Name Ideas

close yours eyes

• recurring motif of eye,
• wouldn't get audiences attention,
• too anonymous

blink

• too short,
• 1 sylable makes it short making it sound like a action film

flutter

• conotes to nature and butterfly, makes it sound childish

Past shadows 

• use of shadows can present the boy not being there anymore

shadows in the fog

• fog conotes to horror

The definition of acceptance

• long title like is usually seen in arthouse films
• ambigous sense, creates intreast in film
• conotes to the 5 stages of grief and death so hinting towards the narrative of the film

Target audience

Art house films are usually well known for their fragmented audience, they appeal to alot of people or very few. With this in mind I looked into the ITV sales categories to get a clearer understanding of my target audience, however the closest to my target audience is W3, women aged between 16-34, however this age range is too broad for my film. I was aiming to focus into the age range of 16-21 so, according to Blumer and Katz's uses and gratification theory, the audience with be able to emaphise easier with the character because they are of a similar age and gender meaning that the emotive needs of the audience is met. According to Aristotle's theory of Catharis, the audience will watch a film to realse a purge of emotions, so with the emotive needs are being met and with empathy being easier to achieve in my target audience because of the age of the protagonist this means that the audience can achieve a cathartic experience.

With ITV's sales categories not matching that of my target audience, I then focused onto the lifestyle categories. This explores consumers as being more sophisticated. I believe that my target audience can fit into many of these different cateories, like is seen with many art house films. The first of these being the drop-outs, those who do not want to get commited in any way, because of the length of my film being between 5-10 minuites this doesn't take a lot of time to consume meaning that the audience won't have to put off doing other things to soley commit to the film it'self, with it only being short it means that this category may not get bored while watching the film. My target audience could also fit into the Innovators category, these are people who want to make their mark on the world. This could be acheived through the surealality of the film it's being different to  many blockbuster films, with also the narritive touching on a quite taboo subject (suicide). Finally I believe that the last category my film could fit into would be the rebels, who are people who want the world to fit in with their idea of how it should. My film could be appealing to this cateogory because of how I aim it to make the audience question their believes and ideas, through flashbacks, while watching the film. Which may lead some comsumers leaving with a different idea of suicide then they first orgionally had. 

Demographics

My target audience will be middle class teenage girl’s between the ages of 16-21 this is because of the subject I will be focusing on in my film may be harder to understand in younger audiences. With the different type personalities of teenagers my film will be focused more towards the alternative girl especially because my film isn’t a traditional Romantic drama it is breaking the mould making it an art house film. There are three main areas that we can use to make our film appealing to my demographic;

·         Mise en scene

·         Intertextuality

·         An unusual/non-traditional lead character

Mise en scene means everything in the frame of the film which includes props, style e.t.c. This can help with the characterisation of a character. With my film’s protagonist being a teenage girl the type of mise en scene I will be using will be things that will help represent her as an average teenage girl. Such as high street clothes, makeup, posters on walls, dialect and books. Mise en scene can help audiences, according to the uses and gratifications theory, gain their affective needs. Because they recognise something in the film as similar to their life or what they do this will make it easier for my demographic to empathise with my lead protagonist thus meaning they will be more likely to get emotional at the film which, with it being a romantic drama, is what I am aiming to do. In my film I will be using a quote from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, to show that the girl is a student to make the audience empathise with my protagonist especially if they are students too and also if they have studied any of the Brontë sisters work. This is also an example of Intertextuality because in my film I will be using Wuthering Heights to help explain the themes conveyed in my film which intern will help them understand the film. Intertextuality can help make a film popular because an audience might recognise something shown in the film which will make them want to see it, as long as it is popular in their demographic, e.g. a young girl stuffing their bra in a film, this may be something that some younger audiences may do so they could look up to the characters because they are like them complying with the self integrative worth seen in the uses and gratifications theory because the film could raise their self-esteem. The use of a non traditional lead character is important because it makes your film stand out against the others because it is not complying with conventions, with my protagonist being a normal middle class teenage girl who you are unlikely to see in most teenage films, which, according to structuralism theory means that the audience will find it easier to empathise with my lead protagonist because they are someone like the audience themselves, meaning that they will find it easy to fulfil their affective needs.

