Research Final Idea

Research :Primary and secondary

Secondary
To start conducting my research I have decided to search up the subject of pigeon shooting and the reasons why it is done. From these findings I have found a lot of very useful information.

After doing some brief research into the subject I thought the best place to start would be the BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) website. On this website I found an article about pigeon shooting for beginners and it said 'In the summer, when the days are as hot as your barrels, pigeon shooting comes into its own. Since pigeons are capable of devastating agricultural crops farmers will often welcome responsible guns'.John Batley: Pigeon Shooter. I would like to use this quote in my documentary as it given an insight into the reasons why people do it.

Another article that I found was about a proposal to 'scare' birds instead of shooting them. But this was not a balanced argument because the reason that people kill pigeons is because they are vermin and because they kill and destroy crops. In this article it says 'The proposal would make it mandatory to attempt to scare pigeons and other avian pests before shooting. From this article I found this quote “The proposals would also be completely unenforceable. Who will be going around farms checking that each pigeon shooter has tried scare tactics before getting on with the job of protecting crops?”. After reading articles from both sides of the argument (for and against) I have found that there are a lot of people who are strongly against shooting vermin such as pigeons to protect crop and they say that they would prefer that you were to scare them. This plan has many flaws but I have found an article which shows what the opposition to shooters are trying to do to even prosecute people who shoot. They have done this by trying to enforce laws that if broken could land a game keeper out of his job. For example when decoying they have to have the right environments for decoy birds. In my documentary I will try to show both sides of the argument but I will end up being for shooting as there is no other option for getting rid of the wood pigeons.

When doing some of my secondary research I decided to try and fins a very similar documentary to what I would like to make. I thought the best place to look was the BASC and I found a very useful, informative and interesting documentary. It talks in much detail about the reasons as to why he does it but also the strategy of how he does it. By looking at this it has given me a lot of ideas for my documentary and how I am going to do it. It has been very useful and has given me ideas on what to include and the type of footage that I want to capture.

I looked on the BARB website as well as Channel 4 and IMDB to try and find viewing figures for 3 Minute Wonders but I couldn't find any as it wasn't in the top 30 viewed programmes on Channel 4.


Possible Information For Documentary
After doing all of my research for my documentary I have decided that I would like to use and quote some of the facts and figures that I have found and that I think will be useful to show in the documentary.

By looking at an article from the Guardian newspaper I found out a lot of useful information that I can use:

-The report says Britain's woodpigeon breeding population has been estimated at 8.2 million

-They are largely sedentary, travelling no more than 10km to 20km between feeding and roosting sites

-The wood pigeon had increased in population by 665% since 1980 and are still rapidly growing

These facts and figures are very useful and I will probably quote them in the documentary as it will give the viewer a greater understanding of how many there are and the distances they travel.

Primary
To start my primary research I have spoken first person to my dad and another member of my family that also shoots for a pre-interview discussion. Through this I ave discussed to them some questions that I would ask during an interview to both them and the gamekeeper. From our conversations they have given me a lot of useful information such as reasons for why it is done but also what they would look for in a documentary. For example I explained that it could only be 3 minutes and so they said what they would like to most see in it so that I can specifically focus on some aspects of it.

Other ways that I am carrying out my primary research is through an online survey. On Smart Survey I have created a survey which asks about documentaries themselves but also about peoples knowledge and views on my subject. What I have already found out with some of my results is that most people watch documentaries that are within the target audience but also not very many people have any understanding of the subject and want to know about how it is done and why. This means that I will have a lot of ground to cover when making this and it will almost all rely on me getting footage of me shooting and getting information through my interviews.

Survey Results (Primary)

So far I have gained 21 results for my survey from which 17 were within the demographic for my target audience. This means that I have plenty of useful results from my survey. Firstly I decided to look at how many people watch documentaries, I found out that the vast majority of people do but only half of everyone who took the survey had watched or even heard of Channel 4's 3 Minute Wonders. Further useful information that I gathered was that only 6 people had any knowledge of pigeon shooting, this meant that I would have to cover a lot of ground in my documentary and make it very informative. Furthermore everyone that filled in the survey wanted to see different aspects of it because they didn't know very much but what I did find find out was that a lot of people wanted to see and to be informed about the reasons why pigeon shooting is carried out, what the seasons for it were and also how it is done. From this information I now have a very good understanding of what people would like to see in my documentary but as well as this almost everyone said that they would like to see a documentary based upon pigeon shooting.

Bibliography for Research

• http://basc.org.uk/blog/press-releases/latest-news/scaring-pigeons-proposal-threatens-crop-protection/ (12/03/14)
• http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/skydancer/b/skydancer/archive/2013/11/15/geltsdale-open-day.aspx (12/03/14)
• https://basc.org.uk/woodpigeon-shooting/pigeon-shooting-for-beginners-easy-as-pie/ (12/03/14)
• http://www.smallholder.co.uk/news/11050868.Natural_England_suggests_trying_to_scare_pests_before_shooting_them/ (13/03/14)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8AsORf2-qA#t=10 (14/03/13)
• http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30 (14/03/13)
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/advice/pests_and_diseases/identifier.shtml?pigeons (17/03/14)

Rules and regulations

Filming in public
If you want to film on public land then you need to contact the local authorities or the local council to get permission as they are responsible for the land. Another precaution that you will need to take is to get full clearance from the police to allow you film, although this is only required if you are on a road or using dangerous props or special effects. All in all as long as you notify and get permission from authorities then you are allowed to film in public places. But you can only do this with the correct clearance and paperwork. While looking up what happens if these laws are breached I found a video of someone pushing the boundaries to find out what they can do if the laws are broken. Because he didn't have permission to film he was suspected as a terrorist. Video.

Libel and Deformation
Libel or deformation within footage and information can be a problem, especially when making documentaries. But within my documentary I do not have to worry about this as all of the footage and all the information that I will be giving will be 100% truthful and not bias even though I will mostly be showing one side of the argument.


OFCOM Broadcasting codes
With the code in place I might have a couple of problems with my original idea because of people getting offended. When filming I am going to need to keep the rules in my mind and not show any distressing content. I have looked in much detail about some of the categories for example..

Harm and offence
'2.2 Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience.' This means that I can show some of the footage as long as it is not misleading because it is for educational purposes.

'1.13 Dangerous behavior, or the portrayal of dangerous behavior, that is likely to

be easily imitable by children in a manner that is harmful.' This means that if I feature any footage of me shooting and using guns I will only be able to show it after the watershed.

Viewer Trust Guidelines

After reading thoroughly through the trust guidelines I have found that I should be completely fine to make my documentary as it is as long as it is completely truthful and it is shown after the watershed, this is because I will be featuring guns and maybe graphical footage. 'Our viewers must feel confident that they can take what they see or are told in a programme at face value.'Channel 4 seem very adamant that they need to have content that their audience can trust and can view something that is not libel or has deformation within the content. They like to have full trust from all their viewers and like to keep it this way and so a lot of their user trust agreement is about how they need all of the information shown in their documentaries to be completely truthful to maintain that trust from their audience.

Bibliography for Regulations

• http://industry.bfi.org.uk/publicspaces (13/03/14)
• http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/dec/11/snapshot-special-branch-terror-suspect?intcmp=239 (13/03/14)
• http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/how-to/ (13/03/14)
• http://www.channel4.com/producers-handbook/c4-guidelines/viewer-trust-guidelines (14/03/14)