FILM REPORT WHY SHOULD OUR FILM BE PRODUCED?

INTRODUCTION This is a report to film producers on why I think my film should be made; I will also present the information Ive gathered in my primary and secondary research. I think our film, Territory, should be made because our questionnaire suggests that theres a unique feeling to our film. The film is also strikingly realistic as it portrays an authentic picture of friendships among modern teenagers. Play Hard production did its very best in the planning of the film and we have faith that the film will be successful. Because of the research undertaken by Play Hard Production, we have identified the demographic and psychographics of our target audience and we have also acknowledged what they would like to see in a film. Apart from the film itself, we have done a thorough pre-production on the personnel needed to make our film production successful. FILM SYNOPSIS - TERRITORY A gang of boys get into a decisive battle with a fiercest rival gang to decide the King of Eltham. Knowing this very encounter may decide their unavoidable fate, the leader of the protagonists gang calls upon his former friend for assistance. Thrown in the state of confusion is a girl they both knew from their primary school days... the very girl who caused them to part ways.
UNIQUE SELLING POINT (USP)

The reason why I think our film is unique compared to other films is because we wanted something realistic that is an issue in the world, especially with teenagers and we decided on gang violence, one of the biggest issues faced in the world. In addition, we included another theme that troubles most teenagers, whether they are in a gang or not, and so we added a female character in this film to vary the plot, giving the film a sense of a female presence. As a result, this gives our film a mysterious and fascinating storyline with a remarkable twist at the very end. We have also decided on leaving the film with a cliffhanger, leaving the audience in a state of confusion. Finally, we have eight characters which is a lot, but in ten minutes we were able to develop the key personalities that will be likeable for the audience. PRIMARY RESEARCH

Questionnaire/Focus Group Play Hard production undertook a questionnaire to find out more about the potential target audience for the film. The questionnaire showed that our target audience is really girls and boys from the age of 15 to 19. This then tells Play Hard production that it will most likely appeal to teenagers therefore Play Hard production assured the actors were young teenagers, male and female gender, in order to have our target audience relate to each individual characters. More results from the questionnaire revealed that 50% of the audience go to the cinema once every month; but we received a mixed response on whether they would like to go see our film. This is quite a lot as this tells me that at least a fair proportion of the audience are likely to go watch our film. I have also found out that 60% of the audience like crime drama Genre mainly because it is a popular film Action genre, it is entertaining, and it is very interesting. This is a really encouraging Comedy result because our film is based on crime Crime Drama drama so our film is most likely going to Thriller have a lot of audience. Also, as part of the primary research, Play Hard Production undertook a focus group as this will gives us a diversity of information from a variety of people as regards to our film and the audiences preferences. From the focus group we achieved quite a mixed reception and reviews but mostly positive reviews. These reviews recommended that in order to improve our film we needed to add a narrator explaining the events unfolding in the film. This will also make the film shorter since they believed, at first, that our film will be quite long for a short film. Secondly, apart from crime drama, they will also prefer comedy to be included in the film as it takes away the seriousness of the actual plot, allowing the audience to feel relaxed and adding a realistic feeling to the film. Thirdly, the focus group believed that we have a lot of characters for a short film and they thought we needed flashbacks to help improve their understanding of the film; however, Play Hard Productions believed that flashbacks would extend the duration of the short film.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK/RECOMMENDATION Following the results taken from the focus group and questionnaire, Play Hard Productions understood the audiences feedback, and made several changes in the storyline. We believe that our short film does appeal to a specific target audience which are teenagers; and this is demonstrated through each characters performance as it relates to our target audiences usual life. The audience feel that the people who are going to watch the film are the same as the characters in various ways. This shows that the audience feel really connected to the characters in the film. We also believe that the location of our film is relevant and related to our storyline because it is an urban area. From the audience feedback, Play Hard Productions agreed to make changes to develop our film and make it more engaging to the audience. One of the changes we made to our film was the removal of the amount of characters we initially had. We initially had thirteen characters, but the audience felt that having numerous characters would reduce the importance of the main characters; as a result, this could give them less time to be developed. In addition, having thirteen characters would mean that we have to develop every character to an extent were they are likeable, and if they arent interesting it would affect the film. As a result, we decided to reduce the amount of characters to eight to give them character development. This shows that we are able listen to our audience which is important. Another change we made was to how the audience could understand our film easily. Since we didnt have a narrator at first, the audience recommended the addition of a narrator would change our film by making it less complicated. Therefore, we included a narrator to talk about the past events that unfolded. Moreover, the focus group thought that if we were to insert comedy in our film, it would make the film amusing, especially because it is about teenagers. So, we decided to add comedic scenes to engage the audience. Finally, one of the cast members we intended to use as one of our film characters was given the chance to look at the films script. This individual claimed that the script does not relate and connect to our target audience because the language used was formal and not aggressive enough. Consequently, we made a large number of changes to the script by adding slang. This is because most teenagers grew up speaking slang, and they tend to speak more aggressively to their enemies.

