Amy Thomson A2 Media Coursework
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
Director Richard Ayoade
Questionnaire Conclusion
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)