Monday 29 September 2014

Media Studies 2: Coursework Research

Previously Posted on 17/3/13
When looking at true story films, I looked at the target audience for ‘The Lovely Bones’, which is mainly the female population, ages 13-20+. It would also target crime/mystery lovers, true movie fans and fans of the original book.


Using the website http://www.barb.co.uk I found that ‘Call the Midwife’ had a ratings of 10.18 million viewers on 30th December 2012 and 10.85 million viewers on the 3rd February 2013. This shows there’s a huge audience out there that enjoy watching films/TV programmes based on real life. This research helps with my marketing campaign as it shows that I need to persuade a wide audience range to see my film.I also found the last ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ rating was 42,000 viewers on 28th March 2010, which again shows there is   a wide audience range.
Questionnaires for my focus group


I undertook primary research through a focus group by asking them questions about my idea, noted down their answers and adapted my work towards their responses. From this I decided to target my film towards the female population aged 12 +. Using the website http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12 I looked at the requirements of the 12 age rating. I kept this age rating as it allows me to retain most of the real story, without offending the audience. 

As my film covers a range of genres, it will appeal to the general population. My primary target audience is the female population aged between 12-30 years old, as the protagonist is shown through the stages of her life as she grows up, and true movie fans as this is a different type of true story. My secondary target audience would be fantasy-drama lovers (mentioned above), and would appeal to them through the concepts of the film. 



I went on the look at audience demographics. Using; http://www.howtodothings.com/business/a3607-how-to-identify-a-target-market.html helped me to justify my target audience clearly. Everyone in the world is categorised into a ‘class’ which are:  upper class, who are the very rich e.g. The Queen, middle class who have enough money to live a luxurious life style e.g. Manager, and working class, who are average/everyday, people e.g. shop assistants. Due to this their incomes are considerably different which would affect my target audience of my film.  My target audience involves the working class more as they would understand the plot line more and are more likely to have gone through something similar/ know someone who has. I’m going to target mainly the female population, as the film is female based, aged between 12-30. This is my primary audience. I also looked at the psychographics for my film.The personality of the audience is significant as the more ‘timid’/shy person is more likely to watch my film than a ‘bold’/outgoing person. The interests/hobbies of the audience is significant as not everyone likes true story movies.

Knowing  target audience, I researched audience theories. The one that applies to my work is the uses and gratification theory because it reflects my work and it shows how an audience relates to what they see, which is how I want my target audience to react to my film.

Monday 22 September 2014

Media Studies 2:Starting the Investiagtion

Previously Posted on 12/3/13- 

As part of my coursework I had to write an investigation to show how I researched the genre of my film idea and how I used my research within my production pieces.  Below is the first part of my investigation. 

My coursework project required to come up with a film idea and make it come to life. I decided to create a script for my pre-production and a teaser poster and a DVD cover for my production tasks. I chose this option because through my practice task, I enjoyed experimenting with the dialogue, which lets me be more creative.


My film idea has a range of genres combined into one plot. The main genre is true story, which means that it is non-fiction and factual. I chose this genre as a friend of mine had an unpleasant childhood and I wanted to show how, not everyone has the ‘perfect life’ and how they deal with these imperfections. To ensure anonymity, I altered the characters names and situations so more people could relate to the idea. As this story is close to my heart I studied the codes and conventions of the genre, to ensure my information was correct, shown opposite.

Using http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres2.html I looked at other genre types and chose fantasy-drama as they interlink with my main genre. The fantasy part interlinks as the protagonist has a fantasy world that she uses as an escape from the harshness of reality. The drama links in through the storyline, due to the domestic abuse/psychological references.

I conducted secondary research on the main genre by looking at true films such as 'The Blind Side’, 'Titanic', and 'The Lovely Bones'. I analysed film posters to get a better understanding of what my poster should convey, e.g. images/ typography. Creating a mood board of the film posters/ DVD covers helped me to compare/ contrast the colours/ layouts/ typography used. (images below). I also used: http://www.imdb.com/list/2xHGLzvIkzA/ and http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ to study the types of non-fiction films to get a better understanding of story lines and to see how audiences rated certain films e.g. The Lovely Bones.  


