Audience Questionnaire

I am going to make a short film for my media coursework. The short film needs to be around 5 minutes long. This is my proposed final idea:

The story is about a girl who imagine's her life to be different. She has a "boring" life and wants to have a different one. In her new life she is popular, well educated, seems happier, and has more money. The film ends with her going back to her old life and she realises that's the life she really wants to live.

Some of the conventions I thought of would be a split screen effect, maybe some flashbacks, maybe some comedy aspects.

My rough idea for a synopsis is a normal/everyday situation, the girl falls asleep, and then wakes up the next morning in another life. Different things happen throughout the film and she realises she doesn't want to be in that life anymore, and so she wakes up the next day in her old life.

My intended target audience is teenagers age 13-18, and mainly girls who can relate to the situation. 

I don't have many idea's for props yet, just the use of everyday items.

My locations will be places like the home, school, a park, out and about.

Please answer these questions to help me with any further idea's for my coursework:

1. Do you like this idea? Why?

2. Is there anything in the synopsis you want to add or change?

3. What kind of props do you think will be good to use?

4. Are there any other location idea's you think will be good to use?

5. Do you have any other idea's for a target audience?

6. Are there any special effects, use of sound, camera angles, editing techniques you think will be useful?

Thank You

I have decided to make a questionnaire asking other people for their idea's because audience is one of the most important factors for this coursework, and I wanted to see if people liked it or if there was anything that needed taking out and changing. I will ask mainly people who are within the age group for my intended target audience (13-18), and mainly girls, as I want to know if this is the kind of short film they would want to watch. I will also ask an older age group (family members) to try and get some further idea's, as well as people in my media group who have better knowledge of things like editing, camera angles and special effects.

I have asked for idea's on locations and props as I don't have many idea's of my own yet. I will take this questionnaire into consideration to help me improve my coursework.

Questionnaire Responses

For the first question, one person said they liked the idea because it reminded them of the film Freaky Friday. Another person thought that it was an interesting concept and that it could be something others could relate to.
One person said that they would change the age of the target audience from 13-18 to 13-16. I have decided to go along with this as I think people older than 16 will lose interest in the film.
One person suggested that I should make the "dream" sequence brighter so that it's more obvious that it's a dream.

Further Idea's

I have decided to go with Idea 3 as my final coursework idea.

Some of my further idea's were that the thing that causes the change would be the girl winning money on the lottery.
Later on in the film she realises that her friends just hang around with her for the money, and aren't actually her true friends. At the end she rips up the lottery ticket and goes back to the life she used to have, and realises that she is happy.
Another idea would be that in her new life, she see's a homeless person on the street, with no money. This makes her feel guilty and so she doesn't want to live that life anymore. This then drives her to help the homeless person, give her money to charity and then rip up the lottery ticket.
Also, in her new life, she is constantly being pestered, her phone is always ringing with people asking her to buy things off them,her friends are always asking for money and she gets so fed up with it that she tears up the ticket, and goes back to her original life.

I decided to add in some further ideas because I didn't have a lot of detail in my other ideas. From doing this I now know what will cause the change to happen, as before I wasn't sure about what to do. Most of the ideas I've mentioned here I will probably use in my final product.

Again, I showed a copy of my further ideas to the same 10 people as before in my proposed ideas. They liked the idea of her friends being involved as this would reflect real life situations of seeing who a person's true friends really are. They also thought the idea of the homeless person would work well as it would help the audience to understand what the message in the film was trying to say. From this feedback, I have decided to add these extra ideas into my original ideas so that I have more detail in my short film and so that the message is portrayed well to the target audience.

Three Proposed Idea's For Coursework

My three idea's are all idea's for a short film. The idea's are basic with not much detail, so I will need to do some more research into short films and how they are constructed, to develop a detailed idea.

Idea 1: A short film on a girl who is bullied. In every section of the film, she changes into a different outfit to represent different people. She gets bullied by various different people throughout the film.
Genre: This would be a fictional story about bullying, discrimination or awareness.
Conventions: One person would be focused on. There would be different forms of bullying shown. Lots of different people would be used. Physical and psychological harm would be portrayed. Different scenes and backgrounds would be used in the various different situations. There would be themes of sadness and anger, and it would be downbeat.
Synopsis: Scene by scene, the girl wears a different outfit. The split-screen effect could be used. There could be soft background music, and some dialogue but not too much. Some of the scenes could be in black and white.
Audience: Teenagers age 13-18, both boys and girls but mainly for girls. The film would appeal to this age group as it is about awareness. It would appeal to girls because the main character would be a female. Also because the characters will be of a similar age group. Teenagers are often targets of bullying and a lot of them have been bullied at some point. It can be used to help other people, or for school work maybe.
Equipment/Props: Different outfits, anything that can be used as a weapon maybe, facebook/twitter/social network sites, mobile phone, laptop, accessories.
Locations: Home- bedroom, living room, garden etc. Park, school, journey to school, town, etc.
Research Needed: Look at short films on bullying/discrimination, see what forms of bullying there are, who is most affected by bullying, what are the conventions of a short film, what are the interests of a teenage target audience, good props and locations, what character types to use, good sequences, good sound to use.
Pro's: Good and simple idea, raises awareness, appeals to the audience.
Con's: Doesn't seem original enough, too simple, could maybe take too long to do.

