Target Audience

I created an image of the kind of person I would expect my audience to be, and the kind of people I have in mind when I will be creating my products.

As you can see, I think that it would be more popular within females, as there is an element of romance and this is the style of film that many women enjoy to watch. However, the underlying war theme could attract males as well.
I think that the youngest to watch my film could quite possibly be around twelve, as it will have some hard hitting themes, like losing a loved one at war, so the audience would have to be old enough to understand this, but I think 12+ would be a good age to enjoy the film. Also, the magazine article can be made simple enough for any age above 12 years old to digest if necessary. I think to certain ages, the storyline could be quite relatable, so narrowing the age limit down too much would have a negative effect.
As it's a short film, I don't necessarily think that it will be shown in big multiplex cinemas that some people might find expensive to attend. Therefore, the salary made by my target audience is not very important.
I think that any class could enjoy the film, but possibly working class women would enjoy it more.
As far as occupation goes, I think that anyone of any occupation would watch my film and enjoy all of the products, but especially students, as many of my audience will be teenagers and younger women. Women who's partners are away in the army might relate to this and stay at home wives/mother's also.


The poster would feature in places that my target audience would see it. So, places like bus stops and billboards within cinemas and television adverts. I think by having it featured in a popular film magazine, this would benefit the film and many more people would watch it.

Film inspiration- Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day) Music Video (6:00 until end)

Though I'm not doing a music video for my work, this music video was where I got my initial idea for the plot from. It's not exactly what will happen in my short film, but I like the emotion shown by both characters and it is where I got the army and couple plot from. It is similar in the sense that my film will only have music playing all the way through, without speech, and I would like to use the ending of this, where the female ends with one sentence of speech and have something similar happen in mine. I like the dark colours used throughout also. 

The most relevant part that made me come up with my idea is from 6:00 until the end

Flat Plan- Magazine Article

This is the layout of what I would like my magazine article review to look like. As you can see, I want one page to be very much just one photo with minimal text on top. The next page will be full of information and the article itself. The article will be positive and almost advertising the film, persuading people to watch it. I want the colour scheme to be dark greens and black, to go with the army and war theme, but also to make the white of the wedding dress in the photo stand out more, to attract attention.

I got inspiration for the layout of this from a film review article I had read about the film Twilight, as shown below.

I like the layout of the text, as well as the fact it stand out for being white on top of a dark background. I like the simplicity of it and how one page is a photo and the other is text. 

Rationale:

Colour Usage: I want to have the majority of the text in white, so that it is easy to read. I want the main colours to match that of the poster, so dark greens and blues and black will be used to contrast with the white. I want a lot of dark colour to highlight the fact that the film is quite dark in itself. 

Image Usage: I only want to use one image on the left page and then dedicate the other page entirely for the magazine article. This way, I can include one big image and the audience can have a glimpse of the narrative and what happens in the film. The image will be of a woman wearing her wedding dress and crying while clutching a photograph. I think this will again signify that the film is dramatic and enables the audience to see what they will be receiving when watching the film.  The setting of the image will be in her bedroom, a place where the audience can relate, and I will most likely use a long show so that I can show her emotion on her face, as well as her costume and the props she is using, and the setting around her. 

Text Usage: I will have an article on the left page which will have a positive tone, to persuade the audience to watch the film. I will also have a title which will just be the title of the film 'Bombshell'. I will then have a tagline, to pull the audience in- possibly a pun or something the audience would take pleasure in reading. I would then begin the article with an introduction, briefly summing up the film. 

Layout and Font: I will have very simple fonts that are easy to read and the biggest font will be the title of the article/film. I think any information that isn't about the film (text at the top, like the title of the magazine) with be in a different, more artistic font. One page will be image based and one will be text based. Both pages will be filled entirely and I want to try to include as little deadspace as possible. I think the layout will assist readership because they wont have to switch from page to page, as all of the details and the article will be on one page. 

Flat Plan- Poster

This is the flat plan of how I want my poster for my film to look. I got inspiration from this from various posters I had already seen. Like the one shown below:

I like the layout of this poster, and the fact that minimal colour is used. I do not want such a close up photograph, however. So that is one thing that I would change. As you can see, when comparing it to my flat plan, I like the idea of a very small amount of text. So, I would like to have the movie title and a tag line as the main focus texts and any other relevant info would be smaller on the poster.

Rationale:

Colour Usage: I want to use a colour scheme of black, green and white. I think this will hint at the theme of war and the army and the black will signify the dark drama that happens within my film. I would like the background to be black, so that any colour on top of that will stand out and catch the eye of the spectators. I would like the majority of the text to be in variations of green, for the army effect. The actress will be wearing a white wedding dress, so this will brighten up the black and the audience will be immediately drawn to her, as she is the main attraction.

Image Usage: I only want to use one main image and that is of the main character. This is because I was to signify that she is the main character and the narrative will be based around her. She will be wearing a wedding dress and either saluting or holding a soldiers hat so imply the underlying war theme. She will have a sad expression, or a tear stained face to show that the film is going to be dramatic and emotional. I will either have a midshot, or a long shot of the actress so that we can see her full costume and posture, as well as her emotional face. The image will only hint at the narrative and then the rest will be left to the audience's interpretation.

