PLANNING: CHARACTERS

When planning our product we need to analysis the social classes of the characters so that they can be recognizable to the viewers. I have researched and complied various images of the different social classes we have used, such as: the police, smugglers (mafia, cartels and the transporters), convicted involvers and victims. 

The two images at the bottom are from two BBC news articles on the Essex lorry incident in 2019.

Alongside this, we researched the various non-named characters (extra/public) that would be involved in the filming. As our location is in London, we looked at the various stereotypical people that would be seen in a busy place like London.

We created Pinterest mood boards to illustrate the social classes and stereotypes that we want to use in our product. The stereotypes of a criminal master mind, a young detective and an associate to the human trafficker.

The anti-stereotype is the female detective because the word detective usually connotes an image of a rough male detective/ or young male detective.

The main issue in our product is human trafficking and the effect it has on each the people involved.

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

I needed to plan how I will appeal to my target audience and I also needed to know who they were. I had to research age, gender, ethnicity and social class. alongside, I had to research popular genres and themes in movies which would reach my target audience. I also needed to research and compare how the media industry is needed, so that I could produce a product that they will want. Finally, in order to market our movie, I had to know how to reach them  by using various distribution techniques. I will show how my research has influenced my planning by answering the questions below along with pictures to help support my answers.

I started by studying how brands define audiences to help create my own audience profile for our production. For example I looked at how Sky and NME defined audiences. This helped when I was profiling my audience, as a part of distributing my film I created a Facebook page, and other members of my group created things like an Instagram and Twitter accounts and also a film website. When trying to find out who my audience was I worked out why they enjoy the genre of this film. Why would they want to watch my film? What makes my film different from competing films? And How will my film appeal to the viewing needs of my target audience?

1. Who is my primary target audience? 

I will target my product for ages 15-35, male and female, British, and is under the genre of Action/Thriller.

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

Films:

Television Programmes:

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?

They may consider streaming websites and apps (Netflix, YouTube, or Disney Plus) and cinemas (Everyman   and Odeon). Information comes from releasing posters and trailers on to social media platforms and apps (Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter), or posters on billboards (on motorways and streets) or posters on buses and other public transport vehicles. 

4. What brands do they prefer?
The collage shows multiple popular brands which my target audience prefer.

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

My film will begin with the end of the film, which means when the film opening ends and the movie title appears, the film will continue as a flash back. This film is linked to a recent news article, where 39 bodies were found in a lorry and the driver was a suspected human trafficker.

6. Why should my audience watch my film?

This film is about human trafficking which is becoming increasingly harder for the police to stop and is happening across the world, with no one knowing. My film will show what effect of kidnapping and trafficking has on both a traffickers mind and a detective. this will allow the audience to connect with the characters and it will allow them to understand the stress that comes from both jobs in this situation.

PLANNING: INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

Before we began the planning for our production, we established the different stages of planning. The stages include; brainstorming/ mind mapping, finding our Topline and Big Question, making a story board and making a shot list. 

Once we understood these stages we began brainstorming and mind mapping for our product. We decided base our production on a recent BBC news article about a truck that was found in Essex, UK, where there was 39 bodies found dead in it. The Police suspected it was Human Trafficking and later that month caught the people involved. Furthermore, we wanted to make it like a police vs organised crime type film, following our chosen genre of crime/ thriller.

This mind map shows the different ideas we came up with for all corners of the production. We wrote down necessary ideas that associated with the topic of Human Trafficking and the genre of our film. We put our plot into stages so that it was easier for us to know what to put in our storyboard.

PLANNING: TREATMENT

I learned from Frank Ash, the creative consultant at the BBC academy by watching a video about Digital Storytelling. He discusses how to connect with an audience and does this by devising a series of questions that should be answered when creating a film. By focusing on the question, we were able to establish the Top Line and The Big Question for our product. The question, what is the story? Frank explains how it is important to establish what your story is about and whether it will intrigue your target audience. Included in this, he also said to focus on what you as an audience member would want from a story. when we put ourselves in the shoes of an audience member we are able to portray the ideas we want, in our case we want to show our ideas on human trafficking. This can allow the audiences to successfully understand the main reason for the ideas and relate to this meaning in their own way. By knowing the social trends we can achieve the attention of our target audience.