Titanic DVD Cover analysis 
The Lovely Bones DVD Cover analysis
The Blind Side DVD Cover analysis 
The Blind Side Poster analysis 
The Lovely Bones poster analysis 
Titanic Poster analysis
Mood Board


Researching my sub-genre on http://media.edusites.co.uk  helped me understand the codes and conventions, shown opposite. I also looked at types of fantasy-drama T.V. Series to help me construct my characters e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Researching my sub-genre on http://media.edusites.co.uk helped me understand the codes and conventions, shown opposite. I also looked at types of fantasy-drama T.V. Series to help me construct my characters e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 


For script assistance I studied different types of scripts (websites below) and used Google to look at different types of script layouts. Relating back to my practice task also gave me inspiration.

Monday 15 September 2014

Script Links

Previously Unposted
For help writing my script I searched all over the Internet to find bits of information that would help me to make my script the best possible grade on my script.

I found some website links that gave me different information about scripts.
http://www.sellascript.com/Source/column.cfm?mode=display&columnid=5
http://thescriptlab.com/images/SampleScript/FeatureScreenplayFormat.pdf
http://www.simplyscripts.com/WR_format.html

All of the links above do work if you click on them :)


The first one gives hints and tips on how to start a script.
The second link is a sample script template to show the best layout of a script and how long it should be,
The last link gives the dimensions of the margins and the other important punctuation etc. that needs to be added, to give your script the professional look.

This link below is the original script for the film 'The Blind Side'. This one is the most important to me whilst creating my coursework because I chose this film as one of my comparison examples.

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Blind-Side,-The.html


The IMSDB is a very well known website within the film industry as it holds a range of samples from film franchises such as Harry Potter etc. It also has sample scripts from Television shows such as Futurama .

Monday 8 September 2014

Media Tips and Links

Previously Unposted 
When looking at films and their genre, it an sometimes be difficult to decided exactly which genre category some films fit into. 

As part of the Media Studies Course my teacher signed up to a site called media edusite which I believe ,was paid for as part of a package. My class and I were given individual log in details and passwords to access all of the content. 

I found this site very useful in understanding genre and helping me to construct my DVD cover and Poster by looking at genre conventions and the examples that are given. 

I would recommend this site as it give simple information with diagrams/images and written examples to back up the information. It also includes a range of different information that you may need and uses (and explains) proper media terminology. 

I hope you ,my readers, find this link as helpful as I did :) 

Below is a link to the one page that I used when deciding on a film idea and genre to place it in. The link does work if you click on it and takes you straight to the fantasy genre page. 

http://media.edusites.co.uk/article/fantasy-genre-codes-conventions/ 

Please Note: The whole page may not show up because the link is not logged on. To view the whole page and the whole website, you would have to sign up  :) 

Another link that I found that helped me make my script the best it can be is stated below 

http://screenwriting.4filmmaking.com/script-format1.html 

To help me save time when creating my DVD cover I also decided to start to plan the written content , as I am writing the script, so I thought I would ' kill two birds with one stone' as they say.  I used this website to give me an idea of how to right the blurb for my DVD cover.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8506705_write-dvd-cover-content.html 

Monday 1 September 2014

Exam Prep.... Another Theory

Previously Unposted

http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience



The link at the top of this post is a very well know website, that was given to me and my media class by my media teachers.

The link takes you straight to a media page that explains about the different types of audience theory , with diagrams to show how the theory works. It also explains where the theory came from and who came up with the theory.

There are other websites that give you the same information , however I found this website to be the best for me to learn from as it does have diagrams and all the information is condensed down onto just one page. From the website I have used this website to create my own revision spider diagrams.


I hope that you find this website as helpful as I did.
(unfortunately the link does not work, however if you type it into your search engine it will go to the correct page.)