done before and by who.
Types of research
Primary
Primary research is research you've done yourself. This research should be completely original, therefore the results should display something that hasn't been seen before. Any person could publish their own primary research and could actually end up getting their work published in an academic journal or something of the like. For university students, it is the most common type of research.
One example could be a questionnaire or survey that you've planned and written up yourself. You could hand them out to your class, friends or family. You could also conduct interviews where you can ask another person, one to one, a list of preset questions. This would be a more personal and time-consuming way to gain information.
Things like focus groups also require a lot of work but you would get some pretty strong results. You could ask a total of 8 people or more if you really wanted to. It would be hard to 'rig the test' as you could make a recording of yourself asking the questions and then play it back. Focus groups are similar to personal interviews but they are very time-consuming. It would take you hours of work to organise and conduct each one of them. You could also get some pretty strong results with focus groups, especially if they consist of more than eight members.
Secondary
Secondary research is research that's pretty much second hand. It's research that's already been done before. Due to the ease of access to the internet, you can learn and gain information from articles and reviews. You can also search for previous studies, questionnaires, or surveys on your chosen topic and discover data that has already been collected.
The disadvantage of this method of research is that you have to find specific information which is likely to be buried amongst more captivating information.
Qualitative
This is information that comes from someone's personal viewpoint. It's like film reviews, where it is someone's personal opinion. The disadvantage of qualitative research is that it does not always provide accurate information.
By using this method, the person will be able to discuss the subject in-depth and choose their own works.
An example of this would be the 'BBC Culture' webpage. It is here you can gain access to articles written by writers on their chosen topic. They are allowed to go into as much depth as they like and speak freely about their thoughts and opinions.
Quantitative
In quantitative research, statistics or data are most commonly found. These types of statistics and data tend to produce factual results. This type of research is very accurate and produces numerical or measurable data.
For instance, surveys, interviews, online polls, and systematic observations would all be examples of this kind of research.
Rotten Tomatoes is a website that serves as a trusted source of quality entertainment. They provide film and TV fans with reviews and ratings.
They use a system called the 'TOMATOMETER®'. This is based on the opinions of hundreds of critics. However, it is trusted and used as a guide of what might be good to watch by millions of worldwide users.
These users can give an 'Audience Rating'. These ratings will be entered into some software and will be converted into a percentage.
Questionnaires
In a questionnaire, questions are listed to collect data. You should not use this method if you are looking for behaviour, trends or a bigger picture. They are typically given out to individuals as a method to gain information from a target audience.
Open-ended and closed-ended questions will be used. The data you collect can be quantitative or quantitative. The results from one questionnaire will only tell you about one person because of this it is not considered 'valuable' information until it is looked at as a part of a wider survey.
A good example would be a teacher sending a student a questionnaire to find out if that student could continue learning from home. They would likely need to find out more about the technology requirements the student would need to learn his lessons from home. The results, that the student would put into the questionnaire, would be used to learn information about that student as an individual rather than a larger group.
Surveys
The purpose of a survey is to collect data through a set of questions so that statistical analysis can be made. Creating a survey takes a lot of time and effort but is a useful tool that anyone can use to compile information. Questionnaires are required in every survey but are of little importance.
One of the ultimate aims of a survey is finding out more about a specific group. For example, an independent cafe wants to gain information and what customers think about the service and drinks.
Another example could be; the RAC wants to know what the customer thought about the mechanic repairing a broken down vehicle. The waiting time and customer service.
All the results can be entered into a computer where the data can be analysed and results produced.
Market Research
The purpose of market research is to discover the target audience. In addition, it can help find if the topic is of interest. Therefore, it is an essential strategy for businesses to gather information about target markets and customers. For example, companies will employ focus groups to collect statistical information.
In the media industry, a market research study is conducted to ensure a project is not an exact copy of what has already been done before. Another reason is to make sure the project is viable.
If the market research was not done correctly, the project could be released to the public, and no one will be interested in it.
Audience Research
This type of research is conducted on specific audiences to gather information about them. It is research that can tell a person or business if an audience exists or if it's worth doing.
Say if Coca-Cola wanted to introduce a new flavour into the market, they would employ people to go out and ask the public, Coca-cola drinkers, if they like their new drink and if they would purchase it.
Another example would be 'BARB'. BARB is a company that is responsible for delivering the UK's television audience ratings. They typically find out Who is watching? What are they watching? When are they watching?
Production Research
Production research is about finding out whether the production's future income will be greater than its creations outcome and if it is viable.
It is how you find out the cost or financial issues. The location and facilities for the project. The staff, crew and equipment. You won't get anywhere without heavily researching health and safety issues and risks assessments. Last but not least, if the project is viable.
