Research – Final Project

 

Research into Documentaries –

I have been Googling many websites looking into ways to create a documentary. this website here has given us tips to use for when you are thinking to start one.

(https://www.filmmakingstuff.com/12-tips-how-to-make-a-documentary/)

This website, although is to help pros or beginners for their documentary, is for a real full-length documentary, so there are lists here saying to make march, raise funds, give free DVDs and to create your own music. Which I will not be needing within this documentary.

The website says to always think about the end of the documentary first, to think about the target audience you want to achieve, what the outcome is and how it’ll affect people in the end. Which I will add up upon whilst creating the factual short. This is one of the only tips I can use for the documentary I am doing, in further research, I will try and find research that is more useful to me.

(https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/documentary-structure.html)

I have looked into the three act structure which has been a main aspect of film itself, I knew about this structure before but didn’t know how to work it itself. You have three acts in it, the start, middle and end. The website is explaining it in a manner of a character story line.

The first act shows the mood of the overall film, it starts off the plot and most importantly, introduces us to the main character(s) and how they will embark on their journey.

The second act is for them to attempt to overcome their challenges or even have worse challenges appear, for them to either fail or defeat it in the third act. It gives a better look to what the story is.

The third act is basically the finale of the film, the ending but also the events that turn around after the second act, how it builds up to the end. It helps to figure out what your ending is before starting or continuing anymore. Does it give any meaning? Was there any purpose? Did the first two acts pay off for the finale? All of these I will keep a close look into and try and figure out what I really want to do for the script. For my documentary, I am still deciding on if to add any characters or not, but if there are no people, then there is not a good connection with people apart from the voice over.

Research Plan – Justifying my research.

Through my research, I will get both primary and secondary research for this. Primary will consist of surveys and interviews. The reason why is because I need my own research within this, the survey will consist of me questioning people if they know about virtual photography, how they found out, what they think it is, if they have any experience within it, if they would have any interest within a documentary about it?

I asked all these because it fits what I will be doing, I will be explaining my experience and journey for the story, the primary will help me get personal views about the subject. It’ll boost up my research and the interviews will help the video itself, it’s people talking about their own experience with the subject. It’ll help with more open minded opinions.

The secondary will be used for help with my documentary and script, since I know a lot about the main subject myself, and the fact that not many people know about this so there is hardly anything online about it. I will use a virtual photography website someone I know has made that talks about the game’s photo mode, tips and tricks, wallpapers, etc. The reason for my research on documentaries as I am still unsure of what to do for it overall, I have an idea but the research will help me. Same with the script.

Primary Research – Surveys.

So here I got 25 people to answer this quick survey on Virtual Photography. I asked them questions on if they have ever heard of Virtual Photography before, and if they have, where? But if they haven’t, what do they think it is on random thought? 

Here are the results, I will do some in Pie charts to make it easier to analyse.

Question 1 – Have you ever heard of Virtual Photography?

So, out of 25 people, there seems to be a sort of split. With 12 people knowing what it is, but 9 people not knowing what it is, Two very close numbers and along with 4 other people having some sort of clue what it is. From this survey, I wanted to test people to see if they knew what the subject was and how they heard it, or if they haven’t heard of it, what they think it is and then asking if they would be interested if a documentary was made on it. I got all the answers I needed. But it is interesting to see almost a split in people knowing. We will soon find out how they know.

Question 2 – If you have heard of Virtual Photography before, where did you hear about it?

Out of 17 people who answered this, which almost adds up to the people who have a slight clue what it is answered a bunch of answers for this, a lot of one’s with only 1 person has said it which that includes with other. As you can see, the orange coloured part of the pie is the biggest, which has 8 people saying that they have heard it from a  friend. The other big one, the grey one, is the “other” one. Which has 6 people answer it, now this includes answers such like; from game developers, being apart of the community, TV, Class and online. Many different answered and although most of them seem the be online based too, but in many different ways it seems. From game developers supporting the cause and knowing of the subject to hearing it in their class, being apart of their community and also on TV? Which has confused me the most as I know for sure that Virtual Photography has been said on TV. Maybe they mistook it from somewhere. But if so, then that is a good step forward for the community.

Question 3 – If you haven’t heard of it before, what do you think it is?

Out of this Pie chart, less people answered on this one, around 10 people did. The two big ones that have the same people, 4 people voted for both VR Photography and “other”, which included moving photos, virtual tours, and making photography look real? It is very interesting to see what people guess what they think of the subject without knowing anything. The blue one with only 2 people answering is the lowest one out of the three, which I don’t get if they mean computer generated photography like Photoshop or anything, I am unsure. But the fact that VR Photography is the top one is cool because it’s completely different to what it actually is. Which is why I wanted people to do this survey even if they have never heard virtual photography before, it was to let me know for my documentary to add a good example in the video of what virtual photography is.

Question 4 – Would you do more research into the subject? Look more into it?

I asked this question to see if people were interested enough that they would do more research, out of 25 people, it seems like 12 people said they would as it seems interesting, now not sure if they’re just saying that because of the survey or they would actually do their word on it but the fact that they said they would be willing to is very nice to hear, also having 4 people saying they have already done research or have participated within the subject is really nice too. There’s still 6 people who are still unsure of what it is and 3 people saying they wouldn’t, which of course is fine, at least they’re being honest about it. But hoping they would still be interested in seeing the documentary.

Question 5 – Have you had any experience with Virtual Photography?

In this one, I already know there’s many people who haven’t experienced it by now, but for the people who have are have even had a little by experiencing it or even done it by accident without knowing in the past. But it seems that more people this time have clicked in that they haven’t heard of it or even haven’t done any experience, which doesn’t add up from the previous ones saying that they have heard of it. Although combining the others saying they have heard of it but either experienced it, haven’t experienced it or even had a little tiny bit of experience, which does add up higher than the 9 people who said they haven’t heard of it. It’s cool to see how a bunch of people have only had a little bit of experience, knowing that the topic is very small and not many people in the public eye would know about this but it doesn’t seem like that. Now obviously this isn’t as accurate as it should be as I asked people my age, but I did ask my mum to ask some of her friends to answer this survey so we do have some older people in this survey too, perhaps they are the ones not knowing what the subject is and have had no experience, so it’s a pretty good mix of people answering this.

Question 6 – Would you ever watch a short documentary on Virtual Photography?

Out of 25 people, it seems like 19 people would be interested in seeing the documentary, which I think is awesome because it helps me have more motivation for my project, that people are willing to see it as it’s a very personal story for me. There are a few people who said they would have to look into it more or just aren’t interested in it at all, which I do understand why they wouldn’t. Not everything is for everyone.