Research Methods

Qualitative Research -  The human touch - interviews, surveys and observation

Quantitative Research - Data - statistics and numbers

Secondary Research - Using existing research

Primary Research - Research you conducted yourself

Advantages of qualitative research

• This type of research does not need a strict design plan before it begins
• The researcher gains more detailed and rich data in the form of comprehensive written descriptions or visual evidence, such as photographs
• Looks at context and social meaning and how it affects individuals, which is advantageous particularly in the social sciences

Disadvantages of qualitative research

• This research is heavily involved in the process, which gives the researcher a subjective view of the study and its participants
• The researcher interprets the research according to his or her own biased view, which skews the data gathered
• This research method is very time consuming and can last for months or even years

Advantages of quantitative research

• Quantitative research allows the researcher to measure and analyse data. This is advantageous because the researcher is more objective about the findings of the research
• Can be used to test hypotheses in experiments because of its ability to measure data using statistics

Disadvantages of quantitative research

• The context of the study or experiment is ignored
• Does not study things in a natural setting or discuss the meaning things have for different people as qualitative research does
• A large sample of the population must be studied; the larger the sample of people researched, the more statistically accurate the results will be

Advantages of primary research

• Targeted Issues are addressed
• Data interpretation is better
• Recency of Data - we can use data that is much more useful for us
• Proprietary Issues

Disadvantages of primary research

• High Cost
• Time Consuming
• Inaccurate Feed backs
• Larger number of resources are required

Advantages of secondary research

• Time and Cost effective
• Extensiveness of data
• Basis of Primary Research

Disadvantages of secondary research

• Inaccuracy of data
• Needs to understand various parameters and assumptions that primary research had taken while collected information
  
• Time lag issues
• May not be specific
• Proprietary Issues

Montage Editing

Sergei Eisenstein 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s71vmKc6HkE

Psycho - 'Shower scene' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHaXM7YeQsQ

Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. It was introduced to cinema primarily by Sergei Eisenstein, and early Soviet directors used it as a synonym for creative editing. An example of montage editing is when they show someone's life in the space of a few minutes. Unlike invisible editing, it uses close-ups, relatively frequent shots, dissolves, fades and jump cuts.

Wes Craven

Born on August 2, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven went on to direct horror films like Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes and Swamp Thing before helming the infamous Nightmare on Elm Street. He scored another major hit with Scream, which spawned three sequels as of 2011.

Craven made an impressive film debut in 1972's The Last House on the Left, which he wrote and directed. The movie mined human cruelty to fuel the horrific tale of teenage girls abducted by deranged prisoners. The evil that people can inflict on others provided the central conflict for another now-classic Craven film The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

Craven's works tend to share a common exploration of the nature of reality. 'A Nightmare on Elm Street', for example, dealt with the consequences of dreams in real life. 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' portrays a man who cannot distinguish between nightmarish visions and reality.

In 'Scream', the characters frequently reference horror films similar to their situations, and at one point Billy Loomis tells his girlfriend that life is just a big movie. This concept was emphasized in the sequels, as copycat stalkers reenact the events of a new film about the Woodsboro killings occurring in 'Scream'. 'Scream' included a scene mentioning an urban legend about Richard Gere and a sex act involving a hamster. Craven stated in interviews that he received calls from agents telling him that if he left that scene in, he would never work again.

Conventions of a short film

Characters - Short films usually stick to 2 or 3 main characters.
Twist - Short films nearly always contain a 'twist' to make it more interesting.
Budget - Short films typically have a low budget.
Length - Short films usually are maximum 35 minutes long, however they are typically 5-10 minutes long.
Situation - Short films usually take an everyday situation that we can relate to and then flips it in some way.
Todorov - Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium is typically applied to short films.

Uses and Gratification

The basic theme of Uses and Gratification is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications.

This is in opposition to the Hypodermic Needle model that claims consumers have no say in how the media influences them.

The main ideas of Uses and Gratifications model is that people are not helpless victims of all powerful media, but use media to fulfil their various needs.

These needs serve as motivations for using media.

The IMR and The 'Primitive Style'

The IMR
The key code is the international language of film or the Institutional Mode of Representation. In film theory, the IMR is the dominant mode of film construction, which developed in the years after the turn of the century, becoming the norm by about 1914. The IMR is characterised by the attempt to create an entirely closed fictional world on screen. The audience is completely imaginatively involved in the film, instead of being distant from it and seeing it as an object to be examined.

The 'Primitive Style'
The 'Primitive Style' of movie-making predated classical Hollywood's continuity system (or IMR). 
Techniques include frontal staging or a tableau style, exaggerated gestures, hardly any camera movement and no Point-of-view shots.

Theoretical Approaches to Horror Films

Philosophy of horror (Noel Carroll):
Noel's big idea was attraction/repulsion. We are both repulsed by gore and transgression and also attracted by it.  We enjoy killer POV shots yet identify with the killer, we fear vampires but fancy them and we can’t stand looking but can’t stop looking as well - attraction repulsion.

Laura Mulvey - 'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema':
Laura's big idea was the 'male gaze'. The film positions us as a male eye, spying on the female and objectifying her, this is shown clearly in the film 'Halloween'. The audience simultaneously empathizes with the victims on screen while occupying the killer's point of view. There is a shift from seeing the world through the killer’s eyes to seeing it through the Final Girls, which is interesting.  

Freud - The uncanny:
The Uncanny is something secret and disturbingly strange. The uncanny is ought to have been secret but that has come to light within the unconscious or subconscious mind. It is essentially the return of the repressed and it is projected onto objects, people and places. The uncanny valley is also very interesting.

Jung - The shadow:
The shadow is a projection of all we fear and dislike onto an external figure. The horror film 'monster' is all the worst parts of us.

Adam Lowenstein:
Adam's big idea was spectacle horror - the combination of special effects, camerawork, gore music etc. They create a medium that is much about appreciating the art of the genre as it is about darker motives.

Cynthia Freeland:
Cynthia argued that graphic violence and gore are so over the top and exaggerated that they create a 'perverse sublime'. They are so far-fetched that we can enjoy the film on an aesthetic, entertaining level. This explains why a lot of people don’t like horror ‘too real!’.