Audience research focus group meeting analysis

We asked questions to four people of the criteria of our target audience certain questions which they answered with good feedback and also constructive criticism. 

1. What age would you aim this?

2. What gender?
3. What would attract the audience?
4. What can be added to make it more enticing?
5. What do you like and dislike about this mood-board?

The audience has given us feedback but I find that it could of been a little more detailed to get the full constrictive criticism.
 Georgia has said that it is aimed the age of 17 years old which has matched our target towards 17-27, but the three have said they think it is aimed at the older generation which may be because it is all in black and white and we didn't put any colour in it for the reason that it goes with the noir genre but as the generation of noir now a days does have colour and it is something we can think about. 
Our audience has mainly said that they find it a little bit boring as there isn't many images to look at and as individualists I find that they are obviously more visual learners and in which they prefer to look at images rather than text. 
From this research we have discovered that people do like the idea of black and white which helps us think of maybe doing the start of our title sequence in black and white  to get the theme of vintage and retro across which is suited to my genre. Then taking the visual side of things into account then we would add visual effects into our opening so that the audience are attracted to it more. 

Audience research focus group

We set up a face-book group consisting of four different people that gave us constructive criticism on what they like and dislike about our mood board. We asked people of both genders questions;
What age would you aim this?
What gender?
What would attract the audience?
What can be added to make it more enticing?
What do you like and dislike about this mood-board?

These are the people we asked.

Georgia Chandler

Age - 19

Gender - Female

Education - Bromsgrove

Jasmine Mckeown 

Age - 17
Gender - Female
Education - Worcester Sixth Form

 Alex Clark


 Age - 17
 Gender - Male
 Education - Worcester Sixth Form

Sam Rolinson

Age - 20

Gender - Male

Education - Birmingham University  

Target Audience

For the demographic profile I feel that the audience for this kind of intelligent genre is aimed from 17-27 as I feel that it is a genre where it contains historical context.I think it would appeal to the younger audience because we are including young characters in it, I also feel that it is aimed at both genders.
Using the JICNAR scale I have targeted the social grade of A, B, C1 with a Psycho-graphic group of individualists.

 I find that the noir genre is not as defined as some others such as comedy, western and horror as so this may appeal to a wider range audience.

Our audience will mostly be individualists which shows us they will follow there own style and also be determined to do well in life showing us that they are all unique and inspirational. Having a strong social background, with a lot of self confidence giving us the idea that they have a life of partying, socializing, looking good and doing well in life.

The target audience also has style and has an individuality within fashion having fashion icons such as 'Fearn cotton, Bruno Mars and Pixie Lott.' They will always dress nicely and are well known for having good dress sense, shopping at H&M, Top-man, Top-shop, ASOS and other high branded retailers.

They like attending festivals such as the 'V festival and the big chill' camping in tents but still naturally looking fashionable whilst getting muddy and chilling out with there friends which they love to do. Both male and female prefer to hang out with their friends, as with girls they may either prefer to get all glamorous and go to a party or just have a gathering watching girl films such as 'sex and the city and Bridget Jones.' Whereas the males would either prefer to go out on the pull or just a night in with the lads, a takeaway and watching match of the day or playing x-box. 

Film openings- Genre specific analysis

The Last Seduction


I recently watched the film of which in the genre of noir 'the last seduction' which really gave me inspiration and idea's towards our final outcome. 

Firstly i watched the trailer to it to get a feel of what i am about to be watching, which set the scene towards the film itself by doing a wide pan across the location of where they are and where the film is based this is so the audience realise where the film is and also what sort of location it is. In this case they pan across new york (United States of America) and so we know that its an american film. 

We firstly get introduced to the director and secondly the main female actress, the font is in a type of style which we know has a noir theme to it with the white and then the black shadow to it; we know this as it comes across as a bold defined title towards the film and genre noir. 

We also understand what happens as there is a narrator talking over the top of the actions introducing the story line to make the audience interested and want to watch the whole film. This is done to present the film for marketing as well as letting us know what genre it is in. As it is a trailer it is selling the film rather than introducing it. 
The actual title sequence starts off with introducing the main actors and actresses by black background and just simply fading in and out of bold white font, creating a affective opening of just simply knowing who the actors and producers are. 
We firstly get shown a crane shot of where the film is set, in this case we are looking over a large popular city in America so that the film sets the scene of the story line. 
It then goes into the main character of a stereotype business women, showing us as the way she is talking represents the strict dominant character she is. 
The music is quite jumpy which emphasises the fact that the first scene is introducing what's going on and how they want the audience to react whilst watching it. 
There is a low angle under a bridge with a man who seems too look important being looked up too introducing him to the audience as a dominant character. 
The mise-en-scene of the briefcase is showing us that he is important because people that are in the business are likely to have briefcases. In this case he is greeted by two men who are shown to be quite rough and harsh looking giving us the impression that they are in to no good. 


Brick 

Brick was produced in 2005 this is saying that it is more of a modern film and so we are expected to see more emergent ideas. 
The opening scene grabs the audiences attention quickly as it introduces the characters and begins to tell the story line, it is clear to what he has just done because the close up shots of his eyes tells us the story with visual effects, he is also looking at her which tells us too. 
There are shots of feet which is extremely effective because you can tell how their stood and also what they are like because of what they are wearing. In this case you can see the women's legs which may seem intense towards the male. 
You can see that the target audience of this is similar target audience as ours (17-27) as the characters itself are of this age. 
The scene here is introduced as dark and glumly which is related to the theme of murder which is classed in the genre of noir.  

