RESEARCH: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

Through the use of Google Forms I was able to collect data that I will be able to present in both graphical forms and words, as I asked questions that gained both quantitative and qualitative data.

The questions that I intend to ask are: 

• What gender are they?
• What is their age?
• What genres they like/don't like?
• Where do you prefer to watch films?
• Where do you find out the most about new films? 
• Do these trailers appeal to you/would you watch them? (add links to 2/3 trailers for them to watch) 
• Do you use any streaming platforms? If yes, what streaming platforms?

From this questionnaire I received 15 responses, these responses have meant that I can establish how I am to approach the production of my film. 

Below are the results of our survey which helped with reaching our target audience.

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

PLANNING MY TARGET AUDIENCE
I needed to plan how to reach and appeal to my target audience. I also needed to know who they were. I had to research age, gender, ethnicity and social class. I also researched  how popular certain themes/genres were amongst my target audience. I was also interested to find out what social media they used so that I could produce a product that they would want. Finally, in order to market our movie, I needed to know how to reach them. I will show how my research has influenced my planning by answering the question below along with pictures to help support my answers.

List of films that relate to our product

1. Who is my primary target audience?
I will target my film to ages 15-35, male and female, British and is in the genre of action/ thriller 

 2. What kind of films and television are my target audience likely to prefer?
Films:

Television programmes:

3. What platforms do my target audience choose to watch films on and where are they likely to see information about films?
They may consider using streaming websites or services e.g Netflix, YouTube or Disney, or cinemas e.g Everyman and Odeon. Information can be found on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat or posters on the side of busses and railway stations. Information can also be gathered from critics like Mark Kermode or Kevin Maher on radio, television and social media. 

4. What brands do they prefer?

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?
The opening of the film shows the end of the film and the film would continue as a flashback. The film is linked to a recent news article where 39 people, including children were discovered in the back of a lorry that had travelled from Europe to England. They were all dead. The driver was said to be part of a human trafficking group.

6 . Why should my audience watch my film? 
My film is about human trafficking which is becoming an ever present issue for the Police and immigration to deal with. The film will highlight the effects that trafficking can have on both the traffickers and the detectives. This will allow the audience to understand what goes through the mind of a trafficker and of a detective. 

PRACTICE FILM OPENING

Production Practice: Title sequence "A whole world in a table top"

We watched the title sequence of the Delicatessen. We looked at how the tracking shot created and told us a story and the genre in under a minute. During the sequence there are a number of cuts to different types of food that you would find in a Delicatessens shop. It was clever how they had edited the credits onto recipes and onto the labels of products. As the sequence progressed amongst the food some body parts were visible. This created the idea of the film being to do with horror and mystery.


Having watched the Delicatessen title sequence we had a go at making our own table top sequence. The song which we were to use was Nostalgia by Emily Barker. We created the Mise-en-scene using a variety of props including, a plastic gun, old newspapers, playing cards, money, passports, matches, and empty alcohol bottles.


We wanted our props to tell a story, our first thought was that our character would be a criminal who was into gambling, heavy drinking and smoking. After having the empty gin bottle in the pocket of the jacket we moved it this was because we wanted all the props to fit together. Instead of having the empty gin bottle in the jacket pocket we replaced it with the plastic gun. Two joker cards were also added at the start and at the end of the sequence, this was to signify how the character's decisions had led him to being in prison. - Monday

We started filming our live action element of the sequence. Instead of putting the live action at the end of the sequence we put it at the beginning. This was to help viewers visualise the reason behind the sequence and to allow the them to work out why he was in prison after they had watched the title sequence. - Tuesday

Having started to edit the clips together and adding the music we then added the titles, credits and other sounds that we used. We added the sound of a gavel to the live action part, of the sequence this was to signify the character going to prison. When editing the credits we included our own production company, director, producers, director of photography and the actor. We used the same font for the credits so that it would be easier for people to see as the sequence progressed. -Wednesday


