Ideal target audience member

Name: Jane Smith
Age: 28
Region: Greater London
Personality: She is very determined, knowledgeable and is loyal.
Hobbies & Interests: Watching CSI, Criminal Minds, Law and Order and Dexter. Enjoys playing chess and backgammon.
Movies she likes: She enjoys mystery thriller movies like Se7en, Psycho and Identity as she founds it very interesting.

Planning: Sound Design

Planning: Head on Activity (Jemima)

Research: Task 1 - An Audience Member Profile

Conclusion

 I chose this film, Fatal Attraction, because it fits alongside the concept of our film because it contains the theme of stalking and obsession. The main character later on in the film becomes obsessed, similar to ours. 

Finding and planning locations setting

Presentation

Who is my target audience and what do they think of my ideas? (Adriana)

My target audience is a female aged 24, working class and lives in Barking.

Person 1: Cristina

She likes the idea of a man going into a coma and coming out and believing he finds his "wife" and begins to stalk her and take pictures of her. This may be because her favourite genres are romance and thriller, and this idea has a hint of romance as its a husband and wife situation.

Person 2: Rebecca

She likes the idea of a woman going into a coma and coming out and believing she finds her "daughter" and begins to stalk her continously and goes her her same location every specific day. She researches her and plans everyday.  This may like this idea because it is Thriller and mystery and these are her favourite genre combinations.

Person 3: Jenny

She doesn't like my idea of stalking because she doesn't prefer these aspects in films, also she prefers non fictional films, like documantires etc. 

Planning, Audience member profile 2

Identity

This is similar to our plan of our film as it also involves identity and loss of memory.  In addition the genre is Thriller,  mystery like ours.

Demographics

Lifestyle

Personality

Brands

Entertainment

Online

Conclusion:

These two films were used in my target audience research, task 12, this is because these two films slightly inspired us with the idea of our film.This was to base it on loss of memory and planning, this is why these two films are used throughout my research and planning. This is due to them relating to our subgenre. 

Both target audiences are males that are adults, social grade of C2DE , top region is Yorkshire, general interests are movies, cliche interests are England national cricket game, watching movies at home, they're consumer of samsung tablet and Toshiba.

Planning, Audience member profile

Unknown

Thus film is similar to our plan of our film is because its the same genre which is Thriller, mystery.  Also, similar ideas and style as ours. The story has to do wuth identity,  like ours.

Demographics

                                       Lifestyle

Personality

Brands

Entertainment

   Online

Planning, Target audience (Adriana)

Ideal target audience

Name- Amelia Griffins

Where they live- Barking

Age- 24

Class- Working class

Occupation- Retail, primark

Personality type- Bubbly with friends, but shy around prople she doesn't know

Hobbies and Interests- Watching crime shows, spending time with family, her likeslistenibg to Indie music, Lastly,  looking into Historical things

Brands they consume- Highstreet, for example Topshop

Media they consume- Newspaper articles,  watching the news, online blogging

Research: Genre Shortlist

These are the 3 genres I might use to produce my own title sequence.

Horror


via GIPHY


Thriller


via GIPHY

Mystery

via GIPHY

Practical Remake Activity

I think that the remake of The Breakfast Club was successful as we were able to find similar locations and items to the scenes in the movie. Also, the camera shots replicated the movie. As a group, we were delegated different tasks to do to make the filming process go off without a hitch, it quickened the whole process of filming and planning. I was charge of  getting the items that was needed for each scene, knowing what the next scene was and its location. Adriana was charge of physically creating the scenes such as the graffiti on the board and the prom queen poster and Anita was in charge of drawing out the storyboard for the various scenes. We all took an active part in filming.

We had good communication skills as we understood which each of us had to do and knew what items we needed for each scene. This is because we created a storyboard of the scenes that we were going to do, which included the shot type, the location and the items required.

Blogging health check 1

RESEARCH - Genre Conventions

My group and I have decided that we are doing a combinations of both genres of mystery and thriller. Here are conventions of both of these genres:

Codes and conventions of a Thriller

Codes are systems of signs in which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories; technical and symbolic.

Thrillers

• A thriller shows a series of bad events in which build up tension before the climax. 
• A thriller consists of both an antagonist and a protagonist, who battle to restore/destroy justice.
• The storyline will be designed so that the audience will be able to relate to it, believing it could happen to anyone. This adds to the audience feeling scared and therefore stay interested in the film.

