Final Pieces

Final Pieces:

Within this section, I have put my final pieces, this is the short film, my official poster, and my feature. As well as this, I have also included the behind the scene/outtakes video that we put together. This film was produced and directed by me and was edited by Bilal who was apart of the production team. 

Evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When we first received our brief we read over the things that needed to be done. In the previous year I had knowledge on cinematography, editing, sound and mise-en-scene from the exam unit therefore this helped with the planning for the short film. In order to create a successful short film, we needed to make sure we broadened our knowledge on the short films that were already in the industry. The reason my short film follows the codes and conventions of a British social realism short film is because I wanted it to be as professional and as realistic as possible.

As research, we were given a number of short films to analyse and looking into. This include:

• ·         The Rain Horse Sebastian (Sebastian Godwin)
• ·         Cubs (Tom Harper)
• ·         Cherries (Tom Harper)
• ·         Wasp (Andrea Arnold)
• ·         About a Girl (Connor Percival)
• ·         Two Cars One Night (Taika Waititi)

The reason we looked into these short films was to gain a deeper understanding of what the codes and conventions of a short film were and how we could incorporate them into our short film. Some of the codes and conventions that we could use from these examples are:

• ·         having a time length of 5-10 minutes
• ·         having a small cast list
• ·         having a good plot twist or turning point within the story
• ·         Todorov's theory

These are the most common codes and conventions that you will see within a short film, therefore, it is very important that they are present in mine. I believe that my film has done well with ensuring that all of these conventions are met. This is due to it having a running time of approx 5 minutes having a small cast list of 4 actors and having a good plot twist at the end of the short film. One of the concepts that  I found important when planning and producing this short film is keeping it so it remains as a British social realism short film. In order to do so, I needed to make sure I understood what a British social realism film was and what issues are explored. This lead me on to research into different factors that affected the younger generation of today. The one that I thought was most important was the idea of relationship abuse as this targets   the younger audience who are dating or have just started dating. This is also an issue that isn't explored very much, therefore, it will be more intriguing and interesting for the audience. In order for our film to then reach out to this younger generation, we used words such as 'yatt' and 'I got a girl' in order for it to sound like a normal conversation and to make it more relatable to them.

Another way my film abides by the forms and conventions of a short film is through Todorov's Narrative theory. This is where equilibrium is broken and restored and consist of usually 5 stages. These stages are:

·         Equilibrium (Normal)

·         Disruption of equilibrium

·         recognition that disruption has occurred

·         resolution of equilibrium

·         restoration of equilibrium (normal again or issue has been resolved)

The reason why our film follows this is due to the fact that the issue is going to be resolved. When Dean calls the police he is going to end the issue that has arisen between him and Roxanne which shows there is a clear ending to this film. This means that the audience isn't left confused to what happens and that they know there is an ending. This also means that the audience will be more satisfied as they know what has happened and how it concluded. Another way in which we stuck to the codes and conventions of a short film is through the casting. In a short film, there is a very few number of characters. Within the film, I only had 3 main characters and 1 supporting character. This means that I was able to explore the characters in more depth and to focus on their relationship in more depth. The supporting character helped to emphasise this. This means that the audience is able to connect more with the characters and this will generate a better and more positive response from the audience.

We managed to achieve most of the codes and conventions of both short films and British social realism. The reason I chose to do this was to keep the film realistic and educational for the younger audience of the film who are already or have just started dating and getting into serious relationships.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

When producing the film and creating the ancillary tasks it is important that each of them complement each other. In order to do this, it must keep the same aspects. This means that each of the ancillary tasks need to be linked in one way and this then needs to be able to compliment the main product.

The ancillary tasks that I produced for my film all follow the same house style. This is important as it gives the audience something to recognise the film by. I used bright yellow and light blue in order to make all my ancillary tasks stand out in the public. This method is a good way of raising awareness for the film as well as making sure it stands out amongst the other film or adverts. The posters also have a speech going on. This is 'it's time to see things more clearly' to 'look closer' and then finally 'can you see it yet'. This little game offers the audience who noticed to gain a deeper understanding about the film and to also show you that relationship abuse is something that can happen right under your nose.

