Film Pitch

This is a simple pitch I did in front of my media class on the initial ideas for my film trailer. I thought it was useful to present my ideas in this way and receive feedback from a group of people around a similar age and with a similar lifestyle to that of the main characters in my film. Over half of the class were female teenagers so they tied into my target audience very well and it was useful that I got to see their reactions and hear their comments about my initial trailer idea. Also, it was useful to get a male perspective and opinion on some of my ideas, even though they aren't the specific target audience that I'm focusing on. My pitch outlines my basic ideas about narrative, characters, locations and props. 

Target Audience Detailed

I have gathered all my research and analyses of trailers from past films together and this has allowed me to build an idea of an appropriate target audience for my film. My general, non-specific target audience will just consist of teenage girls or adult females in general, because this is the demographic that has been proven to enjoy romance films the most. My niche target audience goes into a lot more detail and looks at the audiences interests and lifestyle.

Characteristics of my target audience:

• Females aged 15-30
• They will have an interest in films, specifically romance films.
• Some of their hobbies might include: watching films, going out with friends, partying, shopping, dating. Therefore I have taken this into account and tried to include aspects of some of these hobbies in my film so that narrative is relevant and relatable to the audiences lifestyle and therefore they will be more interested and more likely to watch the film. 
• The audience will be likely to either go to secondary school, go to college/university, or be in full-time employment. The age range is fairly wide and therefore the audience will vary on things like education and work, so I haven't focused too largely on this element in the narrative. The characters in the film both go to sixth form so some of the audience may be able to relate to this, however this isn't made that clear in the trailer as I'm not going to film any scenes at school.
• Some of the artists/bands they may like includes: One Direction, Imagine Dragons, Sam Smith, Nicki Minaj, One Republic, Drake, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris, Jessie J etc. However, these are just some artists that have proven to be popular with teenage girls currently and everyone has very varied and individual music taste so again, I haven't focused too much on this in terms of my film. 

Of course the audience for my film isn't just reduced to the demographic described above and I aim to encourage as many people of all different genders and ages to watch my film. The reason I have looked so deeply into my target audience is because it is useful to me to see what interests them and what they enjoy so I can take this into account when creating my trailer. However, I am aware that not all of my target audience will be defined by the characteristics above and therefore I will also aim to make my narrative and characters as relatable as possible to a wider range of people, so that I'm not solely focusing on one highly specific, niche audience alone, because this could therefore risk alienating a broader group of people. 

Basic Narrative Overview

My trailer will follow the stereotypical boy meets girl narrative structure with the main characters being a male and a female protagonist. The characters will be teenagers, around 17 years old and the trailer will attempt to show elements involving the struggle of growing up and the mid-point between  child and adulthood where the characters are trying to discover themselves and what they want to achieve in their lifetime. In showing aspects like this, my trailer will often include drama as a sub-genre, particularly teen drama as it will attempt to display the hardships and also happiness of teenagers as they grow up. Before the female love interest meets the male love interest, she is shown to seem quite sad, lonely and not really sure of what she's doing. However, after the two characters meet her mood and the tone of the trailer completely changes and the female is shown to be much happier and calmer when she is around the male. The beginning shots of the trailer will show the female sat on the swings alone in the park, possibly drinking alcohol and looking fairly lost. The following shots will show the protagonists first meeting and eventually falling in love. The relationship between the two characters will gradually build as they begin to fall in love. Shots of them holding hands and laughing and having fun will be included frequently to display their bond to the audience and provoke interest within the audience as by this point they are rooting for the couple to be/stay together. The female will then look at the male characters mobile phone and see that he has messages on there from other girls, this then makes her think that he has cheated on her and this leads to a huge argument between the characters. However, it is unclear to the audience as to whether he did in fact cheat or not. The film's ending is also left on a cliff hanger at the end of the trailer as the audience will be gripped and full of suspense as they are wanting to find out what will happen and whether the protagonists will stay together or not. I feel that leaving the ending on a cliffhanger is conventional in almost every trailer and is the best technique to use, as it allows the audience to remain interested in the film, if the film ending is given away in the trailer then many people won't see the point in watching the film at all as they know how it ends and feel it is predictable.

