Target audience

Target audience
 

There are two main types of heist films; there are the standard heist films which are fairly serious and they focus on trying to maintain verisimilitude. These types of heist films tend to cater towards an adult audience, a good example of these types of films would be “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”. The second type of heist film is called a caper, these tend to cater more toward a younger audience, this is because caper films will have a more light hearted and comical approach towards them, and example of this type of film would be “The Italian Job”
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_film

 

 

       

 

Our film involves a lot of young actors ranging from 16-18, because of this are film will most likely attract a younger audience ranging from around 13-21. This will be because the younger audience will be able to relate more towards the young characters in are films. However, because heist films have a long history, I think they are also popular with older audiences because it is a genre and style they are familiar with and enjoy:

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2010/03/the-10-best-heist-movies-of-all-time


In our film we have a mixture of both female and male characters; this means that men will be attracted to the film because they will relate to them and the female audience will also relate to the female characters.

Heist films tend to be aimed more at a young male audience, but I know that women tend to enjoy these types of films as well; this is normally due to the diverse cast of actors. A good example of a diverse audience would be “Ocean’s Eleven” this is because it uses a range of diverse actors although there is a lack of female characters. This blogger welcomes a largely female heist film, but is also obviously a fan of the genre and mentions films with a mostly male cast which she has enjoyed:

http://www.geekquality.com/solo-quiero-caminar/
 

Photos from Filming

These are photos taken while filming that help to show how we placed and set up the camera:

Researching the Target Audience

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_film

A heist film can be filmed and constructed in several different ways, depending on who the target audience is. For example, a heist film could be a comedy and this will probably be more likely to attract younger people than if it was a serious action film (e.g. Tower Heist). So it is necessary to find out who we will aim to attract into watching our film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4KXF7NWFRE

This film is a cast of adults however the humour also widens the target audience out to children, but there are some jokes that only adults would understand and so it will be humorous to them too. We think our film will come across as a family film, but it doesn't necessarily need to have quite such a direct appeal to children.

I have noticed that heist films can be adapted to all ages and genders. For example, this film seems to have a much older cast - the 'one last job' is about age as much as anything:

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The-Heist-177.html

This site suggests that Tower Heist is aimed at a teen audience:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/tower-heist/user-reviews/kids

For example, ‘Bugsy Malone’ cast all children and this would appeal more that age group as you expect them to act as they do.

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0074256/

And here is a review of a heist film with a mainly female cast:

http://hollywoodlife.com/2012/11/09/maeve-quinlan-teenage-bank-heist-go-girl-energy-drink/

So really we have a lot of flexibility with our audience and can adapt the genre to pretty much target who we want.

As we have a young cast and our film has a light-hearted feel, I think we are targteting the younger ends of the market. We have voth male and female members of the gang, so hopefully we will appeal to both genders.

Target Audience - Some thoughts

Target audience

The heist/crime genre is written around a group trying to steal something. These films generally cause the audience to root for the people stealing the object even if they are criminals. The actors who play these characters are generally well known and loved so people will want to see the film. 

The target for this film is both women and men as the women enjoy these films due to the males playing the main roles and the men enjoy these films because of the idea of the money involved and how they pull off the heist. They are also likely to be from the ages of 26 to 34 roughly. 

In our genre people will want to watch it as they would like their lifestyle to be like this, it is full of action and appeals to those who like the technical side. Our first two minutes will be appealing to people who enjoy action and heist/ crime films. 

They are also enjoyed by those who enjoy a film with high production values and a distinct sense of style such as  ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’ This film is liked by both sexes due to the fact it has style within the film, from the way it is filmed with a slightly grainy texture and lots of use of contrasting lighting, to the way the actors dress and hold themselves. The overall visual look influences whether people like a film as the hesit film has quite a 'cool' feel and this needs to be reflected in the production, filming and acting. 

It was quite hard to find specific target audience figures as it is a hard topic to find out information about, especially now the UK Film Council has been scrapped. As long as the film includes a lot of twists and turns in the story and has a good villain and involves a lot of money the viewers enjoy it.  Most articles around this genre focus on why the film is appealing rather than who watches it, therefore I would conclude that having a taste for this kind of film is seen as more imnportant than any particular age group or gender deomgraphic.