As well as this, I also used the same font style within each of my ancillary tasks. I have used big and bold words in order to grab the reader's attention as well as to make it stand out. This is also influenced by the colouring of my words.  As well as this, I have used  a basic font rather than a fancy one within the feature article in order to stick to the same theme of bold and basic like the poster and teaser poster. This helps to show continuity within the work. This is then carried over into the film as the short film used basic bold font when showing the title screen and the credits. It does not, however, use the yellow writing. This still works well however as it is no longer being used to attract the attention of the audience due to them already watching the short film.

Another aspect of the short film and the ancillary tasks that I wanted to keep the same in order to show effectiveness what the clothing. I wanted the poster to ensure that they wore the same clothes in some of the scenes that they acted in to show continuity as well as make it more relatable to the film. When I shot the first act I took the official poster picture to ensure that they were wearing the clothes that they would wear in the film. This also helps the audience to relate the poster to the film through clothing.

Lastly, in order for the poster to show the main theme within the short film, I made William look almost ghost like. This is to show how he feels like no one is, therefore, him and that he has to go through this abuse on his own. This also helps the audience gain a bit more background knowledge about the film before they go to see it. This helps to make the film more effective and also helps the audience create deeper relationships with the characters.

In order to show the representation of our film, we made sure that the actors were dressed a certain way. In order to show that relationship abuse can happen to anyone, we chose to put the 3 main characters in normal smart clothes so that it would be less likely for the audience to know that anything was going on unless they saw it. I put Billy in a hoodie because I wanted him to be more 'gangster'. This is then influenced by the speech within the film using words such as 'piffy' and 'Yatts'.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is a very important aspect of any production company. This shows the company where they went wrong what they did well and how they can improve in the future. Getting feedback on your film before you release it to the general public is a good idea as it helps you to make changes within the film in order to improve it. As well as this it also makes sure that you are producing and making a film that people will watch and enjoy.

Within pre-production, the feedback for the film planning was very helpful when I was finalising my script. Before handing in my final script I gave it to a number of people to read over and I then made the necessary modifications. The reason I did this was so my script was as realistic and natural as possible and acted as a good foundation for the actors.

In addition to this, I also conducted a focus group in order to make sure the idea for our film was something the audience would enjoy and want to go and see. Within this focus group, I discussed the ideas that I had come up with and discussed the possibilities of what we could do within it. In the end, the focus group and I decided it would be a great idea to follow the relationship abuse story line.

After the film had been created, I did a survey online on survey monkey in order to get feedback on the film. This questionnaire featured the following questions:

• ·         Name
• ·         Age
• ·         what would you rate the film
• ·         How would you rate the acting in the film
• ·         Your least and favourite part of the film
• ·         would you recommend this film to someone else

The feedback that we received from this film was great as a lot of people rated it very highly and all of the feedback was positive. The audience of the film said that they would recommend the film to other people which shows that it was enjoyable for them to watch. Overall the acting was good, however, some of the audience thought that the acting was only satisfactory in comparison to others who thought it was great. This feedback helped us a lot and also helped us make changes in the editing process and some people commented that there was to many fade to blacks within the film. The film then went under more editing and the final short film was produced.

Questionaire (Review) by Sian Danielle Wyld

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Within my AS foundation portfolio which was to create a music magazine I had to use a blog to showcase my final pieces as well as upload the thought process behind my magazine. In order for me to upload all my work in a high quality, I had to make sure that I PDF all my work before uploading it onto my blog. This meant that my work would be more effective and of higher quality. This was the only thing that we needed to upload onto our blogs at AS. However, within A2, we had to blog everything that we have done which has helped towards the development and creation of our short film. This was my first time using a blog in such a way and I found it very useful to keep everything on the blog as it helped me track my progress. another media technology that helped me make sure I was on track was the Trello. I used Trello in order to create a checklist of the things that needed to be done and when I completed them I was able to tick them off. This helped me to make sure that I have done and uploaded everything that I needed to do.  Using blogger helped me to conduct research in a more effective way as I could post blogs on specific subjects rather than have to tie everything together. This means that everything flowed easier and it looked more presentable. Some ways in which blogger was not useful is when I was doing my storyboards for the film. This is because they were hand written. In order to out these onto my blog I had to scan them into my computer and upload them as a jpeg file.

