Task 1, understanding research techniques and corporate video production UNIT 3, LO1-Why is research important?

Research is probably one of the most important sections in production; it is obviously incredibly important to be informed about the subject you are tackling, and how best to tackle that subject. There are two main types of research when it comes to production. The first of these is qualitative, where opinions are sought about the subject. ilm reviews are one e!ample of qualitative data, for e!ample, a review of a film in The "un would probably be more informal and shorter than say, a review in The #uardian. This is due to the different styles of newspaper, as The "un is often less fact based and read more for entertainment, whereas The #uardian is generally more reliable for information and read for entertainment and facts. $nother e!ample are reviews of computer games, as a maga%ine like &' #amer would probably feature more in depth analysis of game content, graphics and gaming computers than a maga%ine focussed on younger gamers, where there might be shorter reviews and more games and competitions to win things. an%ine websites are also useful for collecting qualitative data, as they are run solely by fans, for fans; however, this might have setbacks as the users(creators would be more biased for the product rather than giving objective reviews. &eople who contribute to fan%ine websites usually use a lot of informal language and get very enthusiastic about the subject of their website, so if a subject were looking for positive reviews(opinions of their products then they could definitely look to fan%ine websites. )uestionnaires are a popular way of collecting opinions from the general public, as they enable people to give anonymous opinions about new T* shows, and are used by companies such as the ++' and ,T*. $lso they can look at ratings of similar shows to gage what the public-s reaction could be e.g. the higher the ratings of a similar programme, the more likely that the new programme will be aired. .ost news websites have comments sections for their products(subjects, usually these comments sections are linked to social media websites such as acebook, so the commenters can share their opinions with their followers(friends. /ebsites for The #uardian, The 0aily .ail, and The 0aily Telegraph all have comments sections for readers to share their opinions. acebook is one website that allows users to report and complain about advertising, using small questionnaires asking why you dislike the adverts and then tailoring the adverts on your timeline to better suit your interests. $dvertising campaigns, such as the 'ompare the .eerkat campaign, usually start with the company identifying their target audience, and the tone e.g. light1hearted, serious, of the campaign that they are creating. They are then developed to suit their target audience, e.g. the "heila-s /heels advertising campaign was clearly targeted at women who were of a similar age and class to the three women in the advert. The easiest way for advertisers to see if their campaigns are working is to see how well they-re sales are doing; if they are improving then it is clear that their campaign is working, however if they-re sales are decreasing then they know to stop that campaign and come up with a more successful one, that is more relative or entertaining to audiences. )uantitative data is the second form of information that production companies look for. ,t involves using statistics and numerical data, such as T*

programme ratings. These are used to gage a programme-s success, for e!ample the "herlock season finale peaked at 2.2 million viewers nationwide, which was seen as a huge success, whereas the viewing figures of the premiere for season two of "plash3, presented by Tom 0aley peaked at 4.5 million, which was a flop compared to the last season-s viewing figures. Readership and circulation figures are used to see how successfully newspapers are doing. Typically circulation figures are falling due to advances in technology and the fact that people can download newspapers to i&ads etc, but because of this, the readership figures are increasing because the newspaper articles are easier and often cheaper to access digitally. ,n 6711, ,ndia held the highest circulation figures, with 887 million newspapers circulating every day. /ebsite creators tend to use hit counters to see how many people visit the website every day, these are generally quite accurate as they can show how popular and therefore how successful a website is, however it is difficult to see how many people accidentally clicked on the page, or ended up there through forced advertising and pop1ups so more information is needed to accurately see how successful a website is. +o! office figures for films are also useful in seeing how popular films are, although these figures will probably change in different countries or cultures due to differences in taste, for e!ample, +ollywood films are much more popular in ,ndia and surrounding countries than in 9urope, as the genre is a product of ,ndia and ,ndian culture. :ften sales and downloads of 0*0s and '0s are used to show their popularity, which is obviously completely reasonable, they can also be used to identify potential audiences for similar films and artists and see how popular these new things will be. $lthough there are different ways to collect data, primary and secondary data collection are the most popular. &rimary data collection involves retrieving information directly from the source whereas secondary data collection involves someone else preparing the data for you. :ne form of primary data collection is an interview with an e!pert in the area you are researching, it would be important to know what information you are in need with and then tailor your questions accordingly. :pen questions are written so the person being questioned can give a longer answer, providing all the information they are asked for with any variety of answers. 'losed questions are written so that the person being questioned only has a limited range of answers e.g. ;es or <o. ;ou can also observe events related to your subject, for e!ample, if you were wanting to make a T* show about skiing, then you would first have to watch people ski and see how applicable your concept could be to the sport, you would need to record everything about the event, including equipment, safety measures and rules, to get a decent amount of reliable information. :nline questionnaires are probably one of the easiest way to get answers to closed questions, they are easy to make and distribute if you have a mailing list of people who follow(have an interest in your company. 'ensus surveys are also useful to see demographics and identify target audiences; they also can provide a wide range of information about people. ;ou can also use focus groups of people relative to your target audience to identify whether your subject will appeal to them; you can show samples of your subject, gage reactions of the group, question them about their preferences and whether they would enjoy the subject of the meeting. $udience panels can be similar

