Secondary Research - The importance of research in short film

Books

Rea, P, Irving, D, 24 march 2015, CRC press, Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video


Page 37 of the book that i have referenced above, States reason for why research is important when thinking about making a short film.

One key element for researching short film was checking the internet on a regular basis. The internet changes all the time in terms of being updated so keeping track of valid information rather than invalid information would mean checking the internet on a daily basis. This would be important when researching short film due to knowing what is expected form a short film, if you don't know the basics of what short film should consist of, then how would you expect to make it engaging.

 Rea et al states "do your research" (page 37). "Do your research" is aiming at funding. Researching funding would be a key part of research in short film due to the need of knowing essentially how you will receive funds. Knowing how other short film makers receive their funds would be good to know because you would have an idea in your head of how you are going to fund. In addition, you would also find the advantages and disadvantages of the type of funding that they chose so when you start to decide you wouldn't make the same mistake as they did.


Cooper, P, 10 Sep 2012, Taylor & Francis, Writing the short film

Under the subheading "The importance of research" will be a key quote to take note from. Cooper states that "to understand behavior is to be able to use action purposefully in a story", this means that you need to research how the general human behaves to make a film mirroring their actions. The importance of researching this would be incredibly high to the fact that you cant make a short film that the audience can not relate to. Researching is very important due to the fact you need to give the audience what they want from a short film, but you couldn't do that without researching what they want from it. It would be like running the job of a store manager but not knowing how to manage a team... you would need research before hand.




Nash, P, 12 Jan 2012, Oldcastle Books, Short films: writing the screenplay



The secondary research that i conducted had a high importance for the production of making short films. I used a key word phrase search within the book that directed to me to page that gave me the information that i needed, the key phrase search was " Research ".

First, an important idea to think about when thinking about the production of a short film is the watching as many short films as possible. For research, it means that you can form an idea in your head of what short films consist of and what has already been done. Also you you can spot what is missing from the short films and what the cliche between them appears to be. This is important because as a researcher you would need to understand the competition and what has already been done so you can differentiate your short film from others to make it stand out.

Secondly, another key thing to research when thinking about the production of your short film is finding new things to write about. originality is key when producing a short film to make it stand out from the others. If you are finding it hard to find new things to write about, using the internet you can research old stories that have already been done and figure out how you can make it own. Sometimes creating an old story and making it your own interpretation catches the audience quicker than presenting a new story. This is important because making a short film that engages your audience is key due to it being one of your main targets.

Finally, using the internet as a source of research is a key thing to consider due to their being cast information about pretty much everything on there. The page is the book says if you plan to write about a local subject then go and visit the location you are writing about and go and talk to people that actually know about it. This is important when thinking about the production of a short film due to having to know your subject in and out. You have to feel your drama and be passionate about it before you think about making it because the deeper you get into the subject of your short film the better experience the audience will have when watching it.




Internet

The purpose of the internet would be that anyone that has access to it, can research pretty much any type of information that they want. The internet page:  

 https://shortofstories.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/research-your-story/

states that researching does not just high light the errors of short film making but gives you the chance to discover new ways of making it successful. The website stated "Besides cleaning up the way from bad hazards, research will also show you new obstacles." This is a key quote to remember when thinking about the importance of research when making a short film due to the fact that it showing what research can do. Researching the internet would certainly help you find new material for a short film because of how wide the range of content it has. Some things that you would not ever think of when creating a short film would be on the internet, sometimes you need a little help to thrive. 



Forums

The purpose of forums would be to help others as a community for example, if you had a question that you was stuck on, you would ask the question in the forum and someone on the internet will get back to you successfully answering your question. It is a great way for people to act as a community and help others fulfill their potential when making a short film.

On this internet forum: http://www.filmmakerforum.org/general-discussion/6142-tips-for-writing-an-interrogation-short.html

It has a prime example of the importance of forums, someone asked Hey guys, do you have any tips on writing a short film that is just an interrogation short film? By that I mean it would only have one scene. How do I keep the viewers interested and make sure they know enough backstory without a huge load of exposition and/or flashbacks? There can be some flashbacks and/or exposition but I don't want too much. Thanks so much in advance! :)

Someone replied: 

What I have in mind is a gangster-like character (someone who has a lot of control in a town) has captured one of his "minions" and is interrogating him because he did something wrong. That is all I have so far.

This is a prime example of the forum chat working together. Someone was stuck on the story behind their short film and someone then gave them ideas that they could possibly use. The importance of forums is very high due to the simple fact that 2 brains is better than one. On forums they can achieve first hand research for their films with the help of the short film community and for a short film maker, this is the biggest help anyone could ask for. 

Journals

The purpose of a short film journal is to get a variety of perspectives and ideas about a short film to get a better understanding of short film as a whole. It is designed for on-going research for viewers to get the best picture of what short film should consist of. 

On the internet page: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/sfs/2014/00000004/00000001

It has a variety of journals that short film makers would love to pay attention to.
Journals would be a good way to research short film due to them having the knowledge. They consist of previous short film details that would essentially improve someone else's short film. Reading a journal would improve the knowledge of a short film producer and would cover topics that the reader can learn from. The more knowledge that you have about short film, essentially the better your short film will be. 

