Target Audience

                                                                                           

Target audience

The target audience for our film would I think be quite mixed. It would probably be aimed towards 18-34 year olds because this is at the moment the golden demographic in terms of making money and overall success. Through my research I have noticed that a lot of heist films are aimed at this demographic, as the action sequences and gadgets appeal to a younger audience while the overall style and tone help to make the films appeal to an older audience as there is something quite retro about it and there isn't too much overt violence. It is very important when making films to make money so it is understandable that heist films are made specifically for this target audience. The reviewer in this article says that heist films are popular because they are all about wanting to acquire a lot of money, which is something we are all familar with:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/movies/02raff.html?_r=0

And this site also refers to heist's "universal appeal":

http://dailyfilmfix.com/?p=2040

I believe there would be quite an mix in terms of gender because in today’s society there are a growing number of men and women watching this genre of film. This is as opposed to the common stereotype that men are the ones who watch the action packed heist films.

 

It is quite likely that the reason people of this age like this genre of film, is because of the action. People of this age enjoy this kind of action because it is has been represented as ‘cool’. Heist films are about, in reality, people stealing from someone else, yet somehow they are managed to come across to the audience as very cool and exciting. It is probably to do with the fact the characters are portrayed as quite stylish and appealing people. Something men almost want to be, as those main characters are the ones who always get the girl, and end up rich with a good life.

 

Most heist films get the audience engaged straight away with the action that’s about to happen as it makes the audience think about what they would in circumstances that appear onscreen. It makes the audience very interested in the film as they know the action happening isn’t real, yet they the way it is made makes the audience have that sense of wonder. Heist films target a very wide age range, around 15-50. This age range is probably the largest out of all genres target audiences. Critically it includes the 'golden age' category of 18-34, which are the people that have the money to afford to watch movies and most importantly the leisure time as well.

Heist films often use prominent actors so the audience feels more sympathy for there characters if something does happen to them. The directors of a heist film often are able to use this to their advantage. The actors chosen are usually between the ages of the target audience. This means the audience are able to relate to the characters on an age level and therefore often become more engaged. An example is the movie “Takers”; there are young characters within the group as to relate to the younger target audience. However there are also older characters (often the leader) that are there to show a side of sophistication and wisdom which the older target audience can relate to.

The viewing of heist films comes down to more on the side of personal tastes these days, and less about the gender. This is because often in heist films nowadays there is either a woman or group of women involved in the heist in some way. This shows that women are no longer the ‘damsels in distress’ but rather the ones who can do everything men can. This has a great appeal to most women as it has broken the common stereotype of women being inferior to men in this genre of film. An example of this is ‘Fast and Furious 5’, where the women are often shown as being better at driving then their male counterparts, and play a crucial part within the heist.

http://youtu.be/ARkR3LKmJtU

The link above is a trailer for Mad Money. We see how it may attract many female views, as it’s a movie that encourages the theory that women can perform in an advanced and intellectual plot as well as men.

‘The heist film still steals hearts’

December 13, 2004 | James Verini, Special to The Times

“During a century of cinema, the world has enjoyed seeing our anxieties about crime and criminals sublimated in the movie theatre in any number of ways. After the gritty-gangster-film craze of the 1930s, audiences turned to the more fanciful western. Sometime later a hankering for reality returned, and movies about beat cops and grizzled detectives took hold. And now, it seems, as the world grows more worrisome, we've rediscovered our need for whimsy on the wrong side of the law.”

I agree with this statement and think that it can apply to target audience choice as well. As films develop to keep up with the fast paced world we can see a dramatic change in who becomes the focus of a films target audience. In the 1930s it would have definitely been men, this is because the common iconography for heist films back then were that men are strong and independent  and that women always need a mans help. As times changed so did the focus on target audience, directors could no longer just focus on men to view there films and they had to change according to the times. Later on in the movie business heist film target audiences began to broaden there horizon looking for female viewers. Now to the present day heist films are able to accommodate the female audiences more and more.

