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: