Outline of Concept (what are you making? What is the focus/story etc…)
The outline for my FMP is as follows… I am proposing to create a short film/documentary discussing the possibility that electric cars could be the future of motoring. It will feature interviews, cinematic shots of an electric vehicle and a short review of the vehicle. The aim/focus of the video is to give the viewer/audience a greater understanding of the advantages of owning an electric vehicle and to spark a discussion of whether an EV should be the next car they purchase. The story will start in different car dealerships interviewing them about their thoughts for electric cars and if they think it is possible for them to be the next revolution in car manufacturing, then progressing forward it will move into cinematic shots of the car driving leaving the dealership through the countryside until arriving in a remote location where the short car review section will be filmed, I may if the time permits include a section outlining the advantages for businesses to use EV’s as commercial vehicles also. There will not be a set narrative throughout the story, but the story will develop over time as we reach new conclusions. After a viewer has watched the video the aim isn’t to get them to go and purchase an electric vehicle (this is the purpose of an advertisement) but to consider it and make themselves question if it would be practical for them.
Run Time
Throughout the research and looking through the several different sources I have considered the run time or length of my documentary, when looking at the BBC click documentary this discouraged me from making a documentary of this length, mainly because it in my opinion will have a much shorter watch time as people will click away as they get bored of the video, but of course this varies from person to person. Looking at some research that I have discovered; “The channels vary in content types and average video length, ranging from pure entertainment to educational and 1 min average videos to 8 min average videos. Each YouTube average view duration was somewhere around 50-60% of the total video length.” (uhurunetwork, 2020). This isn’t unexpected to me. Looking at this data I plan for my video to be 8 minutes long, also YouTube recently changed the minimum video duration for eligibility to run midrolls on videos from 10 minutes down to 8. This means for creators with videos between 8 and 10 minutes are not eligible for advertisements. Although I do not plan to make any income from my video, I believe it should still conform similarities of other YouTube videos. YouTube themselves didn’t release a statement explaining why they had done this; I presume because they have realized that viewer retention is lowering over time. I think that 8 minutes is the perfect length for my video because I think I will be able to include everything that I want to in this time, and that it isn’t too long like for example the BBC click documentary.
I have been researching this further and found an article by a video analytics company called Mynd where they outline the, the graph below compares engagement to video length and it shows this on a handy graph, my planned video length is above what they recommend at a length of 8 minutes and they calculate that just above 50% of people will be watching by this point, which by YouTube standards isn’t too bad, and the fifty percent of people that stay watching are people that will be interested in the topic and subject of the video.
I have found an article which reads ‘How long should my YouTube videos be in 2020?’ but when you enter the website I noticed that the article is from 2018 meaning that this isn’t a relevant source to take information from whereas all other ones I have used are recent. This does back up the information from the paragraph above when I spoke about how the run time on YouTube generally used to be longer.
Detailed target audience profile
A target audience is a key part of filmmaking, ensuring that the video fits the mould of people that are most likely to watch it. This could give advantages to your video, for example more people may watch it and for a longer amount of time. In the research section I went very in-depth with what I wanted my target audience to be, and I gave a wide range of reasons/sources as to how I came to that audience. When researching I also looked at all the necessary different categories that should be included to decide a target audience… these were, geographic, age, gender, and interest. For my video I believe that the location is particularly important as this is very specific to EV’s and they work better in different environments (short journeys compared to long). Also, the age, this was pretty simplistic to work out however it still took some thought and common sense to determine what was suitable. I also researched within my age group (approximately 15-18yrs) surrounding who may be interested in a documentary of this kind, click here to jump to it. The result of this research was exactly what I expected and also backed up my claims I made previously about who may or may not be interested. Here is the target audience that I have decided would best suit my documentary; Someone who is already interested in electric vehicles, mainly women but also men, people who live in cities and the ages between 20-50. I would also like to specify that the target audience is more suited to women however this does not mean that men wont be interested in the documentary if anything I believe the viewership will be more male because of how male related most car or automotive media is portrayed, however I plan to go against this. I believe my target audience will suit my video very well and I am pleased at the conclusion I have come to. A technographic audience for my production would be people that use YouTube as this is where the video will be published and discoverable, you can share YouTube links however it is more likely to be discovered using the platform.
Looking at the YouGov website. They are a company which provide analytics for anyone to access, two of their recent polls which were conducted within the last two years which will be very useful for my research are about electric vehicles and peoples opinion on them, we’ll start with the on that reads ‘How likely do you think it is that you will be driving an electric car within the next ten years?’, the website groups and ranks the results differently, however when discussing them I will be referring to the top two columns as ‘positive’ and columns three and four as ‘negative’ responses. In response to this question 38% of people responded by saying that they could be driving fully electric within the next ten years, this is good because it shows to me that people are open and some of the population are ready for this major change in the automotive industry. With 35% of people choosing the negative options and saying that they will probably not be driving electric, this is almost a fifty fifty split between people that they will or won’t, (this survey was conducted on Feb 19 2019, I would expect results to favour the positive options if it were taken again). I have selected the target age group as 20-50, YouGov’s section shows 25-50 which is close enough for these research purposes, this row out of all of them had the most positive responses which backs up my claims about how this age group would be most interested in EV’s. There is also a gender tab which outlines what answers different genders responded as opposed to age, looking at this it shows that people of a male gender are more open to driving/owning an electric car within the next ten years, 44 men compared to 32 women say that it is likely that they will drive electric. This shows to me that men are more likely to be open to the electric future which could well be possible compared to women.
Secondly a more direct question: ‘How likely is it the next car you buy will be electric?’. Now before even looking at the answers to this I already expect more of them to be negative and this is because. The question gives a much shorter time span and typically people don’t keep a car over ten years. Looking at the age section we can see that again the majority of positive responses came from the 25-50 age category, and the age category that are most opposed to owning an electric vehicle are the 50-65 year old, this could be for a number of reasons. Maybe they have already purchased the car that they think will last them as they may not be driving as much anymore.
I believe that my audience falls into ‘Critiques and Creators’. I think this because these seem like the two categories that seem the most involved in everything generally and also the most productive. This relates back to my target audience because it shows that the people are proactive and are more likely to be interested.
This research is very useful and makes me even more sure that the target audience I have developed and, this research supports that it is correct.
Looking at Bill Nichol’s different documentary modes, I would say that mine is the participatory and performative. This is because they both include the filmmaker within the documentary, and he plays a key role. Participatory documentaries represent the film creators’ beliefs and their idea of the truth, and many things shown within these types of documentary show the filmmakers opinion. Performative very similarly focus on the filmmaker’s involvement with the subject which is very much what I am doing in my documentary constantly talking about the subject. This has helped me narrow down the style of documentary I want to create.
Inspiration (How does your idea reflect the work of your practitioner? Where did the idea come from?)
I would say that my idea is a mixture of different forms of video and one of the reasons I have decided to to-do this is so that the audience remains interested, by also making the video contain separate sections it will allow me to show off the talents that I have in different areas of film and video creation within the same video, I wouldn’t say that my video reflects a certain other video or YouTube channel, for example if I was making a documentary about zoos and tigers this would be directly linked and heavily inspired by the Netflix Original series ‘Tiger King’. As I have previously mentioned it takes inspiration and interpretation from a wide range of sources. However I would say that the different sections will reflect the work of my practitioners, more so because of the layout of the video, I wouldn’t expect in the car review section for someone to notice that it may be related to ‘carwow’ however this may be the case and I think this will be down to how I record the video as in carwow’s car reviews they have a camera person constantly follow Matt around with a stabilized camera, but instead I plan to go against this and use static shots, which may take longer, however I believe it will give a better effect as a final result, at the beginning of the documentary I plan to have interviews to entice the viewer and make them want to keep watching. For example, I have researched this and looked at one of my practitioner’s documentaries; Louis Theroux’s ‘America’s Most Dangerous Pets’.
At the very beginning of the documentary he includes some shots where he seems at risk, making the owners of these pets seem crazy, almost making the viewer worries for Louis himself. The main thing for me looking at this is that I want to make the viewer interested and question what the outcome of the video could be right from the beginning and also to see what happens next and make the viewer want to see how the story develops. I would say that my work could also reflect BBC’s Top Gear, this is because this also reflects a car documentary in some aspects, the main difference between this show and what I am to produce is that TopGear is more of an entertainment show rather than an informative documentary, however it does have some informative car reviews within it which are presented by Chris Harris which is more so what I mean to reflect to, also the cinematics of cars are very impressive and this is another section I would like to try and play on the idea of. I have now added the TopGear to my research bibliography as through this research I have discovered it is a useful source.
It didn’t take a long time to think of my idea, but I do think that I developed it in the correct way, I have previously discussed this in part one I believe. First I thought about which previous unit I liked the most and what I wanted to do again, it didn’t have to be on of the previous units however I thought that this is the correct thing to do because it allows me to use the knowledge I have learnt from that unit again and attempt to improve on documentary filmmaking work I have completed before. But to also expand on this and look into how I can make an audience interested in what I have to say, keeping a viewer interested is very important to me as a creator. Growing up I have always watched shows such as TopGear and The Grand Tour as I find them interesting, and also as I have moved away from watching TV (which I rarely do anymore) I have still watched the same sort of content on YouTube. So, this is the reason that I want to make the same style of motoring video. I am also and I sometimes don’t understand why other people aren’t… interested in the future, and more so discovering what that future looks like. So, by combining these two ideas I have now, and I am planning what I want to record. To put it very simply, I am interested in motoring and the future and also future technologies so the self-explanatory video to produce is whether the electric cars are or are not the future and also the impact that they have on the environment.
Key conclusions from research (What did you research? What did you learn?)
I think that the FMP I plan to produce is original, but this is because it takes inspiration from many diverse sources, so it is a mixture of various kinds of video combined. My research is very thorough, and I went in-depth into detail which mattered the most. I researched what is required to make my documentary the best it can be and other things like competition which is what other videos in this area mine may have to compete with. This made me realise what I would need to do in making my video better than the competition. Also, another part which I think as worthwhile was researching how to film safely during covid-19. Throughout my research I came to many different conclusions starting with the style of video I wanted to aim for which I decided would be a documentary/advertisement. Next, I looked at different aspect ratios and how the different ones could come across and the impacts it may have on an audience. I have now decided to use the aspect ratio 21:9 this is because I believe that it will make my video seem more modern and as it is the next to be used as the previous one before 16:9 was 4:9, the aspect ratio for video seems to be getting wider as the years move on.
Moving on and looking at target audiences, which I have outlined in the section above the conclusion that I came to and the audience I have selected. In the research I also figured that it would be a clever idea to look at more than just video, so I decided to look at a vehicle review by autocar, which gave me an insight into written media as well as video. I concluded from this section of research that as well as the video I could also make a written article which uses the same script and transcribed text from the interviews section. This could also be uploaded on my blog, potentially under the mock-up brand I created for my Interactive Investigation which I found useful. Legal issues are something that I could run into when creating my documentary, and to avoid this I have done research within this area, the main one I think I need to concentrate on is making sure that people are not misrepresented in my film. This could mean I face a severe backlash from other creators and the public, as a conclusion I will now be completely transparent with anyone involved within my production. Looking into the related concepts and ideas, this really made drill down into what I want to include and the information that I want to give to the viewer and more importantly what I do not want to let them know.
Another conclusion that I came to is that I want to keep the cost that I spend for my FMP very low. And I managed to explain my views on why this is the case well, there are many films which have been produced on extremely low budgets and have still retained a major viewership, this definitely inspires me to keep the cost low. Some major companies have millions to spend on a film/series. I don’t and I also don’t think that it will be a problem, to document this I have created a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the cost for any items I purchase for my FMP. Working safely during the pandemic is also important to me which is why from my research I have started to look into getting more covid lateral flow tests if I am filming with anyone outside of my household. This will ensure that when we are unable to social distance that we cannot or have reasonable belief that we both do not have the virus and spread it to each other.
Production schedule (Outline key dates for filming/editing etc…)
Possible Covid-19 changes/adaptations
The main and most obvious change that I may have to make is that BMW may wish to no longer provide me with a vehicle because of the covid restrictions not being eased in the timeline that has been laid out by the UK government. When I spoke to Richard from Westerly BMW Barnstaple he informed me that they would not be able to loan me a vehicle for use in this project until the 12th of April, this is because at this date the restrictions have eased to the point where they are able to do this. Now at the moment it seems like this will still be possible as to this date the government have stuck to the roadmap that they set out, this subsequently means that my FMP will still be able to go ahead as planned with a BMW i3. Another thing that I will add into the title sequence and also in the credits is that the documentary will be and I quote ‘Powered by: Westerly BMW Barnstaple’ this is because they have provided the car in return for their product placement in the video. Also I have researched how YouTube interpret this and this is as follows: “Paid product placements are pieces of content that are created for a third party in exchange for compensation, or where that third party’s brand, message or product is integrated directly into the content.” (Google, no date). You can view this page by looking for it in the references section below. Looking at this it will mean that when uploading this to YouTube I will need to select the ‘this video includes a paid promotion’ box as my video will as it is integrating the BMW i3 as BMW as a brand into the content. This also meant that YouTube would run ads on my video as this is their policy when selecting this button, but this does solve another complication that I was having to decide between. Which I will outline and describe in the next section. I do have other ways of filming with electric vehicles for example using a relatives or family friends’ vehicle is an option, but this could be potentially breaking Covid regulations to collect the car. I am sure that using one of these options I will be able to complete my FMP.
The second issue that coronavirus could cause my production is… not being able to have any help when filming my FMP. I plan to have some assistance mainly with sound recording from one of my friends when I film the car review section. This means I can have him monitor the audio while I am speaking to camera, which means I can make sure the audio is crystal clear and have no issues editing it myself in the postproduction stages. Currently so that we can film as safe as possible I have requested extra lateral flow coronavirus tests, so that before we film together we can both separately take these and have a very good idea that we both have not got coronavirus, to help stop the spread and to work safely. Although this would not put a halt to the production of my FMP it would definitely put a spanner in the works, it would/could mean that my production takes longer working singlehandedly.
Music
I previously touched upon music choices in part one of the FMP however since then certain things have changed. In the Sound and Visual investigation units I learned about how music can be used on YouTube and when ads will and won’t appear next to your videos. Looking further into this now with my video ads will already be placed and run on it because of the ‘paid promotion’ that is included so now running copyrighted and mainstream music within the video isn’t a big choice to make anymore as it won’t affect if ads do or don’t run. I also believe that using mainstream music makes your video more appealing to a viewer, lots of other YouTube creators do this and instead earn their revenue through other sources eg selling clothing/merchandise.
I have just done some more research and looked into this by watching a YouTube video from a user called Film Booth, who outlines how to tell if your video is going to be claimed and if advertisements will run on it, or if the content owner will block the video entirely. To do this he recommends creating a new YouTube channel which will be unaffected from any strikes or other issues. Then to upload the video the new channel and see what happens! This does seem a bi ridiculous but is the only way at this moment in time.
My video will contain a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound for example sound of the car travelling along a road, including this sound will be diegetic sound because it is as it happens, the music, the voice overs will be non-diegetic because they don’t happen within the scene while still adding to the narrative of the story.
In my FMP I plan to use copyrighted music throughout but to use the method outlined above to make sure my video isn’t blocked and is still visible. In my opinion this will make the video more interesting as the music included will already be songs that are used within mainstream media and overall add to the high production quality that I am aiming for, when deciding what music I want to use to directly represent the vehicle I will firstly consult BMW and ask how they would like the vehicle to be portrayed and how they want it to come across, for example if they request that they want to emphasise how quiet the car is I wont be using dance music, however if they wanted to show off how quick and nippy the car is this may be a more suitable option. Talking to BMW first is a big stage and will ensure that they are happy with the final video as well as myself.
Throughout the time I have spent working on this section I have also added to the: research bibliography, production journal and production costs.
References:
GIFER (no date) Outline GIF – Find on GIFER. Available at: https://gifer.com/en/Hev8 (Accessed: 27/04/21)
WIkipedia (no date) File:Clock.gif. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clock.gif (Accessed: 27/04/21)
GlassMountains (2020) Adding an animated countdown to your social media posts. Available at: https://www.glassmountains.co.uk/campfire/adding-an-animated-countdown-to-your-social-media-update/ (Accessed: 24/02/21)
uhurunetwork (2020) Youtube Average View Duration – The 50% Rule. Available at: https://uhurunetwork.com/the-50-rule-for-youtube/ (Accessed: 30/03/21)
cliply (2020) 🎯 Hitting Target. Available at: https://cliply.co/clip/hitting-target-icon/ (Accessed: 24/02/21)
YouGov (2019) How likely do you think it is that you will be driving an electric car within the next ten years?. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/travel/survey-results/daily/2019/02/19/6b2d3/1 (Accessed: 04/04/21)
YouGov (2019) How likely is it the next car you buy will be electric?. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/transport/survey-results/daily/2019/06/18/0a5d3/2 (Accessed: 04/04/21)
Tenor (no date) Inspiration GIFs. Available at: https://tenor.com/search/inspiration-gifs (Accessed: 24/02/21)
BBC (no date) America’s Most Dangerous Pets. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016yklh (Accessed: 27/04/21)
cliply (no date) 🤔 Thinking Face. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/794392821758280298/ (Accessed: 27/04/21)
Google (no date) Add paid product placements, sponsorships and endorsements. Available at: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235?hl=en-GB#zippy=%2Cwhat-do-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-paid-product-placements-sponsorships-and-endorsements (Accessed: 04/04/21)
BBC (no date) Season 2 Protest GIF. Available at: https://giphy.com/gifs/bbc-season-1-episode-clique-SGW4fsrsxVRZkFM2RF (Accessed: 27/04/21)
pngkey (no date) Amazing Music Studio. Available at: https://www.pngkey.com/detail/u2w7u2a9u2t4e6a9_amazing-music-studio-music-player-gif-png/ (Accessed: 27/04/21)
Bradley Smart 