Another technology I found useful was the internet. The internet allowed me extensive knowledge on short films and other things that I needed to research. Some of the websites I visited frequently was YouTube. This is to find short films that would give me some inspiration as well as videos on what the codes and conventions of short films were. Another site that helped me a lot as Scribd. Scribd is free to use and allowed me to put up documents from my computer and embed them into my blog. This made it easier for me to transfer my call sheets over to my blog as my call sheets had a lot of tables within it which means that sometimes it would distort the document.

This year with the film we had Premier pro to use. This is a movie editing software that allows you to create professional looking videos from your own home. I was not involved in the editing process, therefore, this was given to our editor Bilal who used this to create the final product. As well as this, we also used InDesign to create our feature articles. This helped us get the structure we needed as well as help us easily create professional looking articles. For my teaser poster and my official poster, I used a site called PicMonkey to edit my photos. This is due to the site having a wide range of photo editing options to choose from and this helped me to create a professional and eye-catching poster as well as mysterious and interesting teaser posters.

Before we started to film, I did some camera exercises with the camera in order to get used to the different shots and how the camera worked. This also helped me get to grips with using a microphone and a tripod for the first time. After getting this footage I then put it into windows movie maker and I use this to make videos for my own personal YouTube channel. I then used this to showcase my camera exercises and make a little clip and added music to make it more interesting.

 

Press Junkets

Press Junket:

This is usually a promotional method and generally includes the following: Press releases, advertising, merchandising, campaigns, franchising and media. This is usually carried out as an interview with key people such as the film's director or the main characters.

In order for me to develop my understanding of what the film industry does, I decided to do my own Press Junket. Below is the press Junket I did of my lead actress Georgia and Shannon.:
 

Screen Tests

Screen Tests:

I conducted two screen tests with my female actors within the film. This was to see how they were in front of the camera and to help them get used to being behind the lens. This is Georgia and Shannons screen tests.

Feature Article Analysis

Feature Article Analysis:

Within this section, I will be outlining some key features of a feature article as well as analysis two feature articles from film magazines.

In a feature article, it is important that you have some key codes and conventions in order to allow readers to read the article with ease as well as be interested in what they are reading. This include:

·         Title

o   All articles need to have this. This is what initially grabs the attention of the reader and encourages them to read on.

·         Standfirst

o   This is the writing that comes between the title and the article itself. This is so the readers have a brief understanding of what the article is about and also acts as a way of persuading them to read on.

·         Subheadings

o   This shows the organisation of your article. People usually like the article to be labelled in order for them to know exactly what they are reading. This makes it easier and more enjoyable for the person to read.

·         Pull Quotes

o   This is a way of highlighting certain words within the text that will jump out at the reader. This will draw the reader's attention to the content of the spread.

·         Pictures:

o   Without pictures, a feature article would be boring. Therefore, it is important that you have pictures within your article. This is probably one of the best ways to grab your reader's attention.

·         Conclusion

o   Make sure the end of the article does not leave on a cliff hanger. This means that the article has to be left in a place that the reader will recognise and feel content that they read the article rather than be left confused about what they just read.

About a Girl Analysis

About a Girl: Brian Percival 2001

Short Analysis:

About a Girl is a short film directed by Brian Percival in 2001. Within this film, we are introduced to the main character standing in a silhouette dancing to Britney Spears. This short film is her talking about her life and the things she does. We can see that she doesn't have a very stable family as her parents are divorced and by the looks of things, are quite poor. At the end of the film, we find out that she, in fact, had an abortion due to her getting the idea that it was ok not to speak to anyone about her issue. This is a big thing that is happening to a lot of young girls in Britain and teenage pregnancy is on the rise. This is a typical example of a British social realism film.

The opening sequence features her dancing and singing to Spears song 'Stronger'. After watching the film we can see how relevant this song was to the clip. She said that she is 'stronger than yesterday'. Through the background and establishing shot we can deduce that when we speak to her next it's the same day, so we know that she has already had the abortion. Through this, we can make the connotation that she feels stronger that she has made her own decision to abort the baby. As well as this, she exclaims that she is no longer lonely which means she has obviously found something that cures her family neglecting her. As well as this the first verse states 'There is nothing you can do or say, baby I've had enough, I'm not your property as from today, baby you might think that I won't make it on my own but mow I'm...'. This may show that she is taking control of her own self and that due to her carrying the baby it is her duty to whether or not she keeps it and due to her being pregnant people may have said it will put an end to her teenage life. This is one way she fights back on this as she gets rid of the baby and now she is exclaiming that it was her choice to do so not theirs.