Text Usage: I won't have too much text on the poster, I will only include the relevant information. I will have the biggest text as the title of the film, then a short and simple tagline that will intrigue the audience. I then might include the names of the two main actors and then a small area at the bottom of the poster to include the rest of the cast and crew and other relevant information. The tagline will read 'One Letter Can Change Everything...' which implies that something dramatic is going to happen without giving too much detail away. In a way, it is a teaser about what the audience should expect.

Layout and Font: I want all of the fonts to be simple and easy to read. The main difference will be the title of the film which I would like to be either in a handwritten effect or as though it has been written on a type writer, as this will further hint at the theme of war and foreshadow what events will happen in the future, regarding a letter. They key focal point on the poster will be the image, as she will be wearing a bright white wedding dress and this will contrast against the black background. The rest of the text will frame this image, emphasising its importance. As there will be very little text and only one image, I will make sure the image is big enough to take up a lot of room on the poster and to avoid any dead space.

Rationale

Rationale

 

The question I have chosen to do for my assignment is: A short film in it’s entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with both of the following: A poster for the film and a film magazine review page featuring the film. The poster and review will depend a lot on the genre and the target audience of the film.

   As I have decided to have a target audience of teenagers and adults, and somewhat of a romantic-drama genre, featuring a character dying at war, the poster in particular can not be brightly coloured, with positive, optimistic language used. I’m going to use a lot of dark colour, like black and brown, for the poster, to reflect the sadness present in the movie. I will also use white, to symbolise a character’s wedding dress and her innocence as a character. There will be a very small amount of text on the poster. I would like to have a film title, a tagline and then the director/producer/main actors etc. featured in very small text at the bottom. This is so that there is a sense of mystery and down to the audience own interpretation before the watch it. I would like the font for the title to be very formal looking, almost like it has been typed with an old-fashioned type writer. The photograph on the poster will be the main focus point. It will be of a bride, either with a mascara-tear stained face, or just staring, sadly forward. She will be wearing a soldier’s hat and standing with her hand in a saluting position. This in itself will trigger questions before the audience watch the film and will then be a good source of advertisement and will attract an audience in. I want the poster to be very simple, so it is completely down to the audience views and interpretation, as a way of advertising. The idea of the focus point being on the image, and very little text used came from a variety of posters I have seen, but mostly from a poster advertising the movie ‘Les Miserables’. The main image is of Hugh Jackman, with the line ‘Freedom is mine’ underneath. After that, the only text is the title and the words ‘coming soon’. I wanted to create this kind of layout and framing on my poster, because I think it works well and in this case, less is more.

   The review will be from a magazine, so will have a lot of common magazine traits. For example, big, bold title fonts, to introduce the article, page numbers at the bottom corners, large photographs of scenes in the movie, font size variety etc. The title of the movie will be the largest font and will be at the top right of the double page spread. Under this, there will be a tagline, possibly a pun, regarding the movie. Then I will include a small paragraph, briefly describing the genre and gist of the movie, perhaps including some of the stars and crew involved in the making of the movie. The left page will be entirely a photograph of one of the scenes of the movie. The next page will be the article. It will be simple, clear font that is understandable and easy to read, rather than brightly coloured with an unclear font, which will put the reader off. The photograph will be of the main character, in her wedding dress, crying, laying in her bed by herself, clutching a photograph. The audience won’t see the photograph, which again brings a sense of mystery and concern. It will trigger questions and already tap into the emotions of the viewers, especially the females of the target audience. The overall tone of the review will be positive and quite informal. The idea for all of this came from a film review I saw of Twilight in the Empire film magazine. The layout looks very clear and professional and the photograph draws you in. I want to achieve this kind of style for my review.

   The movie itself is going to be about a woman who’s husband is a soldier in the army. It is going to be a modern film, rather than going back in time to World War II, which is more common. The film is going to be mostly silent, as none of the characters will have any lines to say which will be heard by the audience. There will be music playing over the top of the film, which will change depending on the storyline and will reflect the atmosphere and mood of the characters at the time. The music will also get quieter and come to a complete stop at a point in the film where I want to draw attention to the feelings of the main character. If this doesn’t capture the feeling I want it to, I will instead create a muffled sound of music, instead of stopping it all together, to show isolation and confusion. The storyline is going to be that a couple are together and become engaged. The man then has to go off to war in Afghanistan. The woman then has to go about her normal life, going to work, living alone, etc. A particular scene, which is one of many that I will be using photographs from for advertising purposes, is where she tries her wedding dress on in front of her friends and her mother. At one point in the movie, she learns that her soon-to-be husband has passed away at war. This will be when the sound will alter. The most powerful scene, other than this one, will be when she puts on her wedding dress in her bedroom and lies on the side of her bed where her fiancé’ once slept, clutching a photograph. (This will possibly be the photograph used for the film review.) The colour pallet of the movie will start off bright and optimistic, reflecting the atmosphere, but will slowly change to dark and dull with low key lighting.