Target Audience
The target audience for my short film would probably be for people 15+, as I want it to be a film that appeals to people of my age range, but to be accessible to audiences slightly younger as these are the audiences who I would be able to appeal to the most due to their similarities to my age range, and that these are the types of people who are most likely to watch movies. I would like to appeal to this audience due to them hopefully being able to connect more with the writing and creation by someone of a similar age to them, and that they are going to be other college students, which would be an ideal group of people to appeal to in something creative, due to having to think, work and create all day at college and/or university.
Inspiration films with the type of vision(s) I have in mind for my PMP ideas:
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) - Rated 15 by the BBFC
"A man shoots himself in the head with a gun twice altogether. Shot cuts so we don't see anything. A man's head is hit by a large object. Several scenes of a man wearing only his underwear. Sex is implied. Numerous uses of vulgar and profane language. A character is a recovering drug addict.
The main character smokes marijuana in one scene. A few characters drink and smoke cigarettes. A character is seen with a facial splint after he/she supposedly shot his/her nose off."
Whiplash (2014) - Rated 15 by the BBFC
"Although a music-themed film, the film is extremely intense throughout as well as emotional. In particular, Fletcher's treatment of his students is incredibly disturbing, to the point of outright cruelty, and will upset some viewers. Strong language throughout the film. Some practices of drumming involve blooded hands. Drips of blood can also be clearly seen on drum sets."
Logan (2017) - Rated 15 by the BBFC
"Numerous intense scenes throughout, including a home invasion, child abduction, a torture scene and attacks on children and adults. Logan is seen drinking alcohol throughout the film. He is also seen injecting himself and others with medical drugs. There are several prolonged fight sequences throughout the film where blood spurting and impalements are depicted. Some of the stronger scenes include a scene where a man is seen being decapitated. 48 uses of 'fuck', similar number of uses of 'shit', one use of 'dick' and one use of 'motherfucker'."
T2: Trainspotting (2017) - Rated 18 by the BBFC
"The film contains a few scenes that feature hidden-camera recordings of sexual activity between a prostitute and her clients, as seen from a laptop screen. A man is pieced through the chest with a knitting needle. We see a blood spot and the impaled needle. The film features the frequent use of strong expletives. Drug taking sequences are shown, but instructive details of illegal drug use are not. The film contains frequent depictions of characters abusing drugs, including cutting and snorting cocaine, tying their arms with tourniquets and injecting the drug into their veins."
As can be seen in these films, one with a plot that feels "real" and hard-hitting, you can see that they want to appeal to mature audiences, but restrain themselves to a 15 rating as much as they can, likely to appeal to a larger audience to sell more, but also to make the film not have any excess of its themes beyond what is needed; Despite the mature nature and themes of these films, they do not use nudity or excessive swearing (except in the case of Logan towards the start of the film to set a tone). I would follow these standards of only using what is necessary to set the tone of the plot, and not getting too mature when it is unnecessary, to restrict myself by following the guidelines of making it no more than a 15 but allowing it to appeal to people of older ages.
The top rated film on IMDb is The Shawshank Redemption, which is rated a 15 by the BBFC. Other high rated films include:
The Godfather - Rated 15 by the BBFC (after a re-review in 2008, originally rated 18)
The Godfather Part II - Rated 15 by the BBFC (after a re-review in 2008, originally rated 18)
The Dark Knight - Rated 12 by the BBFC
12 Angry Men - Rated U by the BBFC (U rating means it is suitable for all audiences)
Schindler's List - Rated 15 by the BBFC
Pulp Fiction - Rated 18 by the BBFC
These films seem to represent and show that some of the top rated films by general audiences are rated 15, with a few exceptions where the content is more or less mature, but with the general trend being that some of the best films are made to fit a 15 age rating. As such, it only seems appropriate that to create a film as well as I can it should appeal to people around the 15 year-old range.
I feel like what I write may appeal more to males, as I know what my interests in a film are and, as a male, would likely create a film to reflect on such, with ideas and themes that represent my thought process and what appeals to me, meaning that the target audience would likely be more representative of a male variety, but I would never want to rule out the idea of it appealing to women, as there is certainly a potential for my writing and creation to appeal to a female audience as well. With that in mind, the primary audience of the two would be likely, if written by me, appeal to men primarily and women as the secondary audience.
