final roles

Also, after a lot of hiccups, we have finalised our cast. So in my group there is Me (Hannah), Amber, Roxanne and Faith. The roles go as follows:

• Me - the detective
• Amber - the murderer
• Faith - the secretary
• Roxanne - the murdered girl

Because we all have small acting roles, it means we will all get to film, direct and act. I think it is god if we mix it up an experience every possible role.

location scouting continued..

For some of our scenes, we haven't completely decided the locations. We have numerous options so have filmed in various places and whilst editing we will decide which location works best. For the panning image of the office building, here are the places we have filmed:

All the images were taken in and around St Aldates Street in the centre of Oxford

Title

We have chosen the title of our film!! It is 'Noir' . Because our film is in black and white and as the storyline is quite dark it seems to fit it just right. The thought of just calling it 'Black' didn't seem very appealing so we thought we would add some culture and mix it up a bit!
Here is our logo...

When we made the logo, only half my group was present so there is a chance the logo could change.

Planning the scenes...

Scene 1: Blackout, Brigade entertainment. Woman being drowned, killer pushing her into a bath, woman distressed - screaming. Blackout, Engaging films. Women lying in bath, killer pushing her down. Blackout, [Noir] appears whilst we hear the bang of the gun (the killer shooting the woman) followed by dripping of the tap into the bath. Killer walking out, down corridor, into darkness, holding gun.  Other credits will be present in this scene though we haven't exactly decided what they will be and where they will go.

Scene 2: Outisde noise - traffic. Panning image of building going up (looks like it is the outside of the detectives office)

Scene 3: radio playing, inside detectives office, mid-shot of detective. Knock on door, radio still playing. Seems quite informal from viewers perspective. Will have props in office, objects which inform us more of detectives personality, similar method as to working out specific target audience. For example, there maybe a cup of coffee in secretary's office, whereas the detective has brandy - stronger, bigger impact etc. (person who knocked on the door is the secretary, haven't planned following scenes yet...)

Analysing title credits

The Sixth Sense (1994) title order:

• Distributor
• Production company
• Actors
• Costume designer
• Music
• Writer & Director
• Title

The Departed (2006) title order:

• Distributor
• Production company
• Motto's: 'Loyalty is a lie' 'Sacrifice is a test' 'How far can you take it?'
• Actors
• Title
• Co producer
• Music
• Executive producer
• Screenplay
• Producer
• Director

It has been interesting looking at the way films close to our genre, order their credits. I guess, from this we will work out how to work ours and spread them out in the right way through our 2 minute opening scene. (Obviously with less credits, as there are less of us). From examining these credits along with other films not from our chosen genre, most films do credits in almost the same order anyway. Going from very important, gradually getting less and then further on building that back up again. Also, it was interesting to notice, some films have a blank background while the credits are animating across the scene. Whereas, most films are starting and the credits fit in where appropriate.

...more target audience analysing

When defining target audience in a more intellectual way, you have to use appropriate terminology and look into theories that marketing companies use in real-life.  From the theories they have a better idea of a specific target audience and can use that to their advantage when looking at how to market new products.

The first way of classifying the consumers is through class. This is now a more dated method as it doesn’t give us much helpful information other than what type of job the main wage-earner has and therefore, the economic status. My specific target audience character fits into the ‘people at lowest level of income’ bracket individually, as she is still a student. However, I feel she comes from middle class parents so when looking in terms of households, you would get a completely different result. This shows why this method isn’t used much anymore, as it doesn’t give accurate results.

The second option we looked at, was ‘Young and Rubicam’s Four Consumers’ which brings the element of economic status but in a different way, where it is not based on their salary statistic and more the personality and how the person wants to go about the amount of money they have.  E.g. buy designer clothes, covered in logos of expensive brands to advertise that you are rich and feel you have a high status, where many admire you because of it. Out of the four options, I feel my character is a mainstreamer. She likes security and knowing she is part of a specific group. She follows the crowd with what she does, how she does it, the clothes she wears, the way she speaks and pretty much everything else. This isn’t a bad way to be, it makes up 40% of the entire population, and it just means you are a bit of a sheep.