The Fugitive

Top Line: On the run, a fugitive of the law, a leading Albanian human trafficker, and the two detectives that will stop at nothing to catch him and to end his trafficking scheme.

Big Question: Will the fugitive be caught by the detectives or will he succeed in his plan and get away once more? 

What our production is about:


My partner (Ross Morrison) and I decided to base our production on a recent BBC news article about a truck that was found in Essex, UK, where there was 39 bodies found dead in it. The Police suspected it was Human Trafficking and later that month caught the people involved. This articled inspired us to make our Film/ Film opening like a police vs organised crime film, following our chosen genre of crime/ thriller. 

​

The film is shown through the eyes of the young detective and through the eyes of the  Albanian Human Trafficker. The story is about the effect this whole situation has on them both. The story is told through emotion. Fear... Anger... Stress... Disappointment... Hate. All of these combined tell the story about how the Human Trafficker was caught and what happened during the lead up to his capture. the beginning title sequence is happening in the present and the rest of the film is a flash back to before the capture.

Main Characters:

• The Male Detective: The character is young, observant and likes to go against the rules to get what he wants. he has one job... capture the leading Trafficker
• The Female Detective: The character is ethical and devoted to her job. She follows the rules and uses this to her advantage. Her job is to capture the associate and get the USB stick (which contains the information over 20 years of the trafficking scheme, run by the leading trafficker).
• The Human Trafficker's Associate: This character is sly, selfish and knows the ricks of the trade. He is witty but very business like with his work. His job is to deliver the USB.
• The Albanian Human Trafficker: This character is sly, wary, selfish and dresses to impress. He is very business like and is feared by many. His job is to escape the police once more.

Voice over: 

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• Reporters: The voice over will be different new reporters, reporting about various human trafficking cases, in the UK and Internationally.  

PLANNING: TITLES

We decided to look at title sequence credits for Hollywood film openings. this was to help us get an idea of what credits were necessary to be added in our own film opening. We chose two films as shown below and we listed all the credits that were shown in the sequence.

Guardians of the Galaxy - 2014 (Si-Fi/ Adventure):

• Production Company – Marvel studios, Sarofsky Corp.
• Director - James Gunn
• Starring – Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista,
• Title - Guardians of the Galaxy
• Starring – Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John. C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro,
• Casting - Sarah Halley Finn, C.S.A
• Costume designer - Alexandre Bryne
• Music - Tyler Bates
• Music supervisor - Dave Jordan
• Film editor - Fred Raskin, Craig Wood (ACE), Hughes Winborne (ACE)
• Production designer - Charles Wood
• Visual effects producer - Susan Pickett
• Visual effects supervisor - Stephane Ceretti
• Director of photography - Bem Davis, BSC
• Co-producers - David J. Grant, Jonathan Schwartz
• Executive producer - Nik Korda, Stan Lee, Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Alan Fine, Louis D'esposito
• Producer - Kevin Feige, P. G. A 
• Writers - James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
• Based on novel - marvel comic

Get Out - 2017 (Thriller/ Horror):

• Production Company - Universal, Blumhouse/ QC Entertainment
• Associate production - Monkeypaw Production
• Film - Jordan Peele
• Title - Get Out 
• Starring - Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Witford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephan Root, Lakeith Stanfield, Catherine Keener, Lil Rel Howery, Erika Alexander, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Richard Herd
• Casting - Terry Taylor, CSA
• Music supervisor - Christopher Mollere
• Music - Michael Abels
  
• Costume design - Nadine Haders
• Film Editor - Gregory Plotkin
• Production Designer - Rusty Smith
• Director of Photography - Toby Oliver, ACS
• Executive Producers - Raymond Mansfield, Couper Samuelson, Shaun Redick Jeanette Volturno
• Co-Producers - Beatriz Sequiera, Marcei A. Brown, Gerard DiNardi
• Producers -  Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm J, Jordan Peele
• Writer & Director - Jordan Peele

From this research we began planning our credits and we made a list consisting of necessary credits. We understood that highlighting key actors/ actresses and the main crew.

