Research
What is research?
Research is where you go out and gather information that would benefit you in the planning process for creating a project. Research can come in different forms - some more reliable then others. People use research to discover whether their project would end up making a profit - depending on the market.
How important is research?
Doing research before creating a article or project is crucial. If you don't research properly, you could end up spreading misinformation. The consequences that follows can range from mild to braking the law. The worst thing to happen to you would be getting sued for defamation, or even jail time.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research usually contains primary research, in which it is used to gain an understanding of opinions and motivations. What makes primary research primary is that the information is collected from a direct source - for example, if you wanted to know the political opinion of a celebrity you would need to conduct an interview. Collecting this information from someone who has already collected this data before is called secondary research, as you are not getting the opinion of the celebrity from them but someone else. Secondary research isn't as reliable as primary because others might be wrong in their research - an the opinion of that celebrity could have changed since they were last asked the question. This means it's always better to conduct research with a clean slate in order to be more updated and correct in your research.
(Overall, primary research - surveys, interviews, experiments, focus groups secondary research - books, government data, newsletters, pamphlets, reports)
This kind of research doesn't include any kind of data - and so it isn't entirely trust worthy when you want to look into a topic. However, collecting opinions on the topic you are researching can help you to understand what the people think about said topic - which gives you an insight to the direction you should take your product in order to make people happy with it.
An example of qualitative research is creating a focus group. If you wanted to ask your target market what their opinions are on certain products, you can then gather these opinions and create a product that you know will be a hit with target market you are working with. Nowadays, focus groups can be substituted with online surveys to appear more convenient for the audience.
Quantitative Research
In contrast with qualitative research, quantitative research is made up of numerical data. This data is usually collected through polls, questionnaires and surveys. All of this data is used to make up statistics and percentages. You could also say that this type of research is unbiased, as it looks at facts rather then opinions.
For example, you could ask a large group of people how long they spent waiting for a doctor to see them. Everyone would then tell you their waiting times in a survey, and you could put that data into a graph showing how long people have to wait for a doctor. Now that you have that research, you can decipher whether or not hospital waiting times are too long or if people are seen at a reasonable time.
Market, Audience and Production
Market
Market research is where you determine the kind of market that your product is going to lie in. When aiming to make money from your project, you will need to think about what recent public interests could make a good product. For example, if action movies are high in demand - then it would be a great idea to cash in on that and film yourself an action movie. To gather this research, you could look at film/TV ratings. Market research also helps you find out if you have any other competition and the size of the market you are working with.
Audience
Audience research is where you communicate with your target audience - finding out all their attitudes, knowledge, interests and behaviours. This would be useful if you were creating a phone. You would gather information from your audience, getting their opinions about previous phones and what they want - then creating a phone that has everything they want and avoiding what they don't want. To gather your audience's information - you could try numerous different ways such as viewing habits, surveys, focus groups and questionnaires.
Production
Production research is where you focus more on the product itself and how it's made. This is always important because if you don't research how to make the product, you might end up unable to create it. Researching the characteristics of your product can help your demographic figure out that the product is for them. For example, most deodorants are colour coded pink/red and blue/black to show what gender the product was directed at. Gender, age, hobbies, income and location are some examples of what you should look into for production research.
Legal Considerations
Copyright
Copyright is one of the most important factors of researching. If you want to use a nice song or video that you've found online - you could be faced with legal actions.
Content creators use copyright to protect their original work from others who would want to make money off of their work or even claim it as their own. But what can copyright protect? The answer is anything considered 'property', and that includes literacy,music, film and other artistic works. Might as well copyright your own name - if it were allowed.
However, what would happen if you use a copyrighted piece of media? Well, you'd be in jail or fined up to £50,000! Not worth it at all.
But, what if you really wanted to use a big name product or music for your next big project? There are a few ways.
First, you could wait until it is no longer protected by copyright. Although the years differ, all kinds of copyrighted property can and will run short of protection. For films, the wait is usually 70 years as long as everyone who made that film has passed away.
Creative Commons
If you were intent on using another persons media or you couldn't create your own - there may be a way to help you. Creative commons is a licence that establishes a free distribution of a persons copyrighted work under certain conditions. Anyone can access creative commons and all the work on there too - but what rules would you have to follow in order to use someones work (or to protect your own)?
For example, if you took a picture of a restaurant and posted it online - you can decide whether you want people to credit you when they use your picture, or not. This is called the Attribution licence, where people have to give you credit or not - depending on what you want.
