Audience Research Survey

Here is a copy of our audience research survey which we plan to hand out as many people as we can of different ages and gender;

1) How old are you?
- 15 and under
- 16 - 18
- 19 - 24
- 25 - 30
- 30+

2) Are you male of female?
- male
- female

3) Which of these British Genre's do you prefer?
- Social Realism
- Comedy
- Social Drama
- Thriller
- Costume/Period Drama

4) Which would you like to see more of in cinema ?
- Social Realism
- Comedy
- Social Drama
- Thriller
- Costume/Period Drama

5) What 3 things do you associate with the British Drama sub-genre of Social Realism?
*open question*

6) Social realist films usually focus on a current issue in society, which of these would interest you the most?
- Poverty/The Recession
- Homelessness
- Warfare
- Young Pregnancies
- Drugs/Alcohol
- Promiscuity
- Gang Violence

7) In a social realism film based on homelessness, which genre of music do you associate with this?
- R n B
- Grime
- Indie
- Rock
- Metal
- Classical
- Dance
- Other

8) Do you feel one word titled films or longer phrases are more effective?
- One Word
- Short Phrases
- Longer Phrases

Facebook Group

Today we created a Facebook group to promote the work we are doing.

We shall be using this page to obtain feedback from the public as well as updating our followers with any news or progress. Facebook groups are a good way of keeping in contact with the audience of our teaser trailer.

Click me to go to the facebook page

Looking At Existing Teaser Trailers

Here we deconstructed the romantic comedy "The Last Kiss" as an excellent example of a teaser trailer we could refer to when creating our own.

The Last Kiss

• same piece of non diegetic music used throughout
• music by Snow Patrol who are a well known band. This sticks to the romantic comedy code and convention of using popular music
• all clips are footage from the film but not in order of the narrative
• clips are edited and cut in time to major beats in the music
• lack of interesting effects and transitions
• names of actors mentioned at the end
• previous films which the writer has worked on are mentioned - suggests to the audience that if they liked those films they would also like The Last Kiss (a hook)
• trailer is not focused on one particular character and therefore suggests that there are several different plots within the narrative

The Last Kiss is effective as it sticks to the code and conventions of the romantic comedy genre as well as those of a typical teaser trailer. Although a lot of different clips from the film is used, no narrative is given away because they are played in a random order. However the non diegetic music's chorus lyrics of "what have I done" suggests that there are several obstacles or crisis' within the narrative.

I feel looking at this trailer is useful for ideas for our own teaser trailer as it is evidence that even a small amount of editing can still be effective. Also it shows us that even lyrics in a song can give away narrative, therefore our choice of music must be taken into great consideration.

Looking at Existing Teaser Trailers

Here we looked at and deconstructed teaser trailers from existing films as a a source of inspiration;

The Dark Knight

• Non diegetic voices of identifiable characters; Bruce Wayne, Alfred the Butler and the Joker. Michael Cain having one of the most iconic voices in cinema
• Voices positioned to create a conversation between the characters; sets up the relationships for the film as well as giving away slight narrative
• Only images seen are the iconic batman logo and the joker card
• Dark colours such as blues and greys used because of the homogeny between the film and the colours used the original comic books
• Dark colours also stick to the codes and conventions of the film's thriller genre
• Suspense is created through the lack of imagery, little narrative and build of of non diegetic music
• No footage from the actual film is used
• The destruction of the batman logo suggests that batman may be beaten by the joker. This may attract audience because of the binary opposition between good vs evil and that evil may potentially succeed.
• Trailer is 1 minute in length which is a code and convention of a teaser trailer
• Flashes of blue slowly getting closer together entices the audience as they wait to see the image which it is highlighting.

Although this is a great example of a teaser trailer because it sticks to the codes and conventions of one, Batman is a franchise film and therefore can easily work with little imagery or narrative. This is because it's audience is already present because of the attraction to previous films and comic books.

Therefore when creating our coursework, we need remember that our film is brand new and our aim is to attract the audience through the teaser trailer.

Looking at Genre; Horror

Codes and Conventions of Horror

Our second choice of genre was to do horror. This is a spider diagram of the typical codes and conventions of horror. We have chosen to do british drama, however we still researched horror as a genre in case we needed to change or reconsider our ideas.

Looking at Genre; British Drama

Having looked into the very broad genre of British Drama, we found that it has a number of sub-genres;

• Social drama
• Comedy
• Love
• War
• Thriller
• Costume/Period Drama
• Horror

Social Realism within British Drama

As a group we decided that social drama, more specifically social realism was the sub-genre we were keen to pursue.

