Monday, 24 April 2017

Research on People Just Do Nothing



Criteria 1/2 - Apply Research Techniques and Methods
Research on “People Just Do Nothing”

A surprising amount of TV shows that were made into movies were actually for kids, according to this Wikipedia article:



Many TV shows that became movies are now hugely popular franchises as they have benefited from the wider audience that cinema brings

Take Batman for example. It was adapted from comics into a TV show, then into movies, then back into a kids TV show, then into a grittier movie with much more realism, and remains relevant even after all the years of its existence.

According to the list at
The Inbetweeners movie sold £45 million in the UK box office, making it the 22nd highest earning film in the UK since 1989. This is important because the two movies not only share a similar target audience, but they also were both adapted from a TV series into a movie.

The Inbetweeners Movie was very succesful, as could be People Just Do Nothing.


Research types


Research is important and comes in many forms. Some are easier to work with, some are easy to trust and some are just wrong.




The main types of data:


  • Quantitative
  • Qualitative
  • Primary research
  • Secondary research




Quantitative




What it means:


Quantitative means that the research is numerical. It could be a graph showing that person one has 3 t-shirts, and another has 4. It could be an averaging of several numbers, or it could be raw data in a table. It can fit into a graph, pie chart or table for analysis. The use of quantitative data is important as it is factual, and objective. It might be subjective that some people like People Just Do Nothing, but it is objective that an amount, e.g 1000 people liked it when it was surveyed.





What it’s good for:


Quantitative results are great for comparing one quantity to another similar. One movie at the box office could have grossed 1 million. This might sound huge, but without comparison, we don’t really know. By comparison, one film could have made just £5,000, making the 1 million huge. Another film might have made 6 million, making the film sound relatively smaller. The average gross for a film at the box office made in the same month however could be £100,000, which would make the film very successful.
Quantitative data is much less subject to bias. You might have heard people on TV adverts say things like "9 out of 10 doctors recommend this" This might be 10 doctors opinion, but it is quantified in such a way that it can be represented numerically, making it factual (although if it does not say anywhere "doctors chosen at random" then you cannot be sure it is not subject to bias).

Quantitative research is great for presenting the idea of "People Just Do Nothing" as a movie, because it is easy to understand and can give objective persuasion to your audience. It might be your opinion that it would sell well at the box office, but a graph showing that The Inbetweeners Movie earned $88 million USD in total at the box office is a fact that The BBC can't ignore.









Qualitative




What it means:


Qualitative data is data that is not put into numbers, instead being in words. If somebody were to read this document to find out about the different types of data, the data would be quantitative, rather than qualitative. Somebody talking about research is quantitative. If this document were instead a graph, with numerical evidence on why quantitative data is much more useful and popular than qualitative data, then the information would be qualitative. If I talked about why the figures matter and explained why certain numbers correlate, the document would both be quantitative and qualitative. The biggest underlying difference between the two documents would be the lack of subjective and opinionated statements made in numerical, qualitative data. Qualitative research is research that cannot be quantified. It won't fit on a graph, but it can still be useful in many situations. Qualitative research is research into the qualities something has. You might see on a DVD, or on the front of a book, a trailer, or a poster a direct quote from a trusted source.


 


What it’s good for:


Qualitative data is subject to opinion. While research could be objective and no longer subject to opinions, it wouldn’t tell you much. Qualitative data is good for sharing opinions with data. A graph about car sales makes a lot more sense when an engineer or a car salesman gives context to it. Qualitative data in the wrong hands can be harmful – data can be spun to show a completely different side of the story. The media can use this, for example. 10,000 kids could have been kidnapped in ten years. That might sound like a terrifying statistic, but the media could be hiding that only 6 of these kidnappings happened in the country. The reason statistics like these are hidden could be for multiple reasons, like intentionally covering it up to sensationalize and grab the attention of audiences, or statistics could have not been well researched enough.





Movies, books and games often use these direct quotes to show the audience an opinion of a source they can trust. If you saw a horror movie trailer that didn't look interesting, and then saw a quote from your favourite news outlet or blogger saying "This is the greatest film of all time.", why wouldn't you want to watch it?

Qualitative research is important because it fills in the blanks where quantitative data doesn't. Quantitative data might tell you that 1000 people love the show, but qualitative data will tell you why.
In the case of People Just Do Nothing, we could research into what fans think makes the show so great.  By doing this we could adjust the film accordingly, and research into how we could expand the films audience.


