Target Audience Results-Miss Miller

Target Audience Results
24/11/2013
Vasil Nikolov

The purpose why one, has a questionnaire is to find out whether, the target audience I have selected is correct and whether I should add more effects to the film, I am already creating. The survey was spread through the Internet via a survey website. After receiving and analysing the results, I was able to find the following:
 On the question '' What is your Age?" My main audience percent (50%) was in the age range of 22-30%. Following it, my second high percent in the chart is 18% in which the age range is between 41-50 year olds. This  is interesting as the initial target audience was aimed at 15 year olds. If the film is aimed at 15 year olds, the producer can include many scenes which contain violence, domestic cutlery used as a weapon and scenes containing nudity. However the film, which  we are producing will have limited scenes of nudity or weapons. As the percent of teenagers is small compared to the older audience with greater percentage, I should involve more scenes that have action, in order to interest the youngsters. Another way would be to add special effects, once the killing is happening in order to improve the excitement level in the production. If not, I should raise the age restriction of the film for 18 year olds rather than 15 year olds, as the demand for the film from my original target audience is worthless to me. There is also a chance for the film to be targeted for 15 but be mainly watched by audiences older than the target. A similar example would be "The Artist"

The second question is whether my audience had watched a thriller films. The results were excellent as 95% of the audience had actually watched a film. This means that the audience that answered my questionnaire was of the appropriate age gap. According to the results all 4% of the audience (Which were under 15)and 1% of the audience (that were 15-18). Therefore it was a wise choice to use a 15+ age certificate for the movie. 

In this question, the major percent answered thriller movies, while the other 12% did not like the genre. This does not concern me as I myself am not a big thriller film fan. Thriller films are not everyone`s cup of tea, however, the results of the survey show, that they will have a higher % of validity as the audience would be familiar with the genre and would give accurate and valid responces to the questions.

In this question, my targetted audience had to choose between 4 categories (1-younger than 15, 15, 18, above 18). The highest percentage was 18 and older than 18 (33% for category 3 and 40 for category 4). This shows that the film is too serious and violent for an under 15 certificate. However, according to 27% of the audience believes that the film is worth a category 1 12A certificate. Even so, the film will be kept at a type 15 certificate, so the audience at a younger age might watch it (even though they did not find it interesting).

This pie chart helped me to decide, what setting I should use for my own piece, using the audience`s opinion. I asked this question as I believed that by finding out what people in my audience would use would help me decide the perfect set for the film as the audience will be the consumer of my product. The reason why it is a closed question is that I am only going to use one of the following scenes: 
-House
-Abbandoned building 
-Forrest 
-School 
The main percentage of the choices is a house, so I will use it as my scenery. Another reason for the choice is that, if I had an open question, the audience would give me a great amount of information to process, which would mean that I would have a lot to analyse.

The thriller questionnaire was done on Word. It was sent on a questionnaire website where many people could answer it. The questionnaire has a simple style with orange coloured tick boxes. The reason for the bright and happy colour was that the audience should enjoy and feel relaxed when answering rather than being serious. Also, the questionnaire looks more professional, rather than unprofessional.

The first question (age) is an open question, so the participants could fell like they are not pidgeonholled into a certain category. Even though it means that I have twice the time needed for the analysis of the question, my audience would feel happy for being able to express their own opinion.

On my 5th question (What can you expect to see/hear in a thriller clip), I recieved encouraging ans interesting results, such as: Jaws theme tune, gun fire, imperial march and key quotes such as: "I will be back", "It`s a trap" or "I have always wanted to become a gangster". This provides me with sound and visual effects that I can insert in the film and be able to satisfy my audience with.

Question number seven, showed me what type of charaters, the audience would like to see in the movie (as I am sure that me and my team can not afford proffesional actors). I counted this question as a more relaxing and unimportant question as I knew that the actors which they will choose are unaffordable for me.

So far this is the Result analysis.

Planning character representation-Miss Georgiou

Planing character representation

07/11/20

Vasil Nikolov

With planing the character representation, the actors will be more aware at what I want from them to act within our own thriller clip. In order for them to perform better, the full story of the character will be needed to show them how they will feel and how they should act.

My group and I decided to use three characters for our film as it would allow us to display a variety of cinematography, editing and sound features within our thriller. Also there is more from the audience to concentrate on them one at a time.


First character (Female)
Name: Stacey
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Race: Eastern European
Background: Stacey is an everyday domestic housewife. She spends everyday looking after  the home. Her main tasks involve cleaning the house, washing and cooking, nice home made meals -which we discover in the opening scene as she is cooking while she is talking on the phone. This way, the audience can relate to the character and develop a relationship with the character. Unlike the audience,  Stacey doesn't have any friends and her family consists of just her husband (Dave) and their two sons. The reason for this is because both her parents were murdered when she married Dave. Stacey was a hard working young madmoisel, but bad influences from ex-friends made her drop out of school and ever since, she had always stayed at home and watch Emmerdale.

