Audience research

According to http://www.comingsoon.net/news/weekendwarriornews.php?id=86827 the films 'The Dark Knight Rises', 'The Avengers' and 'The amazing spiderman' will all be extremely effective.

The Avengers

 Firstly, it says that 'The Dark Knight Rises' is a sequal to a $533 million grossing movie, this suggests that its going to be a success because its a follow on from an extremely successful film. Therefore, the audience will be attracted to it anticipating an equally successul project. It then goes on to suggest that 'The Avengers' will be successful because it merges 6 superheroes into one film, a genius idea! This means that audiences from each of the six films will go to see it, conjuring up a massive paying audience. Also, 6 superheroes with 6 different powers adds up to an action packed thrill ride that any adult or teenager would want to go on. Another big selling point for "Avengers" is the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark-- a peopular character amongst superheroes and grossing$300 million. Also Thor and Captain America: the First Avenger introduced new characters who have also proven popular among moviegoers.
The Dark Knight Rises is missing a crucial star that helped to sell the first film; Heath Ledger. The star attracted audiences to his film through a somewhat scarily realistic performance of 'The Joker'. However his death and the mystery around it could have also attracted the audience; according to the article. On the other hand, the article suggests success in its new character Catwoman, played by Anne Hathaway. It's no lie that Anne is a Stunner and mixed
with the lycra catwoman suit she's sure to play a huge part in attracting the audience, particularly males. Different to The Dark Knight and the Avengers, the article predicts that The Amazing Spiderman won't be so succesful, saying that "people wont be rushing out" to see it. The film is put at a disadvantage as it is opened earlier in the week and only word of mouth will mantain its's business. Atleast until The Dark Knight Rises is released which is likely to "destroy its legs".

Audience research

In a group of 4, we discussed the attractive points of a superhero film mentioned in the secondary research and asked each other what we liked and disliked about the genre.  

What people like about superhero films-

Photo evidence of the group work

• Action packed scenes
• Interesting storylines
• Good characters, villains and good guys etc
• special effects
• different world- takes you out of reality
• Big named stars
• Un-predictable endings

What people dislike about superhero films-

• too many storylines going on at once
• cheesy cliched endings

Audience research

Secondary research-

For this research task we were told to follow this link http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=superhero.htm and look at the top 15 superhero films before evaluating 5 of them as to why an audience would find them attractive and why they are successful.

Batman The Dark Knight.

      For me The Dark Knight was the most exciting, action packed film of it's year and overall it had largest domestic total gross of $533,345,358. Many critics have tried to explain why the film was so successful, some say it was Heath Ledgers astonishing performance of the Joker, and some say it was because it was Heath Ledgers last performance (which it wasn't). In my opinion, it's simple. The Dark Knight was successful in attracting its audience by immersing them into the city of Gotham, a world where every convention of a superhero movie is available. Firstly, the film was successful through its characters. Every fan of superhero movies loves a villian, and especially one that is cool and funny yet so unpredictable and irrational that its scary. The Joker gives the film a much darker shadow, different to that of the other Batman's, and ultimately gives the film a much more tense feel. Heath Ledger, for me, gave such a powerful and realistic performance of the villian that it transported the audience into the city of Gotham and 'glued' them to their seats.
         The Superhero genre is mainly aimed at teenagers, particularly males. This films is successful in attracting this audience through its many action packed scenes, such as the bank robbery at the very beginning and the hospital blowing up near to the end. Teenagers love a good action packed film with a number of exciting storylines and this film offers it all, from the kidnapping and love story and Rachael to the action full fight scenes between The Joker and Batman. The film also sticks to the comic as it includes typical features such as the Batmobile. This means that it is successful in attracting comic book fans and fans of DC.
         For a film to be successful it needs big named stars, these are extremely helpful in selling a film as the audience look out for their next film. The Dark Knight includes actors such as Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, all of which are well known actors that have starred in a variety of successful films. Another factor to the success of Batman is its distributor, Warner Bros. WB are a well known distributing compnay for films such as the overly successive Harry Potter, The Matrix, The Hangover, Superman 3 and many many more. If the distributor is big and well known more people are likely to go and see their films. Speaking of which, Batman was released in 4,366 cinemas worldwide and meant that an unbelievable amount of people had access to go and the film.