Audience research

Audience research is any collection or finding of data on the audience of the brand you are looking at. You might leave a survey on a website, you could go and ask people on the street, or you could analyse the habits of people that use the brand.

In the case of People Just Do Nothing, you might leave a survey on the BBC 3 website asking people if they watch any other TV shows, or spend a lot of time online, or if they go to the cinema often, what kind of movies, etc.


Market research

Market research is especially important, because if the market shows that what you're trying to do failed miserably, and you don't adjust accordingly, you are doomed to fail. If another TV show tried this but advertised only online, rather than on TV where the audience is, that's a mistake you can learn from. Learning from similar previous mistakes is the purpose of market research. On the other hand, if there is no existing market for TV shows being made into movies, the movie is less viable and its success is much less predictable.


Production research
Resarch on the production - location scouting, budget calculation, target audience of the production, and BBFC classification.





Primary




What it means:


Primary research is research collected first hand. That means research you have collected from your own experimentation or observation. You might notice that 10 in 100 cars that cross a motorway in Birmingham and white, or you might discover that most cars CO2 emissions average way above what they should be for the environment.




What it’s good for:


Primary research is incredibly trustworthy as you can much more directly control and minimize the potential of human error.




It won't lie to you, because it came from you. Another example would be watching to see how many cars pass a certain area in a certain amount of time. This data can still be inaccurate still however due to human error.


 


Secondary




What it means:


Secondary research is research that you've found rather than recorded. It is research acquired from a third party – Apple sold 6 million iPhones for example.





What it’s good for:




Secondary research isn’t always trustworthy, but it is often data that cannot be easily obtained any other way. For example, Asda might have found out that 7 million plastic bags were used last year. If a friend tells you he saw 14 cars in an area around a certain time, that's secondary research. Your friend however might be motivated to lie however, which is why secondary research is not always trustworthy.


People Just Do Nothing Market Research





This graph shows the average viewing time for BBC3, the host of People Just Do Nothing, as well as E4, our comparison point for making a TV comedy for teens as they host The Inbetweeners.
Also shown is BBC2 and Sky1, both major competitors to each other.


The graph demonstrates some viability to the movie. Based on the viewing time alone, you could assume that BBC3's programs could not capture their target audience's attention for long enough - at 18 minutes on average - to make a movie viable. However, E4 hosts the Inbetweeners, and their average viewing time is only 4 minutes longer. Since E4 had incredible success with their comedy "The Inbetweeners", it's clear that making TV into a movie makes sense.


This research is secondary, but we have good reason to believe it is telling the truth as it comes from a company that collects research exclusively, and is the trusted figure of the industry.


When is the best time to release the movie?
In December of 2015, the viewers of BBC3 watched the channel for an average of 20 minutes when they tuned in. In June, viewers tuned in for an average of 19 minutes, showing little or no correlation between summer/ winter and viewing time. In fact, the average viewing time does not change much at all in the year of 2015.


The lowest the channel has dropped is to 17 minutes in September, dropping a whole 2 minutes from the month before. My theory on this is that since BBC 3 target a younger audience, many people are on holiday - The summer holidays end in September.


For this reason, I think the best time for the movie to be released is around August. The audience is clearly influenced by the summer holidays, and while the average viewing time may drop towards the end of the summer holidays, the viewers are still watching towards the start, and with so much free time, the movie will most likely get more viewers.



