Are you a first-time screenwriter? Does the process of identifying a story idea, researching the chosen subject – the subject is the topic that your screenplay covers. For example, the movie Rocky’s subject was on boxing – and writing an accurate, compelling screenplay appear too herculean?

Then a technologically inspired approach can be the answer. Indexed within search engines are dozens of online tools, websites and resources that can help you get familiar with your screenplay’s subject regardless of how complex it is.

Many of such online tools are free and easy to use. This means that if you’re working on spec or with low budgets, you can still acquire a library’s worth of information with little financial investment.

Furthermore, a great deal of information that can be accessed through the internet is reliable and verifiable.

Although online media content may have attracted a bad rap in recent years due to a surge in plagiarism and fabricated information, it is still a fertile ground for doing valuable research work. This is why Journalists and Academics still use the internet to conduct their research today.

When done properly, online research may even impact film marketing efforts down the line. For example, if you consulted an influential blogger during your research, he might announce the premiere of your film to his huge online audience when it was released because he was vital to its making.

But a dependence on online research is not usually the best strategy. Rather, a strategic combination of online research with live research tactics, like going directly to the source to conduct personal interviews and examine the environment, will usually provide better results. Here are proven suggestions on how you can use online research to get valuable results:

1. Start With Google

Perhaps, this is too obvious.

But do you know how to use this free resource to find most of the information that you so desperately need? If you don’t, then a good starting point would be to apply any of the 10 Google shortcuts as shared by Raindance’s Elliot Grove in this blog post.

However, if you want to use academic and scholarly publications in your research, then you should turn to Google Scholar. This free Google service has access to millions of published research and offers filters that enable refined searches.

Through the Google Image search function, you can also access relevant images on your subject. After all, the pictures are easier and faster to comprehend than text. Using them, you could speed up your script research process.

Using Google News, you can also stay abreast of current events within the scope of your subject. Such information, usually contained within the websites of reputable media companies such as Forbes and CNN, might spur you to explore new story ideas.

2. Go Through Wikipedia

Is Wikipedia, the popular free online encyclopedia, reliable?

No.

In fact, as administrators of the website warn,

“Do not use a Wikipedia article as a source for another Wikipedia article, even when describing Wikipedia… Wikipedia should not be considered a definitive source in and of itself.”

But Wikipedia is still a valuable resource for screenwriters.

This is because of the references to consulted websites and publications that Wikipedia contributors include at the end of every article. Through the references, you can visit the original publishers of any information used on Wikipedia to find out if they’re credible. You can do this by:

• • Finding out who owns or contributes content to the website. You can get this information on the Contributors page, Team page or About us page.
  This is important because highly authoritative media sites are usually owned by reputable persons and attract contributions from experts. For example, the Raindance blog is authoritative because it is owned by Raindance; a leading film organization in the UK.
• • You can further complement your effort with social media investigation. Simply visit online forums and social media sites to meet and ask other reputable stakeholders what they think about the website, its owner(s) or contributors. Highly reputable websites usually get glittering reviews from their readers.

3. Use Other Online Tactics

Wikipedia and Google are not the only sources of information for your online research. You can always include the following in your efforts too:

• Contact academics and researchers:

There is probably an academic expert or researcher for every subject, even your script’s. Academics are often reliable and can even help you reach other information sources.

But how do you meet academic researchers through the internet?

First, focus your efforts on finding research papers and articles on your subject. Then reach out to the scholars responsible through their contact information which might be published on paper. If there is no contact information on the paper, then you might search for the scholars on social media sites like LinkedIn to contact them or use the email finder tools, Lusha or Hunter to get their email addresses or phone numbers.

You can also look for academic experts who are active on social media or online forums. Before contacting them, ensure that you double-check to see if their claims are true. For example, you may look for their published articles or studies on reputable journals or ask their employers to verify their claims.

• Use YouTube:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. Videos are faster to understand and harder to forget.

This is why you must prioritize video analysis in your research efforts. You can always find free videos on many subjects through YouTube.

When searching for videos, don’t expect to find feature-length videos on your chosen topic. Since most YouTubers don’t get paid for uploading videos, no one might have sponsored an expensive video production on your topic yet. But look at the bright side; even a one-minute video or a sarcastic reference to your subject in a video can be relevant to your needs.

• Listen to conversations on blogs, forums and social media:

Is your lead character a female doctor in the offshore oil and gas sector? Do you want her to appear believable and multidimensional on screen?

Then use social listening tactics in your research. This simply means that you should find top blogs, social media groups, social media pages or forum discussions that engage online users who resemble your characters or share their traits.

For example, a Google search for “top insurance blogs” will lead you to a list of reputable blogs that discuss pressing issues in insurance. This can help you identify authentic challenges, attitudes or perceptions of Insurance salesmen that you can use if one of your characters sells insurance.

You can also reach out to top bloggers and journalists on your subject as well as social media group administrators.

These kinds of sources are knowledgeable since they constantly work to find news on your subject that’s relevant to their audience.

But how do you contact them?

You can use the same strategies for finding the contact information of academic experts to locate their emails and phone numbers too and send a message asking for their help in your research.