Newspapers

The purpose of a newspaper is to advertise and inform the public of what is happening in the world. Researching newspapers would be a good type of research because it gives you the ability to see what films are blowing up. Within a newspapers their will normally be a review or comments on the films that are being advertised. By reading through you can gain an understanding of what types of films are being released and if they are successful or not.





Circulation figures

A newspapers circulation figure is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. By researching these figures, you can identify what newspaper is being distributed the most to see what the public reads through the most. Once you have this information you can start to think about advertising. When your short film is being produced you will need to think about advertising and what better way to start advertising with the most viewed newspaper around the area.





Periodicals 

This a newspaper or magazine that is published at regular intervals. It is a space for consumers and producers to discuss different genres, the conditions of its production and its reception as well as a consumer guide to movies.

Below are examples of periodicals:


Magazines and trade publications[edit]

Title	ISSN	Publisher	Language	Country	Frequency	Publication range	Status	Document Type
1895	ISSN 0769-0959	Association Française de Recherche sur l'Histoire du Cinéma (AFRHC)	French	France	3 times per year	1986–	Current	Magazine
24 images	ISSN 0707-9389	24/30 I/S - Revue 24 images	French	Canada	Bi-monthly	1979–	Current	Magazine
Academia	ISSN 1133-7559	Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematograficas de España	Spanish	Spain	Irregular	1993–2005	Ceased	Magazine
Action	ISSN 0001-7361	Directors Guild of America (DGA)	English	United States	Bi-monthly	1966–1978	Ceased	Trade Journal
Afterimage	ISSN 0261-4472	Afterimage Publishing	English	United Kingdom	Irregular	1970–1987	Ceased	Magazine
Amante Cine, El	ISSN 0329-2606	Ediciones Tatanka SA	Spanish	Argentina	Monthly	1991–	Current	Magazine
American Cinematographer	ISSN 0002-7928	American Society of Cinematographers	English	United States	Monthly	1920–	Current	Magazine
American Film	ISSN 0361-4751	American Film Institute (AFI) / BPI Communications	English	United States	Monthly	1975–1992	Ceased	Magazine

Film archives 

A film archive is a collection of films that have been preserved because of their historical or cultural interest. This can be helpful when researching because you can see the content of the films within the archive and attempt to maybe embed them in your film. You can learn from film archives from developing your knowledge on early developments of the genre you are choosing.

BFI in South bank is a good example of a film archive, they offer a variety of film archives to the public for free.







Photo libraries 


You can research photo libraries to view different images. The different images that view could potentially influence the style of how you want your film to look. Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. Viewing a picture that has meaning can be more powerful than reading about it. Including pictures in your research, overall, will help you gain a better understanding of the topic you are researching.


An example would be a photo library called "shutter shock". Researchers can obtain photos based on the topic they are researching to help them gain a better understanding.








CD ROM databases 


CD ROM databases used to be a method of researching and learning. It used to be a disc that you would purchase and it would work like a google or a thesaurus. From a researchers point of view, you could research and expand your vocabulary.

CD ROM has high data, it is equivalent to store 250,000 written pages. From a researchers point of view, this is perfect to store research and obtain sources of research from the click of a button rather than searching through thousands of pages.

You can store computer data in the form of text and graphics. This can be very useful to a researcher because not only can you store written pieces of data, but you can also store images. As a result, in a way creating your own little photo library.









Audio material 

Audio material is a type of research that allows you to listen instead of see. Audio material includes thousands of recordings on a variety of media formats. Collections include oral histories, interviews, speeches, programming, commercials, news and other special events.

From a researchers point of view, this can help develop your knowledge on early development of your genre. For example, if you was producing a film on the rights of black citizens you could use audio material to gain a better understanding on what life was like when they were fighting for it. In this case, using audio material would be searching past interviews and speeches.

As you can see, audio material can be helpful when researching because for the time that you are listening to it, you are putting yourself in the shoes of the person speaking.








Ratings 


Ratings can be very helpful when researching. Ratings are measurements of how much people like or dislike something. From this, you can discover what people like and dislike.

If i was to put this into context, it would be that you searching for film ideas. You finally gather an idea that you like and want to create/ present to an audience. Shortly after you have gathered your film idea, you notice past films that are similar to the one you have thought of are rated badly. This is a huge thing because if you had not looked at the ratings of the films that are similar to the idea you want to bring to life, you could spend vast amounts of money and time making it only for it not be watched.

As you can see, ratings are extremely helpful. Below is an example of a website that gives films ratings.

Circulation figures 

Circulation figures are the number of copies that are distributed on an average day. This can be extremely when it comes to researching.  

Researchers, when thinking about advertising, can read the circulation of areas. The areas that are reading newspapers the most will be the one where they should advertise in a newspaper, for the obvious reason that more people would view it. The areas that have very low circulation figures will not be a good idea to advertise in a newspaper 

As you can you can see circulation figures can be very helpful when researching to advertise. 




Government statistics 

Government statistics can be very useful when researching. They provide information such as social development, living conditions, education and the environment. You might wonder how is this useful? When researching, in film, you will have a target audience. Government statistics can provide information about the audience you are targeting. 

Say if you are making a film for teenagers. You can research via government statistics how many teenagers live in an area and what area they live in. You want to advertise your film, by researching government statistics you can identify where to advertise. This is very helpful in the sense that the money that the researcher spends on advertising will not be wasted.