How the character is represented:
Stacey's character appeals to the target audience as she uses very basic makeup and her hair is tied showing a sence of vulnerability yet confidence so teenage females can learn that it's okay to look how you do. This makes Stacey approachable to the audience. Also, by her wearing an apron and having no make up on, her hair tied up.. it will make her look weak. By showing this to the audience that she is a weak character, and giving the sense of death towards her,the audience would want to reach out and help her as she has had a lot of missfortunes in her life.

Second Character (Husband)

Name: Dave

Gender: Male

Age: 40

Race: Eastern European

Background: Dave is a solicitor. He is currently on a case working as a defendant for a victim against a well-known criminal, who is full of danger and is ready to lay his revenge on anyone. Dave is happily married with his wife; Stacey. They have two sons and a nice house. The family are Christians, however they believe in the aspects of karma. This is why Dave became a solicitor. Dave has grown up with both parents who are still with him to this very day. He has two older brothers who are twins, and one younger sister. Dave is a family guy. He is ready to guard his family with his life. He's had an easy time growing up, and he comes from a wealthy background.

How the character is represented:

The character of Dave appeals to the audience, as he is represented as a good soul who is willing to help and the fact that he is a solicitor allows the audience to trust him because of his authority and would therefore hold respect for him. The use of his outfit where he will be wearing a smart suit, along with a brief case show's that he is a sophisticated, strong character and that he is a bit conservative. It is important to convey the idea that his character is strong because it is a sense of security for the audience, therefore allowing him to appeal to the audience. Also the differene in clothing between him and Stacey shows the comparisons of a strong character and a weak character.

Killer

Name: Jerald

Gender: Male

Age:

Race: British

Background: This killer is currently facing trial in court for attempt of man slaughter, he has no friends nor family. As a young boy growing up, he was around a lot of nasty areas where he saw crime take place right in front of him - the main crime he saw was knife crime - and he witnessed his mother getting aggressively stabbed when he was 11. Since then he hadn't been the same, he had studied hard at school until he was 16 and then left to go and get a job. At this job, he was treated with no respect and was bullied by his colleagues both physically and mentally. Seeing his mother getting murdered and witnessing violence through out his life, as well as being bullied, violence has been a big influence in his life and his actions. He has killed 5 civilians so far, but yet is still blood thirsty.

How the character is represented:

The killer may not appeal to the majority of the audience. This is because this character is seen as violent and morally wrong in his belief. However, taking this attitude on the character works because in order for a successful thriller, we need the enemy to be feared for the audience to not want to relate to the killer. Yet, despite the audience not relating to this character, they still do. By this, I mean that the fact that this character is despised, it makes the audience want to know more and engages their audience with a film so still relates to the audience and appeals to them because it achieves an effective reaction.

 

Time (Filming Schedule)

Filming Schedule
22/11/2013
Vasil Nikolov

 Filming schedules are used in order to make sure that the achieved footage is high in quality. This is why we created a filming schedule. With it, we would not need to go back and re-film segments that we may all ready have. We held a meeting and agreed on our storyboard, planning the locations and  props that we will use. We considered timing, as my parents were returning early from work and we were going to use my house as the main location. Having considered it, we decided to start filming on a Monday evening.

Filming schedule

Shot	Date & time	Location	Content /Action	Shot type & Duration	Costume/ hair/ make up	Iconography	Personnel	Equipment
1	2/12/13 2:00pm	Torrington Drive	Antagonist passing by with his car	Panning shot 5 seconds	Antagonist: dark clothing, which helps to hide his identity	Newspaper, knife,	Actor	Digital camera, batteries, memory card,
2	4/12/13 4.30pm	Torrington Drive	Antagonist picking up phone and talking to his wife	Eye level shot 10 seconds	business clothing	phone	Huband	camera, batteries, sd card, tripod, car
3	5/12/13 5pm	My House (Kitchen)	Wife finishing conversation and then starts to cook; The two candle scene; Husband checks for wife and eats a mini puding	eye shot, high angle, low shot 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec	apron and a  spring dress	cutlery, stove, table, candles, chillies, etc.	wife, husband	camera, batteries, sd card, tripod
4	7/12/13 3.30pm	My House (Garden and front)	Wife opens door and goes to throw away rubbish bin; Killer enters house scene; Killer choses knife; Husband parks car and enters house	establishing shot, point of view, establishing shot, 10,10,10	towell, spring dress, dark clothing	rubbish bag, knife	wife, killer	camera, batteries, sd card, tripod
5	8/12/13 12pm	My House (Upper floor)	Wife takes a shower; She changes clothing; Killer knocks; She is killed; Husband finds her in his wardrobe; Runs to Bathroom	High angle shot, Low angle shot, POV, two shot same time as previously	Ketchup for blood on the mirror.	mirror, wardrobe,  mask	wife, killer, husband	camera, batteries, sd card, tripod

Risk Assessment-Miss Georgiou

Risk Assessments

Risk assessments are important in the film industry as the cast and film crew should feel safe while the film is being produced. A Risk Assessment is a process of evaluating the potential risk that may involve in a project or undertaking.

