I have done loads of research, as I hope is evident from my Bibliography List.  

 

I think it is fair to say that "I love research and I hate research". How can I make what seems to be such a contradictory statement?

 

Well, I love immersing myself in researching all aspects of an interesting topic, especially when it involves films and filmmaking. I love watching behind the scenes footage, re-watching films, seeing other people's comments online discussing it with people, finding little known facts. My brain goes into overload making links, coming up with all sorts of ideas and I "create" footage and see it in my mind.

 

However, I find I really dislike, and find extremely challenging, having to write all my research up. I appreciate why I need to do this as part of a qualification, even one as flexible as the UAL one (which I love). It is like in exams, any awarding body needs to be able to verify that you can do what they are certifying that you can do. And one obvious way is with written evidence. So, I have done my best to present my research. I have certainly acted on it throughout the whole FMP process, and I am confident that it will have improved my finished product and that I have learnt loads that will be useful to me going forward.

 

 I have strongly felt that I wanted my finished product to have a "natural", "organic" feel, but, as is the case with many things that you want to be "natural", this has actually required a great deal of research, planning and creativity on my part, helped in great part by what I learnt and assimilated from all my research.

 

One thing that occurs to me, as I reflect back on this process, is that I would very much like to know how research is done, presented, and used in the actual fiction Film and TV Industry. I have mentioned elsewhere about Krysty Wilson-Cairns, screenwriter for 1917 (2019), commenting in an interview with BBC Radio 1 Film Critic Ali Plumb (BBC Radio1, 2020) about watching every single "one shot" movie that she could find after Sam Mendes (Director) rang her, thus immersing herself in it. I know that I can certainly do the whole total immersion part of research and absorb the knowledge, make links etc. I fully appreciate the need while studying to present research in a way appropriate for attaining qualifications, and I feel that this UAL course is the best I found for incorporating research into our projects in as appropriate way to filming too, as possible. Going forward with this course next year, I want to investigate in more depth the various ways that research is used and presented in the film industry, so that I can develop my research style in a useful way. From what I have seen already, it does seem to vary from film to film, which I find very interesting.

 

Over the course of this year I have learnt about how I research best, to be effective and efficient. I know that some people, as they research, make lots of written notes about what they are learning, because otherwise they won’t remember it. Many of my friends do this. However, I have found that this is not the way that I learn best from my research.

 

While doing my research for my FMP, I did something that I realised that I haven’t really done before: I tried to analyse and reflect upon just how I research best to try to figure out why that might be. My purpose in doing this is so that hopefully I can make my research as efficient and effective as it can be for this project, and also, and just as importantly, for future projects and for my future career. So here are some of my reflections on how I find I research best, with my attempts to analyse and understand why

 

1. The way that I have found that I work best, in terms of absorbing and retaining the information with research, is to totally immerse myself in as much information on a topic as I can.

2. I find I take information in best if it is in video format, i.e. simultaneously visual and audio. I used to think that I was a visual learner, but I don't think that I am. I used to think that, because I struggle with words (dyslexia) and prefer visual representations, but I have learnt that static images don’t actually stick in my brain either, I really need some motion – good, really, given that I want to go into a moving image industry. I think that I am much more of a kinesthetic learner. Many people associate kinesthetic learners as needing to DO things to learn. "Doing" certainly helps me learn, but I researched this, and found that actually it makes even more sense since it is "movement" that stimulates kinesthetic learners to learn best. So, movement in a video that I am watching, movement as I am using a piece of equipment like a camera, movement as I am having an animated discussion with someone about something amazing that I have found out (usually about film).

3. I find I am best not to try to take notes. This is because taking notes distracts me from what I am trying to absorb.

4. When I take things in and make links, sometimes between things that may not seem to have obvious links, they stay in my memory.

 

Maybe this is because I see things and take things in differently due to my dyslexia. I generally see dyslexia as a benefit, although I do have to confess there are somethings that it makes challenging.

 

On reflection, I didn’t do my research in the organised chunks that I had planned. I discuss this in my early blogs, and it was what started me really trying to rethink how I research. Although I have always done considerable research for all my projects,  I think that the variety, range and depth of research needed to make a project of this magnitude successful was a step up and was useful in highlighting to me the good points in my research style (that through total immersion and allowing myself to cross research and make links, I attain loads of useful knowledge and understanding) and the bad points (I need to find a better way to plan my research that ties in more practically with how I do it best but also how I need to present it).

