Primary research: The importance of primary research

Interview techniques: An interview in when you meet someone face to face and ask them questions that you need to know. Primary research when thinking about short film is key due to it helping you find out exactly word for word what the people want form a short film. There are formal and informal types of interviews, in this case when thinking about short film you would only need to hold an informal interview due to the fact that you only need answers from someone. Formal interviews is mainly when the interviewee has to make a good impression however there is really no need in this case.


Observations - studying behavior: Observations is when you observe something, when thinking about short film you would observe how many people watch a genre of short film. The more people watch a short film the more successful it is and you might want to observe the content of the short film that attracted the audience in the first place.


Questionnaires: Questionnaires are when you conduct questions to ask an audience, then the audience will fill out the questionnaire sheet responding to all questions asked. This would be a good type of primary research due to the fact that people at any time can fill in the questionnaire and you can benefit from the responses.


Surveys: By taking the time to give your opinion, you would be providing an input for the development of a product or a service. Surveys would good be a good type of research because i would be receiving inputs on making a short film, this allows you too give yourself guidelines of what your short film should consist of.


Focus groups: A focus group is when a group of people assemble to discuss about a product or service that has not yet been launched. This is good because it allows peoples ideas to form together, all in all the more ideas the better.


Audience panels: An audience panel is when a group is selected from the audience to judge your short film. For example, a group of 5 people would be selected and taken into a room to watch a section from your short film, after they would review it and make comments about it. This is helpful when researching due to having direct yet truthful comments about your short film, the cons can be identified which means it gives you the ability to adapt and change.


Participation in internet forums: This can be very helpful because if you get involved in an internet forum on short film making, it gives you the ability to ask for advice from other members within the forum. Essentially the internet forums are like a community so it is always good to have access to free advice from experienced short film makers.


Data gathering agencies:  The main role of  data gathering agencies are to collect data and maintain it. It can be very useful when thinking about short film due to people wondering the basic question of how many people actually watch short films. It can be useful to see how much can be made of a short film because overall, whats the point in putting time, effort and money into a short film if you do not make any profit.

According to www.barb.co.uk the most successful TV at the beginning of January on channel 4 was Goggle Box. This could be the most viewed on that week because of the holidays. It is seen as quite laughable so it would be a great family laugh. Due to it being the holidays it means that families would mainly be together and it would be something good for all to watch. Also quite a lot of people would be staying in due to the cold weather so it would be something entertaining to watch.

Short films are occasionally commissioned by TV channels such as Channel 4 of BBC 3. The short films are shown on these TV channels are available to watch quite late and they are not shown on a regular basis, this can be quite hard for Barb to capture how many people viewed it. If you have made a short film and want to find out how many people view other short films you would need to think more than just Barb. An example of this would be finding short films put on You-tube and discover how many hits it has. Another way would be finding a Facebook page and discover how many likes the post has got. Also, why not check the forums and blogs to see the comments about short films, the more a short film is spoken about in a positive way the more successful it would tend to be.

Short film directors might be interested in Rajar data. Rajar data is data collected via radio. If the radio station is talking about the directors film that is coming out, the director will want to know how many people tuned in to listen to the station talking about it. This could be very useful to the short film directors due to them knowing how many people are looking forward to watching it and to from an brief idea on how successful the short film will be.

Observations:

Purposes of research

Market research

Product Market: Product market research lets you understand what customers really want, essentially allowing you to change your product to meet demand. In short film you will always have a copy of the short film before you release it. Having a copy is a heavy advantage when thinking about short film due to being able to research other competition yet still being able to change it.

Competition is vital when creating short film due to the effective ideas that you can benefit from, if a certain camera angle looks effective then why not add it in to your short film. You can only benefit from viewing the short film competition due to seeing what has worked and what has not, therefore making your short film significantly better.

Extreme competitive advantage is on your short film due to identifying what went wrong in the competitors short film and what went wrong in yours, followed by improving your short film. Product market research in key when thinking about short film because you have your short film, the copy is tested and then can be altered to meet the audiences needs correctly. 

Competitor analysis: This is when you, as a short film maker, assess the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This type of analysis offers offensive and defense when creating your short film. This is extremely important when thinking about short film due to being able to gain good ideas from a current short film in terms of camera quality, the level of acting, the camera angles etc. Also you can identify what was missing form a short film and add it in yours therefore making you one step ahead. 

Advertising placement: An ad placement is a group of specific advert units, this means the ads are placed in the right place for the audience to notice. The main reason for creating an advert is to persuade the audience to watch your short film. The more you pay the more chance that you ad is higher up on the page, the higher up on the page your ad is the more chance you have of people viewing it. Also within the advertisement, the units on the page must be placed correctly, the most important information should not be at the bottom of the page in small font, it should be where the human eye will look first and in a eye catching font. If an advert does not catch the eye of the audience then the ad is pretty much useless. 

Advertising effects: This essentially is how your advert will effect your audience. How much of the audience will now notice your short film? You might begin to wonder how will you know if your ad has worked, you can identify if your ad has worked by social media. If your short film that you are going to release if shared via Facebook, you can see if the likes have gone up and check to see if their are more positive comments. Also you can check if  the advert was affect via You-Tube, If you have created a trailer for your short film you can check if the likes and views have gone up on that. 

