People like us analysis: Balance

 

As the BBC states they are Impartial and honest this means they have to have a balanced debate in the programme they show. A balanced debate means they have to balance both sides of a story or debate without being biased to one side and show both sides equally. An example of a balanced debate from the BBC is a programme that i analysed called 'People like us' this programme follows the lives of several different people wanting to make their lives better whilst trying to cope with their daily problems and struggles. The BBC is impartial so the programme showed balance debates that dealt with the good with the bad situations the people had. One of the key people we followed during this episode was a single mum who had lived with her parents whilst still trying to look after her child, The BBC showed a balanced debate by showing the bad side first which was the mother drinking whilst still caring for the child then further on the episode we see her caring for the child by looking after he and taking care of her. The BBC uses balanced representations in the programmes they air due to the BBC have to be impartial which means they have to show both sides of any story and not be biased towards one which means they have to show a balanced debate.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries: Presentation

This is my finished presentation on my documentary that is on an aspiring pianist. My presentation focuses on my idea and the different types of research such as primary and secondary research and the methods i did to gain that information.

 The presentation begins with a brief description of what my documentary will  be about and an overview of who my documentary will be following. I chose to put this at the beginning of the presentation to hook the audience and make them interested in my documentary idea.

The presentation then goes on to talk a little bit about the history of the piano and how the piano became what it is today, so that it develops the audience knowledge on the piano so that it makes the presentation a little more interesting. This is also secondary, internet based research.

The next three slides then go on to talk about my quantitative research that i summarized using graphs. Finally i concluded my presentation by saying why my documentary would be a good and valid idea.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries (Audience / Primary research)

As you can see i have taken a screen shot of the NRS social grade due to it helping me and being relevant to my research due to it giving me an overview of the type of people who would be my potential audience.  From my research i found that my audience would be in the top three categories which are A, B, and C1 due to the people i asked in my surveys are people who are in that type of work and would watch my documentary. This ranges from Middle class-Lower middle class because people in these classes enjoy listening to the piano rather than people who are considered working/lower class due to my research telling me that they are more inclined to listen to more pop and dance people.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries (Audience / Primary research) Face to face interviews

For my audience research i conducted a couple of face to face interviews which are a form of primary and qualitative research. From these interviews i found that both interviewees are willing to watch a documentary based on a pianist, due to it appealing to their music taste which is very varied.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques for the Creative Media Industries: Primary research (Audience research)

Using word i created a small survey to help me with audience research such as what is the average age a person is who is going to watch my documentary. Using eight surveys i handed out to various people i know i got a wide range of results. The first question i asked was if they would be interested in watching a documentary on a pianist, seven out of eight of the people  i asked who were aged 35-40 said yes they would be interested in watching this type of documentary whereas the person who said no was aged 30-35 which shows that the older generation of people i asked would be more inclined to watch this type of documentary.

The second question on the survey was can you play the piano? only one person said that they could play the piano and also said they would be interested in this type of documentary showing (like my previous poll junkie) that my audience would also be people who play the piano. The third question i asked was if the piano appealed to their music taste in which all the people i asked the music appealed to their music taste due to the piano being vastly used in the majority of different music genres. The final question i asked was if they have ever watched a documentary on a pianist before seven said no whilst only one said yes. This shows that this type of documentary is not widely popular but people will be willing to watch it if one was made.

Overall the results i received back were vastly  positive as only one person said that they are not interested in watching this documentary. Also more people aged 40+ would be interested in watching this type of documentary rather than the students i asked in my poll junkie. This is due to the music style appealing more to a maturer audience rather than a younger audience. Due to my audience being over 30 they would potential be working in a nine to five jobs so my documentary would be shown around 6pm when they finished work and are having their tea, Also due to my documentary having an older audience rather than my audience being college  students it would also be shown on channels such as the BBC or sky arts due to their audiences being people who are older and are interested in music.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques for the creative media industries: Poll Junkie results (Audience Research)

http://www.polljunkie.com/poll/jsmnnj/pianist-documentary/view

The results above are from a poll junkie that i embedded into Twitter in which i got students in my media to answer, this is a form of quantitative primary research to help me with audience research and see if students aged 16-18 would find my documentary interesting.

The first question i asked was if they liked the instrument piano in which 6  students said yes and 3 said no. This shows me that they are interested in the instrument. The second question i asked on my poll junkie was can they play the piano, The responses i got were that 7 people cannot but 2 people can. This shows me that the piano is something that they are not hugely interested in due to them not completely taking an interest in  learning how to play. The third question i asked was 'Do you think a documentary on a pianist is interesting?' The responses i received from this question was that 6 people think that it would be interesting and 3 people do not think that it would be interesting. The next question i asked was if the piano appealed to their music taste the responses i got was that the piano appeals to their music taste but does not appeal to 3 peoples music taste. The final question i asked was 'Would you consider watching this type of documentary?' The responses i received was that 5 people would watch this type of documentary but 4 people would not consider this type of documentary.

Overall from my results i concluded that although the piano interests the majority of students i asked a documentary on a pianist would only appeal to half of the students i asked, this could be due to a documentary appealing more to person who is really interested in the piano and that style of music, This could be due to modern music not having the piano being at the forefront of the music they listen to such as classical but rather in the background adding to the music they listen to such as the majority of pop music. They would also find the documentary boring as it would cover the life of a pianist and the music he plays, Therefore the documentary would most likely appeal to an older maturer audience.