Question: how do you think our film will be successful? Response: Kieran (16) maybe the fight scene would make it more fun to see We initially intended to avoid the main fights so that we have enough time to show relevant scenes; however, the audience feedback stated that we should show some fights in comedic way to make people laugh, and this was very helpful. Question: how does our title relate to the synopsis of our film? Response (1): Nathan (16) they are fight over the same area so it goes well Response (2): Leslie (17) Its about who owns what land These feedbacks were two of the most helpful feedbacks because we were in a dilemma on what title we should give our film. But, with this response we were confident on the title Territory, and so we decided on using it. MY TARGET AUDIENCE Gender The questionnaire suggests that the film is mixed with male and female characters. Therefore, we will make sure that our film relates to the female kinds lifestyles and we will make sure to fill it with emotions. We plan to make the film contrast how easily female and male lets their emotions get over them. The fact that we have made a female the cause of mostly everything in the story is because this how it is portrayed in real life as well. Age As we carried out our primary research as a group and individually, we sought to know our target audience: what they would wish for to see in our film and in films in general. We were able to find out the exact age of our target audience, and Play Hard Production is convinced that the age range of our target audience is from 15 to 19 years olds. This age range is fitting for the film we are going to make because it is about gang wars and gang violence. Gang violence and gang wars are usually instigated by young people age 15 and 19. You wouldnt find anyone older than 19 still doing such activities as they are usually discreet about what they do, trying to be off the polices radar so it probably wouldnt appeal to them as much.

Race Play Hard Production believe that our film can appeal to every race simply because the characters we have chosen come from different background race. This will help the audience from different race relate to the film. Also for the mere fact that in real life, gang wars is an assemble of people from different races who live near the same area. So, it is only rational to believe that it will attract a diversity of people. Psychographics By looking at our questionnaires and focus group, we can conclude that we could target people based on their personalities, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. One of the questions I asked the audience was, One of the factors about our film is friendship. What does friendship mean to you? the response I was given was, friendship is important to me because my friends helped me become the person I am today. This does not only hint to us this persons attitudes towards his friends but also his values. This also shows that he values his friend as much as himself. As a result, I think our film will appeal to people who value and cherish friendship; and we will make sure our film demonstrates the importance of friendship. One of the questions we also asked was, What interests you the most in a film? the majority said main villains and film twists. This is a valuable piece of information because our film idea was to make the villain really unique and cruel. Since, the audience also prefer twists; we decided to add one more twists because we initially had only one. This gives the audiences interest in films. Others Other questions helped with the final decisions of the film such as what makes our film unique? this question helped us decide if our film was unique or not. Whether our film is unique or not could decide on the successfulness of our film. The information suggests that the film is unique because it is about gangsters and for the fact that it has an emotional twist at the end that distinguishes it apart from other films. Another question asked was do you think our film portrays a realistic approach to how friendships are shown and how? The reason why I asked this question was because I wanted to know if the way friendships are shown in our film was less genuine, in order for us to change it and make it more real; but the reviews I got shows that the film does take a realistic approach to friendship as it happens in real life and this is reinforced by another answer teenagers friendship does not last long and this could be true because I have experienced it and know people who have experienced it as well, and this is reinforced in our film too. With this being said, I think anyone who values friendship will find our film appealing.