Hancock

      Hancock is a completely different Superhero film to those of Batman, Superman and Spiderman etc. Firstly he doesn't have a typical superhero name, its just his everyday name 'Hancock'. I found the film very entertaining and funny but it takes you on somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster. At the beginning, your introduced to Hancock as a drunken hobo with no respect for society, yet his comical attributes and hilarious stunts make his quite a likeable character. The film is obviously again aimed at teenagers but its light hearted humour makes it attractive to both males and females. The film was successful in attracting its audience for many reasons, firstly its humour but also its interesting storyline. Hancock thinks that he is the only one of his kind and is hated by society for his chaotic antics, but one man comes up with a plan to change this after Hancock saves his life on a railroad crossing. The storyline doesn't stop at that though, Hancock realizes he isn't the only one of his kind and this unfolds an interesting love story. This is attractive to its audience as it follows most of the typical conventions, a love story, superpowers, and binary oppostions between him and his lover and the bank robbers at the end.
    Hancock is played by the globally known Will Smith, well known for his roles in Men in Black, Fresh prince of Belair and series of other successful films and programmes. Will Smith is almost like a brand, people look out for his next film and are never dissapointed. This was another reason for the success of the film. Also the film had a 150 million dollar budget, this meant a number of special effects and action packed scenes were created. Special effects are succesful in attracting the audience because they make scenes more exciting and thrilling, something which teenagers thrive off.

Iron man
      

Promotional poster

           The third film, ranking at 5th in the top films, was also very successful for a number of reason. Similar to Batman and Hancock, Iron man had a large budget of $140 million. This amount of money allowed the director to hire better well known actors, include a variety of special effects, different locations and the all important iron man costume. I believe the target audience for this film is teenagers, both genders perhaps. If so then the film is extremely successful in reaching out to them. With a number of explosive special effects and the amazing full body costume of Iron man, equiped with a variety of weapons, the film is not to be missed. The film is also successful, like batman, because of its distibutor. Paramount are also a well known successful distribution company and this meant that more people would have payed to see the film and expect something spectacular. And they wouldn't be let down due to the star studded cast including Robert Downy Jr and the sexy Gwyneth Paltrow. Stars play a huge part in attracting audiences to a film and creating a profit, Robert Downey Jr (known for films such as Due Date and Sherlock Holmes) is well known and liked and therefore people look out for his next film. In the creation of every film, the key to attracting an audience is advertising. Iron man produced posters, trailers, magazine articles and the cast were interviewed on a number of daytime television programmes. This meant that the audience could get a glimpse of the film before they went to see it and ultimately sold it to them.

X-men The last stand & X-men United

         For the last two films i have chosen X-men The last stand and X-men United. The last stand earned just over $230,000,000 and United just under that amount, this total gross immediately shows us just how successful these two films were and with the variety of powers and typical superhero conventions it is clear to see why. X-men offers its audience to be transported into a world where superpowers are real, something every teenagers dreams of, and these powers are both interesting and exciting! Stars such as Patrick Stewart and Halle Berry give astonishing performances of their characters and this is effective in making the audience become emotionally attatched to them. This attatchment is key in bringing the audience back for more, thus making the films a success! Marvel fans of any age and gender are the target audience for these films and I believe that they are attracted to the film as it sticks to the original storylines, characters, costumes and powers.

Flashback

        Introduction
     
      The genre we were given to create a media product on was a Superhero movie and after watching it over a few times I've come to the conclusion that it's quite similar to other films in that genre. For example, the popular superhero movie 'batman begins' has a flashback near to the beginning to establish how and why he gained his powers/skills. My media product begins with a short flashback in black and white (just like in batman) which shows the audience how Michael gained his powers. Another typical supehero convention in my Media Product is a damsel in distress. At the end of the film Dr.Pepper can be seen holding Michael's sister Sarah hostage, this is similar to the film The Dark Knight in which the villian (the Joker) kidnaps Rachel and Batman is left to try and save her.

Damsel in distress

     However, my film does challenge some typical conventions, for example, Michael isn't wearing a cape like in superman or a colourful head to toe costume like that of Spiderman's, he's just in his 'casual' wear. Personally, I feel that my product is effective in representing a professional film through its use of editing. It uses a wide range of shots from close ups to medium shots POV and track shots. This makes the film flow well and fast paced, therefore feeling like a professional action movie.



What social group does my product represent?

My product represents mainly teenagers, Michael being the main focus as he is only 17. However, when he drinks the potion at the beginning he is only 12 years old, this represents young children as being naive for drinking it without questioning what it is. another social group represented in my film is gender. The males, as in every other superhero movie, are the heroes who go to rescue the females. In my media product Michael is shown to chase the villian through a forest to find Sarah and have a stand off with him.

The chase

This represents males as being the powerful and dominant ones; this is quite a positive representation. This sense of dominance if further highlighted through the use of screen time, in my product males are shown to have more time on screen and this represents them as being more important. The woman in my film however was tied up on her knees with tape across her mouth. Becky's performance of Sarah showed her to be screaming for help, showing that she is helpess. This use of Mise-en-scene represented women as being vulnerable, weak and counting on men to come and rescue them. This obviously is a negative representation of women.

