Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

Unit 36 Task 2 Name: Oliver Davidson

Project Title

Presenting and Interviewing Film – ‘Top 5 Films of 2014’

Research Question

- How to conduct an informal interview, in the style used in a top ten review show?

Method of research

- The research methods I will be using, will include information from the BBC Academy website, who specialise on giving valuable ‘tips, tricks and information’ given by their presenters in short video-interviews.

- A second area I will research are programmes that already exist which use a similar format of how I wish my film to be styled in. Looking at these will allow me to analyse the different techniques they use to keep and audience entertained whilst still presenting information.

Account

Research:

The initial idea for my film is to create a short 3 - 5 minute long 'Top Five Films of 2014'. There are many examples already out there that I can accumulate ideas from which I will explore more in this research log. However, for this assignment I must include interviewing techniques into the final video. This is the reason why I have chosen the 'Top Five' format, as examples I have looked at often include celebrities being interviewed to give their opinions of what is happening on-screen, whether that is another celebrity or a film. The presenting aspect also fits in well with this format. Looking again at the examples, the show will often have one main presenter who guides to show throughout, presenting information on the film or celebrity.

Content of Interviews

Channel 5 – Top 40 Ultimate Action Films - http://www.channel5.com/shows/top-40-ultimate-action-movies/clips/watch-the-trailer

The first piece of research I have conducted is by looking at the Channel five programme ‘Top 40 ultimate action movies’. From this I have learnt several pieces of information. The first being that the interviews used in the programme are often very informal and ‘relaxed’ allowing the guests to talk about anything they want (within reason), they are also allowed to use explicit language as the show is aired post-watershed, mainly because of the content of the films they are reviewing. In the programme however the interviewer’s voice is not heard, instead the guests answer is heard, however we can assume there is an interviewer as the guests responses do not appear scripted, it would seem that they are given an open question to answer and elaborate on, such as ‘what is your favourite part of the film? What makes this film unique?

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

YouTube – RedLetterMedia: Interstellar Review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUhA8eSx6pQ

The second piece of research I conducted was on a movie review show on YouTube called RedLetterMedia. The interviewing conducted during this show combines crude ‘dark humour’ comedy with informal interviews. The interview is structured much more like a conversation where the participants are allowed bounce ideas off of each other fluently, without constantly stopping and changing topics, therefore ruining the whole ‘unique’ aspect of their show. They also use ‘clips’ from the film to directly reference things they are talking about, they also go in-depth when analysing the film, whilst using language that audiences will understand, without having to have previous understanding of things like cinematography and narrative structure.

SparkMinute – 30 Tips for Interviewing – http://www.sparkminute.com/2011/11/07/30-tips-on-how-to-interview-like-a-journalist/

The third piece of research I conducted was on tips to conducting a good interview. A website called sparkminute published a list of 30 tips for interviewing. The website gives invaluable information on how to conduct any type of interview as these tips can be applied to any. For example informal interviewing borrows from the most common kind of interviewing formal interviews. The only differences are that in informal interviews relax the rules and turn the interview into more of a conversation.

This tip is important for my overall film. The reason it is important is because I will have to get the opinions of the people who are reviewing the scene of the film. The more you ask about feelings such as, when you watched this scene how did it make you feel? This allows for interviewees to elaborate on their points of view and opinions.

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

This tip is also very important as asking the interviewees to talk about the things they love and show a passion for, this can again allow interviewees to elaborate on points they make. Also allowing an individual to talk about something they enjoy, they can expand on a topic they have substantial knowledge on.

Open-ended questions allow for the interviews to flow in a way more like a conversion, rather than a structured question, answer. Open ended questions are often short and simply worded, this is done so to almost ‘bait’ the interviewee to answer with a lot of information, rather than a simple one-word answer.

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

This tip stresses the point that an interview is a conversation between two people. When doing a long interview, it is important to structure the interview like a conversation, this can help the interview in a number of ways. One way is it is easier for the audience to follow along with a conversation as they can see the points being developed by each individual, rather than if an interviewer asked a question and the interviewee answered, then moved on and ignoring their answer. In most good interviews points that are made will be brought up throughout the interview to reinforce them.

