Research and Planning

How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?

As we are producing a Drama/Documentary film this has given us a problem because as you can see there are not many films that fit into our genre, whist this makes it difficult for me and the group too analyze and determine the conventions of the films genre it also makes it hard for us to understand the common aspects and criticisms theses types of films face. I personally have really struggled to find large blockbuster films which are widely know which would fit into our production genre. However there simulates that mimic the conventions seen within other blockbusters i.e. the traditional teenage girl film does rotate around how the female actors eat and live and indeed with the male actors  in how they look like and how they dress especially the weight of any of the girls and what they are eating if they are fat, another aspect is the consent cure for fighting weight and it is often seen in these films the methods used when girls when they have a weight problem, plus the common media pressure and bullying they face every day. Moreover there are hundreds of cheesy girl films, these all should give us some idea in how they target teenage audience, and how the audience can relate to such films, as a group we can make sure that ours fits into the most popular genre. For instance I have constantly found in my research that the directors of the most popular teenage girls films focus along the same lines and copy the same screen shots and camera angles i.e. the twilight saga films all often use extreme still/slow close ups of the face (heavily edited/Photoshoped and airbrushed to give the audience an example of the perfect face. This aspects can all be seen in later films such as the 2004 teen comedy film “mean girls” and its sequel “mean girls 2” (2011) both use wide camera angles demonstrating the girls whole body in which the audience (young girls) can see how the “perfect” body outline should look, apart from the obvious body shape and make up the directors make sure the audience got the fill opportunity of taking on board the clothes and fashions styles the actors are wearing/flowing. This underling pressure and concept that only thin, nice look, heavily fashionable people are nice is the conmen policy found in young American blockbusters this tend is found very much in high School Musical, for this very reason myself and the group have tried to make the gene have a more grown up feel to it, for example it would have more off a darker feel to it i.e. Black Swan appeals to a wide age audience. Our films gene could possibly appeal to a more mature teenage girl audience which I think could be a advantage because the 90’s teenage girl films have know become not fashionable this is shown in the rise of twilight, which raised and broken away from the genre I have studied in the last 8 years.

This research into more mature/adult films has given us a clear insight into the conmen shots used i.e. slow cycler shots which demonstrate the whole actors body, more examples of this can be seen below, when I analyzed film THIN. We have taken on board these skills and are planning to utilize them in the filming methods.

 

How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?

After answering question 1 I think I will find it easy to answer and analyze this question because they are both closely linked with each other. I think it is always important to determine a clear policy when it comes to deciding the films genre, the group and I have consistently done this in this production task/process. Moreover to find similar institutions that have supported the conventions of our film, I have to look at similar films with similar genres and the production companies that tend to support/finance them. An example of this would be “Working title” who have developed themselves over the past 20 years in expects in making British historical films and TV dramas examples of these are “Atonement” and “Elizabeth” however this rule of production company making only certain types of movies tends to be breaking down, I think this largely down to the super large American/Hollywood production company’s making all sorts of films that all tend to turn to gold because they have enough money to flood the American market with advertising. The difference between small national-euro Production Company’s like “Working Title” or “Studio Cannel” tend to struggle against the huge American super production companies that really do rule the movie market. After researching into the American production company’s I realized that the reasons they have become so successful (apart from the large population of the USA) is because they are able to throw huge amounts of money into all sorts of ideas and genres when it comes to making films, however a prime example of a collapsed production company is MGM, they have relied on the James Bond franchise for years but with the recent down turn this has lead to a lack of funds forcing the company to go into administration.

Our target audience “girls aged 15-30” tend to be some of the most affluent spenders when it comes to films, this is because they go in large groups and do weekly girls nights out. It is clever move on our part to chose such an target audience because this will certainly attract large amounts of box office takings meanwhile as I have stated before the nearest film which comes close to our genre criteria is THIN; the director for this film was Lauren Greenfield, it was successful but did not hit the main stream market. Therefore as a group we have decided to work along the same policy as “Working Title” and try and gain a large national but not international audience. As for the regulation side of the question we thought that the best option would be a 12 age category because then there is more potential for large number of young girls viewing them film but it could be a 15 depending on how graphic the film is, this will properly be down to how realistic the side effects are of the drug scene. The trailer will be likely to have a scene that shows the main actor taking or have taken coke. For these obvious reasons the age can be raised to a 15 category. I have done some research into how the setting of the age for films is done and found that all filming is regulated by the British Board of Film Classification who are a government agency who deal in all aspects of the film and TV regulation. They work closely with the British Film Institute and Ofcom the main TV regulation agency to determine the watershed regulation and deal with filming complaints made to Ofcom that have been broadcasted on national and digital platforms. I tried to find the basic points for age regulation but struggled to pick my way through the bureaucracy that surrounds the BBFC’s web site, so I went to a more basic GB media site to finds these points;

-Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.

Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence. Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.

-Only those over 15 years are admitted.

Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong words, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity.
Examples: The Uninvited, Good Luck Chuck, Love and Other Drugs.

                                    An very old British Board of Film Censors certificate;

How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?

-this question has already been answered in the two answers above, it will mean reading through and picking out the answer.