TARGET AUDIENCE SUMMARY

Our target audience mainly consisted of caucasian 18-25 year old Males, living in the South West mainly looking at London as our main Area. The majority do not read film magazines and seem to be attracted to movies based on their storyline and stars. According to our ratings the genre of the movies is the thing our target audience cared the least about. A significant portion of our audience stated that their preferred way to consume movies os online via the Internet and streaming websites as opposed to actualy going to the cinema. The favoured genre for a feature film is the Drama genre while Horror movies are featured in Short Films. Our movie is targeted at a male audience mainly which is highlighted by several artistic choices within our mockumentary. The story resolves around the death of an alpha male, a young student who was overly bright, talented and popular. Out of the two main characters Tom and Charlotte, Tom is the one the audience is able to symphatize the most as his character offers redeeming qualities where as the character of Charlotte is almost antagonized and is supposed to upset the viewer with her behaviour.

TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONAIRE RESULTS; APPEALS

The majority of respondants does in fact watch movies for the stars that they feature.

 

The majority of respondants appears to be invested the most in the storyline of a movie.

The response shows that the majority of people find out about movies trough social networks and trailers.

The majority of respondants do not read film magazines.

TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONAIRE; CONSUMPTION PREFERENCES

 

TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONAIRE RESULTS

 

The majority of the respondants were male where as the female audience were the minority.

The majority of the respondants were between the ages of 18-25 where as people over 26 were the minority.

The majority of the respondants live in the South West, therefore we can assume that the majority of the respondants are middle class.

 

 The majority of respondents were coccasian and the minority were asian.

SCRIPT SECOND DRAFT

Script Second Draft

QUESTIONAIRE POST

QUESTIONAIRE

ANNOTATED SCRIPT

STORY BOARDS

FIRST DRAFT - MOVIE SCRIPT

 This is the first draft for our mockumentary "Why Did Ben Collins Die?". The script still needs improvements, such as expanding a few scenes, adding more dialogue, writing out thr actual content of some of the title cards, correcting grammatical mistakes and making certain pieces of dialogue more convincing for example in Scene 2, Charlotte's sudden rant on why she actually dated Ben  is a bit sudden and should be paced more carefully.

THE TREATMENT

EQUILIBRIUM

How people are dealing with the death

This fictional documentary, filmed by a group of students who have been asked by their film studies teacher to film the reactions and grievingness of pupils. This is intended to be shown at his memorial service as a tribute to Ben. The students intend to interview, friends, staff, students and family. It begins with a sudden teenage death of a bright, popular athletic, handsome fellow student who has died in a car crash.

COMPLICATION

Girlfriend receives text

During Charlotte’s interview, it is revealed that Ben has been taking ADHD medication and buying it off a student who has got this condition. We find this out when a text is sent around all the students by an anonymous individual and Charlotte receives it. At first she is confused and then this turns to anger as she realizes he was all fake. He wasn’t who everyone thought he was. Her reaction shows a great deal about who she is and also gives us an insight into why he had taken the drugs as there is so much pressure.

DIS-EQUILIBRIUM

HOW PEOPLE REACT TO DRUG TAKING

Everyone is very shocked and confused. People want to know why he would take these drugs and what made him do it. So the documentarists decide to take a different approach and investigate the issues Ben was facing in which forced him to take the drugs. While interviewing people they all mention his brother and how naturally talented and great he was and how much Ben looked up to him. While interviewing his best friend, Tom, we find out he knew and that he was very worried about him. He starts to blame himself for the death of Ben and this is when it is revealed that he knew all along.

                Now that everyone knows, the documentary makers feel it a good idea to show the consequences of taking un prescribed drugs. We interview Doctor Trenkil who has a PDHD in medicine.

Ben’s personal tutor talks of how Ben wanted to go and do a sport course at a college nearby instead of studying academics. This was not allowed as his parents and the head teacher thought it best he applied to Oxbridge and study something he wasn’t interested in, like his older brother had done. He had a lot of pressure and this is shown throughout the documentary.

NEW EQUILIBRIUM

The film makers take the documentary to both the parents and the teachers including the head master and we see the reactions of these people and they can learn from what they did wrong.