Distribution

       Personally, I believe my product would be suitably distributed by an independent institution such as 'Nowhere Fast productions'. The reason I believe this is because like other small films such as 'Colin' my film had a small budget (in my case no budget at all). Becuase of its none existent budget my media product didn't involve any special effects that you'd see in a typical movie, therefore I feel it would be unfit for distribution by a major institution such as 20th Century Fox. Also, many big name films have big named actors starring in it. For example, Batman The Dark Knight has a number of A listers such as Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Essentially, big starring names help the distribution considerably. Whereas my film doesn't have any big named actors, obviously and therefore wouldn't be suitable for major distribution. For its best possible chance I would limit the films distribution to Britain only starting off with London and then moving on to other major cities around the UK. This way it would be more cost effective and gain a larger profit. Just like Colin, my media product would have a promotional Facebook page and would be available to view on the Internet. Nowadays, the Internet is accessible in nearly every home around the world. This makes it a powerful tool for marketing as it's cheap and can be viewed by people everywhere. Also, to give my product it's best possible chance i would distribute to small art houses around the UK. Most art houses like the Lighthouse theatre in Wolverhampton show mainly small films, a category my film fits perfectly into. However, the problems with using the Internet for my media product are piracy and people leaving negative comments on film forums and giving away spoilers. Piracy is a huge problem with film making and has left the industry 700 million pounds out of pocket.

Who is the target audience for my product?
           The main target audience for my product is teenagers. This is because in today's world teenagers ages between 15 to 19 are the most likely to visit the cinema and spend a lot of time on the internet. My product involves a fast paced chased and an interesting storyline that would be attractive to the younger generation. However, its not just teenagers that would find my product attractive; marvel fans and people who favour the superhero genre would also be interested. During a lesson we were shown videos of everyone's films and had to write our thoughts and comments on a piece of paper. The majority of the feedback from my film was positive and included comments such as; "very good variety of camera shots", "music is perfect... suspense", "it keeps the audience watching eager to know what will happen next". However, there were a few sugegsted improvements saying that the camera needed to be "more focused". The overall positive feedback suggests to me that my product was extremely successful and would definitely attract my target audience.

How did my group attract our audience?


                 My group attempted to attract our audience through various elements of Mise-en-scene, including costume, props, performance, and location. Firstly, the costumes in my product were somewhat of casual attire. Apart from Dr.Pepper (the villian) who wore a complete black outfit with a balaclava.

Dr. Pepper

This helped to create the idea of a tense and somewhat intimidating character, things a teenagers (Myself) looks for in a film of this genre. Performance also played a part in attracting the audience with Dr. Pepper laughing in an evil way and Sarah screaming on the floor. Performance is extremely important in expressing emotions in a scene and defining characters. If the performance isn't believable then the whole film goes to pot and could potentially become un-interesting for the audience. The final piece of Mise-en-scene we used to address our audience was location. My media product was set in a forest before leading to an abandoned warehouse with boarded windows and bits of debris scattered everywhere. This was important in setting a tense atmosphere and giving the idea that they were in the middle of no-where and helpless. I feel a tense atmosphere was important in attracting our audience and therefore i re-iterated this atmposhere with choice of soundtrack. The soundtrack is fast paced and extremely successful in creating the right, tense atmosphere.

What have I learnt about tehnologies?
            Throughout the process of plotting and creating my media product I have learnt a lot of things; particularly to do with the camera. Before constructing this product I had little knowledge of camera shots and how to use them effectively, every film I previously made consisted of shaky amateur shots, however, now equipped with the knowledge of the different shots and angles I have learnt how to create a film where each invidual shot represesnts something. I have learnt how to hold the camera in order to create these shots, and sometimes used the tripod (something I hadn't done before). When in front of the camera I have learnt different ways to make the film look professional, for example, never look directly into the camera unless in the script. Along with the use of a camera I have learnt how to use computer based technologies such as iMovie on the apple MAC's. Throughout the process of editing I have learnt how to add videos, photos, music and title's where I want them to go and how to cut down clips to create a flowing scene. This is called continuity editing, a key aspect in creating a professional looking film. Over the course of this project my knowledge and understanding of cameras and how to use them successfully has increased. However, in my next project I would use a different editing software programme so that I can add more special effects such as explosions, this is not available on iMovie. This, I believe, would help to make a more professional film for the big screen.

Preliminary task

              At the beginning of the task I had no idea on how to plan and create a film. However, throughout the process my knowledge of the preparation process has increased. For example, at the beginning there were a number of storylines and characters for us to chose from but they just didn't come together. This cost us a lot of time that we could have put towards the actual filming and editing of our film. But as the process went on we became more comfortable with the planning preparation and managed to get ideas to come together successfully, this helped me to learn a lot about the process. Quality of footage at the beginning was also very poor, we were just coming to terms with the camera and the different ways in which we could use it, this meant that our overall footage was affected. For example, some of the shots were shaky and one even showed the tri-pod in the background (big mistake!). But at the task developed and we became more confident with the camera better shots were created and even performance infront of the camera improved. This lead to more quality footage with a range of different professional shots and angles.