ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how to carry out a research project on the shorter kinds of advertising and promotional clips we tend to find across social media platforms. The earlier sections explain how we approach film clips from a discourse perspective. This means revealing the discourses that they carry. What kinds of models of the world are found in them? What kinds of situations and outcomes are valued? The chapter uses some of the same tools for analysis as those used in the previous two chapters. It begins by showing how these can be applied in the case of film clips. The next section demonstrates how to then use these in the unique context of film clips, where we need to deal with the ways in which they represent sequences of scenes, processes, and events. Here, using examples, the chapter lays out a model for identifying basic structures in film clips, showing how essentially three forms shape most promotional-type clips. The final part of the chapter focuses on carrying out a research project on film clips. It looks at asking meaningful and workable research questions. How to build up a literature review of the existing research on the topic and place your research question into this context is discussed, to then consider sampling and handling data. Finally, it looks at how to reflect on the relevance of the analysis in the context of the existing research literature. What has your project added to this knowledge?
