Radio trailer first draft.

This is the first draft for the radio trailer advert.

I shortly realised that the radio trailer needed to be much shorter. A shorter version is due to be completed.

Audience of the short film

Our target audience should be an evenly split male/female ratio between the ages of 15-25; this is due to the fact that a large percentage of the cinema goers would be in this category. Connor is around the same age of our target audience and we have tried to make him relatable to other youths to the same effect that the Michael Cera movies do. Michael Cera is also portrayed as a teenage boy so that their target audience can also relate to the film. In contrast to our short film, Michael Cera is put into extraordinary situations which wouldn’t occur in real life, whereas ours is something which is much more likely to happen in real life to add a sense of verisimilitude and realism in the piece. A film that is similar to ours is Gone Goodbye, which is also a short film, although Gone Goodbye aim at a slightly more mature audience. Our 5 minute product would only appear to be a 12 because there aren’t many dark themes, there were ideas to include suggestions of rape in the film also, although this is yet to be decided upon. Based on the information I currently have and the guidelines of the BBFC website (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/) I expect our short film to be classified as a 12A this is probably a better classification because 15 is the lower end of the age of our target audience and will also allow younger viewers than that to see the film, which will maximise the audience of the film if it were to appear in a cinema. The BBFC classification system is usually pushed to its limits so that the target audience of the film can still attend, for example the Harry Potter series is usually a 12 or a 12A, this is because their target audience is of a lower age to ours and the distributors of the film Warner Brothers needs to comply with the regulations to fit into that classification in the same respect that ours will have to.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification

Distribution of the short film

Our film would be released on a small-medium scale due to only having a very restricted budget. A distribution company which could theoretically distribute our film is Paramount pictures as they have also launched an independent distributor called Insurge Pictures which is an independent distributor of ‘micro budget’ films which cost under $100,000 to produce. The Paramount Pictures Corporation is owned by media conglomerate Viacom. Paramount is also consistently ranked as one of the top-grossing movie studios. The distributor we decided on was Momentum productions due to the amount of successful thriller films they have released and the fact they also distribute for smaller films, an example of small budget films which were successful and distributed by Momentum productions is the Paranormal Activity series and movies alike where they use very little budget but are still quite appealing to the wider audience. Allthough, these companies don't distribute short films to my knowledge, so we may have to look elsewhere for distibution for the film, a distribution company called Future Shorts does distribute these type of films. Future Shorts is the largest short film network in the world. Since 2003 they've built a new audience for film across the globe, developed a platform for filmmakers that allows millions of people worldwide to engage with their work.Working across exhibition, distribution and experiential events, Future Shorts is the product of 9 years of audience development, experimentation and of reacting to the demand for another way of experiencing film. Operating online, in live events and through commercial distribution, they believe strongly in the social experience of film; in cinema as a communicator and community that should not be restricted by geography, status, wealth or politics. Future Shorts Distribution is the world’s leading short film label, representing an extensive and eclectic catalogue of original, award winning titles, this is good because it already has previous successes with its distributed short films.
Our film can be promoted using internet viral campaigns which will gain interest in our film with minimal costs. The growing market of independent films means that micro budget films can make large revenue from their otherwise little costs, especially with the ability to sell merchandise via the internet which is again a very minimal cost. Although merchandising may not be easy to devise for our film, I believe that merchandising is an important part of making a profit for small companies and large companies alike. Due to the minimal props we used in the film there are no iconic items/memes we could duplicate and sell. Other merchandise such as posters and t-shirts could be used. Micro-budget films usually don’t make it to the larger cinemas so I believe that the best option for our media product will be to show it at either a film festival or in an independent cinema. Film Festivals are to show films which will be otherwise overlooked due to insufficient funding.

Poster Idea

This is my idea for our film poster. I used Photoshop Elements in order to put this together and copied layers in order to alter the opacity thus creating a distorted look. This is to portray that nothing is what it seems as Jordan isn't actually the stalker in the film. I used simplistic titles so it wouldn't detract from the effect of the image and to fit in with the titles of the film. The poster is quite plain but I think it causes the audience to wonder what the film is about as there are no indications as to what the plot is, other than the title.

Poster Analysis - The Social Network

The main part of the poster features a close up of Jesse Eisenburg, focused on his left eye. This creates a sense of tension and emotion around the poster and lets the person viewing this poster realise that the film is likely to be some kind of drama. This is effective because the film has a same genre to ours which is a psychological drama. There is also text in the foreground which says "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies", This text also creates a tense atmosphere by giving the contrast between friends and enemies, this also explains a part of the storyline relating to Mark Zuckerberg (The founder of facebook) where he finds enemies in his quest to build a popular social networking site. The picture also has a faded grainy effect further giving the darker and serious tone about the film.

The top and bottom of this picture is bordered, with a larger black border on the bottom for the text and title. The title is presented in standard facebook formatting with the blue background and trademark text. This presents the films link with the social networking site of facebook.

The text at the bottom shows the production companies and distribution companies. It then shows the title in captions followed by the cast and crew.

Library Scene (Flashback) Storyboard

In preparation for filming this scene I drew a out a basic storyboard to guide us when filming so we know exactly what point we are and if we are being efficient when we film and keeping to the story.



Click to enlarge.

February Shooting Plan

This is a shooting plan to organise what we will be filming to finish the filming stage and do the editing to meet the final deadline.



Click to enlarge.