Uses and gratifications theory

The uses and gratifications theory helps us understand how media affects people. It states that people use media for what they need rather than the media controlling people and their needs; which makes it quite opposite to the magic bullet theory. This theory has a user/audience centred approach. There are several needs and gratification for people which are focused into five categories;

·         Cognitive needs

·         Affective needs

·         Personal integrative needs

·         Social integrative needs

·         Tension free needs

Cognitive needs

This is that people use media for acquiring knowledge and information, however only certain people have these needs, these people are the ones who have intellectual needs to acquire knowledge. In order to gain this knowledge many audiences may watch documentaries, Malik Bendjelloul’s 2012 documentary Searching For Sugar Man. It hard to apply my film towards people’s cognitive needs because it will not be delivering them information or knowledge; however it could make people think about their views and judgements on the idea of suicide and teenage depression.

Affective needs

This need includes all types of emotions, pleasure and other moods of a person. People use media, like film, to satisfy their emotional needs. Many people to fulfil this need will watch romantic dramas such as Nick Cassavetes’s 2004 film The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks’s novel. Films in this genre create emotions in an audience because they can empathise with the characters and the narrative; especially with the narrative revolving about an illness that affects many people. The affective need of the audience will be strongly met with the theme of the loss of a loved one which is something most audiences would be able to empathise with, especially with the target audience being the same age as the protagonist this will mean empathy will be easier to create. Also with the theme of depression and suicide in the film it is a very sensitive subject for some audiences therefore instilling an emotive response in an audience.

Personal integrative needs

This is that people use media to heighten their self-esteem, status, gain credibility and stabilize. Therefore meaning that people watch films and assure themselves that they have status in society, thus meaning that they change their life style and media helps them do it. This is mainly done with product placements seen in Sam Mendes’s 2012 James Bond Skyfall. People will see the products that James Bond uses and wears and with his high social status people will go out and buy the products thus intern raising their self-esteem. In my film I could raise their self-esteem because the audience could place themselves about that of the protagonist because they will feel that they are better than her because they will not be dealing with the problems that she will be.

Social integrative needs

This encompasses the need to socialise within society. In modern society people do not seem to have social gatherings, instead they are using media such as social network sites, such as facebook, twitter, e.t.c. to satisfy that need. Also it gives people common topics for discussion. Film such as Stephanie Meyer’s series Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), Chris Weitz (New Moon), David Slade (Eclipse), Bill Condon (Breaking Dawn part 1/part 2), thrive of this need to make their films popular with their teenage target audience. Twilight fans used social network sites such as twitter to vent their obsession with the film series which later made them be called Twihards. However this is only really popular with many blockbuster films because of the budget and vast popularity of the film, this effect will be hard to replicate with my art house film because with only having a small target audience it is hard to generate a cult following, especially with the film only be an individual short film not a series.

Tension free needs

People use the media in terms of escapism and to relieve from tension. This could be applied to many surreal films, because of the difference between the real world and the world that is portrayed in the surreal film people engross themselves in the film and forget about their own life and worries. This could be applied to many of Tim Burton’s film especially that of his adaption Alice In Wonderland, which even explores this theme in the film itself, with her going to wonderland to escape from her problems in the real world. I could use this in my film because the audience will get engrossed with the worries of her life and with the surrealistic effect of the film and forget about their own life for the short while of watching the film.

Quotes ideas

"A teardrop is insignificant in a pool of water, but it can touch the soul as it runs down someones face"

• hints at loss and sadness
• mentions soul, some audiences may not empathise because they don't believe that there is a soul

"There's a place in me where your finger print still rests... your kiss still lingers and your whisper softly echoes... it's the place where a part of you will forever be apart of me"

• rhythm so audience will remember it
• could connote to death, don't want audience to know what happen to the male character just that he is not there anymore.