Sound in a thriller

Thrillers use music to help build tension/suspense. Music is essential in the build up as it makes a scene more dramatic and interesting for the audience, and also helps to set out the mood of the scene.

Conventions of a thriller

• Music that builds up suspense/tension,
• Black and white shots,
• A protagonist and an antagonist,
• Shadows,
• Quick cuts,
• Shadows,
• Breathing sounds,
• Changes in angles of shots.

Mise en scene

The location is also important when establishing the theme of the film. An example of this is the protagonist wearing everyday clothing and the antagonist wearing dark clothes. This further establishes their roles, and helps the audience to relate to the protagonist through them living an ordinary life and experiencing situations in which could happen to anyone.

Conventions of Mystery Genre

Themes in mystery

• Justice,
• Good vs bad,
• Confusion,
• Interrogation,
• Crime.

Setting

Settings are very important when setting the tone of the film. There are a variation of settings within the mystery genre. Some popular examples are remote countrysides or abandoned places. These settings are successful in mystery films as they are cut off from busy areas and are low populated, making the atmosphere more scary and builds up tension.

Narrative Structure

Mystery films often follow a similar narrative of an ordinary hero going about their normal life. Something then goes wrong which sets out the rest of the story, such as someone being killed. The hero is then involved in solving the issue. 

RESEARCH - Practical Remake Activity Editing and Final Cut

Resaerch: Genre short list

Checklist

Comedy        

  Thriller       Mystery

These were the three genres that we were thinking to do, however once comedy was unselected we couldn't choose between Thriller and Mystery therefore we merged the genres together and created a sub-genre. Thriller and Mystery are good combinations as it can attract a wide audience, of a wide age, class etc. These two genres are the best as a preferred them and thought they were the least complicated to do, for example the genre Horror would be quite hard to film as that is gory and gruesome, this will take a lot of re shooting and prop preparation, but we wouldn't have enough time to complete something to a good standard.

RESEARCH - Genre Shortlist

The three genres our group have been looking at and will picking from are:

Comedy

Thriller

Mystery

RESEARCH - Target audience interviews

I have filmed 3 videos where I interview 3 individuals separately asking questions about their favourite film genres, however I am finding it difficult to upload to the blog and therefore have decided to type up my findings.

Person 1: Joanne

• Female,
• Aged 35,
• Favourite genre of film is Rom Com,
• Her favourite film is Pretty Woman,
• She likes pretty woman because despite the more serious side of the story there is a happy ending, as in the end the main characters end up together, living the fairytale in which the woman had been dreaming about,
• She also likes horror movies such as The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity and Drag Me To Hell.

Person 2: Jade

• Female,
• Aged 15 years old,
• Her favourite genre of film are chick flicks,
• Her favourite chick flick/teen drama movie is mean girls,
• However her favourite film is Despicable Me 2 which is an animation film,
• She likes chick flicks because she is able able to relate to them as they have themes based around teenagers and discuss issues similar to ones in which she has experienced,
• She likes despicable me because she likes lighthearted humour.

Person 3: George

• Male,
• Aged 17,
• His favourite genre of film is comedy,
• His favourite comedy film is 21 Jumpstreet,
• This is his favourite movie because he finds the main characters funny and he thinks it manages to mix action and comedy together really well.

Research: "Watching" Documentary

1) What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says the following? "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go far instant arousal is almost irresistible"
Thomas means that the audience needs to please their audience into watching the entire movie without losing interest, any type of audience the genre does not matter in this case.

2) According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of 'instant arousal'?
The audience has set some high expectations for the film, so the beginning is really good however as you continue the film the audience starts to lose interest and in most cases becomes displeased at the end of the film. So directors like Jean Jacques Beineix like to start the film quite slow and not so excitement filled so the film has a chance to build up and develop.

3) Explain why "A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little"
The beginning should keep the audience eager and interested to watch the rest of the film so they can figure out what happens, yet make sure the audience doesn't know anything about the film that they be become confused and disinterested.

4) What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describes as the classic opening? Why does this work?
A classic opening makes the audience relate to the opening for example establishing shot of a city, then a  close up would be followed of a building.

5) Why is Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film Seven so effective?
The film Seven is effective as it incorporates hint on what is going to happen in the film in the title sequence for example a character can be seen scraping the tips of his fingers.