CHOSEN GENRE & IT'S CONVENTIONS ( DOCUMENTARIES)

              The first is Expository, this is the most traditional mode and it focuses on the voice over. The 'voice of God', you hear him or her but you never see them. There would be a lot of footage and archive material etc. to help back up the voice over and support the argument. Images are often used to illustrate or even counterpoint the voiceover.                                                                       

                The second mode is the observational mode. This mode consists of no interviews, no voiceover, but with lots of handheld footage and long takes. The sound is caught on location rather than added in during editing. The subjects also pretend that they are not being filmed.

           The third mode is participatory. This mode could be described as having a mix of observational mode and expository mode in it. There is a voiceover of the documentary maker talking, but there are also synchronous sound recordings. The documentary maker interacts with the subject. There are interviews and a lot of footage and archival material as well as newspaper heading and letters. The documentary maker is visible to the audience.

               The fourth mode is reflexive documentary. This mode tries to capture an emotional response from the audience by borrowing techniques from fiction films. They like dramatic lighting and dramatic music. The voiceover isn’t telling you things, they are questioning things so that the audience can come to their own conclusions but with suggestive factors.

             
The last mode is the performative mode. This mode is when the documentary maker interacts with the audience and will comment on the process of making the documentary. The documentary will address the audience in an emotional and direct way.  The documentary may be focused towards an investigation or a search, but this may not lead to any satisfactory conclusion.

GENRE CASE STUDY 2 - AMERICAN TEEN

‘American Teen’ is on the mocu-documentary borderline. Whether it is real or not, we don’t know. Nanette Burstein is the film maker; she followed around 5 teenagers in their final year at high school. There are many very realistic things about the film, but there is a lot that you question. A lot you wonder if it has been set up or not. Was Megan told to vandalise someone’s house? Megan is the popular, bitchy, goody two shoes that has never been sent to the principal’s office before. So why has she now? There is also her best friend, the jock. Who is the good looking, popular guy who all girls fancy yet he falls for Hannah, the rebel who doesn’t care what other people think and doesn’t have many friends. He then breaks up with her over text, something that we as an audience all question as to be a set up. Next you have the nerd, but this stereotype is challenged. In fact all stereotypes are challenged. The nerd has every quality that the stereo typical nerd would have but he isn’t an a* student and he doesn’t sit at home working all day. Hannah rebels because she lives alone with her grandparents because her mother is mentally ill and can’t look after her. Megan finds it hard to connect with emotions as her sister died when she was younger, so she takes out her anger on other people. Colin is the basketball player, who has to do well this season and get a scholarship to college or else he won’t be able to afford it. His father is an Elvis impersonator, at the local restaurant and says he has to join the army if he doesn’t get in to college.

The voiceover throughout the mocu-documentary is done by the characters, but mainly Hannah. This helps the audience feel closer and more emotionally attached to the characters. This is because they can tell you how you feel and it makes it more real. We meet all the characters family and they are filmed in their homes, there bedrooms, in their cars. Everywhere they go the cameras go. We don’t miss one bit out of their final year at high school.

The cameras used are handheld which is an important aspect of a documentary. All the scenes come across to be real yet you question a few of them, this makes you question whether it is a documentary or a mocu-documentary. They used interviews and close up, deep chats with the characters to let the audience understand the stereotypes inner feelings. We never hear or see the documentary maker, it is completely focused on the characters and how they feel, not how they are questioned or talked to.

GENRE CASE STUDY 1 - THE BREAKFAST CLUB

‘The Breakfast Club’ is a teen movie where 5 teenagers get detention on a Saturday and are locked in the school library for 8 hours. From 8am until 4pm. You have each one of the stereo types of an American high school. You have, Claire, the spoilt-princess, Andrew, the school jock, john the badly behaved, rude boy who comes across at first as not having any feelings. Brian is the nerd, the brainy boy who is in the physics, maths and many more academic clubs and lastly Allison, who is a compulsive liar and doesn’t speak at all in the first half of the film. Throughout the movie you learn a lot about the characters. They all have something in common, at first they deny these factors but as the movie progresses they become much more open and tell each other about their home life and why it is so bad. It all comes down to the parents. The principal is a nasty, bully who takes his power of authority to another level. He threatens John secretly and tells him no one will believe him, hes alone and who would take his word over his. The principal’s nasty behavior brings the students together, they all become very interested in John and why his behavior is like it is.

Teen movies usually use problems that teenagers in the audience will face, this is to help them relate to the characters and become emotionally involved. Conflict with parents is a common factor in a teen film but instead of presenting it in a very serious way there is humor throughout the film but they still get their points across, which brings the audience emotionally attached. This is a very cliché teen movie although it was instrumental in setting the clichés. They include illegal substances, such as marijuana but there is no peer pressure in the characters taking part in it, they join in on their own. Although the idea of virginity was made very pressured. Claire the princess and prom queen was repeatedly taunted about whether she was or not.

