Audience Research

Jess and I did some audience research by creating a tally chart and asking a diversified group of people what film genre they like, we asked ten males and ten females from both years within our post 16 college. The genres we gave them to choose from are as follows:

• Western
• War 
• Documentary
• Sci-Fi
• Adventure
• Drama
• Sexual
• Silent 
• Children's 
• Historical
• Comedy
• Horror
• Action/Thriller
• Rom Com
• Musicals
• Crime
• Animated
• Murder Mystery

I then realized that we made a mistake by  telling the people who we asked that they could select more than one, however we still got a clear enough picture of what our audience wanted. We discovered that the favourite film genres for our chosen audience were comedy and action-thrillers.

Researching film openings: looking at mise-en-scene and music

Researching film openings: looking at mise-en-scene and music

1. Blade Runner (Sir Ridley Scott 1982)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/

- plain black background; white font for credits

- eerie non-diagetic sound, orchestra

- narration in text= sets the story of the film (setting the content of the story)

- what does the sequence mean to you: future, humans had ‘replicas’ that lived among them; there are ‘blade runners’ that want to exterminate the replicas

- production design = setting = Los Angeles 2019; city; dark; overcast; busy; heavily polluted; hint of an immigration burst

- low key lighting; dark colours (brown, black, murky)

- advertisements; billboards: captures the random aspects of today.

2. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood 1992)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/

- credits over film

- non-diagetic music; diagetic digging

- narrative text over film

- diagetic rain and thunder; people in the bar

- set in Wyoming 1878

- genre: western (revisionist western)

- story about revenge; women gathering money as a reward for killing these 2 men

- low key lighting

3. Red Eye (Wes Craven 2005)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421239/

- establishes setting; photographs, items found in the house

- interior low key lighting

- genre: thriller

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is derived from the ideas of action films by using kidnap scenes and chase scenes. we also used slow motion shots and low key lighting to create suspense. this effect is used in all action films  as well as the POV shots of running.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The kidnappers, played by me and Daniel represent crime and terror. 
Mr. Mellor plays a business man who is away working a lot of the time however it is still obvious that he is the powerful father and gets his point across when talking to Kelly Mellor.
Kelly Mellor is a stereotypical teenager, wanting to party, carefree about the dangers of the outside world with a strong will power.  

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film might be distributed by the British Film Council because we have produced it completely independently, using our own funding or at a film festival such as   Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland, or International Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester or The Big Issue Film Festival in London.
Also with internet being so easily available to the masses digital distribution such as YouTube might be a good place to distribute our film.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our Target audience is 16-18 year olds however we believe that it would appeal to an older audience as well. it is an action thriller with a slight mystery aspect. 

• How did you attract/address your audience?

When Jess and I did the audience research we concluded that the vast majority of people enjoy action films and thriller films and they also visit the cinema quite frequently. We think that the storyline suits our audience.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot more about the older version of iMovie that we use, I found this quite difficult as I am used to using a more up to date version. I learnt how to run whilst holding a reasonably steady shot giving the effect of my point of view.  I also believe that the shots which I filmed were appropriately framed and were the right distance.

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Storyboard, Shotlist & Timeline

Shotlist

Storyboard

Timeline

Location Pictures

 These pictures shows the results of adding the bin liners to the window and the other half of our room.

location pictures

 This is a picture of the room we will be using, we found that it was very light. We found some black bin liners on the floor and taped them over the window which gave us the effect that it was evening.

Things to do by the end of the week:
- Research of film openings completed posted to blog
- Complete planning of film opening - create film title & synopsis
- Commence comparative analysis of 3 film scripts (the first 2-3 pages only) downloaded from 'Drew's Scriptorama'
- Commence film script (just for the 2 minute opening), shot list and storyboard

This week I wrote the synopsis and finished off the script for the 2 minute opening. We also brainstormed film titles and decided on 'Cold Capture' but then thought that just 'Captured' was more mysterious and catchy.