In our research, we found it quite difficult to identify a clear target audience for our kind of film. On the one hand, we think that defining a target audience is necessary in all kinds of media industries because audiences are becoming more and more split up and a lot of success now rests on niche audiences. On the other hand, the film industry seems to be all about big audiences, and at the very least you need enough people to see your film to get back the money you have spent on it.

Assuming that the actors playing the parts in real life are a wider range of ages than we have managed to show as we had to act all the parts ourselves or with the help of sixth form friends, this can broaden the appeal, and heist films don’t seem very age-specific, unlike horror films for example, which seem to attract a younger audience. We also thought that although some genres do seem to be of more interest to some genders than others (e.g. sci-fi is more associated with males, although we know there are dedicated female fans as well, and rom-com is more associated with women), heist films don’t seem to have an obvious appeal one way or another. The mix of action and humour and the variety of male characters will appeal to male viewers, but the same applies to female audiences as well, who might also find many of the male cast attractive (George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the Ocean’s films).

The article here says it is the 'cool' factor that appeals to audiences about heist films:

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/mail-on-sunday-london-england-the/ml_8003_iis_2007_May_27/style-council-oceans-just-brilliant

In this article, the idea of the thrill of for once being behind the criminal is discussed. Heist films let you support characters who would normally be seen as villains and so can give a subversive thrill:

http://ezinearticles.com/?When-the-Bad-Guys-Are-The-Good-Guys

I agree though with this article from the New York Times which says that we all enjoy heist films because we know that however carefully the gang lay their plans, something will always go wrong and we enjoy waiting for that moment and watching them try to get out of the mess that is created:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/movies/02raff

Researching the target audience

Most of time heist movies have well known actors in the film for example ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ with George Clooney and Brad Pitt which will persuade the audience to each the movie because he is well known. But it’s rare to have a new actor in a heist movie because the person is unfamiliar.

I think by choosing strong male characters,  they will be addressed to the female audience to be adored, however the male audience can also admire them too when the character is seen as looking ‘cool’, which is what happens in heist films. Also, the fact that there’s a boss who lives a wealthy lifestyle is aspirational for a lot of people who like to look at the big houses and expensive gadgets. Having a whole gang gives different character types for people to relate to.

Whilst researching heist films, I’ve noticed that the late teenage years to the early twenty’s are the popular age audience because it interests them the most and those are the ages when you start to afford buying DVD’s or watching it on cinema.

 

http://www.esfmedia.com/page/The+Heist+Movie

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_film


In our research, we found it quite difficult to identify a clear target audience for our kind of film. On the one hand, we think that defining a target audience is necessary in all kinds of media industries because audiences are becoming more and more split up and a lot of success now rests on niche audiences. On the other hand, the film industry seems to be all about big audiences, and at the very least you need enough people to see your film to get back the money you have spent on it.

A text book tells us the age group everyone wants  is the 16 – 34 demographic (because they tends to spend the most money on media products and  merchandising and once ‘caught’, have a long life span to continue consuming), we think our film has quite a wide appeal.

We feel the film appeals to audiences who enjoy a good plot with a lot of twists and turns and action, but who also like the safety of a feel-good film that is likely to turn out well in the end.

The article below comments on how stylish heist films are and how this is part of their appeal - the anti-heroes are always 'cool' and are aspirational for the audience. This seems to be a factor that would appeal across ages and genders.

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/mail-on-sunday-london-england-the/ml_8003_iis_2007_May_27/style-council-oceans-just-brilliant


The two articles below say that heist films are 'guy' movies. I know that the often all male cast of the heist film might make this seem true, but I think that women do find heist films appealing, and some very successful ones such as TV series "Hustle" have important female characters:

http://hollywood.com/feature/Top_Ten_Heist_Movies/6173872

http://walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/film-in-wales/2010/01/18/all-male-action-films-it-s-a-heist

 



Organising Filming Into Shot List

Each location needed a different form. We detail the shot taken (distance / angle), the location, who is in it and any key props / costumes etc. Here is an example of one of our shot lists, for the house:

Film Industries - Production

Film institutions – Production 

The production of film happens when the production company decides on the cast of the film, the location and what the film is about.
 