The other song of Britney Spears that she sings is 'Oops!... I Did It Again'. Within this song we can see that the lyrics state 'I made you believe that we were more than just friends, oh baby it might seem like a crush but it doesn't mean that I'm serious cause to lose all my senses that is just so typically me' This could be her explaining how she became pregnant in the first place. All of her family are very much ignoring her and making her feel alone therefore she wanted to find love elsewhere. She found this with another boy. This then leads to her believing she had feelings for him but it turned out he just cured the loneliness within her making her 'loose her senses'. This then leads onto the curious which backs up my previous statement 'you think I'm in love that I'm sent from above, I'm not that innocent'. This again shows that she is trying to find something that will stop her from being lonely and this was found by having sexual intercourse with another man. As well as this, her parents still class her as a little girl by the way they treat her when they are with her therefore the last lyric helps to emphasise that she isn't that innocent due to her getting pregnant and having an abortion at such a young age.

Festival Screening:

About a Girl was filmed in various places on various dates, these dates included:

·         UK:

o    25th August 2001 (Edinburgh Film Festival) (Premier)

o   October 2001 (Raindance Film Festival)

·         Netherlands

o   January 2002 (International Film Festival Rotterdam)

·         USA

o   January 2002 (Sundance Film Festival)

o   April 2002 (Brooklyn international Film Festival)

o   6th August 2002 (Palm Springs International Short Film Festival)

·         Canada

o   3rd June 2003 (Worldwide Short Film Festival)

Awards:

About a Girl also won a range of awards such as:

·         2002 BAFTA for best short film

·         The Edinburgh Film Festival Prize for Best Short Film

·         the City Light Award for Best Short Film

·         Granada TV Short Film Award

·         Two awards at the Kino Film Festival, Manchester

·         Best Short at Raindance

·         Turner Classic Move Shorts top prize at the London International Film Festival.

Cherries Analysis

Cherries Analysis:

Within this section, I will be looking into the short film Cherries which was directed by Tom Harper. The film is based on an all boys school who gets the news that they all have to complete compulsory army training.

Camera Exercise

Camera Exercises:

Within this section, I will be showing the camera exercises that I did in order to understand the cinematography in more depth. This has taught me how to improve for my film and it has also showed me how much I have improved from when I first started to film and use the cameras.

Two Cars One Night

Two Cars One Night

Within this section, I will be looking at a question and giving an answer on how the short film 'Two Cars One Night' does this.

Textual Analysis

(Denotation)

In what ways has this film been constructed to have an impact on the audience?

In the opening sequence of the short film ‘Two Cars, One Night’ we are greeted with a short animation of the company who funded it. This is followed by an eerie sound with a dark background, this denotation allows us to arrive at a conclusion it is filmed in either a dark place or at night time.
The opening sequence of the film is a shot of the dark clouds in the sky, however, it has been time lapsed; this is to show the passage of time. Through the use of creative transition, the shot of the sky undergoes a dissolve, fade in tilt shot to the view of the car. The next time lapsed shot to emerge used non-diegetic sound to connotate lightning and to create a feel as though they are in the wild where there is no sense of time. This is followed by people and cars continuously moving around them as their car stays stationary in the car park.
The tracking shot from right to left shows the other car pulling into the car parking space. This shows that this car is important and this is followed and emphasised by a still shot; this visually pleases the audience. We are viewing this tracking shot as an objective shot; this gives the viewer a privileged or perspective.
A shot reverse shot is then used to show the boys interest in what the girl in the other car is doing. This then changed our view point to subjective rather than objective; this involves us within the narrative. The director then used a sound bridge to take the viewers attention away from the shot transition which is called ‘Hollywood style invisible editing’
As the girl is looking at the boy, the depth of field is used to portray the rule of thirds \ ninths as well as an over the shoulder shot is used to show the characters interest in one another. This film used the ‘typical’ convention of cold boy meets sweet girl and is mean to her only to eventually develop feelings for her, the conventional rom-com.
The sound and picture edit combined gives a great effect to the audience.