Bibliography

















Friday, 10 February 2017

Life on Mars Essay


Textual Analysis of Life on Mars
Life on Mars is an episodic TV police drama in which a gritty, conventional policeman from modern day finds himself in a police unit from the 70’s. Stuck in a strange, alternate reality, Sam Tyler confronts common themes of the time head on such as racism, sexism, homophobia and police brutality.
The TV show Life on Mars functions as an excellent representation of Manchester in the 70’s. While drama is sensationalised for the sake of television, based on the reviews of sites like IMDb and Metacric, the show creates a somewhat accurate representation of the 70’s.
In the show, rarely does an episode go by in which there isn’t a single cultural reference. The show cleverly targets itself at people who lived through or appreciate 70’s culture. It often plays on nostalgic feelings by referencing pop culture like David Bowie, of which the show gets its title from – “Life on Mars”, a song written and released on an LP in 1971, later to be released as a single in 1973, the same year as the TV show is set, becoming an  odd song that would become iconic for Bowie.
Later a spin off series was created, which served as a sequel to Life on Mars, set ten years later under the name Ashes to Ashes, featuring a new main character with a similar cast. Ashes to Ashes (Bowie song) was also released in 1980.
Often the show uses music as material to create nostalgia – relying on bands that hit the height of their fame in the 70’s – Bowie, Blue Oyster Cult, and The Who for example.
One way we can tell that nostalgia is important for the series is in the success of its US spin off with the same name. The US edition was set in New York, and while it was praised for its depiction of the 70’s, it didn’t do well with critics and was not renewed for a second season. One reason for this might be the values that the British people hold. Tradition generally important to us, and because of this we value events of the past, which gives us nostalgia, whereas in America, a country with a shorter history might not value history so much.
Life on Mars is an interesting depiction of history because it doesn’t lie to us. Another TV series might choose to avoid depictions of racism, sexism, homophobia and other sensitive materials, but by choosing to represent them in such a realistic way is a unique creative choice.
The show however still seems to attract left winged viewers through its clever use of grounding. The main character Sam Tyler is often used as a counterpoint to Gene Hunts various bigoted opinions and actions. For example Sam might stop Gene from beating up a potentially innocent man. Often this can be incorporated into the story. When crime gets personal, it’s clear that Sam will let Gene off his metaphorical leash. Not only that, most of the narratives cause conflict between Sam and Gene’s opposing strategies for good policing.
The typical demographic for the show would be working class people – maybe around 35-55. Not necessarily living in the 70’s but growing up, these people will be encountering the aftermath of the 70’s and some of the themes it brought with it, therefore 35 year olds may still experience some nostalgia from the show, particularly music.

yougov

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

Media Project Meetings

Wednesday 19th June
We worked on a plan to be ready for the visit to Tamworth Castle on Tuesday the 12th July. We decided we'll get some establishing shots, plan where we want to film each scene . We discussed what we wanted each scene to be. We want Scene 1 to be at a crime scene, scene 2 as a detective montage, Scene 3 is still unclear, and we are going to have Scene 4 be a detective montage.

We have decided on the 12th we will arrive at the sixth form around 8:30, and leave for the castle at around 10:30. We discussed filming the public and what to avoid, then we set each other targets for the end of the lesson, like finishing a character profile or writing a script for scenes 3 and 4.

Restrictions
No filming the public
Learning to work around the public while filming

Actions
Scripts for Scenes 3 and 4
Test Footage for the ghost scenes
Character profiles
Research into Tamworth castle

Requirements for the day
Cameras
Actor's Clothing
Microphones

Friday, 29 April 2016

Sound on Sound style article

Behind the scenes of up and coming artist HONNE's new music video

Hayden talks about his new music video for the artist HONNE and their new single, Someone that loves you.

Hayden has recently made a music video about a character, who walks around Tamworth, swims in a river, clones himself and eventually kills off seemingly his entire species with his laser eyes.

Hayden said, "Being new to the industry, music videos are a great way to get your name out. Music videos can be about anything, which means going for a low budget is an option. I chose to have no actors at all for the  video. By doing that, I could rely on my own creative skills. It was a challenge, but by opting for an animated character in real space I could generate footage without having to use a camera or crew. The original idea was to do frame by frame animation but due to time restraints I decided the use of "2.5D" (2D elements used in 3D ways) worked much better."

We asked Hayden about planning of the animation.

"The process involved storyboarding and gathering ideas to use for the video. At first the idea was completely different, and involved a nameless character in a house searching for an item that was never decided. After quite a few doodles on a whiteboard, characters drawn on a computer, and some abstract ideas were put to the test, I presented the idea to the artist HONNE. If he didn't like the idea, I would have had to start from scratch."

Then the initial filming began. It was mostly just still videos of Tamworth, that would later have meaning added to them. Some of the scenes however he knew was needed from the start. The clips were edited separately before being put back together in the right order. Finding the right order to follow with the feeling of the song proved to be tough.

Later on we filmed extra clips for the music video. Normally you wouldn't be able to get away with this, but since Hayden wasn't filming on location and actors weren't hired or anything along those lines, he could. Usually videos like these when done to a professional standard would be filmed all at once, and each scene would be planned out well in advance.

Hayden used 'After Effects' to create most of the video. 'Premiere Pro' and a couple drawing programs were used too.