When it comes to our film, I have taken into account what heist films need to include to be called a heist film but at the same time looked at what changes have been made in recent times to show how heist film target audience is more based on age (15-50) not gender. Therefore I think that if our film were to be made it would have an age rating of 15, and be viewed by both male and female within are target audience.

Photos from Filming

Script

Actors

Jordan – Jordan C-W

Ken – Kennedy N

Sean- Shehan W

Toni – Antonio D

Boss – Caleb J

Script

Boss: it’s been a long time boys

All:(acknowledgement)

Boss: I’ve got a job for us

Jordan: How much we talking?

Boss: Enough for an early retirement!

Ken: That’s what I’m talking about

*Jordan and Ken handshake in delight *

Boss: Where’s Sean he’s always late

*Sean running looking at his watch*

Boss: As I mentioned before, we are getting a lot from this job, and you all know what your jobs are. Let’s make it smooth

*Sean knocks down the chairs*

*Everyone stares*

Sean: Sorry I am late boss

Toni: pffff, we are leaving anyway! (Laughing to himself)

Boss:  Sean stay behind, I need to brief you on your job.

(Outside)

Toni: I don’t trust Sean lads.

*All laugh in a mockery way*

Ken: ahahah why not?

Toni: He just seems like…..

*Sean and The Boss come out*

Boss: Let’s go boys.

How We Made Our Logo / Ident

We created our logo in After Effects. We chose this software because it is widely used in film industry to create graphic effects and visual effects. It also allows you to manipulatematerial effectively and opens a whole new world of camera effects and animations.
 

Step 1

We first created our text and gave it colour and some effects such as 'glow'. We created four layers of texts to give it the correct visual effect.

The background image created in photoshop

Step 2

We combined few effects together to make the 'flames' effect. We managed to get the dark areas by using few smart tools in the software.

Firelight Memorable Logo

We added the firelight still image at the end. We also added a camera effect which zooms into the image and then stop to make it still.

We also managed to add music to our logo, which made it even more interesting.

Link to our designs and ideas post.

Character Profiles

Name:Caleb AKA 'Sean'
Age: 23
Bio: Hard working individual with good leadership. He always gets what he wants and he is very determined. He will always try until he succeed. He is the group leader.
Personality: Smart, lazy person. Always late on meetings. 
Appearance: Black male, dress smart but messy.

Name: Antonio AKA 'Boss"
Age: 22
Bio: A well organised person with a specific set of skills. His roll in the group is to crack any kind of a safe and disable security alarms. He is a very successful hacker who can hack almost anything and get away from it.
Personality: Very quiet individual, a mysterious character. No one really knows what he is capable of and who he really is except the team members
Appearance: White male, always dress smart and always wear a hat.

Name: Shehan AKA 'Toni'
Age:24
Bio: He is the oldest in the group and the most experienced person in robbery games. He is always very smart and always think of the possible consequences when he does something. Very hard to get in touch. 
Personality: A very calm person. Acts very smart most of the time.
Appearance: Brown male, dress smart. Serious looking.



Name: Jordan AKA 'Jo'
Age:19
Bio:Youngest and the latest recruit in the team. He is very good with guns and weapons. Almost know every weapon. He will disarm a weapon from someones hand in three seconds. He always carry a weapon around.
Personality: Very talkative person. Always active and always on the run.
Appearance: Mixed race male, friendly looking



Name: Kennedy AKA 'Ken'
Age:20
Bio: He is good with almost anything and can do any job. He is the all rounder in the team. He could get aggressive some moments.
Personality: Usually a funny character, ladies man and he is very friendly.
Appearance: Black male, dress smart always walk with style.

Researching the Target Audience

Heist Films

Heist films are a type of genre that have a complicated plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. There are many plot twists, and film focuses on the characters' attempts to formulate a plan, carry it out, and escape with the goods. There is often an archenemy who must be dissatisfied: either a figure of authority or a former partner who turned on the group or one of its members.

