PLANNING: SOCIAL GROUPS AND ISSUES

I created Pinterest boards to allow me to create a visual representation of the social groups and issues presented in our film opening, thinking about how we would dress the characters to further represent their social class through the use of mise-en-scène, with clothing, props and locations. There are two contrasting social groups presented, one being the young hardworking and struggling scientist and the other his friend, a rich and wealthy man. Creating a board of the locations helped to reinforce the ideas of the contrast between two characters, one of the locations being wealthy looking and well embellished room/house whilst the other being an office that is dark and lacks furnishings.

The main issue presented in our film is global warming, and the result it will have on earth if nothing is done or no solution to provide clean energy is found.   

PLANNING: PROPS

For one of the scenes we needed newspapers with headlines mentioning the energy crisis to help explain the situation to the audience. I changed the headlines of a few articles in newspapers by printing the new title onto bits of off cut newspaper strips, I then stuck these over the original title and stuck pictures relevant to the crisis on top of the original ones in the newspaper.  

PLANNING: LOCATION RECCE

We decided to use these locations as the set for the opening of our film. The tunnel will be used for filming the first scene of the man walking and then being attacked, we thought that this would be a good place to film due to the dim light and its eerie setting. The next place we decided to film was in the school's drawing room, in this scene the scientist will talk to his friend about asking to use his calculations and the friends money to solve the energy crisis; the drawing room works for this as it helps to portray the wealth of the friend due to the expensive looking room. The office desk will be used for filming the scene in which the scientist is trying to figure out the calculations to solve the energy crisis, this will work well as it  will show that he is working. Finally for the close up scenes of the newspapers and calculations the location does not matter as we just need a table with a black background to place the objects on. 

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

 

PLANNING: OUR COMP LIST

Kezia Williams, of Entertainment One UK, on the FutureLearn Distribution by the Film Distributors Association speaks about how film distributors build a 'comp list' of comparable films that their target audience would enjoy.

She emphasises the importance of knowing your targeted audience. She asks questions like"what drives them to the cinema" and "what interested do they have", as well as this she also says distributors will compare data of films that are similar in their genre, story and selling points. The target audience and budget is developed from what box office take was like with previous films and the types of audience that saw these films. The target audience can be analysed to find the gender gap, and which cinemas the target audience usually go to.

 

PLANNING: MY AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

I am using Google forms to create a questionnaire for my target audience and send it to people who are likely to watch our film. I will ask questions referring to age, gender, what types of films they prefer to watch, what influences them to watch a film and where they prefer to watch it. Our production team want to make a film that would appeal to young people aged 15-35. Our questionnaire will be useful to ensure that our type of genre will appeal to this audience. Through the use of Google Forms I will be able to collect this data.

These are the questions I intend to ask:

1.  What is your gender?
2.  What age category do you fit into?
3.  Which of these your film genres would you watch? Pick as many as you wish.
4.  What was the last film you watched?
5.  What platform would you most likely use to watch a film?
6.  Which of these trailers have you seen?
7.  Which of these platforms would you use to find out about films?
8.  What is the most likely reason you would watch a new film?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdPFXeL2THRD-qyMngWcMGxBwCUTz7cJQvbsCIx0QIgBgHt-g/viewform?usp=sf_link

The Results:

PLANNING: MY TARGETED AUDIENCE AND HOW I ENGAGED THEM

From the FutureLearn course that I am following, called Distribution: Connecting Films With Audiences, I know that all products are targeted at specific audiences. 

I needed to plan how to reach my target audience. Therefore, I needed to know who they are (including relevant factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, social class), what their media needs are (so that I could produce a product that they will want and are interested in) and how to reach them (in order to market my film). I will show how my research has shaped / influenced my planning. 

I started by investigating how brands define audiences, for example I saw how Bauer Media, NME and Sky defined audiences; this helped me profile my audience. I then created an audience profile below.