Production Log - Week 4.

In the first lesson of the fourth week of production, we learnt about the sound used in British social realism. We then went on YouTube and downloaded the opening sequence of a British social realist film  of our choice. We then had to upload it onto YouTube again and annotate the sound heard within the sequence, we labelled what the sound was whether it be diegetic or non-diegetic and what type of sound it was, why it is used and the affect it has on the audience. By doing this, it made me much more aware of the importance of sound as it leads to a lot of interpretations and connotations about the film.

In the second lesson this week, we clarified the definitions of: focus groups, vox pops, audience feedback, qualitative, quantitative, open questions and closed questions. As a class we then discussed what you may want to find out about a potential audience. We said that we'd want to know they're interests, films they've seen of the British social realist genre, what they like about them and how they appeal, etc. Once we went through all of this, we was then assigned a more current piece of coursework, to conduct some primary audience research by producing either a questionnaire, a focus group discussion or a vox pop in pairs as a part of the pre-production stage of production. My partner and I decided to produce a vox pop as it is something that neither of us have done before so we thought we'd widen our range of abilities and try something new. We then made five questions to ask ten people individually. These questions would help us gain as much audience research as possible from a range of people of different genders, ethnicities and interests.

 

This is an example of a vox pop, it features people of different genders, ethnicities and interests.

In the third lesson this week we refreshed our memories on the definition and purpose of a film treatment. We identified the elements of an effective film treatment, these are: the title of the film you are producing, identifying the target audience for the film, information on the technology that will be used in the production of the film, the representations of the characters included in the film, a brief summary of the films narrative and a detailed sumary of what will happen in the opening sequence, how the conventions of British social realism will be observed or subverted, the style and iconography that will be used in the film and the institutions that produced, distributed and exhibited the film and why.

In the fourth lesson of week 4 of productionmy partner and I filmed the footage needed for our Vox pop. We found a number of people and asked them specific questions related to the British social realism genre, the themes within this genre and more specifically our ideas and what they thought of them.

What have you learnt about your target audience?

After filming the footage of members of our target audience for our vox pop, I learnt that they are interested in themes and situations that can relate to their age group as in British social realism its a realistic portrayal of these real everyday situations but demonstrated in a film. The target audience generally like British social realist films to appeal and relate to their age group, this is done by including themes and situations that happen in the real world within their generation. They don't like over the top escapist factors within these films, they seem to like them being displayed explicitly.

What have you learnt about the institutions involved in the production of social realist films?

I have learnt that the institutions involved in the production of British social realist films tend to be independent production companies based in Britain as the appeal of British social realist films is mainly in Britain as the audience members will be from Britain and would have a better understanding of the films narrative and the themes in the film. Knowing that predominately independent companys produce British social realist films, they don't have big production budgets for each film as they have limited funds and therefore cannot or do not usually include production sets, international actors, special effects/CGI, etc.

How will this inform your production?

Taking into account the institutions involved in the production of British social realist films, in my partner and I's production we will not include special effects/CGI as it is not conventional of the genre and we would not be able to fund major ones anyway. We will also not use production sets because we too cannot afford to do so and yet again it is not conventional of the genre as British social realist films tend to use real life locations. We definately would not include any international actors in our cast because we do not have any links, money to pay them and it again is not conventional of the British social realism genre.