The five production stages are as follows:

·         Development – the development of the story this is the stage where the production of the film has just begun, scripts are written in this stage also creative groups are put together and ideas are thrown around. This process tends to take a few years depending on film, and lots of films never make it out of this stage.

Our Experience

We have emulated this stage and I can see that it is very difficult. I can see why a lot of good ideas and good scripts would stall, because they are not enough on their own to get a project off the ground. you need it to be practical. I can also see how difficult it is for everyone invested in it to agree as everyone needs to compromise, and sometimes this can make the first idea less strong.
 

 ·         Pre-production or ‘Prep’ – this is when the production crews hire a cast and a film crew to shoot the film and the shooting is in its preparation stages. This can take around 8 weeks.

Our Experience

We had a relatively short time for this stage. We are still doing the final planning. Casting was more time-consuming than I realised. Sometimes people you want aren't available at the time you want them, sometimes they can act well but don't look right, sometimes you just can't find the right person. This must happen in reality too.

·          Principle photography or ‘Principle’ – is the stage when the filming actually takes place. This is shot on location or in a special studio set; this process can take up to roughly 10 weeks if it is feature length.

Our Experience

We will be beginning this soon. We have a main filming day and then other shorter time slots for locations nearer school / pick ups.

·         Post production or ‘Post’ – in this 4^thstage the editing for the film takes place for both picture and sound they also add visual effects and any music is made up and added to the film. Marketing is completed in this section, they would also produce material with will promote the film. This section can take up to 12 weeks.

Our Experience

We will have around four weeks to edit. This sounds like a long time but isn't because we won't have the full length of the lessons, and this is work that is difficult to take home as we don't have the package. It's also important that we woek together. Real films edit the dailies, whereas we will be editing after most of our filming has happened.


·         Distribution – this final stage involves the company showing the public the final product, put in cinemas etc, so it is distributed to its target audience. This process happens throughout 6 to 12 months depending on the success of the film and the demand.

Examples of production companies: 

1. Pixar 
2.  Universal studios
3.  Paramount Pictures
4.  New Line Cinema

Matthew Vaughn produced the film ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ directed by Guy Richie. This film fits our chosen film genre and his other film ‘Snatch’ fits it as well. His productions are very much our desired style as they are very British and this helps us understand how our piece could work as we will not be using American slang and their accents. 

There are many jobs produced from the production part of a film a producer, Executive Producer, Director,  a Production Manager, Production Coordinator, Associate Producer/Production, Associate Producer/Post,  Unit Manager, First Assistant Director (First AD), Second Assistant Director (Second AD), Production Assistant, Script Supervisor, Unit Production Manager, and Stunt Coordinator.

Film institutions – Distribution 

Carrying on from the final stage of film production distribution can be for a long period of time as some films can be distributed throughout other countries and they can gross billions as interest is high, so exposure can be prolonged. 

Warner Brothers, Lions Gate Entertainment and DreamWorks are all examples of distribution companies that are there to market the films and promote them increasing the interest from the public and boosting sales. They can decide the release date of the film to DVD and they build up media interest. 

Our production company would be low budget and independent production company as the film we intend to make is that kind of film it would also need to be produced in a very British way.

Examples:

‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’

Produced by: Matthew Vaughn

Distributed by: PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

Box office (worldwide): $25,297,569

 

‘Ocean’s Eleven’

Produced by: Jerry Weintraub

Distributed by: Warner Bros

Box office (worldwide): $450,717,150

 

Film institutions – Marketing and Promotion

Magazine covers 

Promotion of film can happen through magazines and newspapers, the actors and actresses can be interviewed in these which build publicity especially if the film has yet to be released. If an actor is on the cover of a magazine it makes everyone aware even if not reading that magazine that that particular actor has a film coming up and this is publicizing it. People tend to want to read about it and this makes them more inclined to see the film. 

Interviews 

Also interviewing is good for film publicity as actors can speak about the film and are specially asked about it on broadcasted shows. This helps to built up more interest and the viewer is more likely to want to the see the film.

Researching the Film Industry

Production

The production company that has taken on the film have many roles to fill:

·         This includes providing the funds to pay for all the expenses, however to get a bigger budget if they can’t afford to be self invested, they need to pitch their film ideas to other companies (studio investments, private investments) so that they can sponsor the film and provide some more money. We didn't have to worry about this, so we didn't really imitate the real filming process here.

