Research and Planning 5: How we plan to attract/address our target audience

When we were planning the structure of our opening sequence, our primary concern was to make it intriguing and exciting for all members of our target audience. Younger members of our audience will likely see the film for escapism, whereas older members of our target audience will be looking for a compelling storyline or maybe even personal identity. Therefore we provide our audience with information of the film's storyline as well as an action sequence in our opening scene. We thought it necessary to include an action sequence as not only does it establish the genre irrefutably, but it will also appeal to a large proportion of our target audience. Furthermore, many other films such as The Usual Suspects, Lucy and Casino Royale include similar action scenes at the beginning of the film whilst establishing its plot.

Another way in which we plan to address our audience is by making our character types instantly identifiable. We reveal that Blake used to work for the police force through our dialogue, which suggests to the audience that the events of the film may be similar to his experienced with the police. This allows the audience to get a better understanding of what to expect from Blake. The same can be said for our other main character, Jennifer. She also used to work for the police, but now spends her time with thugs and criminals. This allows the audience to evaluate her morality, as her character would not necessarily approach a situation in the same way as Blake.

Research and Planning 4: Representation of social groups in our opening sequence

Our main characters, Jen (left) and Blake (right)

Our lead male character, Blake, is a strong-willed, determined male character. We wanted him to be a clear signifier of the action genre, as many popular action films have powerful males as the leading character. Examples would include James Bond from the 007 films and Bryan Mills from Taken. However, one of the key aspects of our plot is that unlike typical alpha-male characters like James Bond, Blake is a good man forced into doing bad things to rescue his partner. To make this more believable, we tried to present Blake as a relatable, middle-class man so that the audience could feel sympathy for him. Furthermore, we created this representation because many alpha-male characters can come across as a bit two dimensional: Bond follows the rule of 'kill or be killed'. By making him more adaptable to the role of a regular, middle-class man and an alpha-male killer, it creates more depth for our main character.

Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko
in Quantam of Solace

Whilst Blake is represented somewhat typically of alpha male characters, the female lead character in our sequence is a more challenging of media stereotypes. Jennifer is ex-police just like Blake, but has ended up among thugs and thieves through her hobby of gambling. We wanted to stray from action film stereotypes in which the female character is glamorous and stylish to create a more compelling character who can be portrayed more equally to Blake. We wanted to avoid a scenario in which the purpose of Jennifer's character was to bolster the identity of Blake, which is common in many action films such as Quantam of Solace. Whilst she does provide some character development for Blake, she can still stand as her own character who is equally important to Blake.

Research and Planning 3: Our production and distribution institutions

Production Institution

We have decided to produce our film alongside Silver Pictures: an American production company known for many different Hollywood films. Although the nationality of our film is British, we are trying to recreate the glossy, stylised look that would be expected of a Hollywood film, similar to the James Bond films. Silver Pictures have worked on British-American films that are similar to the one that we aim to produce, such as Sherlock Holmes. We would work with Silver Pictures as an independent production company who specialises in British films which aim to replicate this Hollywood style of film making.

Distribution Institution

The company that will be responsible for the distribution of our film will be Universal Pictures. We have chosen Universal Pictures as they have a five-year marketing and distribution deal with Silver Pictures and have recently made similar films such as Non-Stop. The other reason for selecting
Universal Pictures as our distributor is that they have a strong presence in both the British and American markets. This is significant as we are planning a theatrical release in the UK and USA, followed by a video-on-demand release on websites such as Amazon Instant Video, Youtube Movies, UniversalVOD and more. We also aim to have a DVD and Blu-ray release for the film in order to provide as many different platforms for the film as possible. 

Research and Planning 2: Our target audience

Our primary focus when deciding which demographic to target with our film was which genre of film we should produce. None of us had an overwhelming preference as to what genre we would like to use, so instead we decided to see which genre of film was most popular amongst people our age. We produced a questionnaire asking what people's favourite genre of film was and their age:

The results from the questionnaire were quite broad, but it was clear that out of all the listed genres, action films were the most popular. Therefore we decided to target fans of action films as our primary audience. This genre appeals to both men and women, although their is a slightly larger male audience than female audience for this type of film.

The James Bond films are a great example of a film with a large target audience; including both the young and old. Casino Royale contains action sequences for immersion as well as tense and strategic poker scenes to provide a compelling host of characters and an intriguing story. We incorporated similar features in our plot to appeal to our secondary audience of men and women aged 15-40.



A typical member of our primary target audience would be anyone who is interested in action films. This could be an 18 year old teenager who enjoys the escapism provided by action films or an adult who is able to become more involved with a storyline. Members of our target audience would likely be middle-class, as our characters depicted in the film are of the same social status. Teenagers have a respectable spending potential as they will often go to see a film with their friends. Adults on the other hand, will either see the film alone or with a partner or family member. This makes the storyline more engaging for members of our audience with loved ones as they could relate to and understand the fears of the main character. A good example of a film that has achieved success with these two audiences would be Taken.

Research and Planning 1: How we intend to work as a group

Eddie Rowe, Ignacio Flores and myself are working as a group to produce a two minute opening sequence for a film. We soon realised that in order to produce a high quality piece we would need to organise meetings in order to collect and develop our ideas. Most of these meetings were situated on Mondays and Fridays; at the start and end of the week as we were able to communicate in our lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This meant that we were able to make consistent progress on our project throughout the week. Each of these meetings lasted for one hour, with some stretching to an hour and twenty minutes, totalling in a minimum of two hours of additional work each week.

As the research and development process requires a lot of trial and error in regards to plot ideas and structure, we agreed that it was important to be in contact whenever the need arises. Therefore we exchanged mobile phone numbers and set up a group on Facebook so that we can discuss and exchange ideas with ease.

Lastly, we have all agreed to take individual responsibility if we are unable to attend a meeting or finish a piece of work. This is to make sure that we are all working efficiently and at a good pace.