3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

4. Who would be the audience of your media product?

While drama accounts for 22% of releases it only accounts for 5% of box office income, so realistically, I could not expect a vast cinema audience and box office success (in 2011, 77% films were viewed on TV, 14.2% on DVD/Blueray, 5.5% were streamed or downloaded, and only 3.4% were seen at the cinema). Black Swan and My Week with Marilyn were the highest grossing independent dramas - respectively 5.2% and 3.6% of the gross box office totals.

My product is targeting a prime time,  mass, mainstream audience, but should equally attract teens.  It would perhaps appeal more to the predominantly female, 15-34yrs drama viewer, but it is suitable for pre-watershed, family TV viewing.

The film will include no offensive, violent or overtly sexual explicit material, so I would pitch it as cinema rating PG.

Figures from: http://www.bfi.org.uk/statisticalyearbook2012/

 

 

Typical Audience - Profiles

Names: Alice, Michael and Hannah

Ages: 17, 17, 18

All live in Essex, Michael originally from Northern Ireland

All 3 are best friends and when they are not revising, they enjoy going out to the cinema together. They would identify with the  male/female teen characters in my product.

They all take it in turns to rent DVDs and chill at each others houses.

They are prime time TV watchers especially during the weekdays.

Michael likes to flick through his dad's IT magazines whereas the girls prefer their own teen magazines or mum's glossies. They also watch a good mix of documentary and drama as well as reality and entertainment programmes. they all spend many hours on social media websites. although Michael spends a lot of time at the gym doing Martial Arts.

All 3 are very internet savvy. They would watch films on-line, and recommend/share and discuss them on social media sites, so they would be the ideal audience given the likelihood I will distribute myself.

Name: Dave

Age: 44

Lives in London with his wife Trisha and his 3 teenage kids

He enjoys watching football and sport in his local pub at the weekends but works as a builder during the week. He is very into the latest digital technology and has a top of the range TV and his wife, kids and himself all have smartphones and the fastest broadband available.

He has a home cinema system at home so in the evenings and school holidays he and his family get together to watch a large range of DVDs (and sometimes streamed or illegally downloaded films). He may watch my product with the whole family; all ages and both genders in my sample audience were keen to know what happened next having watched the opening sequence. He also enjoys general entertainment, reality and comedy; nothing too intellectual or heavy.

Dave finds he gets all the news he needs from reading The Sun, and listens to Capital Radio in his van.

 

 

Name: Jackie

Age: 28

Lives in Bromley in Kent with her husband and toddler

Every 2 weeks she and her husband go to the cinema in the evening on their date night, while the mother in law looks after the child. She goes for films having good reviews or which her friends recommend. She loves to watch soaps, drama, reality TV and entertainment programmes and she uses the internet for shopping, banking and social media. Given Jackie likes drama and soaps, she should enjoy my product. She reads the Daily Mail to keep up to date with what's going on in the world.

Jackie is confident with interactive TV and the "red button" but she uses it for practical purposes e.g. to look at weather forecasts rather than being very susceptible to advertisements. She often watches morning and daytime TV, but she also has children's programmes playing for her child. She is always chatting about what she has watched at the playgroup, as well as celebrity gossip. She loves to sit down in the evening with a glass of wine and really values her TV time as relaxation once her kid is in bed.

data source: http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.914 

 

London to Brighton Audience  

I looked at the results of an exit poll from London to Brighton to see who had been to see this, a similar genre and  type of film. Of the 159 respondents, 58% were male and 87 % were over 25 years, but London to Brighton did have an 18 rating. I would envisage a  typically, higher female audience given the less violent and perhaps more romantic nature of my product, and also a much higher proportion of teens who would select a PG film and identify with the protagonists.
 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://industry.bfi.org.uk/exitpolls

 



5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Drawing the audience into the film

Audience Research Questions - Results from Madigan_Hughes

Audio recording - summary of questionnaire results

Transcript of above audio

 

 Drawing the audience into the cinema

 Implications of London to Brighton exit poll

 

The following information shows the result of an exit poll completed by people who had watched London to Brighton in the cinema. Given that my product is a similar genre and type of film, results are valuable in indicating what would most likely also attract my audience to the cinema.
 

 

29% of the respondents initially heard about the film through advertising (adverts and trailer) and 21% through PR (media articles) but 58% heard through recommendation (good reviews or word of mouth); this is why it is important for me to display my product at film festivals because I can receive reviews at them, and hopefully the compelling narrative and cinematography would further generate word of mouth recommendation. American films are typically heavily hyped because they have huge marketing budgets. I would need to rely more heavily on PR and recommendation, especially as we have no track record and no respected actors or director.

 

64% of respondents had come because they had heard good things about London to Brighton (reviews, awards and friends' comments) and I hope that my product would be good enough to sell itself in this way. A further 23% like the genre in general and 26% were drawn in by the story. Only 10% said that advertising alone had attracted them to come. Again this is reassuring as I would not have a large advertising budget.