Below is a graph that summarizes the results from my poll junkie.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries (Primary research) Production research

Production research

Equipment

Canon 700D- I will use this camera to film interviews and cutaways.

Tripod-I will use tripods to keep my camera steady whilst filming.

Locations 

Chethams school of music- I will be able to film shots of outside of the building but gaining shots within the college could present a problem due to it being a college with students present.

Another location i will film at will be at Lewis house where i will film the interviews and possibly some footage of Lewis playing the piano.

Content

The content of my documentary will include the above aspects such as the locations and equipment, but will also include shots such as Lewis playing the piano which are cutaways and interviews of lewis which will be shot inside his house. 

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries (Secondary Research) (Internet/Market/Audience research)

The images above show the difference in documentaries being shown on the BBC compared to documentaries being shown on Channel 4. The first image is of Documentaries being shown on the BBC whereas the second image being documentaries being shown on Channel 4, BBC has a variation of different documentaries but are all very topical and serious such as 'Human universe' and 'National Treasures of Wales' etc. The documentaries being shown on Channel 4 are a lot more universal and appeal to a wider audience due to them being a lot more comical and less serious, The documentaries are also very unusual such as 'Secrets of the Living Dolls' and 'The Sex Clinic' which would appeal to a  younger larger audience as they are not that serious.

From this market research i can say that my documentary would more likely to be shown on the BBC due to my documentary appealing to an older smaller audience who enjoy watching factual, Topical documentaries. It would also appear on the BBC as the documentary being serious and appeal to people with particular taste and interest in Piano just like the documentaries being shown on the BBC.

Below are some documentaries based on different pianists on BBC iPlayer that my documentary would be similar too and that it show that my documentary would be shown on the BBC.

 The documentaries shown are 'Performances from the BBC Philharmonic  Orchestra', 'Concerto at the BBC Proms', 'Arena', and BBC proms. All documentaries featuring pianists.

These documentaries and the BBC could also be competitors to my documentary due to them following   similar subject matters. The documentaries will also attract the same audience and could potentially take away some of my audience due to them being much more popular and having more professional pianists  featured in the documentaries.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries (Secondary Research) (Internet/Market research)

This documentary was aired on the BBC the documentary was called 'Being a concert pianist'. I thought this would be good to put in my research due to it sharing some similarity with my documentary due to this documentary showing a young ambitious pianist wanting to become an even bigger success. Another similarity this bares is the idea that a pianist such as the person i will be documenting (Lewis Peart) becoming a concert pianist and perform in front of huge audiences.

This documentary can also contribute to my Market research as it could potentially be competition for my documentary due to it being a similar subject matter. The show was also shown on the BBC which as i have found during my research that most documentary's that appeal to a maturer, smaller audience are shown on this channel such as documentary's that are musically based and are more topical, Unlike documentary's shown on Channel 4 such as 'benefits street' which would appeal to a much larger audience due to it using a funny tone to appeal to mass audiences. This will help me with research as it shows me that my documentary would be shown on TV channels such as the BBC as it provokes interest in musicians and a older maturer audience.

Unit: 3 Research Techniques For The Creative Media Industries (Secondary Research) (Qualitative research)

History Of The Piano

http://pianonet.com/all-about-pianos/history-of-the-piano/

The story of the piano begins in Padua, Italy in 1709, in the shop of a harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori (1655-1731). Many other stringed and keyboard instruments preceded the piano and led to the development of the instrument as we know it today.

Mankind’s knowledge that a taut, vibrating string can produce sound goes back to prehistoric times. In the ancient world, strings were attached and stretched over bows, gourds, and boxes to amplify the sound; they were fastened by ties, pegs and pins; and they were plucked, bowed or struck to produce sounds.

Eventually, a family of stringed instruments with a keyboard evolved in Europe in the 14th century. The earliest of these was a dulcimer, a closed, shallow box over which stretched wires were struck with two wooden hammers. The dulcimer led to the development of the clavichord, which also appeared in the 14th century. These were followed by the spinet, virginal, clavecin, gravicembalo, and finally, the harpsichord in the 15th century.

The harpsichord, however, was limited to one, unvarying volume. Its softness and loudness could not be varied while playing. Therefore, performing artists could not convey the same degree of musical expression as that of most other instruments. The artistic desire for more controlled expression led directly to the invention of the piano, on which the artist could alter the loudness and tone with the force of one’s fingers.

The harpsichord was a particularly important development leading to the invention of the piano. Its ability to project sound more loudly than its predecessors, and refinements in the action (or touch) inspired many more musicians to compose for the keyboard and thus, to perform keyboard works.

First exhibited in Florence in 1709, Cristofori’s new instrument was named gravicembalo col piano e forte (roughly “soft and loud keyboard instrument”). Eventually, it was shortened to fortepiano or pianoforte, and finally just piano. His earliest surviving instrument dates from 1720 and is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Despite many improvements during the past 300 years, it is truly astonishing to observe how similar Cristofori’s instruments are to the modern piano of today.

This research gives you a brief history about the creation and development of the piano. I chose to put this in my research due to it having background knowledge about the piano and it will develop my knowledge of the piano so that my understanding is clearer when i create my documentary and when i film the interviews with Lewis.

From this research i can see that the piano has been around for many years since 1709 in Padua, Italy where it was first created. The piano has gone through many changes to become the instrument has become today and is still widely popular in present society as it was 300 years ago, People such as Lewis Peart; who i will be following throughout my documentary, will be the next generation of musicians to keep creating music to entertain mass audiences and keep the piano popular in modern society to inspire younger generations to learn and play the piano.