 After the completion  of their undergraduate programme, most new graduates heave sighs of relief that their days of ‘stress’ are over; that they are finally free to live and enjoy their time as they please.

Typically, most graduates regard studying as bondage and consider graduation as the beginning of freedom. As a result, the phase of life after the end of projects defense is dedicated to elaborate celebration of various forms and rites that are performed to ‘cleans’ self from what most graduates consider ‘university stress’.

The association of life in college (university)  with stress and the considering of graduation as marking the end of the so called stress, has  dangerous implications for individuals who think along that line. 

What Most Graduates Think

By holding that notion, these individuals make the mistake of entertaining the belief that

• 1) After graduation, studying becomes a leisure and no more a necessity;
• 2) Graduation marks the end of need for  intense /pressured preparation
• 3) Examinations ends after graduation
• 4) Making plans is an academic exercise
• 5) Asking hard questions and seeking out helps on ‘how tos’, is a lecture room stuff
• 6) Planning elaborate vacations and leisure visits are important ventures that can’t be made to wait.
• 7) Noting important guides or jotting helpful advice down are non classy act that should  be avoided.
• 8) After vacations and the rest of the leisure, there are available jobs that can be secured and commenced immediately, through the aid of friends, relations etc. Therefore, there’s no need for much self strain in this regard.
• 9) Outward look, online image count for nothing (or does not matter). As long as one knows what one wants, everything will fall into shape.
• 10) Professional success will suddenly be achieved.

Why the list goes on and can’t all be summarized here, they exactly are thinking patterns  that are least tolerated by the world’s increasing competitive professional arena, (especially for the majority of persons of which the circumstances of their  individual cases may not help to mitigate the ugly effects that may be occasioned by reckless professional unpreparedness). 

The Expectations

The reason for this is not far fetched. Competition has a way of bringing up many criteria and using same to influence who gets what. As such, the professional world is more favourable to:

• 1) Individuals who, through their good records and actions, show that they have been prepared and are ready to create value or make valuable contributions or deliver value;
• 2) Persons who, at the beginning of their career, can afford to commit more to learning and self improvement; working longer hours to grow capabilities and gain professional momentum;
• 3) Individuals that deliberately commit to career planning and to seeking out advice from experienced professionals in their field of interest, etc, on relevant ‘how tos’ for career beginners;
• 4) Persons whose physical and online image does not compromise their professional interest. But whose daily enthusiasm and actions/ deeds promote their career;
• 5) Graduates who deliberately take up tasks that convey to professional observers that they ( the graduates)  are useful or have something important to offer. 

The Long In-between

In essence,  a new graduate may not border to learn  how to draft a professionally sound resume and the rest that go with it. But if a shabby CV and cover letter is submitted to an employer, it is highly likely that the job seeker will be regretted and screened out without further assessment. So, why some new grads may think examinations end with graduation, the reality in the professional arena is that assessments are routines.  In this case, individuals may not be given areas of concentration or time table to guide them in their preparation.

In another light, why it’s true that from time immemorial, people have always seek public attention as part of a plan to achieve useful career target. There seems to be a rising trend among young persons to be increasingly busy in seeking popularity for no other reason than the painful sake of just being known. That’s all.

This is totally unnecessary. No one should be proud that he or she is known but that popularity does not in any way put a dime in his or her account.

Hiring managers may be busy enough that they are not able  to tell new grads personally, to pay more attention to using their public presence (physical and online)  to showcase those talents/ skills that they posses that can lead to their being hired and paid. But the story of the proposed redesign of the logo of Innoson Motors Manufacturing (IVM) and many more others should be strong evidence that the job world clearly upholds  the practice of ‘by their fruits, we shall know’ those that are worth working with. Failing to promote professional well-being through public presence then, is a painful self disservice.

A graduate who has had difficulty getting a job and who claims to have been disappointed by friends and relatives in getting him or her a job needs to really review his or her general job hunt method. At a time in my professional journey, I realised that while it hurts to feel trusted allies are just unable to lend needed career assistance. In some cases, they are not to blame. They are overwhelmed by the nature of the demands placed on them. Think about it. What do you expect when you tell someone to get you a job, given that there are no immediate openings known to the person. As a result, there will be need for wide hunt for available openings. But the person is busy with his or her own job, other career demands and maybe family.  But you in contrast have a less busy engagements and would have more efficiently undertaking those rigorous task of getting job if properly guided. Should not the fair approach in this case be to seek out for advice and strategies to fast track getting the job. And let any hunting of job for you on their part be an additional help? In other words, how about making up a plan yourself and then consulting appropriate individuals to assist you with ideas and recommendations for executing the various aspects of your plan instead of wholly burdening a sufficiently busy person(s) with the onerous task of working out a solution to your needs from scratch to finish?

In short, nobody may tell college students or new grads they need to learn how to job hunt.  Certainly, some grads may not know how to unlock all their nature imbued channels, through which the world of career will see their value and seek their services.However, not learning how to and taking the initiative to apply steps that will bring opportunities, is a sad undoing for a  student or graduate.