Review of the film

Review of the film:

Within this section I will be showing the review questionnaire that I gave to people. This gives us as a company an understanding into how well we produced the film. This will also show us how to improve and where we need to improve in the future.

Questionaire (Review)

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment:

Within this section I will be looking at the risk assessment and how certain factors may affect the production of my film. 9I will be looking at the hazard, describing the risk and explaining how I can overcome this hazard. This will make my actors more motivated to work and we will get better acting from them as they know we have taken there safety and other risks into consideration.

 

 

The reason this is important is because of the health and safety act that needs to be followed at all times. This ensures the safety of all employees and actors and also outlines any possible hazards that could put the production of the film on hold.

Production Diaries

Production Diaries:

Within this section I will be looking at the production stage of the short film. Here I will include the production diaries and the struggles we faced as our team and the short film changed and developed as we filmed. This also helped keep tracked on what we filmed and how the shooting went in case something was to be deleted we knew when we uploaded it so IT staff could retrieve it if necessary.

Tuesday 19^th April 2016

This was our first day of filming. We had previous dilemma’s which pushed back our recording. This is due to our actors changing and the location to our short film changing in order to suit the script development better. When we first started to film the actors felt uncomfortable as they haven’t spoken to us much before we started to film then however, they were very willing to be a part of our short film and we managed to get the first Act of our short film done within the time we recorded. Before we started to record we took some pictures of them for the main poster as well as gave them their call sheets and their script so they can read over before we started to film.

Friday 22^nd April 2016:

This was our second recording day however, due to some of our actors not being in the correct clothes we couldn’t record. Instead of this, I took the camera and did a little interview with the female actors in order to see how they were finding the production of the film so far and how this has helped them. Due to the fact we couldn’t record we weren’t able to progress with the film however we got some materials for the post production part of the process therefore it was beneficial.

Tuesday 3^rd May 2016:

Within this period I took the opportunity to record everyone’s press junket. This meant that they got to answer some questions on the film which will enable them to become closer to the character they are playing. As well as this, I also got some pictures of the girls in order to complete my feature article for the short film.

Wednesday 11^th May 2016:

This was our last day of production due to the actors being unavailable from this point onwards. During period 4 we recorded one of the library scenes in order to make it look more natural when recording due to other people being in there too. After this we regrouped after school and finished the rest of the scenes off. By half 4-5 we had finished all the scenes for our film and we gave it to Bilal to edit. It was a struggle getting everyone together due to them having different timetables and places to be after school but despite that we were able to get everything done.

Codes and Conventions of Short Films

Codes and Conventions of Short Films:

Within this section I have analysed the codes and conventions of short films. This has given me a better understanding about short films and has also given me an insight into some of the conventions I can put into my own short film.

What is British Social Realism?

British Social Realism:

Within this section, I will be analysing British social realism in an attempt to further understand the genre of the film our short films will be taking. I will be looking at the example of Kes briefly and giving themes of British social realism.


British Social Realism - Films based on current social issues within society at that time.

* Challenges the status quo
* Focus on current issues and ideologies of society
* Draws attention to working class within society
* Over the last 50 years then themes of social issues have changed and developed
* Revolve around the youth within society.


60’s
* Heavily influenced by the British documentary movement.
* Humphrey Jennings brought a surreal approach to pop culture in everyday life - known as British new wave.
* Ken loach and Tony Garnett were big advocates for British social realism within the sixties.
* Explores margins of society and projected industrial working class fa!ilies mostly from the Midlands and up north.
* Kes (1969)
* Saturday night and Sunday morning (1960)
* The loneliness of the long distance runner


70’s and 80’s
* In the 70’s there was little progress within social British realism within film, however it developed in television - EastEnders, Emmerdale.
* In the 1979 the structure of Britian changed: Margaret Thatcher came into power; it showed the hostality towards the government.
* ‘Making the rich richer and the poor poorer’
* Films were pessimistic and attempted to climb up the social ladder.
* Worked with a new diverse landscape: gender and race.
* Films didn't express the social realism in a straightforward manner
* Film example to show hostility;
* High hopes (1988)
* My beautiful launderette (1985)
* The Cook, The Theif, His Wife, Her Lover (1989)