Another thing you can determine is whether someone can change your work. If you had a picture of a nice green tree and someone asked if they could change your tree to look red and yellow - you could say no because you despise the autumn season. This is called the NoDerivatives licence, where people can only use your original copy.
You may also be in a situation where you want to share your work for free, but you are worried about other people taking your work and profiting off of it. Luckily, their is a creative commons licence just for you. The NonCommercial licence stops anyone form using your work if they plan to make money with it. Unless they ask for your permission, no one is making any dough today.
The last licence is called ShareAlike, where you can give permission for people to modify and share your work. However, they must be under the same or similar licence as the original work. This stops others from taking the work that you allowed to be modified but not be put up for commercial use, and makes sure that their work is practically the same as yours.
Ethics
What are ethics?
Ethics are a set of moral principles which affects a persons behaviour and activities. It is a persons concept of what is right and wrong.
Types of ethics are usually about profanity, blasphemy and representation. Profanity, to begin with, is whether you think using strong or offensive language is appropriate. In cases where your making a comedy or adult film - profanity can make it even better. However, there are cases where it will not be appropriate. When making your tutorial it is key to remember who your audience is. If they are looking for a tutorial about filming, they are probably interested in becoming involved in the industry - and so would want you to stay professional and serious (although a tiny bit of comedy could lighten your audiences mood). You may have young impressionable children watching too, and i'm sure you don't want to influence them with swears (no matter if it was your intention for them to see your video).
The next ethic is blasphemy. Blasphemy is were you make offensive comments towards someone's religion. When making your film, it is important to respect religion or not mention it at all - even if you believe differently. After all, your film can be incredibly influential and change the way people feel about something. An example would be the dreadful 1915 movie
Lastly is representation.
An example would be the dreadful 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation. This film is set during the civil war in the USA - but the movies not known for that. In the movie, white actors are dressed up in blackface attempting to portray black Americans. They are characterised as stupid and incredibly aggressive towards white women - stereotypical and entire race as villains. Although the backlash of this film was great, it will forever be known as the first film shown at the white house (who's president praised the film) and would later be used as a recruitment message for the KKK. Many white Americans were convinced by the film's racial profiling and began to fear and attack innocent people. All of this shows you how much of an impact you have on people and what they believe.
Professional Bodies
What are they?
Professional bodies are organisations who ...
One professional body in charge of the UK's ratings is the BBFC. The BBFC, the British Board of Film Classification, is an organisation that classifies whether a film is suitable for everyone, children, teens and adults. The were set up in 1912 (R.I.P Titanic), and introduced a rating system to the UK that consisted of the following:
- U - Suitable for all
- PG - Parental guidance
- 12A - Suitable for 12 years and over (under 12 with a parent/guardian)
- 12 - Suitable for only 12 and over
- 15 - Suitable for 15 and over
- 18 - Only adults can watch
- R18 - Can only be shown to adults in private.
These ratings are set in place to protect sensitive audiences from watching a film with content that they cannot handle. This is important when rating family movies, assuring that no children will be emotionally scarred from what they are about to watch. There are different elements that affect a films rating, such as language and obviously the kind of content that is being shown. Parents, for example, usually do not want their children to watch anything sexual or inappropriate that could influence their behaviour - which is why ratings exist to help them choose appropriate movies.
However, there are loopholes within these ratings that parents should look out for. For example, any film which is rated PG is allowed to use the F-word only once. It may be a one time thing, but if a parent were to let their impressionable child watch a PG movie like that - the kids probably going to pick up a few new words. For an example about a film getting a rating that they shouldn't have - i'd like to turn your eyes to Watership Down. The movie that starts with a young rabbit having a vision of a field covered in blood - is rated U. As a child I remember watching this movie, and being frightened at all of the portrayal of death and violence - and when I was gifted the novel later in life, I didn't want to read it. This film was rated in 1978, and hasn't changed - being rated U allows for more innocent lives to be tainted by this brilliant but terrifying film. The highest rating I would have personally rated this movie, would be a 12A - lowest, PG.
Overall, that is the purpose of the BBFC. To try and advise those who are sensitive or tough on what to watch.
OFCOM
OFCOM is a organisation which protects the public from harmful or offensive material. They review television and radio broadcasts, so that they can see if they are following the law - and not scamming their viewers.
ASA
ASA, Advertising Standards Authority, is a organisation that monitors advertising on television and multiple other formats. They prioritise complaints, making it their mission to review all kinds of ads and either editing or removing them completely from the platform. They apply the Advertising Codes to all kinds of adverts - which are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice. They look out for advertisements that appear harmful, offensive or misleading - making sure the public feel safe and welcome on all kinds of media. Examples of what ASA fights against are racist comments, promoting unsafe practices and misleading information - to name a few.
