A2 Media Coursework Blog

Having conducted primary research amongst my preferred target market I have come to a conclusion that my target audience is more female orientated than male. The age range investigated turned out to be primarily those aged 11-20. Not many of my responses knew that short films existed, therefore I feel that instead of focusing on a comedic approach I would make something more socially relative or something that will have an impact on people. Furthermore, my target audience want to see a mixture of drama and a film noir style of movie. This means that the film I will create must be able to grab the audiences attention through the use of a social issue.

Last but not least, My audience would prefer to see the short film on the Internet rather than on television and cinema. This is primarily because my audience will have more access to the Internet within the age range of 11-20.

Film Noir was a cinematographic period which was discovered in the early 40's. The low key black and white lighting helped to reinforce the genre of crime fiction [1] . This traditional lighting helps to keep the audiences attention on the main characters. A dark lighting will be beneficial for the the accentuation of a time period that the movie was set in. Also, it will help to create a mysterious atmosphere. I do plan on completely utilising Film Noir throughout my short film.

Film Noir also served as a reflection on World War 2 at the time in order to make the context relative to the audience's lives. This is an important aspect within any medium, for example, magazines must right about the correct information in order to appeal to their market. Likewise with film. The context of the film must be relative to people's interests in order to appeal to them.

Film Noir tends to use a number of LS's and CU's to show the audience the surroundings and expression of the characters. This helps to establish the audiences attention within the medium. This may be beneficial to my short film, as I want the audience to be able to take in every thing within the frame whilst focusing on the character. Furthermore a variety of angles are used such as the high and low angles. The high angle give whoever is in the frame inferiority, opposed to that of the low angle which gives the actor/actress superiority. This will be useful in the short film in order to establish who has more power over who, which will keep the audience further engaged in the short film.

Another convention that is common amongst the Film Noir genre is that of voice overs and narrations. This feature is in most if not all short films, which will make it applicable to my chosen media. Furthermore, a female dominance within the narrative is included, otherwise known as the femme fatales of the plot. This may be applicable, however my narrative has predominantly a male prominence. In this case I may consider subverting the gender stereotypes and make the short film female prominent.