About three months ago I had the opportunity to work with Projectionist, a film analysis channel run by the wonderful Cody Wagner. Like a lot of analysis channels, Cody found he was falling into research spirals that were deeply interesting but took up a lot of time.
If you have a similar problem, know that it is completely normal. Doing research takes a lot of time and it’s hard to figure out what you actually need to write the video.
So here’s the steps I took to help Cody research his video (it ended up getting 270k views and counting!)
1: Evaluate the idea.
Cody wanted to make a video deep about a documentary called Hoop Dreams which follows two young black kids as they rise through the basketball ranks chasing the promise of social mobility.
What was really great is that Cody had something unique to say and knew how he wanted to say it. That means I went into research with a north star: this is going to be a video about the exploitation of young black athletes in basketball.
The lesson here is be your own Cody.
Ask yourself: what is the main point of my video and what do I need to talk about it confidently?
2. Break the idea down into pieces
If you tried to research everything in one sitting you’d burn out in seconds. I avoid that by breaking it down into pieces. Cody gave me some guidance to look at interviews and the specifics of collegiate sports so that was already two pieces.
I broke down the rest of the idea into “things about the documentary” and “things about the wider socioeconomic context.”
This makes sure you get into productive research spirals so if I read one source and find a link or a topic I want to explore further, I’m still on track because I know this research is building to the bigger topic.
I also find it easier to focus when I research one thing at a time instead of trying to research the whole topic all at once.
3. Hard no duplicate rule
I have a pretty strict “no duplicate” source rule which sounds more complicated than it is.
Basically if I find two sources that kind of say the same thing, but one of them adds more value, I’ll put more work into summarising and pulling quotes from the stronger source.
I’ll still include it with a note saying “hey, this is alright if you want to say that multiple people said this thing, but really this other source is the best one for this topic”. But why do I do that?
Listing statistics from various sources makes you sound more credible without needing to directly say “so so and so from so and so article said this.”
YouTube is much more casual than an essay you would write at school, but that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to make stuff up.
4. Identify the best sources
Once I collect a good bank of sources, I go through them and identify which are the most helpful or most informative.
I’m invested in making sure that my research packs are easily accessible for my clients so that they can get to writing with as little resistance as possible.
This is also great practice as a creator. It keeps you and your brain organised which leads to a much smoother process when you get to the actual writing.
Speaking of, identifying your best sources also structures your video without you noticing.
One of the sources I highlighted for Cody had to do with exploitation in contemporary collegiate sports. He saw it and realised that he wanted to dig more into that because it would be a nice way to end the video and relate a documentary from the 90’s to the present day.
That’s why it’s important to…
5. Keep structure in mind
I cannot emphasize the importance of a script’s structure enough.
You are still researching of course, but if you end up discovering a little pocket topic that you find really fascinating and want to spend more run time on then that’s fantastic. Please do that!
But, you need to keep the overall video in mind so you don’t end up with an hour long video when you planned to make a 20 minute one.
6. Identify gaps
This will help you do two things, identify gaps in your research but also gaps in your video structure. Now is where we depart a bit from Cody, because he had a very clear idea of the video he wanted to make.
If you’re going into research with a vague idea, I would encourage you to do some analysis while you research. Let’s say you’re writing about walkability in European cities. Maybe you find a source that says American zoning makes it difficult to create walkable spaces.
You could then infer that European zoning is more forgiving and that walkability is legally protected and valued. Of course, you’d need to find some sources to back that up, but see how you’re already making connections?
That’s how you do truly interesting research without getting lost and burning time.
7: An example
Everyone will have their own way of organizing their research, but the way I like to do it is in a tidy little research pack which you can check out here:
This is the research pack I made for Cody and the one he used to write his video which you can (and should!) check out.
If you find research to be a big struggle, you can read more about how to research a script on my blog or feel free to get in touch. Happy to answer any questions or have a chat about how I could help you out.