Most heist films get the audience engaged with the action that’s about to happen as they would wonder what they would do if they were in that exact situation as the person in the film is. Heist films target a fairly wide age range, around 15-45. This age group includes the 'golden' category which include people that have the money to afford to watch movies and most importantly the leisure time (18-34), additionally they are also intrigued in action movies like these (heist). Heist films also use well-known actors so the audience feels more sympathy if something does happen to them. The film makers use this to their advantage as they choose actors that are within the age of the golden category. This often allows the viewers to engage with the movie quicker as they can relate to the characters due to their age. A good example is the movie “Takers”. The characters ages ranged from 21- 46, this is within the golden age category.

Heist films tend to appeal to any one older than 15. Sometimes the gender of the film might be popular to a certain gender. For example, the movie “Mad Money” might appeal to females as it’s about three female employees of the Federal Reserve plot to steal money that is about to be destroyed.

http://youtu.be/ARkR3LKmJtU

The link above is a trailer for Mad Money. We see how it may attract the majority of female views as it’s a movie that encourages the theory that women can perform an advanced and intellectual plot as well as men.

On the other hand if films have character from both genders it will probably attract people from the two genders. Heist films like ‘Point Break’ might appeal to children 15 or over due to its violence scenes. Therefore heist films have a broad age range but can focus on a more specific market such as the teen market e.g Tower Heist or the older market e.g remakes of Italian Job, or even a female market.

After looking at various types of heist films that have been made over the years, I feel that our film should be a 15 as it would have scenes of crime, violence and unsuitable language which may be inappropriate for children under 15.

Further research into Target Audience

Reasearch into other target audiences

Social Realism
Social Realism is a type of genre which focussed on specific issues such as drugs, money, sex, class and religion. Britain is one of the first countries to develop this kind of films. These films made their way to success by creating it's own target audiences.

BBC social realism in film industry

US is one of the last countries to develop a film with this genre. Film industry in US also made its way to success, yet it is known world-wide and most films are very famous.

As well as Hollywood films, Bollywood films also made its way to success by adopting it's filming structure to social realism. India became one of most film producing countries in the world since then.

Wikipedia Sources of Social realism in film industry

According to my research, social realism has broadened the target audience of a film. So one way of widening the appeal of a current heist film  mioght be by making it more gritty and dark.

Comedy

The target audience for a comedy movie can vary in the lines of suitability to certain age groups. For example the film 'Ted' has a age rating of 15 due to use of strong language and some sexual content. The film series 'American Pie' has an age rating of 17 due to explicit sexual content and adult humour. Choosing a target audience should be done by analysing the contents of the film.

So we have two possible directions to go in and we can emphasise the film one way or another as in terms of heist films, there is a mix of comedy and action. These are often high concept films, not really relying on realism for their appeal. Famous actors often play roles in heist films (Ocean's Eleven) and one of the main draws is seeing a big ensemble cast of well-known actors working together. Therefore a heist film has to think of the kind of comedy used and the level of realism of any violence to gain its rating.

Target Audience - Heist

Target Audience

Traditionally, the most common audiences of heist movies are males ranging from teenagers to mid forties. Lists of best heist films show a range of films from across many years, so this helps to explain the large audience range, especially as lots of fils are re-makes (Ocean's Eleven, Thomas Crown Affair)

http://classicfilm.about.com/od/classicmoviereviews/tp/9-Top-Heist-Movies.htm

 However, there is a growing group of females who are fans of heist movies. According to facts and figures most of the audience are socially active and financially stable.

Just like all the other heist movies, our film also targets a specific age group of 15-45. This is a socially active age group. Most of the time teenagers come to watch a film in groups, therefore generating more money for the cinema and film industry, and as our cast are young, Iimagine we will be targeting a younger audience who are maybe a bit more new to the style.

Film age ratings are carried by them

 Younger males would find heist films interesting through the use of attractive females in the roles of the villains, the technology in the films such a futuristic weapons, cars and other gadgets which typically males find interesting. However, women are not alienated from this kind of film as there is no violence and the lack of female cast members might not put them off.

 Another thing that would attract the older audience to this kind of genre is the sense of justice when the money is taken from people with low morals and also when the other criminals get arrested due to the crimes they've done in the past.