·         They then start developing the film, this involves changing the script to how they like and to what they think will appeal to the audience most, they also need to keep in mind the budget they have and must be cautious not to do things that will use up a lot of money if they have a small limit. We did the development stage and obviously had to work around our limited equipment.

·         Another role that the producers have is the decision of what actors to use, they need to decide if they want to use well known actors for a higher pay or unrecognisable people for not as much, the decision differs on the type of movie, for example in a horror film they tend to avoid using people that are famous as they do not want the audience to recognise them and relate to them more. We had to cast our actors and think about if they had the right look for the role.

·         One of their key decisions that would affect the film massively is the choosing of the director. They have to think very carefully about who they should hire to direct as it is crucial that they are able to make the movie as good as it could potentially be. We are all acting as directors, so having four directors doesn't really imitate the film process - although most films have assistant directors.

 

Most films are made by big, well-known companies, like; DreamWorks, Universal Studios and 20^th Century Fox. These companies normally have a lot of money that they are able to spend on the film to make it look good. So they do not really need to get sponsors to help out with the funding.

There are also small production companies that get overlooked and have not made quite as many films as the well known production companies. This is a disadvantage as people aren’t as familiar as the big companies and so people won’t know if they are able to make good films. One example of a small unknown company is ‘Yari Film Group’, which made the film ‘The Illusionist’. But this was a successful film, so it shows small companies can do well with the right script.

 

Distribution

Some distribution companies include; Columbia, Pixar and Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

The role of the distribution company is to release the film to the public eye, their task is to create as much attention toward their film as possible and so they have vast amount of people wanting to see it. The production company doesn’t have a say on how the film get presented to the audience as the distribution company is in charge of organising the making of the trailer and DVDs. They are also the ones responsible for scheduling how long it will play in the cinema.

Marketing

Posters

Every film would have a poster for the movie and have them spread around the street, train stations, bus stops, shopping centres. You will always see them in the cinema, as its showing the public what they should go see next.

Interviews

Interviews are used to provide some information about the film; this is good as the public would know if it’s the type of film they enjoy watching. Interviews also are able to reveal what the actors opinions on the film is and how they think it will turn out.

 

 

Researching the Film Industry

Researching the Film Industry

Production:

Production companies are in charge of the overall filming process and funding of a film, production companies will go through several stages of production when creating a film. These are:

      Pre-production: these is when the company will hire the cast and crew, scout locations for filming, hire people to design and create sets and acquire permits and licences necessary for filming in certain locations. This is normally done by a small internal crew consisting mainly of the producer, director, and casting director, this is done to avoid any information leaks about the film.
      Principal photography: this is when the main filming begins; most of the filming during this stage is done in secure studios with occasional scene done in public when necessary.

      Post-production: this is the final stage of production handled by the production company and includes editing, the composing of the music and the visual effects are added

After all this is finished the film is then handed over to the marketing and distribution companies.

Examples of production companies include:

      Warner Brothers Pictures

      Universal Pictures

      DNA Films

      Columbia Pictures Corporation
 

 

Matthew Vaughn:

Matthew Vaughn is producer who has worked on a couple of films that fit into the same genre of film that my group is working on. Early in his career he mainly worked on British gangster films working with directors such as Guy Ritchie, some of the films he has worked on include “Lock, Stock and two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch. Therefore he would be a good person to dierct our film.

Distribution:

After the production company has finished making the film it is then passed on to the distribution company. The primary roles of the distributor involves setting the release date for the film, and choosing if the film will go to theatrical release, straight to DVD or shown as a television movie. They are also in charge of getting the film shown in theatres.

Some examples of distribution companies include:

      Universal Pictures

      20^th Century Fox

      Warner Brothers Pictures

      Touchstone Pictures
 

For our film we would have to look at a distribution company that is experienced with distributing films that fall into the heist film genre. One suitable company would be Universal Pictures because they have worked with films such as “Inside Man” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” which were quite successful at release. Another film distribution company that would be suitable would be Warner Brothers Pictures who work with the films “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Ocean’s Twelve”.

