Target Audience

After choosing a specific genre that mine and Jess' two minute film opening would be, we thought it would be practical to research our target audience e.g who our film opening would appeal to most. It has been known that Blockbusters are generally comedies/romantic comedies and therefore have a similar target audience to whom our two minute film opening would attract.

Blockbusters generally attract larger audiences due to their big budgets compared to independent films. They also have the advantage of affording well known actors/actresses and have a better marketing angle. Due to the fact our two minute film opening is independently produce, research into British film audiences is essential and extremely helpful.

It is generally accepted that female audiences prefer romantic comedies and the BFI went one step further in concluding this statement with the 'Opening our Eyes' survey. The survey was commissioned by the UK Film Council to investigate how much of a cultural impact British film has had nationally and internationally.

This means that Jess and I will be targetting younger/female audiences between the ages of 15/24.

Overall, our genre will attract a fairly wide audience, mostly younger and female audiences but could possibly attract male audiences due to the drama aspect.



Conventions of a Comedy Drama

A comedy is a lighthearted drama usually created to provoke laughter from its audience. A serious issue can be shown through a series of lighthearted and witty elements, such as speech, camera angles, editing, music ect. They often have a happy ending yet the characters outlook throughout the film is quite pessimistic.

The camera angles are mainly stationary with the main camera shots being, long shots, mid shots and two shots. To understand fully the camera shots we will be using, using our actresses from our two minute film opening, we staged a few of them.

- This is an example of a two shot and a mid shot.

- This is an example of a close up shot.

- This is an example of an extreme close up shot.

- This is an example of an over the shoulder shot.

The dialogue from the protagonist is normally witty/sarcastic/humorous yet hold a serious undertone. The actors and actresses must have the ability to cut across both the comedic and dramatic elements of the genre.

To achieve our comedy drama genre, Jess and I will be creating our own soundtrack, inspired by examples from types of films such as;
 - Juno
 - 500 days of Summer
 - I am Sam
 - 50/50
What is similar about these songs is that they're not your average mainstream music and all have an acoustic feel to them. Jess and I will be composing a piece of music that will fit the opening credits to our two minute film opening.

Film Research

Film Research on Prezi

Discussion

       Our task is to create a two minute film opening from any genre of our choice. Working with Jess Harris, we originally thought the best genre to focus on was Thriller, but came to the conclusion that as this wasn't a genre that particularly interested us, we should choose a different route. After discarding our original storyboard and research, we had sudden inspiration from a very different kind of film and chose to continue with this idea.

        Our new idea focuses on a teenage girl struggling to cope with her OCD where matters are made worse by her younger 'rebel' sister. The turning point comes when she learns her parents are getting a divorce, upsetting the balance of her situation. This would involve 4 characters: 2 sisters, a mom and a dad however the protagonists of the story would be the elder sister with the other characters playing smaller parts.