Audience research

Audience Research

To research what type of opening scene and genre of film that would satisfy our audience, I created a questionnaire on survey monkey and gave the link to 42 people between the ages of 15 to 18 years as this is the age range that we want our target audience to be in. By using websites such as Facebook and Twitter I could recieve quantative data from people which could be very valuable.

1. What is your favourate film genre (apart from comedy cos im definatley not doing that)

Action Thriller Adventure Crime and Gangster Horror War

2. How would you prefer the opening scene and opening credits in the film to be layed out?

All Opening Credits and then opening scene Opening credits being shown through the opening scene Opening scene with no opening credits Opening credits and opening scene being played one by one

3. Would you prefer if the title of the movie was displayed...

before the opening scene after the opening scene During the opening scene none at all

4. What type of opening movie scene would most likely draw you in the movie

Lots of physical action Little physical action

5. If there was one main character would you prefer them to be male or female

MALE FEMALE

6. If you could choose what main the main character of a movie was like, what kind of features would you want them to have?

very confident, good leader, is more of a good guy little confidence, more of a follower calm, doesnt really give a crap about anything quite violent, more of a bad guy

7. If there was something you wanted to write from the last question but none of the options matched your opinion, write it here. If not then leave blank

 

8. How many MAIN characters would you prefer in a film?

Only 1 2 to 3 4 to 5 6 or more

*

9. Would you be intrested in starring in my movies opening scene if we needed extra cast? If yes write yes and then your name in the box, if no then just write no

10. Any extra questions i should have written in my questionaire? if no, leave blank

 

This picture shows an example of what one of the questions looked like on survey monkey after all results had been collected.

By our results we have found that the majority of people enjoy action, thriller and horror films because the results were equally matched. As a team we thought of doing a crime, gangster genre type of film and put in the elements of an action/ thriller film into it. Also, due to the environment that we live in being near the suburbs of South London, it would seem more realistic for this genre of film to take place here.

We found our that the majority of people (54.8%) preferred if the opening credits were being shown throughout the opening scene of a film, so this is what we will try to achieve in the editing process.

78% of people that completed the survey preferred if there was lots of physical action involved so during our opening scene we will try to include some physical action, i.e, a very short fight scene.

The majority of people preferred if the main character would be male, but this could be an anomaly due to the fact that a higher percentage of male participants completed the survey. But the sex of the main character would be decided by the group depending on what type of film it’s going to be.

A vast majority chose for there to be 2 to 3 main characters in the film, so we must take this into account when creating our story.

In my survey I was able to put in a few questions such as this one where I could collect qualitative feedback from my peers. This meant the information would have meant people could express their personal opinions however it would have been much harder to analyse. 

So from this we have established that we want…

• An action/Thriller type genre
• The film will be based in South London as this area is very easily accessible to us and we all live near each other
• Opening credits to be shown throughout the opening scene
• The title of the movie will be displayed before the opening scene
• There will be physical contact involved, e.g. a short fight scene
• Main character will be male because a male character is more likely to represent our type of movie
• The main character will be a good guy who is rather daring but knows his limits

Response to Brief

Name of Movie: BLEAK

Name of main character: Damien Taze

Name of main character 2: Michael Cortez

Ethnic Background: Both are black or one white and one black. This will represent the different cultural backgrounds in South London.

Age of characters: 15 to 18.

Length of opening scene: 2 to 2.5 minutes.

 O p e n i n g    s c e n e    I d e a 

Scene starts of with our main character Damien walking through his hometown.This lasts for about a minute or so while non diagetic backing music is played, or perhaps we see a match-on-action shot of him pressing play on his phone/ipod and we hear the music that he's listening to as the backing music to the scene. This music will be representative of the culture in the area to set the scene to the audience. He walks past an alleyway and he sees a group of youths hassling/ robbing a young girl/ boy. Damien stops, stares for a few seconds and we see close ups of his face which will display his emotion to this event, but he decides to walk off. Then after walking about 10 meters or so, Damien stops walking and comes to a stand still. While he's facing the camera, we have a close up shot of his face having second thoughts of turning back. As he decides to ride back to help the youth, the camera points up to the sky and as this is happening, non-diagetic music comes on and we see the title of the film appear.

F I L M   T R E A T M E N T

The plot of the story is about a Boy named Damien who has never really been able to stand up for himself or others and has avoided gang culture despite being in a deprived area of London. He then see's a boy getting robbed and stands up to the youths but gets stabbed. He then builds a relationship with this boy throughout the film. He then goes back home and gets back to normal family life until he hears rumours how theres a new feared gang on the road that had stabbed a boy and put him in hospital. Damien realises it's him that they're talking about. His school holidays have come meaning he is free so he investigates further to find out who put him in hospital. He then gets dragged into a underground society of gang culture through the boy that he saved from the youths. Damien starts to carry a knife incase he gets approached. Damien tells his friend what he's going to do to his stabber when he finds him but she insists he leaves him and doesn't get involved. He then finds out where his stabber lives and awaits outside his house for him to come out to get revenge. Damien follows his stabber until he's alone on a quiet road and stabs him only to injure him, but then realises he's killed him. Damien runs home, buries the knife and burns his gloves and shirt which has bloodstains on it. Later on in the evening, police turn up to Damiens house and Damien is struggling to find out what to do or if he should hide. The police enter his house and tell his mum to call him down. Damiens mum calls him but he doesnt respond and she goes upstairs to find his room empty with an open window and she picks up a note on his desk that says "sorry mum". The film ends here showing the two police officers and the mother with a shocked face.

Examples of other Films

Here we have tried to find films that are specifically similar to the films that were making in terms of genre and setting.

(No copyright infringement intended)


FISH TANK (2009)

Fish Tank is a great example that represents the lives of struggling teenagers with failing families. It's very upfront and goes into the personal life of a teenage girl who wants to succeed but is held back due to her troubled circumstances. It shows a teenager trapped in a world of little opportunities, much like the idea of film. So it would be wise to analyse scenes from this movie to see how the teenager is represented through the codes of conventions.

SHANK (2010)

Shank is another film portraying gang violence in London. Although not recieving good reviews from the film critics, it still can be a vital part of our research in terms of analysing the camera movements, storyline and types of music used.









Below is a chase scene from the movie shank, in my opinion possibly one of the best scenes of the movie. The use editing is very fast paced to emphesise the extremeness of this chase scene along with the shaking of the camera while it's moving gives you the feeling of struggle from the character being chased.

KIDULTHOOD (2006)

Kidulthood is another film which has inspired us for our film idea. It portrays the troubled life of struggling teenagers in the Southern end of London. The lighting effects and mise-en-scene is something we wish to replicate as it sets the mood very well for our type of film.