GENRE INTERTEXTUALITY

Box Office Results

'Drop Dead Gorgeous' is a mocumentary that has a box office viewing of $10,571,408.

'Amercian Teen' is a documentray that has a box office viewing of $942,441

There is such a big gap in viewings between these two films, even though they are both american high school documentaries. The mocumentary is trying to be non fiction by making it seem as real as possible where as the documentary is completely non fiction. Poeple are clearly more attracted to 'Drop Dead Gorgeous', this could be for many reasons but it seems like it is because 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' has stars featuring in it, such as Kirsten Dunst.

POSTER ANALYSIS

CHOSEN GENRE & IT'S CONVENTIONS (TEEN MOVIES)

Our film is going to be a mix of two genres, also called a "hybrid". It contains elements of a Teen Film and of a Documentary, basically a mockumentary, a fictional documentary about a teenage boy's death. The movie will focus on friends, close ones and family dealing with it but at the same time establish what kind of person the dead boy was and subtly make it relevant to teenager's and our generationin general. A  mockumentary most commonly mocks a certain topic and is not intended to be taken seriously. Our film is different, while the documentary itself is not real, the script is meant to be taken serious as it deals with an dramatic and tragic event. The genre of teen and coming of age movies has been wildly popular around the world 
for decades since the 1950. At this time, the film industry saw a market for teens with a more disposable income and therefore more money to spend on leisure activities; largely going to films. Because of the boom in teen viewers, drive-in movie theatres were also very popular. The idea of an intermediate stage between childhood and adulthood was widely succesful because it offered a new and innovative way for teenagers to relate to something and also attracted a very big audience, which meant money for the filmmakers. Teen movies mostly feature themes such as sexuality, friendship, growing up, family, school and pressure, all of these are very common for the genre. Teenagers can watch these movies and associate themselves with them. They relate their own problems and their personal problems to those of the characters in the movies.

ADVANCED TARGET AUDIENCE

Our movie is going to be the mix of two genres, while we are focussing on Teenage Dramas, our project is a mockumentary aswell, therefore we'll have to incorporate elements of both genres but at the same time make sure that there is a fixed audience for our movie . While Documentaries in itself often appeal to a more niche audience, the elements of a teenage drama appeal to a broader and more mainstream audience. By doing some research on the internet, especially on video platforms such as youtube and vimeo, I was able to find some statistics and general information as to what the conventions of our two genres are and who we should aim it at.

Gender	Age
Male	45-54
Female	45-54
Male	35-44

The short shown above, is a comedic mockumentary dealing with a plastic bag, kind of satirizing the general animal and nature documentaries that are made a lot. While it's content differs heavily my hybrid idea, looking at this mockumentary has helped me to learn about the general style of documentaries/mockumentaries. The short features various conventions of documentaries and helped me to get a broad idea as to who watches these kind of movies.




Adolescent Suicide from Matthew Oquendo on Vimeo.
Unfortunately, Vimeo doesn't offer any insight on the different audiences, their age and gender like youtube does, but the above mockumentary, is much more similiar to my idea in terms of atmosphere. Like our mockumentary, this one also is not intended to be funny but is a serious approach on a serious topic. The similiar theme of a teenage death is also one of the reasons why this one in particular, has helped me a lot with my research on mockumentaries and teenage films.

CHANGING OUR IDEA

After having watched and studied various short films, I've come to the realization that our initial idea is too hard to wrap up in 5 minutes and that it's not intriguing enough for a short movie and would be more suitable for feature length movie rather than a short movie. Our new goal is to come up with a idea that is much easier to do, features less characters, less locations and less plot. We came up with a hybrid idea, we want to combine the short movie genre with a documentary, in a way a fictional documentary, therefore a mockumentary. We feel like the given limit of 5 minutes is just right for a movie of this genre and due to the limitations of a documentary, shooting, writing and directing the movie will be a lot less stressful, chaotic and complex.