The chances of the film getting too far from Teesside is, realistically, somewhat unlikely, so in general I will do my best to make the film appeal to people from the local area and not deviate too far from Teesside in the production and advertisement of the film as a whole, thus ensuring that the primary audience (in terms of location) will be people in and around the Teesside area. Beyond looking at it realistically, I will do my best to look at this final project ambitiously and say that a good secondary audience will be to appeal, at the very least, to people across the UK, and I will do my best to make it, mostly, feel like a regular British film above all else. Beyond that, while I can hope it reaches people across Europe and the States, I wouldn't consider them coming close to the primary audience, and would consider them a much more secondary audience as they are less likely to see the film, and therefore it isn't as necessary to make it appeal to people across the world, as it would be best to focus on making it the best it can be for the people that are actually going to see the film.
It would be difficult to judge a specific social or economic group that would want to see this film, the following table represents a selection of different socio-economic groups.
This film would be more likely to appeal to those at the lower end of the table, specifically to people in the C2 and D categories, but also including the E categories, as they are considered the lower classes as opposed to C1, B and A which are considered the upper classes. It's likely that the reach would be better amongst those who aren't working or are working in lower paying jobs as there's more people as such in the area, and the higher classes could be more of a secondary audience in comparison. I feel like lower classes also are more likely to watch movies, though finding specific evidence on this beyond personal experience is difficult, this is especially true if they are based/related to their local area, and therefore it's more logical to aim any and all films towards the lower classes, as well as them perhaps being able to relate more to my films.
Resources Available
Making a film requires resources, and amongst the three main ideas considered for my PMP, each has their own requirements for production management. In particular, what each idea would require in resources, including equipment, people and locations.
The three main ideas I have had for my PMP were as follows:
1 - Untitled Silent Film - A no-dialogue piece about two people on the run from a criminal organisation.
2 - Untitled Comedy Film - In a world where everybody has one superpower, the protagonist has one thousand superpowers.
3 - Pinkerton - The story of two best friends on a downward spiral into their own insanity, loosely based on the Pinkerton album by Weezer.
Ideas 1 and 3 got furthest into the planning phase, so they will be the largest parts of this section in comparison to idea 2, which was not considered for a long length of time.
1:
The basic idea of the film was to start it in a multi story car park, with an interaction between several characters, as they traded money for what appeared to be a regular woman, before the power of effects will transport them from one location to another with it being heavily implied that the effects are related to teleportation, which is the plot of the film, with the evil party seeking this woman solely for her abilities to be able to teleport like this. They would go to 3 main locations throughout the film, with the first being in the previously mentioned parking area, the second being a house/apartment and the third being some sort of office-like building. There would be 3 main characters, two male and one female, at least 4 crew (Director, AD, DOP and Boom) and would likely require one camera with a boom pole, and possibly some lights for the indoor scenes in case it gets too dark. It would likely require at least one day per location, with the house part requiring a particularly longer day (possibly up to two whole days) and many extras for the car park scene. The part in the car park would be particularly hard to be allowed to film in and the whole ordeal would be very difficult and stressful from a filming perspective. While it would be manageable, it would require a lot of work to create it and make it look good, with a dedicated and coordinated team, for a plot that is not very developed. This makes it less desirable from a management of resources perspective compared to idea 3.
2:
As previously stated, this did not get far into the planning or writing phase, with the basic idea that it would be set within a college environment and that the protagonist would be posing as the printer repairman, when in reality he's the most powerful person alive. I didn't imagine it taking place outside the college area too much, and would likely be only 2 locations including the college, the other probably being a house. I had two main ideas for characters, as well as a few other ideas for minor characters, totalling 4 in total based on what I considered to this point. Equipment will be the same for the other ideas - camera, lights, boom, with the standard 4 crew members. The lack of idea and depth to this idea makes it problematic as it is a very potentially complex idea that hasn't been thought out enough or paid enough attention to be a fully fledged idea, and while some work could turn the idea into something manageable, as it isn't particularly complex, it isn't an interesting idea and it's hard to manage something you don't have any interest in.