Credits for 'The Fugitive':

Production Company – Alexander Productions
Directors - Casey Drewett and Ross Morrison 
Starring – Jake W, Evie N, Joe S, Casey D 
Title - The Fugitive
Casting - Casey Drewett
Costume designer - Casey Drewett
Music - Ross Morrison
Film editor - Ross Morrison
Director of photography - Ross Morrison 
Producer - Casey Drewett
Executive producer - Ross Morrison
Based on -  a recent BBC news article about a truck that was found in Essex, UK, where there was 39 bodies found dead in it.

Star War: Rouge One Questions

Rouge one:

• Who produced the film? 

Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, Simon Emanuel

• Who directed the film?

Gareth Edwards 

• What other films have they directed? 
Godzilla, Monsters, Star Wars: episode VIII: The Last Jedi

• What was the budget? 

$200 Million

• Who stars in it? 
Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed

• What other films have they been in?
Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything, Tempest, The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Diego Luna - Narcos: Mexico, Flatliners, Elysium
Riz Ahmed - Venom, Nightcrawler, The Night Of

• What technology has been used to make the film? (What cameras did they use? How was the film edited? What CGI was involved?) 
They used computer-generated imagery (CGI) to bring back characters from the previous episodes of the Star Wars Trilogy, which was about 40 years ago, and to make them look the same. 

• How was the film marketed? Which different marketing tools were used?

A teaser trailer, for Rogue One, was released by Lucasfilm on April 7, 2016, and it was praised by reviewers and the media for its portrayal of strong female characters. Later on that year, Rogue One was fully promoted at the Star Wars Celebration Europe III event in London. This was a perfect place to market the film as it had a lot of their target audience all in one place. During the event, a new official poster was unveiled, which depicts a battle taking place on the tropical planet Scarif, with the Death Star looming large in a blue sky, above which is printed the tagline "A Rebellion Built on Hope". This reveal caused more and more people to see the trailer and wait to watch the film. when the trailer was released,the trailer was viewed close to 30 million times in its first 29 hours, at a rate of 800,000 views per hour 

 • What examples of synergy with other products/merchandise can you find? 
When Disney and Lucasfilms released the film, they marketed their merchandise in stores all across the globe. They sold merchandise such as; toys/ action figures, t-shirts, bags, lunch boxes, posters, games/ video games. this increased their profit made by the film, and helped with extended budget pay.
• What examples of cross media convergence can you find? 
Disney and Lucasfilms used many places to mraket and distribute their film. For example; agreeing with big stores, like Harods in london, if they can sell their merchendise there. Also they madd agreements with different cinemas such as the IMAX to get them to put the trailer before other films and to screen the film too. Furthermore, they put posters outside cinemas, on buildings and on the sides of public transport. 

• What examples of technological convergence can you find?
They worked with app creators to create and official app for Star wars and on this app you can play games and take selfies with a Jedi filter. they also asked snapchat if they would add the filter in their app, because they knew how big their app has become. thsi use of cross media promotion is and exaple of viral marketing, as they hope that the filter will start a trend across the world. this trend woule help promote the film more.

• Where and when was this film released (nationwide, worldwide) and in what cinemas?
The film premiered in Los Angeles, California on December 10th 2016, which was also the release date in all states across the US. It was released in Europe, at the premiere in London, on the 13th December 2016. This was a good time to release the film, as people will pay to go to see it with family and friends at Christmas time, and they can make more sells of the products due to it being Christmas.

• What formats was it available in (digital / 3D etc…)? 

It was released on Digital HD on March 24, 2017, and on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD on April 4, 2017. It was also made available on different apps, for instance: AppleTV and Disney Plus.
• Who is the target audience?The Star War Trilogy has a very widespread target audience accross the world, and is a very respected film by everyone. it does aim more to the ages 15-35, however, it is still acclaimed to be a film for all ages, genders, ethnicities and socail classes.