The reason why risk assessments are done is in order to identify,
 analyze and evaluate the risks associated with the production of the opening scene. Thanks to risk assessments, one can determine the appropriate ways to eliminate or improve the hazard.  A risk assessment is an inspection on the future or current filming scene in order to identify different situations or processes that can cause harm to the actors or filming crew. Providing that an identification of a hazard is made, one can evaluate the risk and then decide what measures should be taken in order to prevent or control the hazard.

Risk assessments are  also important as they provide a plan for a safe filming facility. Safety rules create awareness for the hazard and risks in the working place. They can identify who may be at risk and show the measures that the employee needs to take in order to prevent himself from becoming a hazard.

As you can see, I have made a chart with all of the risks I have found and how to
prevent it.

PLanning Mise en Scene-Miss Georgiou

Planing Mise-en-Scene
06.11.2013
Vasil Nikolov

Mise en scene is important as it includes all of the important features that will be required for my film. Mise-en-Scene contains the following categories with rules.

Definitions for the categories with examples:

The first category is called Setting and Iconography ( Setting is filmed on a set, that has either been built from scratch or a great deal of time has been spent in order to find it).
The second category is Costumes and Makeup. With costumes and makeup, the producer of the film has to select different costumes in order to imply the personality of the character. For example,e Jessica Rabbit is portrayed as a red haired beauty wearing a red dress. The colour red would give the connotation of danger to the audience, so they will know that even though she looks innocent, she is a dangerous person to meet.
Positioning of the character within a frame is the next category to explain. With positioning of the camera, the shot can draw the audience`s attention to an important character or objective. Positioning is effectively used when the producer wants to show a relationship between two people. For example in my film, the camera would initially concentrate on the main character and his wife in order for the audience to form a relationship.
And the last but not least important is called Lighting and Colour. If the movie has too much bright colours, the audience would experience far less fear than if there was less. This is why thriller films are usually filmed in the dark in order for the audience to be unable to see everything that is happening. Also if lights are added, then there would be a creation of shadows. The killer could use these shadows to hiden his identity, withouth the character knowing who is attacking him.

Writing of the full Mise-en-scene for my film:

I discussed with my group where we should shoot the film. They were originally thinking of creating a set where we could film the entire opening sequence. However I proposed that we could use my house as we would not have time or the busget to build a set from scratch. This is why we agreed to use my house. Another reason for using my house was that we used my idea. When I was originally writing my ideas in the blog, I imagined how the entire scene would be implemented using my house, so we would be able to use all of the features of the house.

Narrative Theory-Miss Georgiou

Narrative Theory

24/10/13

Vasil Nikolov

Narrative means the way a story can be told. Stories are usually told in in two ways, fictional and non-fictional.

Vladimir Propp is a Russian critic and a literary theorist that has analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920`s in order to proposed that it was possible to classify the characters into clearly defined roles and functions. Some films such as Star Wars are possible to be classified to Propp`s theory as the characters fulfil the roles. Some find the model useful as it highlights the similarities between different stories.

 

According to Propp, the characters are categorised in the following order. The hero is the person who would be in a quest to find something. Then there is the villian, who has to oppose the hero. Then there is the donor by helping the hero with a magical object. Following the donor, we have the dispatcher who sends the hero on a quest to find the thing he is searching for. Interestingly there is also a false hero as he (falsly assumes the role of the hero). Finally there are the helper who gives the support to the hero, the princess (usually portrayed as the victim and reward for the hero) and her father who rewards the hero with his kingdom and daughter.

 

Tzvetan Todorov is the next theorist. He arrives from the former soviet republic of Bulgaria. He was a literary theorist, who believed that stories started in a state of equilibrium and everyone is happy. Then the state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against in order to return to a state of equilibrium. This model can easily be applied to a wide range of films.

The final theorist is Claude Levi-Strauss who was a Social Anthropologist. He studied myths of tribal cultures and examined how stories unconsciously reflected the values, beliefs and myths of a certain culture. These are usually expressed in the form of a binary opposition. His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts.

Our film is supported by Tzvetan Todorov`s theory as our film starts at level of equilibrium and then depresiates into disequilibrium as there are forrces that cause the event to become a thriller/horror story.

 

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