We changed the placement of our music and where the gavel sound should be to be effective during the live action sequence. We added a transition of 1 second of a dark screen from the life action to the tracking sequence so it was not a hard cut. Another transition of 1 second of dark screen was added at the end of the sequence, this was because we felt that the sequence ended too abruptly. The transition allowed for the music to start where we wanted it to. Our sequence was titled The Fugitive, this was to enable the audience to consider what the sequence may be about. - Friday

PLANNING: TREATMENT

I learned about Digital Storytelling by watching a video by Frank Ash, the creative consultant at the BBC Academy. He discussed how to connect with an audience and does this by devising a series of questions that should be answered when creating a film. By focusing on the question, we were able to establish the Top Line and The Big Question for our production. The big question is what is the story?  Frank explains how it is important to establish what your story is about and whether it will intrigue your target audience. Included in this, he also said to focus on what you as an audience member would want from a story. When we put ourselves in the shoes of an audience member we are able to portray the ideas we want, in our case we want to show our ideas on human trafficking. This can allow the audiences to successfully understand the main reason for the ideas and relate to this meaning in their own way. By knowing the social trends we can achieve the attention of our target audience.


The Fugitive

Top Line: On the run, a fugitive of the law, a leading Albanian human trafficker, and the two detectives that will stop at nothing to catch him and his associate to put an end to human trafficking ring.

Big Question: Will the fugitive be caught by the detectives or will he succeed in his plan and get away once more? 

What our production is about:

My partner (Casey Drewett) and I decided to base our production on a recent BBC news article about a truck that was found in Essex, UK, where there was 39 bodies found dead in it. The Police suspected it was Human Trafficking and later that month caught the people involved. This article inspired us to make our film opening in the form of police versus organised crime, following our chosen genre of crime/thriller. 

The film is shown through the eyes of the young detective and through the eyes of a group of  Albanian Human Traffickers. The story is about the effect this whole situation has on them both. The story is told through emotion - fear, anger, stress, disappointment and hate. All of these combined tell the story about how the Human Trafficker was caught and what happened during the lead up to his capture. The beginning title sequence is happening in the present and the rest of the film is a flash back to before the capture.

Main Characters:

• The Male Detective: The character is young, observant and likes to go against the rules to get what he wants. He has one job which is capture the leading Trafficker
• The Female Detective: The character is ethical and devoted to her job. She follows the rules and uses this to her advantage. Her job is to capture the Associate and get the USB stick (which contains the information over 20 years of the trafficking scheme, run by the leading trafficker).
• The Human Trafficker's Associate: This character is sly, selfish and knows the risks of the trade. He is witty but very business like with his work. His job is to deliver the USB.
• The Albanian Human Trafficker: This character is sly, wary, selfish and dresses to impress. He is very business like and is feared by many. His job is to escape the police once more.

Voice over: 

• Reporters: The voice over will be of different news reporters, reporting about various human trafficking cases, in the UK (BBC and Channel 4) 

PLANNING: INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

Before we began the planning for our production, we established the different stages of planning. The stages include; brainstorming/mind mapping, finding our Topline and Big Question, making a story board and making a shot list. 

Once we understood these stages we began brainstorming and mind mapping our production. We decided to base our production on a recent BBC news article about a truck that was found in Essex, UK, where there were 39 bodies found dead in it. The Police suspected it was Human Trafficking and later that month caught the people involved. Furthermore, we wanted to make it like a police versus organised crime type film, following our chosen genre of crime/thriller.

This mind map shows the different ideas we came up with for all areas of the production. We wrote down ideas that are associated with the topic of Human Trafficking and the genre of our film. We put our plot into stages so that it was easier for us to know what to put in our storyboard.

RESEARCH: SCOOPIT! FILM OPENINGS

I created a SCOOPIT! page about film openings to gather various articles and clips of film openings. This is to help me in the planning stage when I create my own film opening.