I have been tasked by ITV Wales apprenticeship programme to produce a short factual film that deals with an issue that affects young people in society. The factual short is aimed to an audience from the age 16 to 24.
For my factual short the subject is going to be on drugs in the UK and primarily my personal and friends experiences with drugs. I am 20 years of age and have been clean from drugs for 8 months now however, every time I am out with friends I am surrounded with drugs and have even gone with people to sell stuff like weed, cocaine and pills. I want to conduct research into the topic to tell people that drugs are not good for them and show them experiences that I have researched. The worst part is I could be walking down a street casually and some 13 to 16 year old could come up to me and ask if I know anyone for weed, cocaine, pills and even stronger stuff like ketamine or phet and its really displeasing to see that the younger generation can only have fun out with friends or just fun in general by doing drugs. This is my main message in my factual short and I need to research the topic to make it an informed and useful production and use valid sources.
The 4 different research methods:
- Primary Research
- Secondary Research
- Qualitative Research
- Quantitative Research
The difference between Primary and Secondary research is that primary is research you conduct yourself whether it be through using questionnaires, quizzes etc. However using this method has its weaknesses with how you may not be able to find people who want to participate in your research or their answers may just make the point you are making contradicting, even though it is just someones opinion it still affects the point you are trying to make. If I only ask people who have experiences with drugs their opinion could be different to those people who have never touched drugs and this could influence the research and possibly make it invalid. I am lucky I have access to people who have first hand experience as not everyone does and I can use this to my advantage.
Secondary research on the other hand is research taken from pre existing research. For example documentaries about drugs, reported amount of deaths on certain drugs, a report on how many drugs are taken in the UK every week etc. The downside to this is the information made in these reports could be false and just made to make people believe their bias opinion, this can be seen a lot when it comes to weed or even politics. I need to check my sources and see if they have any political associations or a message they are trying to push as this could influence their findings.
Quantitative research is where you ask questions such as “Do you like the film Shrek?” and then you would give options like Yes or No for their answers and then you would calculate how many said yes and no and find the majority. However this form of research is very blunt as it does not give reason to why they have give their answer. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, you can’t argue with numbers and data so there is not going to be much interpretation or changing the results to show a certain message.
Qualitative research is the why to the Quantative research you have produced, so instead of “Do you like the film Shrek?” it would be “Do you like the film Shrek and why?” A weakness to this though in certain situations you come out with so many answers to why that you can’t come to a clear conclusion. This will give me more information about people’s experiences and opinions when compared to quantative research which is why I am going to use this mostly to help my project.
The primary research I will conducting for the production is:
- Asking friends what experiences they have had on drugs. (qualitative)
- How easy it was for them to get them. (qualitative)
- Ask my nan how she felt when I told her I had done drugs. (qualitative and emotional)
The secondary research I will be conducting is:
- How many deaths have there been from drugs in the UK these past 2 years. (quantitative)
- How many drugs have the police seized in the past 2 years. (qualitative)
- What are the government doing about the drug problem in the UK. (both)
Why I have decided to use primary research as a research method is because its kind of a necessity for what my factual short is about. I am going to be primarily talking about my experiences with drugs I have taken in the past and my close friends as we can tell stories that nobody else will, cause mainly people tell that drugs are amazing but hide the negatives to them, and thats where my friend group are different as we will tell you the negatives to them before the positives and thats a good things. Also having personal experiences and after effects are better to talk about than just saying ‘statistically this can happen or this.’
I have also decided to use Secondary research as a research method because I will need to find statistics on how many deaths there have been from drugs in the UK these past years and also how the police and the UK government is trying to sort out the drug problem. Its important to have these as well as my and friends experiences as it helps audience understand the serious affects drugs have on people.
Secondary Research:
“There have been 2503 deaths to drugs this year. “7 a day, 48 a week, 209 a month.”
“Cocaine rose for the 6th year in a row to a new record 432 in 2017.”
Transform. (6th of August 2018).**PRESS RELEASE** Official Stats: UK Government Fuels Near Record Drug Deaths. Available: https://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/press-release-official-stats-uk-government-fuels-near-record-drug-deaths . Accessed on 17th of October 2018
“There were 138,955 drug seizures in England and Wales in 2016/17 (including estimated figures)”
Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, financial year ending 2017. (November 2017.) Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, financial year ending 2017, Statistical Bulletin 22/17. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/657872/seizures-drugs-mar2017-hosb2217.pdf . Accessed on 21st of October 2018
I feel that the research I have found for my secondary research is valid as they come from reliable sources which can be trusted.
