Research and Planning: Target Audience Research and Declaration

After deciding upon our 'fusion' of Romantic and Psychological Thriller in terms of our choice of genre, we needed to decide upon a target audience to aim our brand/product at. I conducted research by checking YouTube for who was making comments and viewing products similar to ours. I did these due to the success of using the same method in our AS Media project last year, however, YouTube has since advanced and now allows a user access to data about who is viewing the video, not just those who leave a comment. I searched for short films that matched either/both of our selected genres and chose many, including the following:


Who's Gonna Save My Soul Now


This short film focuses on a couple talking about their relationship ending. I think this has a lot in common with our film idea and also has many conventions of a Romantic genre film.

These are the three highest audience groups for views

Post-It Love


This short film is a Romantic genre production about a couple who meet in the office and start a relationship. It has many Romantic elements to it, and is similar to ours in location as well as genre conventions.

These are the three highest audience groups for views

Paradox (1 of 2)

Paradox (2 of 2)

This film is of a Thriller genre and I think that it was a lot of psychological elements and conventions within it. Also it is similar to our project due to the twist at the end.

These are the three highest audience groups for views

Overall, the most common interest in the Romantic genre came from both males and females between 25 and 35 years old.

For Psychological thrillers, the most common viewing group was males aged between 25 and 35 years old.

After finding this information out, I conducted a survey of the school's staff who where aged within 25 and 35 years of age. Again, I used a similar technique last year which proved to be effective. They were asked:

• Their favoured genre?
• Which film they saw most recently?
• Which genre of film they see most often?
• If they ever watch short films, on the internet for example?

We found that, in general, the female audience preferred films with a Romantic slant, or a story based around a couple. The men preferred films with action and the Psychological Thriller was chosen predominantly by male audience members. 

Our only issue from this research was that our dominant viewing groups didn't seem to watch shorts that much, or films that were hosted on the internet. We thought that maybe broadening our target audience to a younger age may incorporate the viewers that do not view the films on the internet.

However, we decided to aim for a target audience of both Males and Females aged between 20 and 35 for our A2 media project. 

Research and Planning: Props List

This is a list of props that we plan to use in the production of our film, these are taken from the script, treatment and storyboard ideas and are used to enhance the scenes to give them added realism.

Scene 1

• Shot 2 - David is sat in a black leather office chair, also David must hold a biro pen whilst sitting over a stack of papers.
• Shot 3 - A brown bag, folded over to hold David's lunch in. This is thrown by the colleague to David.
• Shot 4 - David should be sat at a computer to his left-hand side, with the keyboard on the desk next to him.
• Shot 7 - An analogue clock should be on the wall behind David.
• Shot 9 - A cheap photo frame should be on the corner of David's desk before he knocks it, this should contain a colour picture of his wife and also an old, black-and-white version.
• Shot 10 - David approaches quite an old hatchback car, dark in colour.

Scene 2

• No additional props needed here.

Scene 3

• Shot 2 - David unlocks the door to his house with a bunch of keys.
• Shot 4 - David is sat at a small dining table with two chairs opposite each other. On the table is two plates, both with meals on and accompanied by cutlery and glasses. 
• Shot 5 - David is holding a fork.
• Shot 10 - An alarm clock is on David's bed-side table whilst he is in the bed. 
• Shot 11 - David is seen in the shower.

Scene 4

• Shot 3 - David is holding the photographs from Scene 1 but they are not in the photo frame anymore. 

Scene 5 

• No additional props needed here.

Scene 6

• Shot 1 - David and Emma are lying down on a picnic blanket, with an open basket containing food and drink placed in-between them.

Scene 7 

• Shot 2 - David needs to be stood in-front of a tombstone. 

Scene 8

• Shot 1 - David is sat on a bench in-front of a white/grey wall.

Scene 9 

• Shot 1 - David is wielding a blunt metal object. 
• Shot 2 - Emma's clothes and face are stained with blood.
• Shot 3 - David is using his mobile phone to call an ambulance.

Scene 10

• No additional props needed here.

Scene 11

• No additional props needed here.

Major props within the film are vital to the storyline. Many of these may appear on set already, as part of the mise-en-scene of the scene. However, other additional props will need to be sourced by the group, these will include:

• Brown Lunch Bag
• Hatchback Car (Preferably old)
• Mobile Phone
• Picnic Blanket
• Cutlery & Meal
• Photograph In Frame

Below I have included images of the appropriate props that the group have sourced, these will be the same to the props we will use (however, some are stock photos)

Research and Planning: Costume Research

Costumes are vital to adding realism and authenticity to a film, also they can be used to show transitions of time, for example, a character may change top to show it is the next day in a new scene. Also, costume has to remain consistent, a character must wear appropriate clothing to the location and scene and they must not be seen to change unrealistically. For instance, a character's clothing should not change between them leaving work and arriving home. Costume also covers the character's appearance, for our project, we plan for the protagonist's facial hair to steadily grow throughout the film.

For each character, a costume plot should be devised. This should include what each character should be wearing during each scene. Below is a guide to what each character should wear, including some examples.


David Bird


David works in an office-job so wears a suit and tie to work. Most of the scenes are in the office and at David's home, either before or after David goes to work. We wanted this character to represent a stereotypical, 9 to 5 office-man who is stressed out and bored by his job.

• David wears a black suit with a white shirt and black shoes, he wears either a blue or pink tie.
• He is also seen wearing a black jumper, over a white shirt.

