1. A Media Research Agency
SWIFT research
A Media Research Agency

2. What we are as a business
We are a Media research agency situated in South London. That specializes in evaluating critically and summarise information and getting reliable and valid data for media companies and we have a wide range of research techniques for television and films on market and production research. We strive to give great analysis and assessment on the media industry and we get excited when another new challenge is given to us. A new and exciting challenge that we want to branch out in the media industry is music videos.
‘practise makes perfect’ – Swift Research

3. Range of Media research techniques
We use a wide range of research techniques and methods to accomplish our targets to comprehensively explain and assess valid data.
The media research techniques used to collect valid data are:
- Production research
- Market research
- Audience research
And is collect via secondary research and primary research with Qualitative and Quantitative data which we will explain later on in this presentation..
Primary research that we carried out are in the forms of questionnaires, surveys and interviews. Our Secondary research is magazines and the internet on social media such as twitter and review websites. Both these researches we collect qualitative and quantitative results and evaluate

4. Primary and secondary research
Primary research is us ourselves gathering the information and data that is needed for the chosen project We conduct Primary Research in the forms of questionnaires ,surveys and interviews. The positive side of using primary research is that we know if the data is valid and correct and up to date and critically comment
primary research methods are Questionnaires, Surveys and interviews.
Secondary research is us analysing data that was collected by someone. The advantage of using this research method is help to improve on our primary research and provides a comparison to our own data. Example of secondary research method is gathering data from different sources and looking at social media and review website.
Secondary research methods are collation of existing research from research subjects or experiments and getting secondary research using the internet for reviews and social media. IMDb is a good example of secondary research on the internet.

5. Qualitative and Quantitative data
Qualitative data is gathering social and verbal data to investigate in depth of what a an audience wants and allows to expanded from just mathematical data to get a more detailed conclusion.
Getting data is generally a small number of people that get interviews and group discussions to get a better understanding and get info and points to help improve on the project.
Quantitative data is collecting mathematical and statistical data that is collected using research methods such as surveys and questionnaires.
It is collected by getting data from large number of cases that represents the target population of specific interest to the project.
Quantitative
A YouTube video is a perfect example of showing both quantitative and qualitative data that helps the creator improve and if people like it
Qualitative

6. Production Research
Production research is finding out how to carry out part of the production process and involves stages to complete the project. So it is a very essential process of the project
Production research consist of five major stages for film-making production are:
Development – ideas are created and developed
Pre-production- is the preparations for the shoot and hiring fil crew and casts.
Production- elements of the film is recorded during a film shoot.
Post-production- effects of the recorded film are edited
Distribution- the complete film is distributed to cinemas.
Production research is also looking at available locations to film and logistics of the cast members and film crew.

7. Market research
Market research is finding the competition of the project that we are tasked on to research on
Market research is us finding what people want and need and we develop off that and is an essential part in our business strategy and recommended to be undertaken from pre- launch onwards. Market research is needed when your planning to operate a new service and want to find out what the target audience wants and need. Market research helps identify potential new ideas and highlights problems and improvements to benefit and perfect the project.
Types of market research methods that we do is surveys, interviews, field trials and observation on social media.

8. Audience research
Our Audience research is to study the characteristics of the target audience for the project that we are researching on and to find out what the audience wants and needs and helps us to get a better insight on the target demographic audiences e.g. such as profession, hobbies and age. Looking online on social media is a good sources for our secondary research.
Research methods that we use are questionnaires, surveys and looking online at ratings and reviews to get a better insight of the audience.
Demographic data is used in audience research, demographic data is used in media marketing to classify an audience into age, gender, race and other categories.
Doing audience research helps find the target audience in order to prevent losing money rather than doing a random project and finding out that no one wants that.

9. Companies that we have worked with…

10. Case study – Shaun of the dead
Edgar Wright is an English director, screenwriter, producer and is best know for his comedic films and TV series. He is famous for directing Shaun of the dead that collaborated with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He is renowned from directing the two seasons of the TV series Spaced fro channel 4
Edgar Wright and Working Title productions contacted us enquiring about the research that he needed for his film, Shaun of the Dead.
He wanted information on what the target audience needs and wants and how he can make his movie appealing to his target audience in his new comedy that he is directing.
SWIFT research took on the task of researching on his desired target audience and we did this researching using all three research techniques in order to complete this project and to get a valid and detailed conclusion.
Shaun of the dead 2004

11. What do they want? Production research Rubbish everywhere
They needed locations that suited their film concepts and ideas. We looked at all different areas in London that looks suitable for the films needs. This is the stage of pre-production which is the preparations for the filming and to find and prepare locations to film and if we are allowed to film there, it means we save time and money if we planned out the locations before the actual filming.
The key features that Edgar Wright had specified is that the area should be in the inner city with terraced houses, have a large pub that is available for filming and accessible for filming. We discovered that South London had these similar characteristics that are needed. We finally found a suitable pub called Duke of Albany , Monson Road New Cross in South London which was perfect as the ‘Winchester Tavern.’ Many of the exterior shots were taken around North London areas of Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Finsbury Park and East Finchley.
We researched into other zombie films and looked at what scenes and locations are like and how they are presented. 28 days later and Return of the Dead is a few examples of films that we researched on.
We concluded that zombie films scenes tend to have long straight roads, rubbish everywhere and cars derelict or destroyed and the streets are either derelict or swarming with zombies. We released that most of inner city London is a perfect location for filming as there are long and straight roads that are available for filming.
Rubbish everywhere
Destroyed cars
Winchester Tavern
Long straight roads that are derelict