Next for Hayden came the advertising. You have to get the video out there somehow. People usually think of YouTube when they hear about a video being posted online, however there are other websites that are going to get the word out about your video. Twitter is one. Getting HONNE to tweet a link to the video on his official page means that quite a bit of HONNE's fan base is going to see the video. Facebook also works well, the problem being that your video will not get shared unless it really stuns people, in whatever way possible. Becoming viral on Facebook may make little income, but it gets people listening to the song and it is more likely to spread globally rather than nationally. Vimeo is also a great website that is often used by filmmakers to learn new techniques and get new inspiration.

Most of the video involved techniques like motion tracking, and rotoscoping (essentially the separation of layers in order to put objects behind objects - for example putting a digital object behind an object in your footage). Keyframes were the most vital tool in making the video. If you want a variable like position or scale to change during the video, you would use keyframes.

The client said they enjoyed how they would be associated with a fun character and they were very happy with the professional quality of the animation. They wanted some changes. They wanted the character to have more meaning, and therefore be more interesting. To fulfil this Hayden added more to the narrative by filming extra footage that had more of a plot. He changed his initial ideas for a frame by frame animation because he felt he could achieve more by using After Effects. That meant there would be more time to make each scene a little more interesting.

He decided to gain feedback form a focus group by putting the first edit onto Youtube. There was generally positive, constructive feedback. A couple of errors were pointed out that he otherwise would not have noticed. A few people noted that some of the color grading could use some work. It was also pointed out that the resolution was not great, and it was reducing the quality of the video on Youtube. He also used social media to gain feedback from people in the creative industries. The response was positive.

After correcting some errors, Hayden posted the video online and it was well received.
You can hear HONNE's new single, Someone that Loves you on their website or on Youtube/ Spotify.

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Pre-production

Copyright Issues
The owners of the rights to the song are Detail Records. To get permission and legal rights to make a music video we would need to contact them at hellodetail@gmail.com. They seem to have given permission for a music video to be released by a third party.


Storyboards
http://xomf.com/g/bpxcw
Editing logs
Each time I needed to make a new scene, I would create a new project and import my footage into After effects. I dragged the footage from the camera onto the new composition button even if I didn't need the footage, because I needed composition settings from the video like FPS, resolution and aspect ratio. After each scene had been completed, I would convert the video to MP4 to make it fit youtube's formatting better.

If I was using real footage, I would duplicate the layer, and use the rotobrush tool to coat the objects I wanted the character to stand behind. Then I would insert the character in between the two layers, with the roto layer on top.

Then I would use the motion tracking tool on the lower footage layer and track a spot onto the character and set the target to a null object and parent the character to it (explained later) so the character would look more in the footage.

Next, since I would want to move the character, I would keyframe the character by pressing the stopwatch on the first frame I want the character to start moving in, and set the end keyframe by dragging the time scrubber on the timeline forward on the last fram I want my character to move in. I can't keyframe over keyframes that have already been keyframed (from the motion tracking) so I would attach the keyframes to a null object and make the null object the characters parent. That means the character will follow the animation information of the null object.
Risk Assessment
Since we are filming next to roads, we need to be careful.
While editing, wires must be tied down to avoid people tripping over them, and drinks must be kept away from computers to avoid electrocution and damage of sixth form property.

Filming from the top floor of the indoor car park would have several risks involved, like accidents with cars, and being on such a high building, we could risk falling.
Budget
If we were to buy equipment needed specifically for the video, we would need:
This camera records in 1080p. DSLR's are not great at recording audio, which will be fine for our use because we will not be recording audio anyway.

Adobe Creative Cloud Membership –
Illustrator – Shape creating program for Michael
Photoshop – Photo manipulation and great for sketching for Michael
After Effects – Used for applying effects like roto-scoping after the video has been arranged in Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro – Used to arrange clips and work with sound
SpeedGrade – Color grading of clips easily

Membership per month costs around £30, but Adobe offers a 30-day free trial which we can use.

If we were to need a van, we could hire one from B&Q’s service for £15 an hour. It takes probably around 6 hours to film, which would total £165.

The total budget is £960.
We can take out a minimum of a £500 loan from HSBC if we need to.


Production schedule
Start of project until the 23rd of march: Pre production
Wednesday 23rd March: Capturing of footage around Tamworth
Thursday 24th March: Editing of footage
Saturday 26th March until Sunday 3rd April: Editing footage
Wednesday 6th April: Editing of footage
Thursday 7th April: Editing of current footage, Michael drew for the project
Role allocation

Drawn assets
Filming/scripting
Post Production
Michael
Yes
Yes
No
Hayden
No
Yes
Yes

Location recess

Mood boards
http://xomf.com/qhllv