"When you are in love and you get hurt, it's like a cut... it will heal, but there will always be a scar"

• short
• catchy 
• connotes to loss and pain so resembles theme of film

Questionnaire Findings

My target audience sample contained half male and half female (all being between the ages of 16-21) participants to give me a fair sample. From this I found that the majority of male’s (35%) said that they would be able to empathize better with a male protagonist, with (60%) said that they would not empathize from any perspective; this 40% seemed to all be the participants that said that love genres did not create an emotive response in them (60%), and the ones that said that they did not enjoy watching love dramas (60%). This could be due to the male stereotypes; they could not be answering truthfully for fear of not complying with male nature which may lead to them being outcasted so it is hard to draw a conclusion from the male sample for them to be my target audiences gender. From the female sample I found that the majority of females I sampled did enjoy watching love dramas (85%), from this I found that this genre creates an emotive response in women (75%), this could be due to the emotive nature of a females personality. Women seemed to empathize better with characters with (68%) of women saying they would empathize with either gender protagonist, however because I needed a definite answer for the gender of my protagonist I had to go with the second popular gender, female (30%). The women sampled also stated that they enjoyed love dramas with either a positive or negative ending, (70%); but due to needing a definite answer I had to go with the second popular answer being a negative ending (20%). The popularity of a negative ending could be due to the catharsis effect it could have on audiences. With watching a sad film, women will receive the emotive gratification that audiences seek when consuming media. From the first six questions I concluded that my target audience would be females between the ages of 16 and 21.

From the remaining sample I found that the two most popular fonts for a love genre was calligraphy (35%) and italics (30%). One participant specified that they believed that I should combine the fonts of calligraphy, italics and bold. I believe this could work because it still follows the target audiences specifications of calligraphy and italics but also represents that my film will be an art house film because of the use of the includence of the bold, eye-catching font, making it different to many love genre fonts. The majority of the target audience seemed to watch channels such as MTV (70%), Channel 4/E4 (80%) and ITV (1,2,3 or 4) (80%), this helps me when it comes to distribution and advertising of my product because i know what channels it will be best to display my product or advertise it on. The most popular radio stations of my target audience seemed to be BBC radio 1 and radio city (both at 85%); however with BBC radio 1 being a mainstream radio station so they may not agree with any of the theme’s that is seen in my product (suicide) and with the art house nature of the product, especially because many of their products seem to be very conventional such as Spooks or Downton Abby. This means I would aim to advertise on radio city especially because it is more specific to the area of my audience. From my questionnaire I found that the majority of my sample read gossip magazines such as Hello!(65%) and OK! (70%), this means that I would have to do research into their culture section and see how I could go about getting a review on my product placed in one of their columns. I concluded from my research that the best place to advertise my product would be on the internet with 95% of my target audience saying that they spent more that 12 hours on the internet a day. This is an interesting finding because their is a lot of free advertising spaces on the internet such as social network sites like Twitter and Facebook and Blogs that are free to create and could replace the conventional movie webpage. Taking advantage of new and upcoming media is something that is key especially with a younger target audience, this means to get their attention then the internet will have the be the main advertising source I use because it is constantly around them. This was also enforced with the answer to my last question that was them to comment on what they believed was the best way to advertise an upcoming film with the main responses being social network sites (75%) and Trailers (80%). In some aspects convential formats of advertising such as trailers are still popular even in modern society, this could be due to the fact that they build suspense and excitement in the product (such as the Coke Cola christmas advert) and that they are a fast and easy way for the audience to consume the information that they would need about the product.

Questionnaires

1. Are you Male or Female?

• Male
• Female

2. What age group are you?

• Younger than 15
• 16-18
• 19-21
• Older than 21

3. Do you enjoy watching love dramas?

• Yes
• No
• Never watched one

4. Do you prefer love genres with a postitive or negative ending?

• Positive ending
• Negative ending
• Either

5. Do love genres create an emotive responce in you?

• Yes
• No
• Don't know

6. Whose perspective would you be able to empathise better with?

• Male
• Female
• Both
• Neither

7. What font type do you believe best represents a love genre?

• Italics
• Calligraphy
• Bold
• Medieval
• Other (please specify)__________________________________________________

8. What television channels do you tend to watch? (you may choose more than one answer)

• BBC (1,2,3or4)
• ITV (1,2,3or4)
• Channel 4/E4
• Five
• MTV
• Sky (1,2or3)
• Sky atlantic
• Viva
• Kerrang!
• None
• Other (please specify)__________________________________________________

9. What radio stations do you tend to listen to? (you may choose more than one answer)

• BBC radio 1
• BBC radio 2
• Heart
• Radio city
• Rock FM
• None
• Other (please specify)__________________________________________________

10. What magazines do you tend to read? (you may choose more than one answer)

• Heat
• Hello!
• OK!
• Grazia
• Now!
• None
• Other (please specify)__________________________________________________