SECONDARY RESEARCH
Internet Research

Apart from undertaking primary research, Play Hard Productions managed to undertake secondary research because we wanted to find out films that were similar to ours and see how well it did in box office. After a relentless search on the internet, I found a film on IMDb called Adulthood and it was comparable to our film. Although this film wasnt about fighting over territories, it still covered fights between two or more people who have a feeling of resentment towards each other. Two of our films main theme is vengeance and friendship. Adulthood takes the audience in the life of man who is being chased after (vengeance) for killing their friends (friendship). Comparable to our film, the former best friend of the main character (now the main villain) kills off his best friend for allowing his brother to die. Six years after being jailed for killing Trife, Sam is released from prison. During the course of the film, it is revealed that Sam has changed dramatically and is not the person he was six years ago. He has learnt from his mistakes and is still haunted by his crime. My research shows that Adulthood grossed 3,247,651 in box office. Although this is trivial, we have to take into an account that it is not a film distributed neither produced by mainstream cinema but rather independent. Nevertheless, it is impressive by UK standards and it wasnt released in cinema so it didnt make as much money has it could have, potentially. It was only released on DVD and it was able to gross this amount of money. This information was useful as this suggest that it was still popular and liked by the majority of the audience in UK. Since the theme and the plot of the film are similar to our film, this proves that our film could be as successful and could gross a lot of money as Adulthood. Apart from its box office figures, Adulthood received mostly positive reviews from the audience. 20/28 reviews believed that they could relate to the film and it was overwhelming depressing at some stage. It was praised to be highly entertaining to watch, packed with brilliance. If 70% percent of the reviewers gave positive feedback and felt really connected to the film, then this shows that our film could have the same effect.

THE BBFC RATING As part of my secondary research, I also went on the BBFC website to search on what is acceptable to film rated 15. Since our film is targeted at 15 to 19 year olds, I would like my film to be rated 15 as well as it can allow for a wide range of audience. However, in order for my film to be rated 15, I will have to make sure Im aware of the content needed for 15 ratings. For example, my film has strong language and strong violence, but I will need to make sure that my film doesnt continue with the use of aggressive strong language or strong violence. I am convinced that if I was to send my film to the BBFC, it would get 15 ratings because of the similarity of the content it has with Adulthood as the film itself was able to get 15 ratings. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS Overall my primary research tells me who my target audience are and what they like in films. I found out that they prefer crime drama films with comedy and characters that they can relate to in each scene. Also they like films that have extreme twist at the end and most of all, anything that can help them feel engaged with the characters. This indicates that my film can only be successful if I take into consideration the information I got from my primary research. My secondary research shows that my film could be as successful as Adulthood because of their similarities especially with the reviews it got. The success of Adulthood could prove that my film could be as successful and popular because of their similarities. Therefore, it will be a wise decision for my film to also be made.

EVALUATION After undertaking primary and secondary research, I came to conclusion that whether our film is successful or not only depend on how much your target audience can associate with the events and the characters in the film. Your target audience have to feel sympathy and compassion towards the characters at every stage of the scene. Therefore, I will make sure that the audience are able to form a bond with the characters and feel as if they were part of the characters life. Through my research, I believe that my film can be successful and therefore should be produced. This is because of the two types of primary research I have undertaken, questionnaire and focus group. I felt that my questionnaire gave me dependable answers and I was able to get a large amount of information from a large amount of people regarding my target audience in a short amount of time (even though I wasnt able to tell if the respondent were being truthful). My focus group revealed more about my target audience on a personal level, giving me their values and interests. Play Hard Productions believes that our film should be made because it would be an accomplishment. We have accomplished a thorough pre-production especially with the personnel. Whilst making my film, I have learnt that pre-production is vital to the success of our short film. One of the reasons for this is that filming takes a lot of preparation and planning. For instance, lets take the storyboard as an example; it helps the director and most people in the production team - it helps the director to know which scenes to do next, the shot type and angles. Secondly, the contingency plan is effective in film making because the director needs a back-up plan just in case anything goes wrong while filming or in the event that the director decides to cut some actors (or in case of being unavailable). Thirdly, the budget gives the production company an insight to the types of equipment they might need and why they will need to use it. Also gives the production company an idea of how much they will need to spend on during the making of the film. What Ive learnt whilst working in the team is that teamwork is the most vital aspect for pre-production as this is what brings the film together. It has taught me to listen to other peoples opinion and take it into consideration. Also that you cant always rely on other people to do your work as every team member has their own part to do. What Ive learnt whilst making my film is to be creative, always to come up with more ideas and to choose the best one. The vital thing about this is putting your imagination into paper and making into a real life film. Ive also learn to watch as many short film as I can because they tend to give you different ideas in order to make your film stand out.

TRACK CHANGES

This is the faults and the errors I made during the report. I was able to make changes to it by making corrections to the spelling errors. This will make my report and I look professional.