90’s
* Arrival of the labour party - optimistic Britian.
* Films being shown in a different light and represented not just the new social issues such as youth and drug culture but the music scene within Britian as well.
* The working class was now coined as the underclass.
* Consists of poor and unemployed and the lowest position of class hierarchy
* There were two tendencies being shown in films:
* Male anxiety
* Labours new idea of rebranding
* Lack of political action and image of utopian society within the classes
* Working class played a certain role within the 90’s, they were a commodity and a style.
* The Full Monty (1997)
* Trainspotters (1996)
* Billy Elliot (2000)

00’s
* Social realism had a subtle change.
* New millennium started to showcased more films to do with the nitty-gritty life and dilemas the youths were facing.
* Focused on class and race.
* Opened up the market to multicultural markets living within the UK.
* Ken Loach is an advocate for the social realism and displayed this when winning the palm D’Or at cannes Film Festival for ‘The wind that shakes the barley’ (2006) it combines social realism and history together.
* Adulthood (2008)
* Kidulthood (2006)
* Bend it Like Beckham (2002)

Production Company

Production Company:

Our production company is called Awareness Productions. The reason we chose to go with this is due to the fact we are discussing very important and hard hitting subjects. This also helps to top show the public that we are doing something about the issues in society.

Target Audience:

As a company we are targeting young adults aged 15-25. This is because the issues that are discussed within our short films are usually happening amongst young people of this age range. The students will have little to no money as they will be in full time education and only have money from their parents or from a part time job. This means we will need to make sure are short films are cheap and easily accessible. The films that we produce will cater to both male and females as the issues we explore happen to both genders. As well as this, are target audience is any sexuality as some of the issues we plan to explore in the future are based on this topic.

 

Brand Image:

As a company we hope to present the inequalities within society and the different issues we face. We want to give the image to the youthful citizens of Britain that we are concerned about various issues we raise within our short films. Our image and our logo will help to give a contemporary feels to the company and boost our reputation within the media industry as well as with our target audience.

Logo:

Our logo features a camera. This is to symbolise that we are capturing everything and making it visible for other people to see. We have two variations for our logo one with the full writing of ‘Awareness Productions’ and one with the letters ‘AP’. This is because when we are distributing our products and when we are using the logo within the film. Once we get a large audience pool we can use the abbreviated version more often as people will be familiar with our company.

 

Employees:

An important aspect to think about when creating a production company is who you plan on employing within the company. We want people who give our company a good image and make other directors and other people want to work with us. We also want to make sure we provide a good image for our audience. Our probable clients would be those who are able to connect with young adults and those are more likely to produce films in relation to our target market.

Within our company we have chosen to keep a flat structure. This due to the fact that we will have better and faster communication as well as knowing the employees in more depth as we will have a narrow span of control meaning there will be less people reporting to the manager of the company. In order to employ suitable people we need to make sure our recruitment period is vigorous and is able to show what kind of skills possible employees will have and how this can benefit our company in order to sell more films and create better quality films. We will need to make sure that employees have good teamwork skills in order to further help the company produce better films. We will need to create certain teams that will work of specific features of the film and it won’t be unlikely that one employee will be working in more than one team. This will be down to what kind of skill set they possess.

As a company we need to make sure we are producing relevant ideas that abide by the codes and conventions of British social realism films. Although people who don’t study the fil m industry will not know what this means, they will feel more relatable to the film than if it was a Hollywood film. This means that through the actors and the style of the film will help to further push the idea of British social realism. Our unique selling point of our company is the fact we are addressing issue that are relating to our target audience in this current day which is helping to educate as well as raise awareness for the issues within our society.

 

Kes/This is England/ Mean Girls

 Kes/This is England/ Mean Girls

Within this section I will look at 3 different films. Two of these film are "British Social Realism" and the other is a "Hollywood Film". I will be looking into some information on these films as well as give some clips to show the difference in not only quality but also the issues that are raised. Through this analysis I have gained a deeper understanding into what makes a "British Social Realism" film and what makes a "Hollywood" film. 