Another way that I defined my target audience is by socio-economic groups. I decided that heist films target a lot of the groups ranging from B to E and everything in between, this is because people in the lower groups will aspire to have more and live the rich and wild lifestyle of those of the characters in the film, people of the higher groups will have similar dreams of the richer lifestyle as we always want more than we have as most of us live very money fuelled lifestyles.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=conartist.htm

This chart shows that heist films can be very popular and make a lot of money, so I think iot is stil a genre worth working in.

Research into the film industry

Production companies

The production process refers to the stages (phases) required to complete a media product, from the idea to the final master copy. The process can apply to any type of media production including film, video, television and audio recording. The stages in each medium vary; for example, there is obviously no storyboard in an audio recording. However the same general concepts work for any medium.

The three main stages of production are:

1. Pre-production: Planning, scripting & storyboarding,etc.

2. Production: The actual shooting/recording.

3. Post-production: Everything between production and creating the final master copy.

Other stages include:

 Financing: This happens before pre-production, and involves budget forecasting, finding investors, etc.

 Screenplay: This can be considered a separate stage before pre-production.

 Distribution: After post-production, delivering the content to the audience (e.g. film prints, CD/DVD, etc.).

All of these things are completed by a production company in order to make and distribute films

One of the world's largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, Fox Filmed Entertainment produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units of the company:
 

 Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios.

In Operation Since: 1935

British companies
 

Aardman Animations - Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Nick Park

Bristol’s Aardman has won four Oscars, and over the past 40 years has established itself as a world leader in model animation. It’s just delivered two movies for Sony in less than six months, Arthur Christmas and The Pirates!  Aardman is a fully integrated company, with successful TV, commercials and digital divisions too. Credits: Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Flushed Away, Arthur Christmas, the Pirates   

Working Title - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner

Working Title’s scale, size and success is unique to the British film industry. Several of its recent films haven’t matched the commercial success that is expected from the producers of Notting Hill and Bridget Jones, it remains the pre-eminent British production company of its generation, ranking as one of the worlds –leading producers. Working Title has made nearly 100 features since 1983 that have grossed over $5bn at the box office. They have Six Oscars and 30 Baftas. Baltasar Kormákur’s Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale, which recently posted the Working Title’s all-time biggest US box office opening weekend ,This is reasonably similar to our genre of film as it is action packed and is like a heist;. Credits: Senna, Green Zone, State of Play, Frost/Nixon, Johnny English.
 

Distribution companies
 

United International Pictures (or UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios, to distribute some of the two studios' films theatrically outside the United States including Canada, and the Caribbean.

UIP also had international theatrical distribution rights to features by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio.
 

Arrow Films is one of the UK's leading independent distributors of world cinema
 

<   There are numerous techniques used to promote films, based on the intended “demographic” the film is expected to attract.

<   Demographics refer to segments of the movie-going population in terms of external characteristics such as age, income, occupation, education, and race and also to the number of people in each category.

Films are distributed into cinemas first, where a film earns a lot of its initial money. The film will be sold on DVD but only after a pre agreed time scale of around usually twelve weeks. The films are usually distributed onto the internet before onto DVD because it is a good way to promote the film through the web and this creates word of mouth or free advertising. If the films are liked then people will go out and buy them on DVD, so using the internet to help promote the film is a fast growing and good idea.

Examples of films and their distribution companies:

Fast and Furious 5

Directed by Justin Lin

Produced by Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel, Michael Fottrell

Distributed by Universal Pictures

Box office $626.1 million

Oceans 11 (2001)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Produced by Jerry Weintraub

Distributed by Warner Bros

Box office $450,717,150

Marketing and promotion
 

Marketing can be directed to specific ethnic groups or age groups. One example is if the advertising company decides that their key demographic will be teens then they will focus mainly on having advertisements on the television as opposed to having ads in the newspaper.

The six top ways to advertise a movie are through:

<   out of home” advertising - Out of home” advertising is defined as all print media that are posted outside the home, in places such as streets, public buildings and public transport.