Our storyline resolves around a teenage guy's death and the documentary will spend a great amount of time interviewing those close to him, including family, friends, his girlfriend and teachers. While on the surface, the mockumentary seems to be about the crash and a death himself when actually, it mirrors some issues today's teenagers deal with and the stress they are exposed to. Trough the various characters the main character was close to, we also see different aspects of his life and all the different expectations people had in him.An interesting aspect of the storyline is the reveal that the main character, a talented and popular young man, is actually a heavy drug-user who struggles to cope with life, something that will make the reactions of his close ones interesting to see.

SHORT MOVIE RESEARCH

The three shown short movies all share the common Short Movie Conventions. None of them are longer than 40 Minutes. They're all between 5-20 Minutes long. They all feature a rather small cast as the short duration of short movies does not allow a wide range of character's and lots of character development. Filmmakers that shoot short movies often do it because it is cheaper and therefore easier to do, this is their way of breaking into the film business, therefore short movies often have a low budget and only use few locations in order to avoid spending too much money. I also found that in terms of narrative and general style they differ greatly from bigger movies. They are experimental and unusual, obviously directed at a more niche-audience as the narrative is not as simple and comprehensible as a feature film. The character's, the situations and the locations they find themselves in are rather realistic and possible allowing the viewer to relate to it but then a twist is added which makes it comical or shocking. In feature film's the diegesis often seems to be out of a fantasyworld and certain plot elements or characters seem exaggerated or simply unreal.

- Short Duration, 5 - 20 Minutes
- Small Cast, easier to develop characters
- Low Budget
- few locations due to low budget
- Unusual and experimental narrative
- directed to niche-audience as narrative is not as simple and comprehensible
- shocking or comical twist

THE PITCH - TBC

Laura is from a middle-class background but due to her fathers absence her mother is struggling financially. Laura's Father left due to her mum having an affair, Laura blames her Mother for this which is basically the foundation of the conflicts the two have with each other.Laura and her Mother have different views on what Laura should do with her life, her denial towards, reflects in her choices, like wanting to drop out college and working in a tattoo parlour. Her mother disagrees and wants to send her to uni anyway, which is one of many fights they have. Both of them refuse to compromise with anything the other one has to say. There is an alternative group of drop outs who live quite an hardcore life and spend their time partying, raving and doing drugs. In a moment of anger, after a fight with her mother, her friends propose that they all run away and just have a blast and Laura goes for it. Laura steals her mother's money and the food she can find at home and leaves. They arrive at the desired spot of the journey and everyone including Laura is having a good time but after a few days on the road, the facade of the group is starting to crack and Laura starts seeing the group for what they are. When her presumed friends use her money to get drugs and booze instead of food supplies and important things, Laura realizes what she has gotten herself into. Also, Laura is angry and jealous as the guy who is the subject of her affections slept with her friend Maddie after kissing her which just adds to Laura's emotional turmoil. Troughout the trip, the mother continously tries to contact Laura but Laura refuses to talk to her.
When her friends ditch her and she tries to go home and when she finally arrives, her mother doesnt take her back in and simply tells her to go "live with her father",  which shocks the audience and at the same time amuses it aswell due to the black humour-ish style of the scene.

CHOSEN IDEA

Both me and Christabel, my partner in shooting the short movie, came up with two ideas, to decide which one we were ultimately going for, we did a Pro and Con List for both ideas.

Christabel's Idea

Pro:

- Interesting Narrative, unusual twists and surprising elements
- original concept

Contra:
- Too much narrative and plot information for 5 minutes
- too confusing for the short duration
-  major time gaps that would need to be filled within the storyline

(Me) Mehran's Idea

Pro:
- Good Amount of Narrative

- Original Script
- Relatable Character's
- Interesting and unusual Twist

Contra:

- To Dependent on script and acting

- Dialogue heavy

- Too many character's for 5 minutes.

- lotsof locations.

We decided to use my Idea and create a pitch for it as we think my idea would be more practical to shoot as Christabel's idea featured a lot of Narrative which would have been very hard to wrap up in five minutes. The problem with my idea is the fact that things such as the script, dialogue and acting is of huge importance as the idea is very plot-heavy.

INITIAL STORY IDEAS

My initial idea for the short movie was to do a piece based around a rebellious teenage girl in conflict with her mum. Without looking into to much detail, the plot basically revolves around a teenage girl who lives with her recently divorced mum. The two dont get along whatsoever and constantly get into arguments with each other which ultimately is the reason for the plot toleave the original equilibrium. The girl runs away with a couple of her friends and the whole journey and the short movie become kind of a rite of passage for her, eventually she realizes that she is in the wrong and wants to fix mistakes done in the past, in a way redeeming herself and returns home. The movie ends with the mother not taking her daughter back anyway as she couldn't take the harsh nature of her anymore. She tells her to go live with her Dad and closes the door.