6) What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film A Touch of Evil? What did Universal Studios do to it? Why?
Orson did not want any credits or title music he wanted to do it in a  "All in one" take however Universal put credits and music in it as they didn't understand the opening itself.

7) What is meant by "a favourite trick of film Noir"? What is the trick?
Showing the audience what is going to happen at the end of the film in the beginning, allowing the audience to see what is going to happen and allows the audience to put piece together as they continue to watch the film.

8) How does the opening to the film The Shining create suspense?
The eerie music used creates alot a suspense a build tension.Also the camera movements for example the birds eye view shot.

RESEARCH - Target audience survey

Target audience survey

Below are 4 of the profiles of the people that took part in my questionnaire, along with some screen grabs and a conclusion of my findings.

Person 1:

• Female, 
• Aged 15 or younger, 
• Favourite genre is horror,
• They like the build up of tension in horror films,
• They like to see a hero,
• They like to see relatable locations such as schools or shops.

Person 2:

• Male,
• Aged 15 or younger,
• His favourite genre of film is thriller,
• He finds thrillers entertaining,
• He likes to see the villain of the story,
• He likes to see made up locations,

Person 3:

• Male,
• Aged 51+,
• He likes musicals as he enjoys singing and playing instruments and has an interest in music,
• He likes the main character and relating to them,
• He likes to see films set in places close to home also.

Person 4:

• Female,
• Aged 16-18,
• Her favourite genre of film is action because they like the excitement that comes with action, they find that they stay interested and enjoy the 'rush',
• They like to see the hero of the story,
• She likes to see films set in city locations such as New York, London etc.

In conclusion, I found that most people that took part in my survey enjoy horror movies the most, and when asked why they like this genre discuss the feeling of being on edge and anticipating what comes next. I also found that the majority of people questioned like seeing the villain or 'bad guy' in films as it offers a problem for the main characters.

RESEARCH - Practical Remake Activity Evaluation

Firstly, I thought it would be important to note that due to sickness I did not attend the lesson in which the rest of my group begun creating the remake activity, which means I was unable to write about the filming process as I was not there during this part of the activity. However during the following lesson I was able to participate once again, and did a lot of the editing in this activity and helped further with the creation of the remake.

During this activity our group decided to remake the opening of the film 'The Breakfast Club'. Initially I was very excited to do this as The Breakfast Club has been one of my favourite films for some time now and I knew it quite well. The Breakfast Club's opening consists of a voiceover by one of the main characters, which is being spoken over three second cuts of different settings within the location of the school. To recreate this part, our group went around various parts of our college and shot in different locations to attempt to replicate the film opening. This fairly easy to do as our locations was similar to that in the film, as we were in a school. This meant we were able to film our college canteen, lockers, litter and graffiti, just like that in the opening.

Although we were able to shoot in similar locations, there were still a few differences in our opening scene. This is due to our group being limited in our props. For example, we were unable to film inside an actual car, and so it was difficult to show that the two actors in our group were inside a car. Although this could potentially be difficult for the audience to understand, my group gave our best attempt with the limited props which we did have, and substituted the car for a red toy car.

As we were pushed for time, our remake of The BreakFast Club was not immaculate and there was still more things which our group could have added to our opening to make it even better. If we had more time in this activity I would have filmed even more of the opening, but due for the lack of time we were only able to recreate the first couple of minutes. Regardless of the lack of time and limited props, our opening scene is still quite a good replication of The Breakfast Club, and overall myself and the rest of my group are quite happy with our outcome.

Research: Favourite Film anlysis

My favourite film would have to be 21 Jump Street its very amusing and seems to always make me laugh no matter how many times I watch it.

One of the first shots is of a note being rolled up and sucking up what seems to be drugs.

 You can also vaguely see a card behind it which has lined it up. This could be indicating that there will be consumption of drugs in this movie.

The title on the type writer shoes that the typist is very immature, yet it is talking about an investigation, suggesting that they could be a law enforcer. This may be linked to investigation of drug use and tracking down the suppliers. There is a girl with red lips licking her teeth, showing that in this movie may have a sexual theme to it. Red can also connote as danger and violence, so there could also be links to this when we think of police in an investigation

We see a person counting out $100 notes and here a till from a shop with the ringing of coins clashing against each other. This brings in the theme of wealth, along with the background also being a green crispy note colour. This could be showing that the drugs in this film are making some people wealthy.