You need to know how you'll make it work and what you have to do to get there.
Ethical Research
The purpose of ethical research is to create and write guidelines on what not to do. It can be a code of conduct that will guide you and any other person helping with the project, know how to behave. Although most people may already have ideas on what's morally right, opinions may differ per person.
Things to be aware of are first blasphemy. Blasphemy is a threat against God or anything sacred with the intention of offending people. This is something people with an excellent moral code wouldn't do, and including it in your project can end being controversial.
Profanities or profanity is the second thing to come up in ethical research. It is the use of offensive language or words. You should refrain from including profanities in your video if you intend to watch it by all age groups. For instance, if you were planning a show for young children, the use of profanity or blasphemy could bring your project to an end before it even started. Audience research could address this issue.
Legal Research
When legal bonds are involved with specific works, legal considerations arise. For example, in a copyright agreement, an artist grants others the right to repurpose their creative work in exchange for a fee, usually for a limited time. Such works can be musical, artistic, or literary. For instance, radio stations are required to pay a royalty for each track played.
In the music or art world, copyright entitles the creator to publish, perform, film, and record creative or musical materials for a fixed number of years. When you use copyrighted work without obtaining the owner's permission, you are infringing the copyright law.
An excellent example of this would be the Tom Petty vs Sam Smith case. The songs were 'I Won't Back Down' by Tom Petty vs 'Stay With Me' by Sam Smith. The two songs were a complete contrast to each other. However, the tune was much the same. Tom Petty and co-writer Jeff Lynne got involved in a legal dispute with Sam Smith's team over the song. Following their discovery that there was a likeness between the two songs, Petty's team contacted Smith. Petty and Lynne agreed to receive 12.5% songwriting credit on the track as part of a settlement.
Creative Commons
Creators using Creative Commons licences can make their works available to the public for free. Creative Commons is an internationally active non-profit that provides creators with free licenses for these purposes. By using these licences, the creator permits others to use his work under specific conditions in advance.
Fair usage
Under United States law, fair use permits limited uses of copyrighted material without first obtaining permission from the copyright holder.
Legal contracts
A contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties and is typically composed of a set of mutual promises. Each party will specify their rights and responsibilities in the contract and is enforceable in court.
Representation
TV or film representations of certain groups or communities reflect the way they are perceived. They may be impacted negatively by the risk of setting or using stereotypes. Say if your project was 'The Lord of the ring'. Nowadays, it is essential to have as much inclusivity as possible. In the movie trilogy, the cast almost entirely consisted of white actors. In the movies, women were represented altogether differently than in the books.
In the original LOTR books, the two main female characters were ladies who did little to enhance the story. However, in the movies, the writers and directors changed a lot to allow the two female characters a chance to be more than they were in the book. The women are represented as strong, fierce and independent characters. This was brilliant because it was a good display of fair female representation in the media industry.
Stereotyping is something that will cause a lot of controversy on any project. You can stereotype someone, or a group, on their race, gender, sexuality or religion. This can be hurtful and could negatively impact your project.
Your project may one day include a role model. Someone who serves as a role model whose actions, example, or success can inspire other people. An excellent example of this will be Hermione from JK Rowling's books, Harry Potter. Hermione inspired millions of readers all over the world due to the characters unashamed thirst for knowledge. She showed everyone that knowledge is power and never let anyone make you feel bad for wanting to learn everything. Even in the movies, the character was represented by becoming just as strong as anyone around her.
Video Research
In this section of my research page, I have found three examples of contrasting videos to my chosen topic. For my project, I have decided to produce a video explaining How to set up your camera and tripod. The three videos I have selected all vary in quality going from bad to excellent examples.
Video 1
When I first started searching for existing examples of my video, I stumbled on this short clip. As you can tell from the title, it claims to explain how to set a particular camera up with one specific tripod.
My first impressions of the video were confused and surprised. Firstly, I was confused because how can anyone explain something like that in 15 seconds. Secondly, I was surprised because the title of the clip was very misleading.
The video was disappointing because It was very short. Also, it was filmed on a phone, so the quality and lighting weren't brilliant either. The person filming used one camera angle throughout the whole clip.
In this video, there was no step by step guide on setting up the camera and tripod. It also had no voice-over. I believe that the person who posted this video added a clickbait title to get more views.
The music in the video was a nice addition, and you can briefly see the man adjusting the height on the tripod.
Overall, I was disappointed because the title is very misleading, and the video does not have a purpose.
Video 2
The video displayed above is the video I selected as my second example. In this video, it is someone explaining how to reset the camera back to its factory settings. I found the video to be very mid-range in quality.