Social realism within British Drama was designed to make the audience think critically about their own lives as social realism usually represents the reality of life with all its difficulties. The stories and characters portrayed within social realist films are 'everyday' people, usually from working class backgrounds or with characters in a state of poverty.
Typically, films within the Social Realist canon are gritty, urban dramas which reflect the struggle to survive the daily grind.

Changes of Social realism over time

In the 1950's the story lines were mostly based on the harshness of the war, as this was reflective of the time. the story lines were also usually based on literature that was already popular.

These days, the story lines are more often based about the unfairness of life and how this in turn affects people's lives. It is very usual to base story lines about current pressing issues that affect the 'normal people' in the UK. For example, gang violence and knife crime as well as the recession and the effects of these problems.

Throughout time the editing has become a lot more complex to show the brutal reality on a deeper level to the audience. It has also now become acceptable to have British drama films based on more controversial subjects such as terrorism and racism (This is England, 2006).

Codes and Conventions of British Drama;

Whilst deciding the genre to work with for our teaser trailer, we have had to consider a number of factors for the genres and sub-genres we are interested in.

I have looked into the genre of British Drama, focusing on mainstream commercial British drama films such as Kidulthood, Trainspotting, This is England and FishTank.

Codes and Conventions of the British Drama genre;

•Usually focused on working class people
•Characters struggle to cope with day-to-day life
•Usually the characters are not normal and have some sort of interesting twist
•Location is usually focused on, especially its decay/ industrialisation/ urbanisation or’run-down’ ness
•Diegetic sound is usually used to show the reality of the situation(s)
•Deal with sensitive issues such as; drug or alcohol abuse, racism, sexism, prostitution and various forms of neglect or violence
•The ending of the film is usually not particularly happy one and usually leaves the audience wanting to know more about the character
•Typically located in major cities as they are typically the most poverty stricken
•Vinnie Jones is a very iconic actor for British drama some would say he is a signifier of the genre

Having looked at the codes and conventions of British drama as a genre, I would say it may be challenging as we would have to negotiate sensitive issues carefully and location may be difficult as it would incur a lot of travelling. However, none of the codes and conventions are totally unreachable to it may still be something we can consider.

Pros and Cons of genre; Romantic Comedies

Before working on the narrative of the coursework piece, the genre first needs to be decided upon. Here the pros and cons of the romantic comedy genre are looked at.

Advantages of Romantic Comedies

• Not dependent on special make up or costume
• Only a few actors are needed
• Can experiment with comedy
• Romance can be portrayed easily through body language eg. holding hands
• Sound effects are not necessarily needed just a non diegetic music track

Disadvantages of Romantic Comedies

• Actors need to be conventionally good looking
• Actors chosen need to pretend to have an intimate relationship with each other
• The comedy used may not be successful in making the audience laugh
• Predictable narrative
• Dependent on few actors

Overall as a group, we decided that although the romantic comedy genre would be quite interesting to do because it is a different genre to what we focused on in our AS coursework, we felt that we would be unable to push ourselves in areas such as editing and sound. Also we realised that finding the right type of actors for this genre would be very difficult. Therefore we have decided that we will not be focusing on the romantic comedy genre for our A2 coursework piece.

Codes and Conventions of the Romantic Comedy Genre

After looking the codes and conventions of romantic comedy trailers, I wanted to look more at the codes and conventions of the genre and it's films a whole;

Codes and Conventions of Romantic Comedy Films as a Whole

• Typically a "boy meets girl" plot
• Film usually ends "happily ever after"
• Narrative usually consists of 2 characters falling in love but meeting obstacles in the way
• Predictable narrative
• One obstacle usually an argument or disagreement
• Famous actors and actresses usually used
• Main characters typically good looking
• Christmas time is usually featured
• End of the film is usually a montage of different clips portraying the happiness of the characters
• Main characters are usually likable so the audience relates to them, regardless of their actions. This affection towards the characters is usually achieved through comedy.

As I watched different romantic comedy films from different decades such as Pretty in Pink (1980s) to Valentines Day (2000s), I noticed that the codes and conventions were developing over time;

• Narrative ending with a wedding -films usually used to end with a wedding between the characters (depending on their age) however more recently this does not always happen. This may be because modern day culture does not see marriage as a necessity.
• More editing and effects used in trailers and films - trailers for older films seem to just use straight cuts between clips separated by a black screen with white writing. Whereas more recent films use more editing and transitions probably as a result of more advanced technology
• Plots becoming more intricate - although still predictable, simple "boy meets girl" story line is not as common and more twists are put into narrative. This may be done to keep the audience watching and prevents them from getting bored with a simple narrative
• The obstacle which the main characters hit - The obstacle used to be something minor such as a small argument whereas in modern films, the obstacle tends to be something more serious or interesting such as an affair or unemployment. Eg. in the film Hitch the obstacle is the female finding out that the male is a "love doctor"