Research Dossier

Their are various screenwriting competitions that young writers can enter into to get recognition, fame or just a cash prize. The first one I've found is from a company called Script Pipeline, this company offers a competition which offers a large variety of prizes, including a cash prize of $25,000, connections in the industry and help to develop your script which costs $40 dollars to enter if you enter before the 31st December 2019. The only rules include you have to be 18 at the time of entry and the work must obviously be your own.

Another screenwriting competition which helps young writers is a company called the UK Film Festival. Which offers gateways into the industry with various connections throughout the industry, they also offer the best chance to take your script into pre-production. The rules include for the 3 and 10 minute scripts you can only submit the script but for features you can email the synopsis etc.







A UK company that lets writers submit unsolicited scripts is called the BBC Writers Room. The entry guidelines include certain window opportunities to submit and a minimum of 30 pages (basically 30 minutes in length) and is very good for writers who are just starting out and who don't have agents to represent them.

This is an example of a screenplay I formatted to show not only that I have a good idea of how screenplays are presented and I also know all off the terminology to go with it.

There are many ways to get inspiration to write your screenplay, most writers use some of these to help them with their writing. Some films and TV shows are from personal experience, these are especially good for dramas because they all come from the heart. A perfect example from this is a film called Schindler’s List. This film is based on a true story about a Nazi businessman played by Liam Neeson who has a change of heart and ends up saving over 1000 Jews during the holocaust. Another example of where film writers can get inspiration on is their own fantasy/imagination. An example of this is Up (1978). This film is based on the fantasy that an old mans who's wife just died and goes on an adventure with a boy scout with the more of transportation being a flying house with balloons on top. This technique is very useful for action and adventure films because you can write about whatever you want to write about. Another example would be films would be one base doff books, an example of this would be The Man in the High Castle. This now Amazon TV series which has now been running for 4 seasons.
t is basically a what if the Germans won WW2 but their are tapes of the Allies actually winning the war. This is also a good way of writing movies and TV shows but it is not as original as the other ones I've mentioned. The final way I'm going to mention is adaptations, an example for this would be the James Bond franchise, their are 24 different James Bond films based off the character Ian Fleming came up with. This is good example because their has been a long standing relationship between James Bond and the fans.

Their are various amounts of ways I could conduct primary research for my screenplay. Let's say for example that I wanted to make a film based on a boy who works at McDonalds. One way I could conduct some primary research is I could go and talk to McDonalds employees directly about how they like their job. This is a very reliable source of research because you are getting first hand accounts of how employees find the place. Another way I could do some primary research is that I could make an online survey for employees to fill in. This is also reliable and it takes away the pressure of going to have to talk to them and you can get a wider range of people to interview. Another way I could conduct research is just to observe employees do their jobs, this is maybe the most reliable because they won't be able to lie or anything like that because it would be just another day at work for them.

These three ways of primary research will also be very efficient for my own screenplay which I am and are planning to use to research.

Their are also various amounts of secondary research I can use for my screenplay.  One way I could conduct secondary research is to watch news reports on my chosen idea. This is fairly unreliable because we all know that the news channels can often tamper with the truth a little bit. Another way I can conduct secondary research is by looking at government research. This is also fairly unreliable since we all know the government defiantly loves to tamper with the truth, so be careful and take everything they say with a pinch of salt. I could also use legal documents provided by anyone with the authority to make them. These tend to be slightly more reliable because these people are motivated not to lie with the threat of getting arrested for lying.

These three ways are efficient ways of research but for my screenplay but I will only really be using news reports because this way s the only way I've mentioned that does research on my chosen topic. For my screenplay I would however use alternative secondary research techniques including surveys already completed by someone else, reviews on websites such as Indeed and university research. 

An example of a key benefit for primary research over secondary research is that it is always specific to your needs and you will control the final quality but a disadvantage is that it usually costs more and take longer. An example of a key benefit for secondary research over primary research is that it is usually cheap and quick but an disadvantage is that data can be too old/or not specific enough for your needs. In my opinion as a college student I think secondary research is better than primary research because I don’t have the money or the time to carry out sufficient primary research. 

The most useful research I've conducted for my screenplay would defiantly be Indeed reviews. This is because there are more than 170,000 reviews I can take inspiration from. As you can see the reviews are very mixed based on the overall rating of 3.5 stars shows that I will have plenty of reviews to use as research.

Obviously since their are a lot of reviews, their are people who are going to say the job was perfect with no criticism and people who are going to say that the job is all bad not good, since I work at McDonalds I know this not to be true, if I was to leave a review I would leave a star count of around the same as the overall one in this screenshot. So for this research I am confident I can exclude certain reviews because I know them to be false.


I have also conducted research from websites and stories such as this article wrote by a man called Ben Chapman. (Link at the bottom of the page) about McDonalds workers complaining about safety standards and unfair treatment in their restaurants. In this article Ben Chapman has reported about a number of McDonalds workers complaining and going on strike about their place of work. The article then goes on to say that workers are demanding £10 an hour and better treatment from their bosses which links to what my screenplay is about. I find that articles are very good sources for research into my screenplay because it takes other peoples first hand accounts and it is really good when they share the same opinion as me.



Other ways you can research into an idea is to watch movies or tv shows that you admire and want to take influence off. For example my movie links to a film called The Road, released in 2009. The films synopsis reads;  'In a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea.' This film links to mine because of the whole apocalyptic feel to the film. I share the opinion with a lot of other industry professionals that it is important to watch products similar to an idea you want to make a film, tv show or any other media product.











I have been storing all of the information I've found on this blog post.

Link to McDonalds article:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mcdonalds-workers-accuse-fast-food-safety-failings-degrading-treatment-mcstrikers-zero-hours-a7966676.html