to this, as the audience can ask questions of the subjects creators and vice versa to make the subject of the panel more appealing and therefore more successful. $nother way to gage audience enthusiasm is by participating in internet forums and blogs, for e!ample, the <+' =annibal Tumblr actively use their account and use colloquialisms that are popular on the website, therefore showing their followers that they are as engaged in the programme as the viewers which helps to engage more viewers and make their blog more popular. "econdary research methods include things such as book, maga%ines and online encyclopaedias. +ooks can be used to look up statistics, opinions, studies related to your subject and pretty much anything else you need depending on your level of patience and what books you are looking through; they would be useful if you needed solid copies of information or wanted to cite particular books as evidence for your subject. $cademic journals can be used if you need evidence from studies mentioned in the journal, or if you are required to provide academic evidence in support of your product. &eriodicals, which are released at set periods could be useful for tracking information over a long period of time e.g. reader statistics, opinions. The most popular type of periodical is a newspaper, which can be used to view popular opinions, news items and stock market information, depending on the publication. ilm archives are probably most useful if you-re looking for older information to support your subject, as there will be a wide range of facts and opinions in whichever archives you decide to look in. &hoto libraries have similar value to film archives, as they would be full of images related to historical information which could probably be used somehow to provide evidence to support your product e.g. if you see people reacting positively to a product similar to yours then you can guess that your product might be successful. $lso, audio archive material can be used t in a similar way to film and photo archives; looking for news and historical facts on radio programmes, for e!ample. :nline encyclopaedias, such as /ikipedia, can be very useful for quickly finding information however, it would be a good idea to double or triple check the information found there as the information on /ikipedia and some other online encyclopaedias can be edited by anyone who owns an account so the it may not be overly accurate. ,f you are in need of opinions then internet forums such as Reddit are good places to search through, as they have a relatively wide demographic and it is quite easy to locate an audience suited for any particular product e.g. T* shows, video games. T* ratings and viewing figures are also useful for gauging how well your product will be received, as you can see whether shows similar to yours have done well and predict the success of your show. ,f you are producing a newspaper, then circulation figures of newspapers can be used to see how well newspapers similar to yours are doing, as, if they-re circulation figures are high you can see that that is a successful paper and use aspects of it in your newspaper. #overnment statistics, such as the number of people who own a television, or pay for "ky or *irgin, can give you an indicator of which channels would be best to broadcast on and also what times would be best suited to your programme. The +roadcasters- $udience Research +oard >+$R+? provides official viewing figures for @A television audiences, they take a panel of selected houses with televisions, usually about B777, and then monitored to see how many people watch a certain show in these houses, using equipment to see how many people per house actually watch the show.