The strengths of this medium are that there is considerable flexibility.

Choose specific locations

High commuter penetration

                  Take advantage of a variety of possible formats:

Including large size,

Dominant visual impact,

<   magazines

targeted at specific interest groups,

Ø  often with a loyal audience

Ø  long shelf life creates repeat exposure,

Ø  “pass along” creates word of mouth advertising

<   network radio,

 local-market concentration,

 audience selectivity,

 high frequency,

 the ability to reach people on the move

<   the internet,

almost unlimited selection of websites, therefore of target markets

A very large market that can view your ads as the internet is a very fast growing way to check out new movies.

<   television

Ø  mass coverage,

Ø   audience selectivity by program type,

Ø  the ability to use quality communication through sight, colour sound and motion

<   newspapers.

Ø  immediate results,

Ø  timing flexibility,

Ø   ad-size flexibility,

Ø  low production costs,

Ø  mass reach

Each of these tools has its strengths and weaknesses. Some of the key considerations in selecting advertising options are:

     frequency” (the number of times the ad is seen);

<   The style of the ad itself and who it is marketed for.

Marketing has a wide range of ways to reach out to audiences and some other ways are:

Through merchandising:

 Merchandising is the method of making a product and selling it using the name of film or character. An example is when dolls are made of the cast members from films these are always based on the character they played in the movie and not the real life person or actor.

Interviews and Chat show appearances:  A lot of the big budget movies will send out the main actors to make appearances on television to promote there up-coming movies. Shows such as the Ellen Degeneras show, broadcasted in America, will have lots of very prominent actors and actresses that make appearances and talk about the films they have just done.

This is in hope of the fans of the actor or actress going to see or buy there new movie. They can help advertise the film itself and increase the sales, which is the most important thing. In the making of most films the main objective is to get as much money back as possible, With the exception of some independent films or documentaries.

Researching Film Industry

Researching Film Industry
 

In film industry there are three main stages:
 

Production– This part is mostly about funding and organisation which involves money. The producer must find an investor/funder on the film. In some cases they may even decide on the director and casting. They may even make changes to the script to make it more commercial.

Distribution– This part includes distributing the products to customers/audience. They will negotiate with cinemas to decide how much they get and how many screens are used to show the film. Distribution also includes the internet and DVD in which they start to make the bigger amount of money. Trailers are also made by the distribution companies.

Marketing– This part includes, letting the customers/audience know about the film. For example posters, TV spots and mainly social networking sites (internet). Another big marketing strategy is cast interviews.

For example one of the most popular film production companies are 20^thCentury Fox and Warner Brothers. These production companies funded astonishing films like Avatar and Harry Potter which is still a major hit. The film series Harry Potter was directed by four directors: David Yates, Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell. The film avatar was directed by James Cameron, one of the most famous directors.

Examples of heist films:

Oceans 11

Budget: $85 million

Box Office: $450,717,150

Distributed by: Warner Bros

Inside Man

Budget: $45 million

Box Office: $184,376,254

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Heat

Budget: $60 million

Box Office: $187,436,818

Distributed by: Warner Bros

Researching the Film Industry

Film Institutions -Production

Production companies are responsible for a lot of tasks that need to be done to make a successful film. This includes the funding of the movie, the script and casting and most importantly finding the director plus organising the distribution and marketing.

Funding  

Film industries get funding for their movies from their own cash, bank loans, and through investment from a number of wealthy parties, entrepreneurs or investment specialists who will be willing to give this money if they think the movie will be a good success and provide them with profit.

Scripts

Most of the time, when people send their scripts off to production companies, they would be lucky if someone decides to read it. On the other hand if the script you wrote goes through, it will be read and changed and that script will only be made a reality if you agree with the changes.

Casting

Casting is very important to production companies as it can be a way to promote their image. Production companies, depending on the films genre, might insist on hiring actors like Jonny Depp as he is one of the top 10 most popular actors in the world today. Casting is also important in the transformation of a film as getting the right cast to perform will decide a good movie from a bad one.  Choosing the right actors will make the movie more realistic in the audience’s eyes. For example, the ‘Titanic’ movie was a great success as I believe the production companies chose the right casts which engaged with the audience, and when one of the main actors died, the audience felt sympathy.