Primary Research:
I conducted primary research by asking people their experiences first hand and interviewing them. This was a useful way of doing this research because my friends were not afraid to talk to me but this is only one’s persons experiences so not everyones experiences. I also asked people through text messages.
Friends Experiences
- My friend was at a house party and had taken a pill. The pill he had taken was laced with an hallucinogenic that he thinks was GHB. When he fell asleep on the sofa in the house party he woke up, put his shoes on and grabbed his stuff, left the house and walked a certain distance when he would then wake back up on the sofa and repeat the process multiple times, stuck in this loop and getting closer to his home each time. He realised after the fourth or fifth time that he was dreaming however he felt the strain on his body from all the walking as if it was real. (19th of October 2018.)
- When it comes to other experiences I have messages from friends of their experiences.
How easy it is to find and get drugs
- When it comes to finding drugs a friend of mine gave it a 8/10 as she can just ring up a dealer as numbers are given out a lot. They could ask friends to sort it out for them and also in my own experiences people ask you in clubs and on the streets if you want to buy drugs from them. (21st of October 2018)
Also from my own experiences people have also just walked up to me and asked me if I want any drugs or if I know anyone who can get them drugs and I know a few dealers myself. I can use my own experience and opinion to back up my research and the messages I want to give the audience.
Strengths, Weaknesses and Validity
The primary research I have collected is the most valid it can be as it is from people I know who have actually experienced these things and I can trust them enough to not lie about their experiences. They might not tell me everything though so it might not be fully valid and with all the information.
The strengths and weaknesses between the two methods in my opinion is that the primary research is more valid as it comes from peoples own experiences and I can trust that they are not lying to me about what they have experienced from certain drugs. For example they all tell me that they have had fun while they have been on the drugs however they have caused more problems than enjoyment. Then with the secondary research yes the information given is backed up from hard research and information from the government itself on the statistics I have found however, the information given on these websites and documents do not tell you the benefits that drugs give, for example they do not tell you that ecstasy and MDMA up lift you and give you a boost of confidence, make you more sociable and energetic, they only tell you about the side effects and negatives which makes it very one sided. I have to think about the messages people are trying to give to the audience watching when I look at primary and secondary research.
Proposal
My Factual short is going to be on my and friends experiences with drugs and how they have effected us and the younger generation. The target audience for this Factual short is 16 – 24 and I know people who span from the age of 16 to 24 and even older who have done drugs and even still do, that is why I believe that this subject matter works well with the targeted audience. I will have montage shots of different drugs, aberdare and shots of me in different locations. I will also film me talking about my own experiences with drugs in my house and at some locations where I have done drugs before.
What will the short include?
- Exposition shots for montages.
- Re dramatisations of my experiences while I talk over them.
- Myself talking about the experiences I have had.
- Have voice actors do voice overs of my friends experiences while they play over a montage/exposition shots.
- Have an Interview with my nan on how she felt about me taking drugs.
- Have an Interview with friends how are willing to be in the documentary and speak about their drug experiences.
- Have an Interview with a dealer and ask if he/she deals to people who are 15 – 16 and if so why.
I’m going to be using my own Camera equipment that I have at home but I will be using the recording studio at college to record the voice over of my friends experiences. I’m going to be using locations close to home or even my home itself. I will also most likely use another camera, tripod and two microphones from college to record the interviews as I can have one camera on myself and another on the person I am interviewing so it looks professional and not like a YouTube video.
Planning:
Pre Production
I will be filming all of the important shots like me speaking about my experiences with drugs and my friends, interviews at the start of the half term. Then towards the end of half term I will film the exposition and montage shots as they aren’t as important as the rest, I will also film the re dramatisation shots at this time as well. Then after the half term all my effort will be focused on editing the clips and cutting them down to a 2 minute video, edit the sound to make everything sound perfect and also record the voice overs for some of my friends experiences.
Cast and Crew
I will be director for this piece and I will also be acting in the piece and also filming most of the shots if I am able to do them by myself. This is mainly going to be a production all done by myself, however I may have my girlfriend Hannah help me with filming and also my friend Evan as they have both operated camera and other equipment before, also they are on a Level 3 course for Digital Media so this will give them a boost and another piece of work that they can place down on their CV’s. At this point in time I have not found a male and female voice actor to record them talking about my friends experience who, for confidentiality, were unable to participate in being in the factual short.
Cerig Davies – Director, Camera Operator, Actor.
Evan Richards – Camera Operator, Actor.
Hannah Pearce – Camera Operator.
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