Reflection

When I was planning my film opening I took a lot of thoughts into consideration about which social group my film would be targeted at, so that I would able to shape my film opening into something that was appropriate for my target audience. My film is a comedy that features two teenage girls. My target audience are young adults so using two girls who are both teens means that my target audience are incorporated into my film, the two teens also represent my social group. I also made my film a comedy because the results from the focus group that I held said that the majority teenagers between the ages of 14 to 18 prefer to watch a comedy opposed to a drama, horror or action. The character in my film and locations used in my film reflect the type of social group that I am aiming at for which is middle class. The female protagonist character’s bedroom (one of the locations used in my film) is spacious and has indications that a middle class family lives in the home, as it has been nicely set up thus meaning than the female protagonist in the film comes from a middle class background . The second location is when the two female protagonists are walking down the street, the houses that are in this scene are owned by those who are of a middle class background as the houses are of good quality and there isn’t a lot of litter in the area.

When I was researching production companies I looked for film production companies that were based in the UK, (as my film is also based in the UK) I then looked for the ones that had released a lot of successful young adult comedy films and the one that I found to be the best was Film4 Production who have released popular teen comedies such as Chalet Girl and The Inbetweeners Movie which grossed over £45 million in the Box Office. They have also released many more different forms of popular comedy films. After researching the Film4 production company I decided this will the best company to produce my film as they already have a large audience most of which are very similar to my own target audience (teenagers) this is why I have decided to use Film4 Production to produce my film. I have used Pathé Distribution (UK) as my film distributer as they have worked along side Film4 Production films before (127 Hours) and have also distributed popular British films such as Adulthood, Bride and Prejudice, Thunderpants and many more.

Two female protagonist wearing contrasting colour .

Similar to the type of social group I have chosen the aim for my target audience will young adults between the ages of 13 to 18. I have chosen young adults as my target as I believe that the genre of my film and characters involved in my film will be successful amongst a young adult audience. I feel that because of the fact that my film features two teenage girls the young adult social group will be able to relate to the characters. To make sure that I was going along the right lines I held a focus group and handed questionnaires to teenagers (both male and female) between the ages of 13 to 18, the results from my focus group and questionnaire showed that most young adults prefer comedy, fantasy and romantic comedy films opposed to drama, action and science fiction, as the majority of people in my focus group said they preferred a comedy. This information gave me a clear guideline as to what I should include in my film in order to reach my target audience. My film is a comedy as I felt that it met my target audience.

I have incorporated many different aspects into my film so that it will attract my target audience. Because my target audience is mainly aimed at young adults (teenagers) I have made sure that the two main protagonists are teenagers, as I feel that teenagers are more likely to be attracted to my film as it includes their own age group. I felt that my film would be of more interest to females than males, as the two protagonists are females. I combined this idea with the mise en scene in my film and made sure that one of the locations shot in my film was feminine, so I shot one of the scenes in a girls bedroom which was pink, I felt that my female audience would not only relate to the two female protagonist but also have a sense of familiarity to the location that the scene was shot in, as most girls tend to have pink/feminine rooms. I have also made the genre of my film a comedy, which is a genre that is very popular amongst young adults, I know this from the primary research that I undertook before I started planning my film opening, from the focus group that I have held I gathered usefully information that helped my reach/attracted my target audience.

Use of redhead for backlighting.

I have used a lot of different forms of technology and software in the process of making my film opening. When I was filming I used the redheads for backlighting in my film as I felt that it would have the effect that I required for my film. I learnt many different techniques of lighting in one of my media lessons and found ways to include the techniques that I had learnt into my film to have a desired effect that I felt would make my film opening look good. I used Final Cut Express HD to edit my film. I have learned how to use this more advance film editing software and can see the advantages from using it. There are a lot of techniques that can be learnt from using Final Cut Express and I feel that I have learnt a lot of useful techniques from the software. For example I have leant to use tools such as the razor tool, which allows me to cut my footage in the appropriate places, this helps me differentiate between the shots that I want to use and the shots that I wish to discard. It was also very useful as it helped me separate the shots needed to bring together the shot reverse shot used.

Added text in scene.

Once I had all the shots I needed I was then able to add text to create the opening titles that I needed in my film opening, I was able to do this through the effects that were available on Final Cut Express I was able to pick the font that I found appropriate, then I was able to size it correct size and chose the colour for the text I wanted, which is a key element that is needed in my opening. Whilst I was editing I was able to put together all the shots that I had filmed in a way that put the story of my film together, for example I not only filmed the establishing shot of the protagonist looking at the photo of her late best friend (the second protagonist) but I filmed an over the shoulder shot of her looking at the photo and then a close up of the photo, I did this so that the audience would be able to see that she is feeling sad because she has lost her best friend. I felt that if the audience saw this then they would be able to sympathise with the character. I was also able to add a shot reverse shot in my opening through editing on Final Cut Express, in order to do this I had to film this certain scene twice but was able to bring it together on Final Cut Express, I used a reverse-reverse shot in my opening because I have used dialogue and I found that reverse-reverse shots make is easier to follow conversations and allows the audience to see what characters are feeling through facial expressions. I have also learnt how to use Garageband, Garageband is software that allows you to create your own music tracks. I have learnt how to produce my own music for my opening and was able to create a piano themed music score that accompanied my opening. I used the digital keyboard that was able to connect to Garageband so that I was able to compose my own music, but because I don’t have the expertise in piano playing I asked a friend of mine who can to play the piano well to help me compose the music, we sat down together to create the music that would suite the film best.

Looking back at the tasks that I’ve had to follow in order to make a successful film opening I can see that I have learnt many important things in order to build a successful film opening. I have learnt how to use new editing software (Final Cut Express HD) and have learnt many different techniques from the software that has made my film look neat and well put together. I have also learnt how important it is to know your audience as it means that you have an idea of what you want to put in your film so it reaches your target audience I have found how important this is though the use of a focus group and questionnaires, as it help me know what my target audience wanted. I was also able to learn how to create my own style of music that I personally felt would suite my film best.