 

 Source: http://industry.bfi.org.uk/exitpolls

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

It is very difficult to film in the wind! Clearly, sound distortion is an issue with my film and with more time and additional favours from friends, I could have re-filmed parts, but this in itself could have created continuity problems (it may not have been a sunny day or there may have been more people around etc.). The location was a fair distance away and the actors had already given a day of their time in the holidays. I could not say we will abort today and come again another time. I would have felt more comfortable doing more takes if paying the actors!

The wind really made some takes unusable, and some of those included are evidently of poor quality. I could have used microphone covers, had I had a boom microphone to put in a zeppelin, perhaps even employing several covers, if necessary. Even this may not have been adequate. I had a built in microphone and I tried to point the camera away from wind, but this proved impossible for some shots. The subjects could not be vastly repositioned. Had there been more crew, someone could perhaps have held up a blocking agent, but the actors and I were alone. A low pass filter may have helped in audio post-production.
I learnt that I couldn't face the microphone away from the wind, because then the camera would not be facing towards the actors, as the built in microphone is on the front of the camera.
I also learnt how to use depth of field. 

Pictures of zeppelin's care of Google images.

I am quite pleased with the filming, although if you really look closely there is some wobble when filming hand-held. Also the tripod may not have been on even ground when filming the memorial, because it is not quite horizontal.

I nearly broke the 180 degree rule at the end, but I just carry it off because the actors walk across the divide, which enables me to film them walking down the steps , heading in the other direction. 1,2 and 3 depict the camera angles. Taylor walks across the camera in shot 2, enabling shot three to see them from the other side.

 

The 180 degree rule

I used YouTube to upload my product during editing so I could assess what needed to be completed at home and so I could embed the videos to my blog. I was already fairly competent. I learnt that YouTube has its positives whereas it also has negatives, as sometimes you are able to find videos that you want but sometimes you have to filter through lots of pointless videos. YouTube has been very helpful because I didn't have to go out and buy the DVD of the films I was researching, I could just go on to YouTube and hopefully somebody will have uploaded the opening sequence of the film or the whole film itself. 





I used Facebook to post my final product online so all of my audience could see it and then receive feedback from my audience (nobody replied!). I then gave people paper questionnaires, or asked them to reply by email once they had watched my product via Facebook/YouTube. Facebook has taught me an easy way to share my product with my audience, which is convenient for them to access.

Facebook is very useful because when it comes to asking audience questions I can send the link to anybody that has an account and then they can answer my questions at anytime. 

I used Slideshare to embed files to my blog, I had never used it before but I found it quite user friendly.

Final Cut Pro

Definitely the most important and useful tool that I have used. I used Final Cut Pro to edit all of my product. I had never used Final Cut Pro before editing my Preliminary Task, so I have learnt lots of very valuable skills.

I used Blogger to create the blog in which I posted updates on the progress of my product. I learnt how presentation was important, and I have found that the blog was a very useful way of storing information and my ideas about my product. 

I used Soundcloud to find the non diegetic sound for my product. Soundcloud was very easy and convenient, because the user has the ability to search specific keywords to find the piece of music that they want to use. I have also used it to upload an audio recording of my results.

I used Prezi to make a short presentation, which I embedded to my blog. I really enjoyed using Prezi because I believe it makes really professional looking presentations, is very easy to use and is free.



iTunes

I learnt how to use iTunes after I had downloaded the music that I had chosen from Soundcloud to then transfer the track to Final Cut Pro

 

Voice Thread



I learnt how to narrate a slideshow of pictures while also illustrating the pictures at the same time. Voice Thread was a very useful tool because it allowed me to narrate chosen still images and allowed me to annotate at the same time.

 

Go Animate

I learnt that it is quite quick and easy to make fun animations that look quite professional. Although I only used Go Animate for a short amount of time I have learnt lots and now know that I have this program to use in the future if I need to make another animation.

7. Look back at your preliminary task (FEED THE FISH) what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 Comparison of preliminary task and opening sequence

  

I learnt a lot from my preliminary task, but I did still make a few similar mistakes. For example my framing of characters did not improve as much as I might have hoped. At times, I even overcompensated in the opposite direction, e.g.  scenes were too short instead of too long.

 

While pleased we did the preliminary task, I actually feel I have learnt substantially more from the main task, because I have used a range of settings in my product, whereas in my preliminary task all you saw was the outside of a building and the confines of an office. I have experimented with more camera angles and techniques during the filming of my opening sequence. The addition of music in the main task was challenging but particularly rewarding,  because it added enormously to the power of emotion. The main product also has a much more compelling storyline and seems more realistic perhaps because I had longer to plan (actors, location, script, symbolism and storyboard etc.), film and edit the opening sequence, besides the obvious reason of it being longer and therefore a more developed theme. Additionally, I felt the team for the opening sequence were all singing from the same song sheet and all worked towards my more clearly defined vision.

However, I feel that the in depth analysis and evaluation of the main product has been particularly beneficial in helping me further research, learn about and understand drama theory and conventions, and practical camera techniques. I hope to develop my understanding and expertise further as I progress the storyline and direct the continuation of the film.

All photos are either screen shots or from Google Images