Genre Mood-board

First ideas

I am working in a group of three, which consists of Joanne Page, Dan Dawson and myself Amy Gwynn. Together we have come up with the idea of producing a noir genre title sequence for our project. We took other genres into account; for example horror, action or comedy and thought of ways we could produce a high standard, interesting opening sequence to a film. We felt that the Noir genre had more pathways and that we could take this genre into many different ways to make it more appealing and interested to work with. 
This genre also states that the target audience is applied to ages 15+ as this genre is more instructive and educative. So I personally think that youngsters won't really enjoy this type of style but then I think that anyone could enjoy it if they are attracted to a 'Hollywood crime drama.'
We thought of character roles and looked at films of Noir genre and noticed that for women there are two archetypes that are portrayed which are the redeemer and the destroyer. The redeemer is shown to be a brave and social behaviour whereas the destroyer is seen to be the sexual object that is sly and does things for money. 
The males are usually made to be cops, gangsters, socio-paths, murderers, detectives or just any other normal person. 

From concept to screen - Dexter

Dexter as a title is very unusual, the way that half the letters are turned upside down; this suggests that his character might not all be with him as though he is there but there is something wrong. 

In 'Dexter' they use strong dynamic lighting in noir style which is used to get a more intense light and crisp shadows too set the scene and to also introduce the audience to what the opening is about. In this case a morning routine is said to be violent whatever we do to make ourselves look respectable; for example shaving is shown in such graphic detail to portray the violent side to taking away hair which leads into cutting yourself. He has got the idea of ordinary things being something sinister and lurking behind the whole normal idea to which is where the creative idea's came from. 

The actual concept of the sequence is an every day routine for most people which suggests that he may just be like any one else, it just the lighting and shallow depth of field which really creates an extravagant and almost bizarre atmosphere. 
I listened to the Xploding Plastix track and thought it was quite unusual which went really well with what he was trying to portray, the music went too well with the 'blood splatting' and the grotesque manner of everyday chores. 


As it went too well with the movement the music that is used for it now has more curiosity to it which really leaves the audience questioning themselves. The new track really let imagination flow and the violent actions seemed quite humorous rather than disturbing.

Research: Analyse of the opening of Juno

The opening sequence of Juno created in 2007, directed by Jason Reitman will give the audience an understanding to what the film is about through the narrative and the elements of editing will express what genre it is. 

I found that the music that was chosen for the opening really creates the mood of what we are watching, it is folk music that is quirky and unusual expressing that the genre is 'indie' telling us that it is an independent film. In the song there are lyrics which reinforce that the song is about love 'All I want is you, will you be my bride,

Take me by the hand and stand by my side' showing us that the character may be in love which also expresses the humble young girl she is intending to be, but this also may reflect upon the innocence of what she might not be so the song may be giving the wrong impression as she doesn't seem to be a girl who really cares about much in life. 

We understand this from the mise-en-scene of what she is wearing, establishing that this is an important part of understanding the genre. She is wearing converses and jeans which help the audience recognize that she is lackadaisical and laid back about her style which emphasizes her folksy, easygoing personality which expresses what type of character she is and so we sense how she may react to situations later in the film. 

Juno is carrying plastic juice carton which looks like 'sunny dee' which also represents the child like character she is as its a children's drink. 

The titles themselves are hand drawn which adds to the fun element that suggests that its a light hearted film which has a comedy side to it.   As well as the titles being hand drawn the whole scene is which tells the audience that the producer may of thought of the whole idea through a childish mind which could reflect upon her character. The lines of the drawings could show the audience that we are in a basic type of environment.

     As she walks along roads and past shops shows us what kind of environment she is in and also it sets the scene.

You can tell how she is walking around that she is knows the place and that she knows where she is going which represents her confidant personality and her laid back sense of humour..

 

Research: Key Conventions

The opening scene has too introduce the cast and the main crew, it can be put across in many different styles and this is shown through nearly every film. Each film will have a different opening and this is what sets the scene, tells the audience what genre it is and also gives who ever is an idea of how the narrative might work.

Some opening sequences use enigma codes so the audience is left in suspense wanting to find out an answer to a question that was asked in the opening, an example of this is in the film 'brick'. They also may use confusion within ellipsis to put the audience in a position of wanting to see what happened in which they are intrigued to watch more so that they can find out what may of happened. We notice this in the opening sequence of 'London to Brighton' where we skip to a conclusion and we didn't get to see the evidence of what is happening so we don't exactly know what is happening. 


Title sequences should introduce the main characters of the film and give us an idea of what they are about, such as we see this in kick ass, how Dave doesn't receive female attention and we also see it in shifty of what his character is like and how he acts towards life. 

Main Task

We have been asked to create a two minute title sequence of a new fiction film. 

Research Deadline: 26/11/10

Photo-storyboard Deadline: 3/12/10

Filming Deadline: 07/01/11

Production Deadline: 28/01/11

Evaluation Deadline: 11/02/11