Synopsis for Charlie Sings


A teenage boy called Charlie insert lives an introverted quiet life.  With a massive passion for music he is a very talented undiscovered musician and singer but is too shy and nervous to perform in front people. Meanwhile a college Jazz Band is desperately looking for a singer to get a gig for their band. The band leaders Liam and Louise discus their needs for a singer who feels the core of music and can give their band a retro twist. After being overheard in a college music practise room Louise approaches Charlie to see if he will sing for their band. Charlie admits he finds it really difficult to sing in front of people and tends to keep himself to himself but Louise is persistent in helping Charlie developing his confidence to showcase his powerful but raw talent. Louise gets him to do different exercises to improve his confidence and before too long he meets the band and they start practising. New friendships flourish at this time and his enhances his adoration for music and singing. But old fears don’t fade. When the band gets a gig at the Kenton Theatre Cameron’s anxiety reappears as the pressure mounts for the big. Missing rehearsals and returning to his secluded-self concerns the band and Louise goes out to find him. Patching up his confidence the big day of the ‘Henley College Jazz Band’ performance arrives and Charlie sees the big stage for the first time. The over-hanging question will he perform still lingers and Louise hopes she has made the right gable. As the lights go up and the band start the opening bars of Van Morrison’s ‘Moon Dance’, Charlie is not on stage. But right on cue a voice soulful and unique voice emerges from the wings Charlie walks out on stage and takes to the mike. He has done it. Conquered his major fear and made new friends along the way all through the power of music.   

Institutions


I have looked at a range of films that follow my genre of comedy-drama. Films under the ‘teen’ culture are usually made in America. Distributers of these types of films include: Universal, Paramount and Buena Vista. However coming of age British films are usually made by smaller independent distribution companies such as Channel 4 and Warp Films.
 
 
Conglomerates: Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Buena Vista.

These giant institutions dominate the film industry. In my choice of genre they have made: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Breaking Away. The films are aimed at a mass American market as the companies can use synergy and convergence to market and distribute the films on a range of different platforms. The films made in the 80s are under a budget of 10million and have made box office figures of $45,875, 171 (The Breakfast Club).


 
The Breakfast Club Poster

However analysing the upcoming films of these companies, the films do not include teenagers as the basis of their cast. They have developed their target market and real mid- teen life films are becoming more niche and ‘coming of age’ or American musicals. Another key theme in my trailer is music. Films like High Fidelity, Back beat and The Commitments are distributed by other conglomerates such as Buena Vista and 20th Century fox. As major companies they are able to deal with the demand of filming live music as they can put a lot of money into organising equipment and replicating a real atmosphere.
 
 
 
 
The Commitments Cast
 
 
However obviously the main challenge with large conglomerates is being able to sell a film to them that the company will want to distribute. My film is not really comparable to recent blockbusters and the story line is more suited to an independent film company as it concerns personal and specific teen related issues. After researching small film companies like Warp Films and G2 pictures I realised that to create a music based film I would have to pursue a company that specialised in targeting a very niche market of live music films.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Brassed Off poster



A film company that has distributed music based films is Film 4. Owned by Channel 4, it has produced the film ‘Submarine’ and distributed the music film ‘Brassed off’.  I have analysed Submarine’s trailer, poster and magazine cover because while researching drama films this instigated my thought process for my story line. The director Richard Ayoade liked the ‘depth’ of the protagonist as a teen and I shared this opinion and wanted to look into general struggles of mid teenage life. This would make this film company appropriate as ‘Submarine’ was made in 2010 and is funded by Channel 4 which would give me the potential to experiment a bit more as I could distribute on different platforms including the digital TV, TV on demand, the internet and the cinema. Furthermore Film4 also distributed ‘Brassed off’. This is a comedy drama set during the 80s and uses music footage to underline the brass band element of the community. The experience that Film4 has acquired from their film repertoire and the backing they have from Channel 4 means that the company are able to tailor to smaller alternative and films. 




 
Director Richard Ayoade
 





 

Questionnaire Conclusion


 For my general market research I asked 20 people questions about their film consumption. My questionnaire results showed that 1/2 of my sample were students aged 18-25. Although it could be argued that my research was slightly biased as it was predominately extrapolated from a particular social group, this will become my target audience as I have a lot of accessible information from this group of students ranging from 17-25. Additionally by having an answer influenced by students this means my film trailer, poster and magazine will be tailored well to their needs.


For my film campaign I decided to focus in on genre - drama. To narrow this down I learnt a total of 2/3 prefer the subgenre of thriller drama which is a popular in today’s film market but as 50% of my sample would describe themselves as an ‘alternative market’ and 75% seek out films to watch, I could combine the thriller aspect with a docu-drama feel -like one of the film I analysed ‘This is England’- to go against the typical conventions in Hollywood and create a film trailer, poster and magazine cover of an ‘indie’ or ‘art-house’ nature. As my audience is predominately students or young adults this will appeal to this large market as they are new generation looking for different avenues of media text.

In my questionnaire I asked questions concerning how my trailer should be constructed. I discovered that 75% of the 20 felt that a trailer was vital in persuading them to go and see a film. Therefore I must ensure the trailer is engaging for the audience by using the enigma code which 19 of my questionnaire audience felt was effective in leaving an audience in suspense. This links to the figures that just below 50% preferred the trailer to pick out the best bits so although I’m not making the whole film it does not have to self-explanatory. Therefore by capturing a contrast of high action and low action scenes this will draw an audience in successfully to watch the hypothetical film.

My questionnaire then went on to explore my audience’s view on posters for the second part of my media coursework. The majority said the actor in the film attracted them to a poster. However graphics (including photographs) came in as the second most popular and therefore I will utilize that data as my film will be in an alternative style so the actor will not be that prolific thus I will need other ideas, images or graphics to gain the audience’s attention.  Furthermore I will also include critics’ quotes on my poster as this made 60% of my sample go watch the film. This will be useful for my advertisement poster as it corresponds to the other ideas, images or graphics I will need to make my poster professional and effective.

Out of the 4 magazine covers I analysed, each were very different. Although the alternative magazine ‘Little White Lies’ used a drawn image I’m going to use a photo of the director which is more like the magazine ‘Sight and Sound’ as it allows the cover lines to be based around the production of my film which was demonstrated by my questionnaire as being the favourite topic of featured article.

With this information from my questionnaire and wider research I am now able to create the foundations for my trailer in a story board format as it gives me a loose structure of how to make it appeal to my target audience and conform to my chosen genre.