Emma Bird

Emma is a housewife who doesn't work. She is present in scenes at home, where she wears an apron over her clothes and also in the field scenes, where she wears a cardigan and then a hooded jacket. We wanted to represent housewives, including middle-aged women so we had Emma wear an apron and a tea towel whilst she is in the dining room. When Emma is shown in the film, she is never actually living in the present day. Therefore we have tried to represent this by using similar clothing and similar colours throughout. For example, in every scene Emma is wearing either black, white or red. I believe these colours represent evil and darkness (Black), blood and death (Red), but also innocence and purity (White). These are all relevant, as Emma dies, however she is innocent of any crime, but also she is not present in the film and is just in David's mind tormenting him.

Police Officer


The officer is intended to be portrayed as having a high-wage, high-status position within the police force he works for. This is represented by him wearing a white shirt with black trousers and a long, black overcoat. He does not wear a tie and is seen wearing his own jewellery, this is to show his status since he does obviously not have to comply to a strict uniform; therefore this shows he is more than a constable and reflects the importance of Bird's crime.
For this particular character, we have taken influence from existing products to research how to compose a costume for him. Below is an image from Police Drama, 'Life on Mars' where the characters are all detectives within the police force and they either wear long coats/jackets and often do not wear a tie.

Here is a Costume Plot. This will indicate to the crew the desired costume for each scene, and can also be referred back to when checking the cast before filming a scene. If this was not done, we could risk continuity errors or bad mise-en-scene within the film.

Scene 1


David: Black suit (jacket removed), white shirt w/blue tie, black shoes and normal, styled hair




Scene 2


David: Black suit, white shirt w/blue tie, black shoes and normal, styled hair




Scene 3


David: Black suit, white shirt w/blue tie, black shoes and normal, styled hair. David will remove the jacket and shoes in this scene.*


Emma: Black jeans, red jumper, wearing an apron and with a tea towel over her shoulder. Her hair is worn down.


*David is scene later in the scene in bed and also in the shower, his clothing should not be visible during these shots and he should not wear a top.


Scene 4


David: Black suit, white shirt w/pink tie, black shoes and slightly scruffier hair and unkept facial hair.


Scene 5

David: Black suit, white shirt w/pink tie, black shoes and 

slightly scruffier hair and unkept facial hair.

Scene 6


David: Black suit (jacket removed), white shirt w/pink tie, black shoes and slightly scruffier hair and unkept facial hair.


Emma: Black leggings, white top, black cardigan and with her hair worn down.


Scene 7


David: Black coat, white shirt w/no tie buttoned-up, black trousers and black shoes. His hair is untidy and his facial hair has grown but is unkept.


Police Officer: Black long coat, white shirt/no tie and unbuttoned slightly to reveal jewellery around neck, black trousers and black shoes. He has styled hair and tidy facial hair.


Scene 8


David: White shirt w/tie (any colour), black trousers and black shoes. His hair and facial hair are untidy.


Scene 9

David: Black jumper over white shirt w/no tie, black trousers and black shoes. His hair is normal and styled and he is clean shaven. 


Emma: Black leggings, white top and a red hooded jumper. Her hair is worn down.


Scene 10


CREDITS



DAVID BIRD:

EMMA BIRD

POLICE OFFICER

Research and Planning: Location Research

Locations are vital to making a successful film project. They must add to the realism of the piece, whilst reflecting the aims and intentions of the Director's concept of the film.

Below is a screen-cast of me talking about the locations that we plan to use in our project. This includes 7 images of the locations that I took using a digital camera, these were then opened in Photoshop and placed into one JPEG image that has the 7 images as equal tiles.





Main points to take from this are that:

• The locations are all appropriate to the setting of the film
• The locations all accurately reflect the characters (ie, they are not set in mansions or estates, etc)
• The locations are all suitable for filming and can cater for cast, crew and equipment
• The locations all provide authentic mise-en-scene and props that are already present and do not need to be provided by the group

Below is a copy of the JPEG image, which can be viewed at a larger scale by clicking on it:

These locations were decided upon by the aid of research into locations that are used in existing products and also examples of locations that could help find real locations that are feasible for us to use quicker.

Below is a second screen-cast which features me talking about what is good or bad about a location and how we used this research to find our own locations to use in our project. There are 6 images, taken from existing products or from real places, again placed in a photoshop document to create a JPEG containing the images.



The main points to take from this include:

• The importance of getting the right location (including justifications for picking locations)
• How locations are used in real films and what elements a location adds to the film
• How we based our locations on existing products and also on real examples

Here is the image used as a JPEG, this will allow you to look closer at each image by clicking on the file:

Research and Planning: Alterations, Followed by the Final Treatment

After reviewing the answers given by our peers, the group decided to discuss what we should change about our treatment to make it our final copy. We decided that the issues raised were mainly going to effect the way that we shot and edited the film and that they were less significant to the treatment. Issues such as the effectiveness of the twist at the end and the conventions of a genre will be made by features such as the mise-en-scene of the scenes and the pace of the editing. We made a few, minor changes to the treatment, including dropping a scene as we felt it lacked meaning and did not add to the narrative; we also had time in mind, as we had a maximum of 5:30mins. Also, we added an explanation of David Bird's motive for murdering his wife, since this was also an issue raised after the feedback session.




And here is our final Treatment for our film, hosted on Scribd.com :

Merajio Treatment, Final Revised Version

Research and Planning: Treatment Feedback

After presenting our Treatment to the rest of the group, we asked members of the class questions about our ideas and their opinions in order to decide what to alter about the treatment. This was more of a formal discussion, as we believe the previous audio recording lacked structure and therefore we did not get the most out of it. These included:

• What is the target audience for this film? (0:07)
• What is the genre of this film? (1:10)
• What recognisable genre conventions are used in this film? (2:24)
• Which conventions do you think are challenged in this film? (3:40)

From this feedback/research session, the main points we took onboard were:

• The potential lack of appeal towards younger audiences (0:10 - 0:49)
• The clarity about the mix of genres (1:38 - 1:53)
• The success of the twist at the end (3:20 - 3:40)