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

Topic of interview

IMDB Top films of 2014 - http://www.imdb.com/search/title?at=0&sort=num_votes&title_type=feature&year=2014,2014

The topic of the interview I am going to conduct will mostly be focused around the opinions of my fellow classmates on 2014s top five films. To research the top films of 2014 I looked on the website IMDb, and filtered the list for the number of votes given by the public, the top movies were listed below along with the corresponding amount of votes they each received.

This piece of research is one of the most vital parts I will require when constructing the questions for the interviews and the entire film. Now I have this information it will allow me to apply the previous tips on constructing interviews to the topic of the top movies of 2014. Combining this list with the tips will allows for me to construct questions that will make the interviewees want to expand on their reasons on why or why not they agree on the placement of the film. This piece of research has also given me the recommended age limits on the films that I will be reviewing, this can help me to prevent interviewees who are too young from seeing the clips. However this will not be the case as all of the interviewees who I have selected are over the age on 13, which is the certificate age on all of these films.

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

Potential Issues that could arise when interviewing

Noise – Background noise from other classrooms as the shooting will take place in either the media suite, which is backed onto a drama classroom, which is mostly noisy, or the interview room which is located at the main reception, where people are arriving all times of day.

Unavailability of filming location – Media suite may be in use by a class, so filming will have to be arranged for a time when the media suite is not in use.

Interviewee’s not suitable age for some films on the list – This point links with the next, some viewers may find content disturbing.

Some interviewee’s may be offended by some of the language / content used in the clips. Answers that take you off course – Some interviewees may not answer in the way I want so I may have to

explain what I want them to say before-hand to prevent poor answers.

Interviewee Research

James Parker –

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Favourite Film: Hot Fuzz

How often do they visit the cinema in a month: Four times, but depends what movies are on…

I have conducted previous interviews with James Parker regarding football coaching. The nature of that interview differs greatly form my plans for the top five films show. The nature of that interview was structured formally where I would read a question and he would answer them. The topic of that interview also had an effect on the seriousness of the language and tone used in the interview. Where as the film interview will require James to show more passion and enthusiasm about the questions.

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Jamie Mather –

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Favourite Film: Independence Day

How often do they visit the cinema in a month: Six times, again depends what movies are on…

This will be my first time interviewing Jamie. I will therefore have to brief him on how I want him to react to the questions I will be asking, I do know however that he has a passion for films, so his responses should epitomise this,

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

by him showing his passion in the language and tone that he uses.

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Connor Lewis -

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Favourite Film: Lion King?

How often do they visit the cinema in a month: Three times, however watches more films on streaming websites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

I again have not worked with Connor on any previous projects. However he has show that he is a film advocate, with a strong passion in this field. I know that Connor will work well with both Jamie and James, his views will often clash causing heated debates amongst each interviewee’s opinions, resulting in each interviewee often expanding on their points.

Creative Media Production TV & Film RESEARCH LOG

Further Research

I have planned to research the top five films that will appear in the countdown, I will acquire this information by conducting both primary and secondary research. Primary research in the form of conversation asking fellow classmates what your favourite films are of 2014, how often do they visit the cinema and so fourth. Secondary research in the form of looking at IMDB for what the internet community and critics claim was their top films of 2014 based on the number of votes each film received. This will be added to the research log once completed.

Most Useful Research Items

The most useful pieces of information that presented themselves were:

Firstly, the two existing movie review shows. This information was excellent at giving me a starting point and a solid structure/ style to base my own planned review show. The RedLetterMedia review gave me an idea of how to include an interview between interviewee’s in an informal style. The research showed how easily interviewees could bounce off each other’s ideas, constantly expanding on and debating points they each put across. The channel five show was again very useful as it showed me that open-ended questions could be used to allow interviewee’s to elaborate their responses about the films they were reviewing.

The second most useful piece of information is the research conducted on the interviewees I plan to use. This can help me to plan and predict what the interviewees will answer with. It has also given me an insight to whether they are a film advocate. This will help me to consider the best option when selecting interviewees to use in my film.