     

Idea 2: A short film on a teenage girl/boy which goes through a sequence of their everyday life. it shows modern technology, society today, and problems in society.
Genre: Life style, maybe some comedy, real life, fiction, society.
Conventions: Focuses on one person, modern technology, life style, problems in society, modern.
Synopsis: Structure of a normal day, one minute per scene roughly, split screen maybe, dialogue, maybe some background music.
Audience: Teenagers age 13-18, both boys and girls as they are the same age as the character.Sociologists, people with an interest in technology to see how technology and society have changed.
Equipment/Props: Mobile phone, iPod, laptop, everyday objects.
Locations: School, home, park, out and about.
Research Needed: Sociology work, look into these sorts of short films.
Pro's: good, simple idea.
Con's: Might take too long, too much of a simple idea.

             

Idea 3: A short film of a girl where she imagines her life to be different. She feels as though she has a "boring" life and wants to have a different one. In her new life she is popular, well educated, seems happier, and has more money. The film ends with her going back to her old life and realising that's the life she really wants.
Genre: Life style, fiction, maybe comedy.
Conventions: Everyday situations, split screen maybe, flashbacks, bit of comedy, set both day and night time.
Synopsis: Normal situation, girl falls asleep, wakes up in another life, realises she doesn't like it, goes back to original life.
Audience: Teenagers 13-18, mainly girls as they can relate to the story in the film.
Equipment/Props: Every day items.
Locations: Home, school mainly, park, out and about.
Research Needed: Look into these types of short films.
Pro's: Good, simple idea.
Con's: Might not work out.

                             

I showed my 3 ideas to 10 people who are media students and so have some knowledge of what forms and conventions short films have. Lots of people liked Idea 1 and 3 the most. The most pooular choice was Idea 3 because of the storyline. They said that I could develop lots of other ideas to add to it if I carried on with it further. They also said that they had seen short films before with similar plots and that it would work well as a short film as it is something that has been popular in the past. From my audience feedback, I decided that I would carry on developing this idea as it would be more popular with the target audience.


       

Film Trailer Analysis - Woman In Black

Plot Summary

A young lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe) struggles to cope with work after losing his wife. He is sent to an isolated village in a house owned by a woman who owned an English manor. He is told to leave by the people in the village but he refuses. He later discovers that they are keeping a secret, and that the house is actually haunted by the woman wearing black.

At the start of the trailer, Momentum Pictures is shown. This is the film company that made Woman In Black. This is to give the audience an idea of the kind of film it is, and to show that it is made by a trustworthy company.
A key factor of this trailer is that it shows the main character Daniel Radcliffe. This is used because he is well known from starring in the Harry Potter films. This is a strategy used to attract big audiences, as well as a primary audience, they also attract Harry Potter fans.
The sound in the trailer is mainly from the characters' voices. This is used to outline the plot of the film. It could also be so the audience get to know the characters and what they are like. Non diagetic sound is also used to emphasise the mood of the film and the frightening elements. There are lots of jumpy parts within the trailer so the audience know what they are letting themselves in for. The film is described in the trailer as "The most chilling ghost story of our time."
Towards the end of the trailer, the title and release time is shown. This is done so the audience can remember what it is and when it is.

I have used this video from when were looking into film trailers. We had to analyse a trailer and see what were some of the conventions that they have. This is another idea that we could choose to do for our coursework.
I decided not to carry on with the idea of making a film trailer as I found it more straight foward to come up with ideas for an actual short film.

Short Film - Memories

 

 

I have put this on my blog from when we were looking into short films. We looked at the different features of a short film and what kind of stories are behind them. This is an example of the kind of finished product I could have at the end of my coursework. Although it is different in genre and audience, it still has a good idea behind it and carries a lot of meaning. This is something that I would like my short film to have.

 

One convention of this short film is that there is no dialogue. Lots of other short films I looked at had used dialogue and so this was quite unusual. Another short film we looked at called Strangers also followed this convention of minimal dialougue.

 

 

Short films in general tend to have a variety of dialogue and non-dialogue.

Music Video Ananlysis - Rita Ora, How We Do

 How We Do by Rita Ora was filmed in Coney, New York. It is a performance clip, as most of the video is showing the artist both singing and dancing. The type of performance in the video is a commercial exhibitionist.This means that the aim of the video is to show, and sell the artist. This includes her image and her voice, in order to make money and be successful. The idea or plot of the music video is for Rita Ora to have a big party without any judgement, and where anyone who wants to go is invited.



At the start of the video, Rita greets her party guests as she walks in the room. This shows that she is a friendly and popular person, and shows that in the video. At various points in the video, she sings straight in to the camera, and there are many different camera angles shown of her. This gives the idea that she is popular and wants to be in the spotlight. Throughout the video, Rita is seen wearing many different outfits, for the different scenes. These include a swim suit with an American flag patterned jacket in the garden scene. In the room, she is wearing a crop top with lepord print shorts, and in the final scene, she wears a fluorescent white shirt. This is a technique used to sell the image of the artist, and makes them stand out from the crowd. All the party guests are either wearing brightly coloured clothes, or are in fancy dress. This also shows that she wants to be noticed.
In the dark room scene, the lighting is only on her, the party guests cannot be seen. This is another way of showing how much she is in the spotlight, and how popular she is.

I have used this video in my blog because of when we were looking into music video's. We looked at the different kinds of music video's and what some of the different features of a music video are.
I decided against the idea of making a music video as I prefered the ideas that I came up with for a short film.