 

Marketing:

Posters:

Posters are an effective way of marketing films because they can be placed in a variety of locations such as on the side of a bus or on billboards. A lot of films use posters because they’re cheap to make and can give people an idea of what the film is about in a single image.

 

Magazines:

Magazines are an effective way of marketing a film because it introduces a already large audience to the film. In magazines films are normally shown on the front cover with an article inside with interviews and behind the scenes access with the cast.

 

Television/ Chat shows:

Actors and sometimes the Directors are asked to appear on chat shows for interviews this is very effective because these chat shows tend to have very large audiences.
 

Researching the Film Industry

Researching the Film Industry

Production

A production company is the most important job. They are responsible for the development and filming of a specific production or media broadcast.

They look over the script to see if it’s acceptable. Once a final script has been produced by the screenwriters they go to the 5 phases.

• Development-This is when the script is produced with the director.
• Pre-production- Actors and crew are hand picked by the producer, director, and casting director
• Production-it begins filming/
• Post production-It handles all the editing, musical score, visual effects and re-recording of the dialogue.
• Marketing-It’s also launched with the release of trailers and posters. Once a final film has been approved, the film is taken over by the distributors, who then release the film.

Some examples of production companies are:

-Warner Brothers Entertainment

- Lionsgate Entertainment

-Paramount Pictures

-Universal Pictures

The film industries creates many jobs which includes a director, a unit production manager, the studio executives, the assistant director, the casting director, the location manager, the director of photography, the director of audiography, the production sound mixer, the sound designer, the supervising sound editor, the sound designer/director of audiography, a composer, the production designer, an art director, a costume designer, a storyboard artist and a choreographer.

Jerry Weintraub

Jerry Weintraub is well known because he produced the film Ocean 11. This fits our genre because it has a very similar feel with what we want in our first two minutes. He has also filmed Happy New Year, The Karate Kid, National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation and The Karate Kid (2010 film).

Distribution

Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate Entertainment are examples of film distribution companies. Their role is to release a film to the public and hopefully engages the audience to buy the DVD or see it in cinemas.

 I believe that our film could be distrubuted on the internet and later onto DVD, but mainly into cinemas as that it the most popular option.  An example for a distribution company that we could use would be Paramount pictures which distributed ‘The Italian Job’ which is an American remake of the 1969 British film of a team of thieves who plan to steal gold from a former associate who double-crossed them.

Examples of films and their distribution companies

The Bank Job

Produced by: Roger Donaldson

Distributed By: Lionsgate

Box Office: $64,822,796

Inception

Produced by: Warner Bros

Distributed By: Christopher Nolan

Box Office: $825,532,764

Inside Man

Produced By: Spike Lee

Distributed By: Universal

Box Office: $184,376,254 (Worldwide)

Marketing and Promotion

Magazine Covers- Magazine covers is a nice way to promote a movie by putting the main character up for a feature. This then will attracts the audience to see why they are at the front cover and to hopefully know what movie they’re going to be featured in.

Interviews- Actors appearing on a TV talk show to explain about the movies will encourage the audience to go see the movie itself to boost the ratings.

Animatic

We have turned our storyboard into an animatic in Final Cut Express to get a better idea of how it will look when we film and mostly to see if it is running to around the right time length. At the moment it seems to be running a little short. However, we have discovered from our previous planning that our initial ideas seem to overrun slightly, and we also think adding dialogue might make some shots run slower. We have started experimenting with Livetype to produce credits. What we have here is a rough idea of the placement of some of the credits, but we spent more time trying to find the right font / effect than worrying about placement as we feel we are quite sure of this on our storyboard.

Practice Filming

Here we have tried to film some scenes from the storyboard. We have not used the actual cast or locations, we have approximated these, but we have been trying to get a feel for how the piece will run. We are not happy with the scene of the boss in the office. We need to create a much more mysterious, enigmatic feel and this will probably work better if we move to an extreme close up and try to disguise the boss's identity a little. We have also been concerned about the shot where the camera slowly circles around the players in the poker game. We like the shot in theory, but because you have to move slowly to get a smooth shot there are also awkward gaps where the camera is moving but not showing anything of any significance. Moving it faster creates blurring. So we have planned an alternative shot to take as well just in case.