Asset Acquisition

Introduction

Research began by meeting with the researcher, interactive designer, producer and content expert to discuss the sourcing of assets from public and private collections. A comprehensive and exhaustive search of published materials was made, noting interesting and relevant illustrations and references to further illustrations and materials recorded or broadcast in other than print media. A careful note was made from published sources of credits and copyright acknowledgements, and the source publication details recorded. This exercise took about two weeks by confining the search to a major university library which had good research facilities and a substantial holding of relevant material. No attempt was made to cover the academic journal materials due to lack of time and because journal materials are not normally a useful reference source for visual materials. Published exhibition catalogues relating to the subject were particularly useful, as these carried the fruit of a great deal of image research. Because libraries would not usually have most recently published materials for consultation (unless the library is one such as the British Library or the Library of Congress) it was important also to identify the most up-to-date works on the topic. A list of books in print relating to the subject was obtained and works purchased in trips to a few good booksellers. Second-hand bookshops were also scoured in putting together a project reference library. Catalogues from collections, location scouting photographs and postcards would later find their way into the projects research catalogue. An adequate petty-cash fund for the acquisition of such materials should be provided for by the budget. Note that photocopying materials for the purposes of research is considered fairdealing and is not an infringement of copyright. (This might be true for academic/educational research but does this include also commercial research?) Much of this research was actually carried out by the interactive designer who was already familiar with asset research methods to become familiar with the subject matter and passed to the researcher to catalogue and fill in the gaps. Those needing to become immersed in this catalogue of materials as an creative, inspirational resource include the content expert (who need not, after all, have a strong visual sense), the copywriter, the interactive designer and the graphic/screen designer, with the researcher acting as a facilitator in this aspect of the design process. References to images were left in paper form as the most readily consultable and transmissible medium for quick reference within the development team.

Research also may need to be carried out in public or private archives. The difficulty here is finding out about the holdings of a particular archive. How might one identify the sound, video, photographic and/or other materials they hold relating to one's area of interest. Usually a phone call is necessary to establish the appropriate contact person, and then a follow-up in writing. A number of points need to be covered in the written follow-up, dealing with reference tools, preview facilities, clearing copyright, copying, and licensing materials.

catalogues which were not very informative, previewing materials, and

The BBC have been quite sticky over checking their archive material (both in London and Belfast). I have made formal letters of application to try to gain access. The National Film Archive despite the BBC's line has not got a fully comprehensive catalogue of film material on WB Yeats. Comprehensive film cataloguing of Yeat's material only exists after 1990 at the National Film Archive.

Point not to be lost and left as a personal reflection: Image research turned out to be a real chicken-and-egg situation. Until the content was written, specific images to illustrate the content could not be identified. I feel that the way to approach multimedia design is the same way as in film production. Start with a strong script before going anywhere. This might be achieved by either having a strong idea carried by the designer who is also the content writer, or making sure that the content writer is contracted to actually sit down and write scripts before employing the asset researcher to start. It proved impossible to force the content expert into the role of writer, because we were going roun d in circles a bit trying first to get a structure. The content writer pushed the idea that, having identified the structure, the researcher would be relied on to write the scripts, but, if we had gone about it that way, we should have employed the researcher as such and given a great amount of tinme to the project. Chris reminds me that our strategy had been to let the researcher work to the content expert and write the scripts collaboratively (researcher and content writer). That should have been in the researcher's job specification, though. I feel that somewhere here is an answer to why many products in the multimedia business are weak and don't hit the mark. The truth is we floundered around a bit on this one, partly because we were vague azs to our research objectives, nobody wanted to commit to a particular point of view, many were new to the design process and yet wanted to have an influence on its direction because they felt that they had a lot to contribute but from a disciplinary point of view, not out of a feeling that we were in the process of forging new disciplines.

See, also, Yeats Database design