Audience Pleasure

The main reason people watch films is because the enjoy it and get pleasure from watching them, different people get pleasure from different styles or genres of film. The aim of my trailer is to promote my film and in order to do this I need to ensure that my target audience get pleasure from watching my trailer so that they therefore will want to watch my whole film. In order to ensure that my target audience get pleasure from watching my trailer I will need to explore certain elements and ensure that popular conventions of the romance genre are used.

The following is a list of things I will look at and attempt to accomplish so that my target audience get pleasure from watching my trailer:

• Iconography: I have already looked at and discovered some iconography relating to the romance genre, such as the main character types being a protagonist male and a protagonist female and the props such as flowers or alcohol (depending on the location). I will research further into romance iconography and make sure that a significant number of the stereotypical romance icons are included in my trailer. 
• Props: Props link to iconography largely but I will ensure I include conventional props associated with and linked to the romance genre such as flowers, alcohol and drugs or presents (from the love interests, for example jewellery given to the female protagonist by the male). These will immediately make the audience interested as they have learned to associate these props with the genre. 
• Narrative structure: My film will trailer will follow one of the two conventional narrative structures stereotyped with the romance genre. Either the 'happily ever after' ending which has proven to give the audience pleasure as the characters are reunited and everything is good and there is an equilibrium. Or the 'tear-jerker, tragic' ending where something devastating happens e.g. death and the characters aren't reunited, these endings have also proven popular within the audience because they are often true boreal life as not everything in life ends perfectly, however I am more likely to go with the first narrative structure as often the target audience of romance films are happier when there is a strong equilibrium at the end. 
• I will look into what shot types and transitions are the most popular in romance films in order to appeal to my audience. I'm likely to use a simple cut transition regularly as this is very conventional in trailers as they almost always use montage editing as a way of promoting the film. 
• Titles: My titles will be written in bright colours, or fairly plain depending on which sub-genre I decide on. Obviously I can't use the star system technique in my titles to promote the actors in my film because I have a small budget and therefore I can't afford to get huge actors to star in my trailer and am using actors my age, local to me. However I will look at other techniques used within the titles in the hope of appealing to the audience. 
• Shot lengths will vary slightly but because I am only creating a trailer, no extremely long shots will be included so the narrative wouldn't be given away and so the audience would remain interested as they are curious and interested because they will only be exposed to clips and not the full plot.

Film Masterclass

 The other day I attended a masterclass with director Simon Hook. Simon Hook has worked on programs such as Hollyoaks and M.I.High and therefore has had a lot of experience with filming and his work has proven to be successful. It was very helpful to receive tips and advice from an expert and I will most likely use many of these tips when I'm filming my own trailer so that it will look more professional. The first image shows the light pointing at the ceiling, this is a way of effectively adding the correct amount of light to the characters. This provides high key lighting and allows the audience to clearly see the characters, however it is not shining directly at them because this would mean that the shot would be too bright and the characters may not be shown clearly. I will consider using this technique in my trailer in shots where the lighting is already good but I just want to light up the characters slightly more without creating any unwanted shadows.

 This picture shows the two actors who volunteered to help Simon demonstrate how to successfully use different shots. The actors had a complete run through of the script before any actual filming was done and each time the camera shot changed the actors would have a run through to make sure stage positioning worked effectively before filming was done, this was a useful technique as it allowed us to instantly see which shots worked and which didn't work so well. Hook used a filming technique where he would film a whole scene with the camera positioned in one place and then refill the whole scene each time with the camera in a different position. This was an interesting technique because often even though some parts of the scene didn't work with the camera positioned in a certain way, other parts worked very well. Also filming in this way means that the scene can be easily edited and transitioned and the best shots in relation to the script, can be used. Simon also told and showed us how dead space can often be very boring in shots and that by slightly moving the camera either upward, downwards or side to side, can remove this dead space and make the shot much more interesting, because it is including much more. Props can also be used in the background to add more to the shot.

We were taught two very helpful techniques about shots and angles. Zooming can often be very shaky and amateur if used as an effect whilst the camera is rolling. Therefore another way close up shots/zooms can be done is by the character walking towards the camera. This technique is called self-tightening. In order to make the characters the same size in over the shoulder shots, you can move the camera backwards and zoom in so the shot is a close up before actually filming. This way the characters are far more accurate in size in comparison to one another.