Director

Production companies are also in charge of choosing who is going to direct their movie. Justin Lin who is a Taiwanese American film director whose films have grossed $1.2 billion worldwide. He is best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious franchise. These are films similar to the one my group is trying to produce. Some directors also employ actors they think will fit the role in the script perfectly. 

Famous US film productions

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. It was founded in 1918 as Warner Bros. Studios. 

Famous UK Film production

Aardman Animations, Ltd is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1972. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit.

Distribution

Screen Gems is an American film production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation. 

Distribution is normally undertaken by and individual or a company. They’re responsible for the success or failure of the films they release it to the public (cinemas) and for home viewing (DVD, on-demand)

The distribution handles the marketing and promotional sector of the film industry, good marketing and promotion will give maximum exposure to the movie which would be beneficial to the distributing company. To achieve good marketing the distributing company will need to create an array of advertisement campaigns to promote the movie.

Trailer

Types of advertisement (billboard, internet, promos, posters)

Premieres, gossip related to the movie (relationship status -  Twilight)
Sell the copyright issue to cinemas, create more copies of the film for worldwide release

Trailers

The trailers are distributed by the distribution companies, they are the ones that pick what part of the movie will be revealed in the trailer and they are responsible for how successful the advertisement outcome of the movie is.

Cinemas

When the film is completed it is sent to the studio, which makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company. The distribution company decides how many prints of the film to make and then they show the movie to potential buyers representing the theaters. The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to show in their cinema/ theaters and come to an agreement contract. The theaters/ cinemas show the movie for a specified number of weeks.

DVD

The DVD of movies is usually released about 4-5 months after the movie has come out. This is so the distribution companies drain as much money as they can from the customers as they can in that amount of time. Additionally, newly released movies are usually at a high demand to be viewed by the public for about 4-5 months before people start losing interest in the movie or new exciting movies come out and take the spotlight. Let’s take for example the successful movie “Avatar”. It came out on December 18, 2009 but was only release on DVD on April 22 2010. 

Marketing

TV Spot

After the Movie has been realised and if it is a big success, there are things marketing companies can do to gain profit from the movie. Things such as producing soundtracks which was popular in the movie and selling it to the public. They also produce merchandise (toys, cups, bags etc.) relating to popular characters in the movie. For example, the character “Yoda” in the movie “Star wars”.

There are also games produced reflecting on the movies story line. E.g. Spiderman 3 the movies developed to Spiderman 3 ps3, x-box, Psp, Wii (games). It has been developed into a game as customers will like to engage in actions similar to what happened in the actual movie.

Posters

Posters will also be realised to the public if the movie is popular as people us it to decorate their houses (rooms). Poster is also a way for the marketing companies to advertise themselves because if they make the posters available to the public when it’s on high demand, the customers will know their company name and brand and might buy more things from them in the coming future.

For our film opening we would have to be specific in our choice of Production Company as it is a heist film (high action) film and would have to be advertised in a way that would attract our targeted audience. I think our movie would be suitable to be shown in the cinema and after 4-5 months, would be released to the public. An example of a possible distribution company that we could use would be Screen Gems which distributed films like “Takers” which is a heist film about a team of robbers who plots to steal from the bank.

Examples of films and their distribution companies

Fast Five

Produced by -    Neal H. Moritz
                            Vin Diesel
                            Michael Fottrell

Distributed by - Universal Pictures

Box offices -      $626.1 million

Takers

 

Produced by -  William Packer

  Michael Ealy

  T.I.

  Tom Lassally

  Jason Geter

  Gary Gilbert

Distributed by -Screen Gems

Box offices -     $70,587,268

The Bank Job

Produced by -  Chuck Roven

                        Steve Chasman

Distributed by-    Lionsgate Films

Box offices -      US$64,068,159