During the montage there are many different scenes shown, like this car driving whilst on fire and blowing up. This represents the dangerous lifestyle the characters are living. The car being red has also been a theme throughout the opening of using this colour seeing as we see a red rose, red hearts, the lips, a red apple blowing up, explosions, etc. which again shows their dangerous life and could deaths.

The camera shows a close up shot of the lights of a police car flashing, again showing that there will be car chases and that the police are involved. It also makes Ice Cube stand out, who is a famous actor that is very funny and will draw in the audience to know that he is in it. With the music in the background it sounds very much like house party music, with parts of dubstep vibes, and this could suggest young behaviour from cops, and enjoying what they are doing. 

Research: Practical Remake Activity - Evaluation

Evaluation

I would say that our practical remake was quite successful with a few less successful things

My group and I decided to do The Breakfast Club as it did seem like the most achievable one to do in the limited time we have and make it look as realistic as possible. The planning was quite simple to do as most of the shots consisted of either wide, long or close ups of The Breakfast Club high school, yet quite time consuming as each shot was at least 2 to 3 seconds long and every shot had to be recorded on a sheet in order to create a successful remake.

As the first half of the opening sequence consisted of titles over a black screen it was quite simple to do in After Effects however my group were not too familiar with the programs so the editing did take longer than expected, we had to try and guess what type of font was similar to the ones of the title also the colour and the size which was often varied in different scene which was also quite time consuming.

The next portion on the sequence was the various shots around the high school, because we could on shot around the college my group found it quite easy as we could resemble most of the shots for example the scene with the broken lockers we could use the lockers around the college however we couldn’t damage them so we had to improvise and pretend they were damaged. Some props and location we couldn’t really achieve due to limited resources and time like the newspaper scene and the stage. Not everything looked realistic we did have to use a toy car we didn’t really match with the rest of the whole sequence.

If I was to the practical remake again I would do the dialogue bit over as it was very rushed because the time we had left to shoot was small also try and get more actors to play certain roles like we had to females actors playing a father and daughter. Also I would concentrate a little more on the camera movements as some shots were just still where as in the film it was a pan or a track.

Overall I feel like our group were very successful.

RESEARCH - BFI Statistics Yearbook

Genre and Audience Research Task

Genre:

1. Which 3 genres were the most successful at the UK box office?

Animation, Comedy and Action.

2. Which 3 genres were least popular or successful at the UK box office?

War, Documentary and Romance.

3. Which film or genre had the most films released in 2013-2014?

Comedy.

4. How many films in this genre were made in 2013-2014?

153

5. How many animated films were made?

33

6. How many action films were made?

47

7. What does this information about genre tell us about film production and audiences?

This information tells us that the more films that are produced, the larger the audience, meaning that the film will be more successful.

Audience:

1. Which age group made up the largest proportion of cinema admissions in the UK?

15-24 year olds.

2. Which comedy film was most successful with this age group?

The Hangover Part III

3. Which film was most popular with the over 50s? And What genre was this?

Quartet, which is a Comedy/Drama.

4. Which genres were most popular with men?

Thriller, Comedy and Action.

5. Which genres were most popular with women?

Documentary and Romance.

6. Which film appealed most to which audience type?

One Direction - This Is Us, most appealed to females, whereas Captain Phillips most appealed to males.

7. Which 3 films were most popular with the 7-14 age group? What does this tell us about their preferred genre?

Wreck It Ralph, Despicable Me 2 and One Direction- This Is Us, were most popular with this age group. This tells us that 7-14 year olds take more of an interest in light hearted films and genres, as we can see 2 of the top three genres are animations. This also tells us that this age group takes a particular interest in boybands.

8. 3 films most popular with the 35-44 age group were Frozen, The Croods and Jack The Giant Slayer. Why might this be and how does this contribute to animation being the most successful genre at the box office?

One possible reason for this could be that this age group usually have children in which they would take to the cinema with and pay for tickets for both themselves and their children. 

9. Which 3 films were most popular with the 25-34 age group?

Django Unchained, Fast & Furious 6 and Rush.

10. Which films were most popular with middle class audiences? (C1 and C2?)

C1 - Rush, Captain Phillips and Gravity,

C2 - Oz The Great And Powerful, Fast & Furious 6, Despicable Me 2.

11. Look at the tables for popular films in London and Scotland. What differences are there and what conclusions can you make about the types of films they appear to prefer?

From the information in the tables I can conclude that Scottish audiences prefer films that are based around their area and have characters that are more similar to them.