Statistic wise, ASA do a fine job at responding to almost all of their complaints.
Researching Sound Recording Tutorials
What makes a good tutorial?
For my assignment, I have been asked to research tutorials that I believe show good and bad examples of the topic - sound recording.
Firstly, I will explain what I believe makes a good tutorial. When people search for a tutorial about something they don't understand or are a beginner at, they will expect to be carried through the video at a pace they can follow. So when going through the topic, try to take your time and take a break from time-to-time in order for your viewers to catch up on what they are being told. Even repeating yourself can show that you are there to help and take things slow, for your audience's benefit.
Secondly, a good tutorial depends on the quality of the video itself. If the audio throughout your video is poor and hard to listen to, then your viewers won't stay for long. Similarly, if you decide not to record your voice and put music over your video - viewers can become annoyed by your music and could loose focus of your videos contents. Keeping the quality of the video itself is important too - as no one wants to sit through a blurry, inaudible video. What are you supposed to learn from that?
Example #1
The first example of a sound recording tutorial is by Filmmaker IQ on YouTube. This is a more professional and well-made tutorial. The tutorial has both clear audio and video quality, and so you can clearly hear what John is saying at all times. The highest quality the video can go to is 1080p.
This video is a great example of a sound recording tutorial because of how well the information on the topic is being taught. John not only covers a good amount of information on recording sound - but he also carefully explains it to the audience as if they have never heard any of the terms before. The tutorial takes time to go through and explain everything carefully before moving onto something else, which means beginners on the topic can feel comfortable in knowing that they can take the time to fully understand what is being told.
One disadvantage of this tutorial is that it is over 20 minutes long. Usually, when someone looks for a tutorial to watch - they would rather watch the 5 minute video over the lengthier video. Perhaps, if John was to separate his video into a bunch of smaller ones - people will be more willing to watch them and they could choose a specific part of the topic that they don't understand.
Example #2
This is another good example of a tutorial, by a youtuber called Fireball VFX. However, I believe that it is not as good as the first example. But that does not mean that the video is overall terrible - it has a decent mix good and bad examples for creating a tutorial.
The first problem is that the video has no audio. When someone clicks on a video, they usually expect to hear a voice guiding them through the tutorial. When there isn't a voice, but writing on the screen - viewers are less likely to watch your tutorial as some people could find it challenging to read the text due to conditions like dyslexia or being a slow reader. Of course, they could just pause the video each time - but your audience would soon become tired with pausing and unpausing the video. Text isn't always the best way to explain information either - as you could spell words wrong or use incorrect grammar, just like this video which says confusing phrases such as 'It is much comfortable to hold the boom pole by resting it on shoulders'. Of course it isn't the end of the world if you spell something wrong, but you may end up confusing your audience or fall under fire from the 'grammatically correct'.
In contrast, a positive about this tutorial would be the length of the video. For the last example, the video lasted around 20 minutes long - however - this video only lasts around 5. When someone is looking for a tutorial, they naturally skim through the same kind of videos - looking for the shortest one. To make sure people are looking at your video - make the video short. But if you have too much information that can't be watered down, try and brake up that large tutorial down into separate smaller ones talking about specific parts of the topic. That is why this sound recording tutorial is the most attractive to a common viewer, as it is short and gets to the point.
Example #3
The last example for a sound recording tutorial is by Film Riot on YouTube. This tutorial actually focuses more on sound effects than more general sound recording - however they do explain the basics of using microphones and more.
This video is much more casual than the last examples, and includes a bunch of humour to keep the audience engaged throughout the video. Nevertheless, this can end up distracting the audience from the information being provided about the topic. So although this would be a fun video to watch and pick up a bit of knowledge about sound recording - it doesn't work as a tutorial for people who genuinely want to understand sound recording and need to focus.
Another positive about this video is that the quality is great. The video itself is clear and you can see exactly what they want you to see on screen. The lighting is a bit gloomy when they are outside, but that isn't a huge problem as they are focusing on sound - not lighting. The quality of sound is crisp and whenever they speak, you can hear them just fine.
However, this video manages to contradict itself one or two times when explaining sound tips. The first is when the man Rob explains how a H4n recorder can 'prevent your peaks from distorting', while the audio he is using distorts. This can be explained, as they were using a regular DSLR camera to film the video and audio - but many viewers didn't like the bad quality. This is why it is important to keep a high standard of quality when making a video, to prevent any complaints that aren't directed to what you were originally showing your audience.