GENRE BRAINSTORM

NARRATIVE THEORIES

There are 5 different elements in a standart Narrative which are, in one way or the other, present in almost every kind of movie.

Equilibrium
The equilibrium describes the state and situation of the diegesis at the beginning of the movie. There is no disruption and no complication yet. Most of the time the diegesis is shown to be in a good state, sometimes it's a bad state and eventually goes into something better (New Equilibrium).

Disruption
The disruption is what causes the problem and what gets the Hero going. Mostly, the disruption is caused by the Villain and affects the Victim(s). 

Complication
The complication what developes the Disruption further and causes Danger for the hero. This is where the Donor comes into play. Often, the Donor has the needed knowledge to give on to the hero, who then uses it to cause the resolution.

Resolution
The resolution is as the name says, in first line a resolution to the complication and eventually also solves the Disruption, creating the New Equilibrium. The Resolution is always caused by the Hero and the Helpers. 


New Equilibrium
The New Equilibrium is what comes after the Resolution. It is similiar to the Equilibrium. The diegesis and everything in it go back to the beginning. Something is either better or worse but the Disruption is solved. This is where the development of the characters is shown aswell. 

In typicial movies there always a few roles who fulfill certain stereotypes and have a specific position within the movie. These specific roles exist in order to allow a Movie to fulfill the Narrative Theories (explained above). I choose the Harry Potter Movies to explain what those characters are and what they represent and what their role in the movie is.
Hero -  Harry Potter
The Hero is the main characer, the person the storyline resolves around and the person who, in most cases saves the day and creates the New Equilibrium. Harry is the main character in all 7 movies, the plot resolves around him and the plot is basically his storyline, getting revenge for the death of his parents and killing Voldemort in order to save the world, making him the Hero.

Helper - Ron & Hermione
The Helper/s or the "sidekick" can vary from one to several characters. The Helper sides with the hero and assists him in his quest to create the "New Equilibrium". As the name reveals, the helper is never more than a help. They are never the heroes or Donors. Troughout the Harry Potter Movies, Ron and Hermione side with Harry in every part of the franchise. Although they are important characters and do important things they are never as relevant as Harry, as he is the chosen one. What they do is help.

Villain - Lord Voldemort
The Villain is the character who causes the Disruption and mostly the Complication aswell. He is a threath to the Victim and the Hero. Lord Voldemort is the villain in the harry Potter franchise. Troughout the seven books, he plans his return, kills a lot of character and eventually causes a war, making him the Villain.

Donor - Albus Dumbledore
The Donor is someone with a specific gift/skill or knowledge. He is often represented as wise or strong. The Donor gives the hero something which he uses to resolve the disruption and create the New Equilibrium.  Mostly something that he wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else. In the Harry Potter Movies, Dumbledore constantly helps Harry and his friends, sharing his wisedom, his power and ultimately his weapons and items with them, making him the Donor.
 
Victim - Various; Depends on the Movie
The Victim is the character that is affected the most by the disruption, the complication and  the Villain. The victim is often saved by the hero and is, in some way, always emotionally attached to the hero. The fact that these characters add almost nothing to the movie other than having to be saved, makes them Victims.

INTRODUCTION

My name is Mehran Karimi, I study Media Studies A2 at Collingham and will use this Blog to record the development of my coursework and to discuss anything related to it.
This year, the task of the coursework is to create a five minute short movie which in many ways is similiar to what we did in AS, the big difference being that we're not only covering the beginning of an narrative but in fact have to create a whole storyline and develop it from the beginning to the end, basically challenging the skills we learned in AS.
For this year's coursework we will have to design a promotional poster, a magazine article and eventually shot the actual short movie itself. I'm looking forward to this Unit as I feel that I can use skills that I aquired during my first year and avoid mistakes or things I didn't like to create a better project.

Generally, a short movie is considered to be any film not long enough to be a feature length film. Ashort movie is said to have running time of 40 minuten or less. Short films are a typical first stage for new filmmakers. However, professional actors and crews still choose to create short films as alternative form of expression. Short film making is growing in popularity as equipment becomes cheaper and more amateurs are making films. "Prosumer" or semi-professional cameras now cost under USDS3,000, and free or low-cost software is widely available that is capable of video editing, postproduction work and DVD authoring.