One thing in which I found interesting while researching for this task was that the white population make up a total of 90.6% of the people who attend cinemas, whereas Black, Asian, Mixed, Chinese and others made up 9.4%. I found this interesting as I did not realise that the majority of cinema goers were white, and would have assumed this statistic to be more even, rather than the white population to be the majority.

Feeback and Targets for blog

Researching target audience: interview

(Unfortunately, the videos that I made interviewing 4 individuals about their favourite genre eill not upload to the blog due to technical difficulties. Therefore, I will be listing the important things they have said.)






Person 1, Briana:

• Female
• Aged 10
• Favourite genre is fantasy/romance
• Favoirite film is Frozen.
• This is her favourite film because the protagonist is a female, therefore shr has more of a conection with her, also feels like she can slightly relate. She also likes this because it was fiction, yet have a really understand, meaning storyline. Lastly, despite it being a fiction, it is still a mature yet fun, and exciting movie. 

Person 2, Cherelle:

• Female
• Aged 16
• Favourite genre is RomCom
• Favourite film is Think Like A Man 
• This is her favourite film because the protagonist are female, therefore she has more of a conection with her, also feels like she can relate to the plot, and storyline as it is situation that most teenagers feel they go through. Also, there are famous African American celebrities starring in the film, such as Kevin Hart, the well known comedian and actor. This makes her enjoy the film more as there are actors that she enjoys in there, as familiarity makes you feel more comfortable and more involved in the film. 

Person 3, Jesse:

• Male
• Aged 17 
• Favourite genre is Action
• Favourite film is Chronicle
• This is his favourite film becauser of the stunts and fight choreography, and it took days for them to film one 10 minute fight scene at the end of the movie. That's impressed him, because it's more difficult to choreograph a fake fight than it is to actually be in a real fight.

Person 4, Alex:

• Male
• Aged 18
• Favourite genre is Sci fi/Action
• Favourite film is I, Robot
• This is his favourite film because his favourite actor Will smith is in it, this makes him more willing and excited to watch the film. He enjoys this movie because It is definitely an action movie with many fight scenes. The mindless thrills, techno talk, and catchy visual effects are worth a watch. Perhaps the most intriguing characters in the film are Sonny the robot and his robot colleagues.

What film genres do audiences prefer?

1. Action, Romance and Comedy.
2. They enjoy it because of the storyboard, casting and films in general. 
3. Teenagers 16+ males enjoy Action movies, I have come to this similarly conclusion by the respomse I got from my survey and interview.
4. I will like to make a thriller/mystery movie as these genres are I elements of the most iked films people have chosen. It isn't the obvious genre out of the genres ihave above as it isnt ebpven listen, but I prefer that genre and it will suit a large target audience, roughly, aged 16-26, with the ABC scale of C, in education or work.

Researching target audience: survey

 Survey

Person 1.
Female, aged 14, their favourite genre is romance, and their favourite film is the Notebook. They enjoy seeing the actor Tatum Canning as he is in a few romantic films, for example:

Step Up

2006

22 Jump Street

2014

Dear John

2010

They enjoy romance because the genre usually has a theme that explores an issue within love, including but not limited to: love at first sight, forbidden love, love triangles, and sacrificial love. The tone of Romance film can vary greatly. Whether the end is happy or tragic, Romance film aims to evoke strong emotions in the audience. 

Person 2. 
Male, aged 23, enjoys American films, their favourite genre is Sci-fi, and favourite actor is George Clooney. The reason why hes their favourite is because he is American actor, screenwriter, producer, director, and activist. He is involved in: 

The Descendants

2011

Gravity

2013

Michael Clayton

2007

The males favourite film is Gravity. Often, this genre incorporates futuristic elements and technologies to explore social, political, and philosophical issues. The film itself is usually set in the future, either on earth or in space. Traditionally, a Science Fiction film will incorporate heroes, villains, unexplored locations, fantastical quests, and advanced technology.

Person 3.

Male, aged 18, their favourite genre is Action, and their favourite actof is Samuel L. Jackson, American actor and film producer. He is involved in the films: 

Avengers: Age of Ultron

2015

Big Game

2014

The reason why he enjoys Action films is becsuse physical action takes precedence in the storytelling. The film will often have continuous motion and action including physical stunts, chases, fights, battles, and races. The story usually revolves around a hero that has a goal, but is facing incredible odds to obtain it.