This masterclass was very beneficial and when I'm filming my own trailer I will definitely consider Simon Hook's advice in relation to the shot types and transitions I use, and also the lighting and positioning of my props.

Props

This post will look at some of the props I could potentially use in my trailer. These props will have to be easy enough for me to get hold of and representative of the genre or the narrative. Also, these props should appeal to the target audience in some way by allowing them to anticipate more about the film or by exciting them by hinting at the narrative slightly.


 Flowers

Flowers are one of, if not the most, common prop used in films of the romance genre. They give connotations of beauty and love which are both stereotyped with romance. Giving flowers as a gift is perceived as romantic and it is almost always the male love interest who gives the flowers to the female love interest as a sign of his love for her and to show him to be gentlemanly and caring. I will most likely include flowers in my trailer at some point or other because they are a well known icon of the romance genre and so will therefore reinforce the genre of the film and hopefully attract a large target audience.

Alcohol and Drugs

Alcohol and drugs aren't necessarily props that are always associated with or iconic of the romance genre. However, they are included in some of them, especially romance films where the stock characters are teenagers. The stock characters in my film will be teenagers who are quite rebellious and like to go out and party with their friends, this is why I am considering including alcohol and drugs as props. Alcohol and drugs are props stereotyped with the teenage/young adult lifestyle and my target audience are also teenagers and young adults therefore including these may attract the target audience to the film because they can relate to the characters.

In terms of health and safety and legality, I will not use any real alcohol or drugs. I won't use any real alcohol as the actors are below the age of 18 and therefore it would be illegal for them to be drinking as they are under the age limit, also drugs such as cocaine and cannabis are illegal in the UK so I will not actually use these but I will use substitutes. For example I could use sugar instead of cocaine, as long as I make sure it is realistic by not showing it that clearly or close up on camera. I could do this in a number of ways such as, using a long shot instead of a close up, making sure there is only low key lighting in the shots including the drug or putting a blurred effect on the camera lens. In terms or alcohol I could use water as a substitute. For example I could use water instead of vodka as both of them are clear.

Costume Ideas for Main Male

Initial costume ideas for main male protagonist: Theo
The main male protagonists costume will be fairly casual and neutral to represent his non-caring personality and his laid back attitude. He will mainly wear jeans, a basic t-shirt and a hoodie, these are all typical items of clothing associated with teenage fashion.

The picture to the left shows an outfit similar to the costume I want the male character, Theo, to wear. Hoodies are often stereotyped with youths as they give conventions of anti-social behaviour because often the hood is used to hide a persons face so they are seen are seen as a threat. Whilst I don't want my character to be seen as a threat, I do want him to be seen as quite rebellious and not conforming to the rules of society so I feel that the hoodie will help represent this. Also, because the hoodie is a casual item of clothing it will help to show that the character isn't that concerned with fashion and is more concerned with going out and having fun. The plain t-shirt will also back up the idea that the character isn't too concerned with his appearance, but isn't the type to wear football shirts or full tracksuits, so it shows he does care a bit.

In terms of hair, I want the character to have his hair styled in a way similar to the picture shown. His costume will show that he doesn't care too much about fashion, however his hair will be styled showing he does still care slightly. When the character is with the female protagonist his hair will be styled neatly like this, showing that he is making an effort to impress her or to try and make her happy. This is conventional of the romance genre as often the love interests dress up or style themselves differently when they are together so that they can impress or attract each other.

The character will wear trainers similar to these in many of the shots. Trainers and jeans follow the conventions of stereotypical teen fashion as they give codes of a laid-back lifestyle. Teenagers aren't often in full time employment and therefore can wear things like this instead of business clothes such a suits and ties, so this shows the characters lifestyle and a bit about his personality, to the audience. Trainers are conventional of sport and therefore this shows that the character is sporty and may exercise frequently, however isn't obsessed with sport or he would be wearing tracksuit bottoms and a sports top. I believe that following this style in terms of Theo's costume, will allow him to be presented to the audience in the correct way. Following popular fashion that is associated with teens currently, should prove effective in attracting  an appropriate target audience as they may be able to relate to the character and will therefore potentially become more interested in watching the film.