11. Approximately how many hours a day are you on the internet?

• Less than 1
• 1-3
• 4-6
• 7-9
• 10-12
• More than 12

12. What do you believe is the best way to advertise an upcoming film? (you may choose

more than one answer)

• Billboards
• Bus adverts
• Freebies
• Magazine adverts
• Television interviews
• Posters
• Social network sites
• Radio
• Trailers
• None
• Other (please specify)__________________________________________________



Research

Research is essential when planning a film; the more we research and speak to our target audience the better understanding we will have of them thus making your product more successful. The target audience of your piece should always be present during ever stage of planning. With my primary research I am conducting a questionnaire which will help me tailor my product to my target audience.  A questionnaire usually contains either quantitative or qualitative data or both.

Quantitative data are closed questions that usually guides the audience towards an answer so all answers are relevent.

E.g, How many times a week do you go to the cinema?

a. once

b. two to three times

c. four to six times

d. everyday.

Answer either A B C or D ____

You recieve more data because it is easier to replicate and turn into data because of it's simplicity. However this type of data lacks detail because of its structure and you do not recieve new or unexpected ideas/opinions and the data may not always be the true opinion of the target audience.

Qualitative data are open questions where the person answering is given alot of freedom in there answer because they can say what they want.

E.g, What is your favourite film and why?

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

You recieve broad data and recieve origional ideas that you haven't thought of. Reasons and explanations are offered thus meaning you find out more about your target audience's thinking process. However it is harder to turn into data and to interpret especially because some people could go off task or people may rush the questionnaire because it takes time to answer it.

In my questionnaire I will use quantitative data because it means I can get the data back quickly and then all my responces will be tailored towards the information I need to gain.

Polysemic Theory

Polysemic theory is the ambiguity of a word or image to express two or more different meanings that audiences would interpret differently. An example of this is in Christopher Nolan's film Inception. The polysemic image is seen in the ending, when the protagonist see's his children and he spins his spinning top (to see if he is in a dream or reality), but before he see's what happens he goes to find his children. The chamera is then held on a close up of this shot for a while until it starts to wobble before in spinns straight for a while while before the film ending. This could show that he is either in a dream or in reality leaving the ending open to interpretation of the audience. The spinning top is a recurring motif in the film, with only the character truly understanding it. This means that they ending could confuse some audience because they will be waiting for the character to approve their beliefs. The recurring motif of the spinning top and seeing his children also makes the audience feel emotional when they see them both combined, when the audience see's the spinning top combined with the children suspence builds up in them because they want to know if the character is in a dream or reality thus determining what emotive responce to trigger. With them not being sure if the spinning top falls or stays spinning it means they are unsure what emotion to feel, leaving suspence still present in the audience.

I aim to use polysemic theory in my film with the protagonist taking an overdose of medicated drugs followed by information being delieved that she took the overdose with alcohol; leaving the ending to audiences personal interpretation. Thus making the audience unsure wether she is dead or not; meaning that they do not know what emotive responce to deliver so suspence is still their present emotion.

Structuralism Theory

Structuralism states that everything is linked in some way; when we watch something all of our personal knowledge/experiences shapes the way in which we understand it. We can use the structuralism theory to help audiences understand our characters. Our characters must inform audience of:

• level of power
• wealth
• protagonist/antagonist
• intellect
• looks (but mainly in blockbuster films)

However how the audience understands the characters in a scale. The scale contains three parts, the utopian end/aspirational end, the middle, and the disopian end. Utopian characters are usually better than the audience and behaves as an aspirational character, e.g. James Bond in the James Bond series. The middle is usally the audience, characters in this section are easier for the audience to empathise/relate too. This character is usually used in arthouse dramas because it is a cheeper character to represent and they can create the emotion levels they aim to with a character that is easier to relate too. At the disatopian end, the audience is usually better than this group, thus scaring the audience because it is hard for them to relate to the characters. It instills fear into the audience because the characters are ok with being immoral such as in the film  Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs also we can feel sympathy towards the characters in this scale just like many audiences would towards the Jews in Schindlers List.

In my film I need to make my character easily to relate too so I will make my character in the middle sector but more towards the disatopian end of the spectrum. This means the character will be easy for the audience to relate to and empathise with with the character being in the same sector as they are but also they will feel sympathy towards the character because they audience will still feel higher than them because of the behaviour they will display.