3:
Pinkerton was an idea that all hit me at once whilst listening to the excellent album of the same name by Weezer. The self despair and pity for himself present in the lyrics made me think of a character beyond what Rivers Cuomo is, almost imagining someone who is scared of himself in case he makes the same mistakes, and the themes in the music felt familiar enough for me to develop the character of Pinkerton, and make a plot of him based on the song 'Across the Sea'. The idea quickly developed into a self-deprecating tale of two men in one location, a house. This makes the project very manageable to start with, due to a lack of necessary locations or necessary people, even including a crew of 4, this makes it a total of 6 people on set, including myself, making managing the set of one location to be much more manageable than the others, as well as making there less necessary paperwork because of this. On top of this, the regular equipment for the other shoots would also be necessary to be used in this shoot, as well. This makes it the most manageable option, as well as the one I felt the most interest in due to how relatable the characters were, the general tones and themes of the plot as well as the direction it could be taken in.
The resources available to me are:
Cast & Crew:
Film & TV Class
Acting Class
Make-Up Class
Location:
Friends Houses
Classmates Houses
Own House
College
Public Locations in the Local Area (parks, hills, local high street)
Equipment:
Cameras (with SD Cards and Batteries)
Tripods
Camera Track
Film Lights
Boom Mics
Boom Poles
Clip on Mics
Camera Mics
Production Techniques
The skills I have, in relation to my production techniques for these films, would be that I like to see myself as a fairly confident writer. I come up with stories and ideas fairly often and I like to see the story, at the very least, be completed from start to finish. In general, I develop these stories with the idea of them one day becoming a film (or TV show) in mind so that when they are fully written they will be easily adaptable into a fully finalised product ready for filming without too many changes needing to be made (beyond paperwork and writing it in script format, of course). This should, ideally, have put me in a good position to create a good film and have a good idea in my head for how I wanted it to look. On top of this, I like to think of my editing as being above-average, to help me further the storytelling beyond what is written on paper. The negative sides may come from a difficulty with socialising, and asking people for help can be problematic, but I like to see my personality as quirky enough and with enough humour to be able to convince people that I'm some sort of funny person and that they can help me out due to being conversational if I can get started, thusly making me an absolute delight to work with, probably, and at the very least be someone who is easy to get along with and share ideas, as I'm fairly open to other peoples ideas.
Research
With the target audience as low to middle class people of 15 and above, I had some flexibility in what can and can't be said or done on screen. To start with the obvious things that would take it to an 18 it was obvious to me that any content of a sexual nature would not be allowed, as well as any excessive violence, as I know that films that tend to have such scenes would typically be rated higher by the BBFC. For example, the TV show 'BoJack Horseman' is rated an 18 (though some episodes are 15 and 12) and that features extensive sexual scenes and drug use. Fortunately, I knew my script did not feature either of these, so everything came down to other restrictions listed here: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15
In terms of discrimination, there is none featured in my film, besides one mention of Japan as "foreignese" which is played off as more of a joke, so I believe that criteria is more than met. The same applies to drugs, in which they are not even mentioned once, let alone shown or implied to be taken. Imitable behaviour is a bit of a grey area, as it shows people dwelling on sadness for an extended period of time, including references to suicide and implied murder, which may be seen as bringing the age rating up, but based on the BBFCs classification (specifically, where it references it should not dwell on detail which could be copied) I feel that it would not be an 18 for this reason. In terms of strong language, I followed a similar idea to the a fore mentioned 'BoJack Horseman', in that they only say the f-word once every season, and so I decided that I would limit myself to one swear word throughout the whole film, which is done for dramatic tension and to make it feel harder hitting. Nudity and sex is covered, as there is none, and there is little to no threat or violence, besides minor references, so I feel that the film is more than fitting of this classification in comparison to what is required.