Development

Development of short film

 

Our Idea's:

We had a lot of idea's for our film in order to make it hard hitting and educational. In order to stick to British social realism within our film we decided we would look into serious issues that Britain needs to consider and issues we believed would be important to explore.  These include issues such as bullying, cyber bulling, teen pregnancy, date rape drugs, drugs, and relationship abuse.

After research into all of these topics we decided to do base our film around relationship abuse. Within this, we decided we wanted to take a different approach and did the woman abusing the man. This made our film different from those already available and will also make it more interesting for people to watch.

Although the other issues listed are important issues they are addressed regularly therefore they won't be as hard hitting as the one we have chosen to pursue. Due to them being a regular theme within the media people might not be as willing to watch our short film as they are too familiar with the topic.

Production Plan:

Within the production meetings we organised a plan in order to make sure that we are meeting deadlines and getting everything done when it is supposed to be. This will help us to be more organised as well as be more familiar with the way each other works. It also helps us to know what needs to be done and what is planned for the future so that we know in advance to free time. In order to document this I recorded the production plan in the form of a Gantt chart. This makes everything easier to read and also outlines everything in an easy and professional format. Pictured here is the Gantt chart for the production plan. This outlines everything that needs to be done throughout the eight week production period. Various tasks will need to take longer than others therefore this Gantt chart is able to identify this and show this to the cast and crew members.

We have decided to give ourselves deadlines of certain weeks to complete everything as this will prove to be more efficient. Making sure there is enough time to get everything done will stop the cast and crew from stressing and panicking about meeting deadlines. This makes it easier and proves to be more helpful in the efficiency of producing the film.

Target Audience:

In order to create a successful short film, we need to make sure we are targeting our audience to the correct group.  In order for us to do this we will need to decide what and who we want to target to.

Focus Group:

One way you can really get to know your target group is through conducting a focus group. This is because it helps us gain a deeper understanding of our audience as you are able to discuss certain things that you wouldn’t normally know. In order to choose which topic would be best, we discussed the ideas we came up with and asked for feedback from the group.

The first issue we discussed was bulling. The feedback we received from them was that although bullying is an important topic, it isn’t something that will motivate them to watch the film as it is in a lot of short films recently. They believed that this idea would be ‘predictable’ and something they would see a lot if they wanted to watch a movie.

Secondly we discussed the idea of date rape drugs. They said that this would be a good topic to explore as not many people know about it and it would be good to raise awareness for it. However, they said due to the fact it isn’t a well-known issue some young people may not be interested in it.

Lastly we discussed the idea of relationship abuse. They said they really liked this idea and when we proceeded to tell them about what kind of relationship abuse we were focusing on they seemed very interested in the film. This is good as it will interest them due to the fact we are doing it on a unique topic that isn’t mentioned a lot.

Through this focus group we were able to find out what type of film we should pursue and which topics to invest more time in then others.

Age	The age requirement for our film is 15. This is due to the issues that are being raised only start to become known when they start getting into relationships. Our overall age range for our film is 15-25 as the setting for our film is within school.
Gender	Our film is aimed at both male and females. This is because the issues that are raised within the film can affect both males and females alike. This means we need to make sure that we are not favouring one gender over the other in order to make it more enjoyable for both audiences.
Social	The social aspect is important as we are targeting those of every social background in order to raise awareness of the issues within each social group. This means that there will be a range of different actors who portray different social groups within a school setting.

 

 

 

Delegating Roles:

Pre-Production
Synopsis	I will be the one to do the synopsis. I will then type and finalise the document.
Script	I will be the one to write this up however I will give it to other people for moderations and make changes due to the moderations.
Story Board	I will be the one to draw and finalise these due to the fact I did the script therefore I could do them together
Character Profile	We all did our own character profiles the way that we wanted to therefore they will be different.
Post-Production
Marketing	We will be producing our own marketing methods and creating different feedback methods in order to gain critique on the film.

 

The reason we have delegated roles to different people to ensure that everything is completed and played to each other's strength. The editing will be done by Bilal as he is passionate and skilled in this area. This way we can make sure that everything is being done to a high standard and the film will be created to the best of its ability.