 

Style/Format Research

Particularly useful research for this project was all the behind the scenes footage, through which I learnt about the amazing range of camera movement equipment out there now. This enabled me to feel more confident when writing my script. Hopefully, this also enables me to sound confident with what I am talking about on screen, and thus believable, which is important when imparting information, which is relevant to the style/format I have considering. My style/format research had settled me on liking the style of Mark Kermode in Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema (BBC iPLayer 2018/2020) he presents an aura of confident knowledge whilst being entertaining, someone who you feel you could sit down and have a great chat with about films. I made the creative decision that his knowledgeable, yet chatty, style is what I would like to emulate in this video and feeling confident in my knowledge will help me do this.

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Location Research

My style/format research also helped me to decide what type of location, from those that I was researching, I would prefer to film in, to compliment this "knowledgeable yet chatty" style. Location Scouting was a bit of a nightmare, partly due to the coronavirus restrictions and partly due to all the outside building work that several of our neighbours suddenly were doing. I am pleased that I was eventually able to film everything in my first-choice location, as I feel that creatively it suits the style/format that I am aiming for.

 

Content Research

Content Research isn't just about what to put IN your film, it is also about what to LEAVE OUT. Another specific area that I feel my research was successful in is in helping me to narrow down what should go in my film, and what I should leave out. I had so many potential ideas buzzing around in my head about the direction that this video could go. Researching this wide range of ideas enabled me to work out what I could include at an appropriate level so that it was deep enough to impart novel and interesting information to the audience, things that they hopefully weren’t previously aware of, whilst not flooding them with too many facts and requiring them to go too deep. A key-criteria that I kept at the front of my planning the whole time, is that I want this film to be entertaining. This does require a bit of work on the part of the audience, otherwise they would be bored and probably switch off my video, but not so much that they lose the plot. This required a creative decision, as to what subject matter would meet this key-criteria. Researching such a wide variety of subject matter helped me settle on less than I had originally thought that I would include, but what I feel is the right amount , and right subject matter, to entertain and keep the audience's attention.

 

Historical Research

There is the obvious bonus of this for content, in that I could include in my video details and a clip from the first film to utilise camera movement. But I feel my historical research gave a context for me for the whole film, as I can now appreciate just how far camera movement has come in just under 120 years, but also how quickly technological advances are changing the options for film today, such as 1917 (2019) with its "one continuous shot". This confirmed for me the importance of including comments about 1917 (2019) in my video, despite this film being so recent that in itself it hadn’t really formed part of my historical research, it was part of my research into relevant films.

 

I think these examples show how much my research crossed the boundaries of my initial attempts to compartmentalise my research and show the importance I learned of "going where the research led". For example, I hadn’t intended to research kinesthetic learning, but that helped me to understand myself in greater depth which in turn helped me to have the confidence to change my research method. I hadn’t intended to research the theory of storyboarding but doing so helped me to make a practical choice about whether a storyboard would be helpful, or whether there was a better way for this project. I added in lots of research that wasn't on my initial list, including theory like the 30 degrees rule for filming a series of shots, since once I decided that I would be filming 4 shots I remembered having heard about a rule that was helpful in differentiating between your shots creatively, and making them work, so I added that to my Theory Research.

 

Initially, when, due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, I had to change my project idea from a fiction film to a more documentary informative type film, I had been concerned that I would miss out on the creative element that I love in filming fiction films, and which I feel is one of my strengths. However, my research was enlightening in showing me just how many creative decisions I could take to improve my film, for example, location plays a huge part as does costume, lighting, how I deliberately chose to position all the shots of me speaking to camera (see Production for an analysis of positioning), rather than just leaving these things to chance.

 

I was already aware, from fiction filming, that frequently the most successful creative decisions are the ones that the audience doesn’t even realise that you made. They just have the effect that you, the director/cinematographer, want on the audience. For example, both Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins (Director and Cinematographer in 1917 (2019)) said that they wanted the creative decision of the one shot to enhance the film and not be "the gimmick". Sam Mendes in "Why 1917 Works – Let Me Explain", (Let Me Explain, 2020) said "we experience our lives as one long continuous shot, that's how we live, that's how we walk through our lives. It's the editing that is the gimmick" when explaining how, if there is any "gimmick" in his creative choice, it is that the editing is done so cleverly that you are not actually aware of the lack of obvious cuts. To be fair, I think most people do start out looking for cuts, but you soon lose yourself in the film and he is right, it just feels very natural, and not an obvious choice.

 

My research made me realise that this is even more true for non-fiction type films, in that the best creative decisions should not be obvious as choices. Which makes them challenging, but very interesting. I do still think that my strengths are in fiction films, but my research has certainly helped me to make the most of all the creative choices I have in this film, and that is far more than just the content.

 

As I said at the start of this reflection and evaluation, I love research. That's because I love learning, particularly things that will help me to make a particular project better, and also that will help me in future projects. But any learning regarding films and the film industry is fascinating, so that has been great!