Appropriate production techniques would also need research, so I firstly looked to the paperwork and saw what was required of me to collect and gather before I could know what was necessary in order to create the film using this information. I started with working on location agreements, getting in contact with a friend who has a very large house, having her sign the location agreement to be allowed to use her house for the filming purposes, as well as discussing plans for filming, and mapping out the area on paper to be used to create shot lists in the future, taking some pictures (for storyboard reference) and then creating a Facebook group chat. I invited the actors who had showed the most interest, as well as the makeup student and the crew (plus a couple extra potential crew members just in case), which gave a very open and easy communication between myself and the cast and crew. This allowed me to find dates good for the cast and crew, schedule around them (and the days the location was available) and get filming.
I also did some research into the themes of the script itself. To start with, I took a look at the information readily available regarding the album the film was named after (Pinkerton, by Weezer) and saw a good chunk of information regarding the release of the album and the low ratings when it came out. What was interesting to me was that the lead singer himself started to regret the album very shortly after its release, despite how much the album told about himself (it regarded his own personal life and personal things that he had done). It had bad reviews and wasn't seen very positively. Years later, it had become a cult classic, and was known as their best album, but the band had moved on and started making more generic pop music to try and attract a real following, unaware of their actual fans. The story of this album makes me think very heavily about the themes that must have been present in his life following his sharing of a very personal life story and leading it into a tale of somebody being unable to find himself and what he really enjoys. Undoubtedly he had been fairly upset following the album release, and I wanted to represent this in the film, making it a BoJack/Birdman-like view into the music industry based on the story of the failed album. The logical thing was to research what makes those films popular, then. The first step for me was to think about them - they're dark, they're gritty, they feel real and they're hard hitting. But what was most important to me was that they are incredibly funny, dark comedies. I realised that this was what I wanted to do, as I had previously made a comedy in the first year of college, so I got to writing it, and looked into the basics of dark comedy. What does dark comedy the best?
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I knew I couldn't get as absurd as they did, so I had to find an episode that was darker than most and felt real, and the finale to season 12 felt appropriate, where Dennis finds out he has a son, and I thought that the sombre feeling of normally very narcissistic and downright evil characters being genuinely hurt by something was a very interesting perspective, and it gave me a good reference for what I could do with my characters. I knew they didn't have to be good, so I made two characters, named one off of the album, and one, based off of Todd from BoJack, who I named after the popular bakery, Greggs, so I named him Gregg. I wasn't sure why I named him this, but the names reminded me of the duo of BoJack and Todd, (with a strange, outlandish name like Pinkerton, and a generic but not common name in Gregg), so it stuck. I knew Todd was a comic relief kind of character, slapstick, insane situations and just absurdity, but in the later episodes of season 3, he takes on the role of a business owner, and he realises that his best friend had betrayed him, so he becomes far more neutral, and eventually delivers a very real, very dark f-word that leads the story down a very dark route following the loss of a best friend. Losing a friend like that is hard, and I wanted the story to take that idea and turn it into a psychological trauma much like the later parts of the show, involving Sarah-Lynn. The next thing was to consider how and why the story would reach this; there had to be a falling out, almost betrayal like, and there had to be a death to add to the trauma, which could lead into the swear word. I looked back to Weezer, and to the songs on the album, and was inspired by "Across the Sea".
'You are an 18 year old girl, who lives in small city of Japan.'
'I curse myself for being across the sea.'
This was an interesting theme, long distance relationships. I looked into the struggle of it and found that a large percentage seem to fail (using http://www.statisticbrain.com/long-distance-relationship-statistics/ as well as browsing for information on Reddit (r/askreddit, r/relationships, r/twoxchromosomes)), and I liked incorporating it into the film. The next thing was an ending.
I looked at more Weezer lyrics, and found that, from The White Album, in the song 'Girl we Got a Good Thing', he says "Puerto Rico, the perfect place for a destination wedding", and I decided that if it ended in Puerto Rico (ie a local beach), it would be a good sombre ending (similar to the ending of Birdman, where his daughter looks across the city outside the window). Similar to Birdman I liked the scarification at the end of the film, and wanted that theme, so I took the idea of him shooting himself due to his depression, and worked that into the script. This left me with:
Long distance relationship in Japan, a best friend to argue with, the death of a close friend, a swear word, psychological trauma, shooting himself, scarification of facial features, an open ending. This was the setup for my dark comedy following all the research I had done into making it work.
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