Lastly, a newer approach is the Life Matrix tool which has occurred out of the field of market research. It consists of 10 categories, based around values, attitudes, beliefs and more fundamental demographic audience categories. Out of the 10, my specific target audience is in the first category: ‘tribed-wired’. This category is full of digital, free-spirited, creative young singles.

target audience mood board

Further resesearch into target audience

The previous research I did into target audience's was not in-depth enough for my liking and therefore I decided to do more. My group went away and gathered information about how to work out the target auidence and different ways of going about it. We then had a lesson, learnt about it in even more detail and went away and did more research. I now feel I can identify the exact target audience and it is detailed enough for its purpose.

The type of research I did, was make a mood board of the ideal person to see the film and go into their 'life' in a lot of detail. Also I drew a picture of them and labelled things about them around it. (The mood board will be uploaded and further in this post I will go into elements of their life).

Target audience description:
A 16-17 year-old girl with mousey brown hair, flawless skin, quite pale, occasionally wears makeup, usually has hair in 2 plaits. Has middle-class parents, they are in late fourties and have been married since late twenties. They were childhood sweethearts. They own their house and live in a 'good' neighbourhood. The house is semi-detached and has a garage at the side, where the Volvo lives. She has also got a younger brother, who is 12-13. And they get along beautifully. Basically, a picture perfect family, living in a extremely tidy, picture perfect home. Ooops, forgot to mention the dog. So an extremely tidy house plus a few muddy paw prints! The whole family have a great relationship and due to this and their stable economic status, they have always have an annual 2 week holiday in the summer and one other abroad family trip sometime in the year.

Her school life is pretty much the same. She is popular, her personality is never negative and she never says a bad word about anyone, to or behind their face. She is currently taking 4 A levels at the sixth form of her secondary school. She is averagely clever, won't do amazingly but she will get by with quite good grades.
She is the type that always does homework, is never late to school and never forgets tests or anything. Her best and favourite subject is History, along with Drama, which she hopes to persue a career in, in the future.
Teachers think of her as a 'role model' and a 'golden girl'. She is the definition of a suck up and teachers pet, but in a 'funny' way where fellow pupils find it amusing and don't get annoyed with her, she is a definite part of the 'cool' crowd.

Her fashion is good. Its simple and follows the crowd with trends but in a nice, simply chic way. She is a plain jane and does get stuff just because her friends have similar things. She would never make a statement, with her clothes, conversation or makeup or anything really. Generally, a bit of sheep. She shops at the likes of Topshop, FCUK and similar large High St chains. She wears a small amount of makeup on a regualr basis, sometimes more but generally not much. Doesn't stand out of the crowd, however is a genuine, nice girl.

After all the lovely, boring stuff about her, she does have a different side, hardly ever expressed. All her friends find it very odd as it is very out of her character. This side is more of a 'dare-devil' and brings out the rebellious side she wants to express and show off, perhaps to impress? She seems more free-spirited and simply stupid. This side is seen after drinking alcohol and she suddenly turns from the sensible, quite quiet girl she has been, into this louder, more daring, making jokes, talking to strangers etc, odd person. It is a secret from her parents as she is the apple of their eye, and her friends don't want to worry them.
It is very unexpected from a girl who even teachers see as a school 'role model' and her friends don't particularly no how to go about it so have not yet approached the situation. In hope, it may go away without them needing to confront.
She can be an idreniline junkie and really enjoys the excitement of rollercoasters and fairs and that type of thing. Again that is an unexpected side of her so her friends feel it could be just that type of thig coming out when she is drinking and having that same type of feeling in a different way and situation.

As I haven't completed all of my research on the target audience, I will leave it at that for the moment, and soon add more, including the mood board of this un-named girl and how I see her and her habits and influences.