I spotted the video as I was browsing. The title first caught my attention because it was the first video I came across that had a slightly different title. Nothing stood out in the thumbnail and it was very basic. Just a preset thumbnail that was randomly selected by youtube. The view count, comments and likes are low but that may be due to the fact that it was uploaded the same day I started researching existing videos.
The presenter was good due to the person going straight to the point and not filling the video with pointless chatter. Although the presenter was never actually in the shot, he was very clear with his demonstration and instructions. This would be easy to follow by anyone.
The sound and audio quality is very good. There is barely any reverb which means that the person took steps to create a decent recording space. The mic he is using enhances his voice and it sounds very clear. The camera work is average, for the whole duration of the video the audience is stuck watching the tutorial from one camera angle, I can see this getting very tedious to watch if it was any longer.
The video length is just under 60 seconds long, during this period it allows for a quick and easy-to-follow step-by-step guide. This video is very simple and fit for its purpose. I would recommend it to a friend due to its simplicity and the presenter's ability to get the point across.
Video 3
This third video was my favourite out of the three. I selected this video based on its view count. It also appeared on the top of the results page when I set the order to relevance. The thumbnail is an extreme close up, and it is relevant to the topic I am researching. The title is relatively self-explanatory, and unlike video 1, this video did exactly what it said it would.
After the fancy graphic intro, the beginning shot opens using a medium shot on the presenter. The presenter is dressed very professionally and is efficient, well-spoken, and straight to the point throughout the video. The first scene is shot outdoors in the garden, a contrast to the usual studio backgrounds I've seen in other videos.
The audio is captured using an excellent quality microphone. Throughout the whole video, the audio and sound are consistent and very professional. The graphic animation is a nice touch to keep the footage looking interesting and modern. There was no music used in this video, but it did not take away from the feel at all.
Between clips, the editor uses clean transitions and nothing too fancy. The camera angles change a lot throughout the video. This keeps it interesting to look at for any kind of audience, especially the use of the dutch angle.
The video uses an excellent step by step structure. It is very formal, and it looks like something you would typically have to pay for to watch. However, the presenter makes swift descriptions of each instruction and demonstrates it clearly.
I would absolutely recommend this video to someone else. This is the kind of video quality I would aim to achieve in my How-to video.
The video above is my practice 'How to' video. The topic I chose to cover in my video was "How to put a headcollar on a horse". I picked this topic because it was a unique topic, and I thought it would be fun to include my horse in the video.
The day of the shoot was sunny but with strong gusts of wind. This would be problematic in regards to the sound recording. I planned to use my Tascam lavalier to record the sound. I set the 'mic gain' to 'Low' so it wouldn't pick up as much noise from the wind. However, the sunny skies allowed my camera to record crystal clear footage.
I decided it would not be safe to use my TriPod that day because it was very windy. This was a hazard as the wind could blow the TriPod over and damage my camera. Another reason why using a TriPod could be a hazard was that strange things can easily spook horses, and it could cause an accident.
My 5 step plan was
- Introduce myself and Dollar
- Explain what a headcollar is and some safety facts
- Approach the horse from the front or the side
- Demonstrate how to put the headcollar on
- How to safely lead the horse
When I first arrived at my location, the field, I put my camera and mic in my bag and out of reach of the horses. Because I did not want to use the TriPod, I asked my mum if she could film. The benefits of this were that she could change the camera angles easily. However, sometimes the video would get a little shaky.
When I arrived at Dollar's field, I got all my equipment set up. I checked the settings, battery, and SD card space before I gave my mum the camera. Then, I needed to connect the lav mic to my jacket and adjust the settings. I said before that it was windy, so I made the appropriate adjustments to the settings before pressing the record button.
I did a countdown and a clap to make it easier to sync the audio later on in post-production. Doing this will produce a spike in both the camera audio and the mic audio tracks making it visible and easy to sync.
While my horse is usually calm and chilled out, the chilly wind must've caused some excitement because Dollar was very annoying. He was most uncooperative. Because of this, I had to record several attempts.
When I was nearly ready to give up, Dollar seemed to get bored and start behaving himself. I imagine this is why people say to never work with animals in videos. Things can go wrong very quickly.
When I thought I had enough footage, I recorded an outro and packed my equipment away. This was crucial due to the chance of rain later that afternoon.
When I got around to editing the videos, I decided to make a 'Bloopers' video that included most of the outtakes. It was pretty frustrating because the first video I tried recording was probably the best as I included a vast range of camera angles. Still, Dollar had other ideas and decided to fidget.
To improve next time, I will invest in a wind muff for my mic. This will prevent any residue noise from the wind from being picked up. In addition, I will add a wider variety of camera angles and shots to make it a lot more interesting.