Radio Coint $udience Research >R$C$R? uses diaries and other electronic equipment to monitor how many people listen to radio shows, by selecting at least one adult and one child from radio1listening households and then releasing the listening figured to the radio show-s providers. +y creating your own audio or photographic records you can use the opinions or facts shown and recorded to inform other people about the predicted success of your product which would be useful to prove to television companies that you-re show would, most likely, be a success. There are different types of media information that can be used in research. :ne of these is audience research; audience data is basically all the information you have on your target audience e.g. age range, class, main interests. This can be used to see how well your show will suit the audience and can allow you to tailor your product to better suit your target audience if it doesn-t suit them properly already. $udience profiling is similar to this as it allows you to create a profile from all the information you have of your target audience to create the profile of the ideal person who would watch your show. ;our demographics and geodemographics are also important as it means you can get a better view of the characteristics of your audience and also the areas in which they live. The behaviour of your audience is also important as it means you can either show them behaviour similar to theirs, or people with similar interests to them, in your show to make it more relatable; or you can completely change the behaviour shown in your programme to provide your audience with escapism from their everyday lives. $ll this depends on who your target audience is. ,t is also possible to distribute online surveys to gauge the attitudes of your viewers, for e!ample to see if your show would be compatible with their views. ;ou also need to be aware of all the information about your target audience so you can make sure your show suits them. ;ou also need to do market research; so you need to know about other shows that are similar to yours, so that you don-t have clashes with shows that see themselves as being too similar to yours. $lso, if you are aware of what competition you have in the T* genre you are aiming for, then you can plan ways to make your show more successful e.g. showing your programme at different times to the shows of the same genre as yours. ;ou need to analyse your competitors to see which of them are the most important(most successful, for e!ample if you were airing a sci1fi show on the ++' then your biggest competitor would probably be 0octor /ho and you would need to plan how to make your programme successful alongside that. $dditionally you would need to plan where to show your adverts, so if you were premiering a historical drama then it would be a good idea to show adverts for it alongside programmes such as 0ownton $bbey and 'all the .idwife so you can focus on a similar target audience who would probably be interested in your programme. ,f you were hoping for an older audience, who may be retired, then it would be sensible to put your adverts on daytime television as they are likely to be at home during the day, however, if you were planning a programme for children then putting the advert on in the early morning or early evening on children-s channels. ,n addition, you could use maga%ine adverts to promote your show as you can target a very specific audience, e.g. if you were looking to make a fishing programme you would put adverts for

the show in fishing maga%ines. ;ou also need to do research into the production that you will be applying to your programme, for e!ample, if you found that your target audience preferred a more informal style of T* show then you could make your editing and directing less slick, and show mistakes and make jokes out of them e.g. on ), DE where they show the host and guests slipping up when they speak and see different things other than the usual professional editing and production. ;ou also need to check whether your product will be viable for the market you are aiming at, to do this you could give out or show samples of your product and gauge the reactions of the people that you have picked from your target audience. $lso, if you want to have the best placement for adverts then you need to see which placement e.g. billboards, train stations, would be the most prominent or suitable for promoting your profit. "o if you were advertising a product aimed at business women, it would be best if you put adverts on the @nderground and in other train stations as your audience will most likely be commuting a lot. $dditionally you need to know who would be interested in financing your product, so a good idea would be to submit your ideas to lots of companies who finance projects similar to yours or who you think are trustworthy as there will be a higher chance of them accepting your offer. ;ou will need to know an accurate estimate of the budget you will be using before you go to a financing business, so you can be prepared to answer any of their questions about the budget. To do this you can look at the budgets and costs of projects with similar aims and value to yours and then estimate from them how much your project will cost. ;ou also need to have the technological resources and skills >or employees with those skills? to make your product look professionally edited and produced, which in turn will help to sell your product and increase profit. The best people to edit and produce your product are obviously people with e!perience, for e!ample someone who has previously directed adverts or T* shows of a similar genre to yours would be ideal to direct your product. inally you will need to find good, easy to manage locations in which to film, so somewhere that could potentially be blocked from the public or is easy to hire would be good if you needed somewhere private to film, or a studio, if you were planning to film inside. ,t would be incredibly difficult to successfully produce a media product without first doing research, as you would have no idea how to go about planning, creating, marketing or financing your product and therefore would have a really, really unsuccessful product.