12. What do they want? Market Research
We looked at the themes of the original plans of the film- looking at the story boards. From this we looked at similar films and potential completion specifically looking at their failures and strengths and developed from there. To do this we used social media in order to look at what was trending.
We interviewed a large number of people specifically dark comedy fans and critics when we went to events such as Comic Con to get a better understanding on what they want and need in a film and their suggestion on what should be in a zombie and dark comedy films.
We looked at BFI ,British film institute, that is a government funded film and charitable organisation that promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the united kingdom. The website gives you lots of information about films such as box office and film releases.
We released that dark comedy and zombie films are more popular when they are released in Autumn and Winter ,specifically around Halloween. A good example of a horror film that was released in Winter and Autumn is The Shining which was released November which is only a week after Halloween.

13. Audience research for Shaun of the Dead
We looked at the what demographics are for dark comedy films, we looked at gender and age as our main focus. From these we got a more specific and detailed target audience. We did a survey to people at Comic Con, this meant we got good, valid primary data as we got it first-hand from dark comedy fans and other comic fans and it is valid as we had went to an event that is guaranteed to have zombie and dark comedy film fans who can give their personal opinion and therefore allowing us to get more Qualitative data as well as the data from our questionnaire. Our quantitative results showed that 75% enjoyed zombie films and our Qualitative results showed that fans were enthusiastic when told about a zombie comedy in the making
We decided to create a questionnaire and hand out them at the Comic Con that happens in the Edexcel Centre in Central London on the 28-30th of October.
For our secondary research on audience and to make sure we are get reliable primary data we look at secondary data in the forms of social media and review sites to see peoples opinion on dark comedy and zombie films.
Looking at positive and negative comments from online reviews on other zombie films helps highlight important data for our research. An example of us researching on other zombie films is on the next slide.

14. 28 Days Later Newspapers made positive reviews as well
we figured out that since this film had come out in 2002 and Shaun of the Dead is going to be released in 2004 we concluded that people still want to see zombie movies since 28 days later was so popular.
We gather information on what the target audience liked about this zombie film and what they also didn’t like and then we use them as a baseline to improve on Shaun of the dead that we are researching for.
Film got mostly good and positive reviews on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes which show that people liked and enjoy watching zombie films.
Getting secondary audience research from both of these review websites is then we know that we are getting valid and reliable results and opinions.
There was hardly any negative reviews on this zombie film and here is an example of a negative comment. Very few negative comments show that vast majority of the audience enjoys these types of films.

15. Reliability Reliability means consistency
We as a business, are always testing to see the reliability and quality of our sources and getting correct and reliable data is very important to get a detailed conclusions and consistent results.
Primary research guarantees that we know where the information sources have come from and how they were collected. And if to make sure our primary results are correct and accurate we then look at many secondary research sources.
looking at more than just one source of information in secondary research guarantees us that we will get consistent results if all the secondary sources are similar in data.

16. Validity
Validity is us checking if the data is relevant for our researching.
For example, our case study on the zombie dark comedy movie, Shaun of the Dead, we looked at other zombie films to see how popular and grossing of the zombie films and dark comedy films at box office from 1998 to to 2003 is relevant to our research because Shaun of the Dead was released in 2004 so fans of dark comedy and zombie films are still interested in these types of films and genre.
We get relevant data and results by looking at online review sites e.g. IMDb is a review site specifically for films and media related so this secondary research is relevant. To get relevant primary research data we go to events or activity areas that are related to our project that we are tasked on researching on e.g. going to Comic Con when we were researching on Shaun of the Dead target audience.

17. Examples of Sources that we use.
- secondary research quantitative data
-Secondary data source example
-the info about Edgar Wright
-info on the location of the pub for filming of Shaun of the Dead
- rotten tomatoes- film reviews
- YouTube- a source of Qualitative and Quantitative data

18. Useful sources of information we use
This is a reliable and valid source to find the age ratings classifications of films to find out our specific audience and to find out similar competition films and what their age ratings are and how well they have done and to see if it is valid.
We would visit the BBFC if we were advising on what Certification similar horror and dark comedy films got.
The negative side of using this sources is that we only get the film certification and not their personal opinion and reviews on the film and if it is good or not.

19. Another example of a useful source for research
This website gives the opportunity for people to discuss and ask information on films and reviews and even has upcoming film festivals, independent screenings and networking events. It has a diverse range of uses and info which is a great source of information to analyse and secondary information

20. Sources of website reviews on films
Both of these film review website give valid data on the reviews and other info e.g. top box office in Rotten Tomatoes. In order to make sure that the result we get from this secondary resource is to look at both of these websites and other similar website to guarantee that we are getting reliable data.
What is also good about these websites is that people can give there own personal opinion on a film and so we are also getting audience research on what people thought were good and bad in a certain film e.g. looking at other competition to Shaun of the Dead on dark comedy film reviews when we were media researching for the Shaun of the Dead production