Audience research

Audience data: Audience data is data that is collected and shows how many people watch on contribute to a website, TV channels or film. Audience data is very useful when thinking about short film. For a short film director it would be useful to them due to being able to identify what type of short films people are watching. A disadvantage of this would be that it is very hard to track people that watch short film due to it being quite uncommon. 

Audience profiling: Audience profiling is gathering a profile for your audience, factors must be considered when thinking about the profile such as age, gender, race and sexuality. Once you have put together an audience profile you can then identify what product suits them. This would be very useful for short film directors due to knowing what the audience wants from a film, followed by creating a film that suits them. A disadvantage of this would be that a vast amount of people might have different profile so it would be hard to please everyone. 

Demographics: Demographics are characteristics of a given population. By this you can identify different groups of people by splitting them up into groups such as education, nationality, religion and ethnicity. By creating this, you can identify what they want from a product. This would be useful when thinking about short film because you can gather ideas of what different groups want from a film. For example, if someones nationality was Germany and they was watching a film that showed the war about Germany invading and being the "bad guys" they might take it to offense. 

Geo demographics: Geo demographics is the description of people according to where they live, derived from the study of spatial information. By this you can identify what suits different areas. Some locations would like a product and other locations might like a completely different product. This would be useful when thinking about short film due to discovering areas to aim your short film at. You can identify what an area likes and make your short film consist of what the area likes. A disadvantage of this would be that some areas might consist of completely different views so it would be hard to suit everyone. 

Consumer behaviour: Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups or societies to understand their needs. By this you would study what products they choose to purchase, studying their consumer activity to understand the type of products they like. This would be useful when thinking about a film because you can match a short film to the audiences preferences. For example, if a person spent a lot of time watching action in the cinema, the director could make a short film that consists of action to meet the needs of consumers. 

Consumer attitudes: Consumer attitudes is when the identifying what the audience likes and does not like. This would be helpful in short film research due to understanding what the audience likes and does not like. How would you find out about consumer attitudes? Primary research would be a main way of finding what they like and don't like, an example of primary research would be surveys given out to the audience to have evidence of what they like form a short film. You can then find out what they like from a short film and produce one that suits them. 

Audience awareness: Audience awareness is researching how well the audience knows about short film. For short film, audience awareness is incredibly helpful due to the people that know about a short film the more potential views it will get. How would you conduct this type of research though? You could conduct this research via the internet, for example a trailer for your short film could be put up on You-Tube and see how many views that gets, the more views the more people know about it. 

Production research

Content:

Content is what the production research is about. You need to research the content to understand what you are essentially trying to find out. Researching the content is helpful because it allows the researcher to develop their understanding of what the product consists of. For example, if you were researching a chocolate bar to create a new brand of chocolate, you would need to know what a chocolate bar consists of in order to create your own version of it. 

Viability:

Viability is important when considering creating a documentary because you need to understand how and when you can get the shooting done. Having good understanding of correct viability means that you understand how long it will take in order to complete the project. For example, you are shooting a film, discovering how long it will take to create the film means that you can form an estimated release date to advertise. 

Placement media:

Placement media if referring to media management. Media management covers planning, testing, analyzing and adjusting. This means that you, the researcher, have a more effective chance of producing a film that will be favoured rather than disliked. It allows the researcher to plan how they will come about creating the product. Then as the researcher you can buy a product that is similar to the one you want to create, analyze it and then adjust your product plan to ensure that you dont make the same mistakes that the previous product has. 

Finance:

Finance is making sure that you have enough money to make the production. You would have to plan your finance. This would consist of planning how much equipment will be to shoot your production. It is a test of your organisational and planning skills. If the production is not finished and you have insufficient funds to cover costs then the production will reach a barrier. Ensuring that you have finance behind your production is key because without it, hard work and time could be put into it for an empty outcome. 

Costs:

Costs is anything that requires purchasing in order to complete your production. Costs links with finance because you need the finance to cover costs. Planning your costs is essential because you need to know how much money you need. Paying for costs as you go along is not the right idea because this could lead to having insufficient funds to cover the costs, again this could lead to a barrier in your production.  

Technological resources:

This is identifying the technology you need to complete your production. You will need to plan every technological equipment you will need, then find out where to obtain it. You, the researcher, will have to locate where to get the tech that you need before you start filming the production. This links back to costs because you need to plan what tech you need and how much it will cost, find out if you can purchase it and locate where to buy it from. 

Personnel:

Personnel refers to person. This is where you need to consider all the people you need to complete your production. Then find out if they are available on the dates that you need them to attend. For example, in your production plan you plan to interview a person how they feel about the activities for teenagers in a local area, you will need to find out what day they can attend the interview and most importantly if they are up for it. Also this applies for the crew, finding out what dates they can help film.

Locations:

Locations cover where you are going to film your production. This is something that you need to plan because, firstly, you need to find out if you can film there. If you are not allowed to film in the location that you desire then you will need to gain permission. Planning where to film is important because you want the most effective location that links to your production. For example, if your film was about a chocolate bar, the location that you film in would not be in a toy store... right? The location would be in a chocolate factory. If you are shooting a documentary to enhance the awareness of the lack activities for teenagers in a local area, it would make sense to shoot the documentary in the local area.  

The advantages and disadvantages of quantitative research

One advantage of quantitative research would be that the data that the researcher collects is easy to collate. This means that the researcher can easily identify which questions are a yes and which questions are a no. In terms of short films, for the researcher it means that they can easily form an idea of what the target market wants for example if they like short films that relate to reality. Another advantage would be that the process of obtaining responses would be fast and linking the data would be fast as well. This means that it is not as time consuming as qualitative research. 

A disadvantage of quantitative research would be that it could not be up to date. Due to the data being portrayed numerically, it means that it would need to constantly be updated due to number changing all the time. Also in terms of finding short film research, although it may be quick it would not give you as much detail as qualitative research. This type of research would determine for example, whether a viewer likes reality short films or does not. If they chose did not, the researcher would never know why they do not like them, perhaps it could be that they think it does not relate to real life enough and if that is the case then you could of made your short film relate to reality more.  

The advantages and disadvantages of Qualitative Research

One advantage of qualitative research would be that it gives you a detailed response to the questions you ask. This would be an advantage because it gives you a persons full developed opinion in detail rather than just yes or no. This is important when researching a short film because you would want to know the details of what a person thinks to erase the mistakes that happen when creating your short film. Also you would want to know exactly how the viewer feels due to then having the ability to see what the viewers like and then adapt a short film to that, as a result it would most likely increase in the number of likes. Finally, qualitative research gives the researcher a clearer picture of what the target market wants. 


A disadvantage of qualitative research would be that be that sometimes the questions asked may be biased, the researcher could asked bias questions which would lead to a detailed biased answer. This would be a factor that you should consider when researching a short film due to possibly asking biased questions which would lead to biased answers therefore adapting you short film to suit you rather than the target market. Another disadvantage would be that the data is hard to demonstrate or assess, due to each answer being a detailed opinion, it would be hard to present the data due to their being so much information in each response. Also another disadvantage would be that is much more time consuming, it would take a while to under-go this type of research due to giving the poeple time to think and write about their views. 

Types of research: Qualitative research

Fanzines:

How might fanzines help short film producers build larger audiences/ communities?

Fanzines might help short film producers build a larger audience/ community by forming an internet page that anyone with the access to internet can look at, which is a large audience itself.

They consist of short film reviews that would help encourage the audience to view the short film. Sometimes people who enjoy watching short films would like to know essentially what they are watching instead of watching it and having no idea of whats going on. Fanzines are a great way for people to get a better understanding of what they are about to watch. The reviews consist of what the short film is about and tells you what type of short film you will be watching. For example, here is a review on the fanzines website:

 Spoiler
If you love Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series, you’ll love Spoiler. Spoiler presents a near–future America after a zombie epidemic. What really struck me was how thoroughly the film delved into the world after the fall in just 17 minutes. They even deal with the bureaucracy that such a world would require. Amazingly well–made, with subtle effects and details that populate the finest storytelling. Little things like doors that seal themselves after an alert is sounded, or self–turning screws, make this the kind of film that you can watch over and over, and discover something every time.

Fanzines are mainly designed for the fans of short film. They are designed for a specialist audience. The website gives the opportunity for fans to access a wider range of short films, in a way this is good for the film producers because it means that their short film is getting promoted. The website is essentially a promotion method for the short film itself. Also for the audience who have an interest in short films, promotion could be created by word of mouth. One fan could notice a short film review that is outstanding and tell a friend, then that friend will tell another friends and then so on.

Fanzines help the consistency of the community of short film. Short film communities have always been there however the communities actually being noticed for what they are has not. Fanzines create a community that is available 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week ( due to the internet being available every day and hour of the year). In addition, the community that Fanzines create would only expand due to the quality of short films being increased every year.

Fanzines would definitely help short film producers build a larger audience and community due to the fact that the internet is available to a huge amount of people. They make it easier for the film producers to make their films known by the specialist audience and create a community of short film lovers that will forever expand.

Film reviews: They can help you with your research within the short film industry due to the fact that reviews pick out the pros and cons of a film. By reading through film reviews you can identify what went wrong in the film, then you should make sure you do not include in your short film. You can also learn from the pros of a film and add them to your short film as well.

Attitude to media products: Qualitative research will depend on the audiences attitude to the particular media product you are trying to put forward. This is helpful when researching due to the fact that you can change and adapt your short film to the preference of your audience. What ever is most preferred, adapt your short film to it. Trends and opinions can always change so the best thing to do is produce a product that suits the on-going trend.

Discussion: This is probably the most effective type of qualitative research. Discussion allows thoughts and opinions to be noticed. For example, you can have an idea for a film and you believe that it can be very successful, but then someone opens your eyes and identifies the faults with your film. That discussion could save you from making mistakes.