Target Audience

Hey guys! Now that I have researched and define my genre, defining my target audience is the next step before developing the plot outline. 

I am thinking of rating my short film PG-13 because while it does have a twisted ending, my desired target audience does consist of teenagers. I asked 21 teenagers of varying ages between 14-19 what specifically about a drama film is appealing to them. About 1/3 of them chose illnesses, violence came in second, romance in third, and societal problems last. 

The results fit perfectly with the premise of my film because it is mainly about the struggling mental illness of a past mother. Although violence came in second, I do not think I want my character to be violent, especially since I want to humanize her. There will also be no romance, but there will be love. The love I want to portray is not one of a romantic couple, but of a mother-son love that is said to be much stronger. 

This is merely the younger end of the spectrum for my target audience. This film should also be found entertaining by young adults and maybe even adults because they are more likely to have had a kid and be more emotionally invested in the piece. However, the only problem I see is that my target audience is too broad. I still need to create a survey for young adults/ adults, so when I get those results I will make a part two for this blog in order for me to finalize the target audience!

Genre Research

Hey guys! I know in the calendar I made I was supposed to have the plot outline ready, but I decided to move that down to next week and instead focus more on researching. Today I am going to be focusing on drama genre research. 

The drama genre follows a defined narrative plot structure revolving mainly upon the development of characters. Real-life scenarios are portrayed and realistic characters are introduced with the goal of telling an honest story. Inside of the drama genre there lies subgenres such as historical drama, melodrama, period piece, romance, and tragedy. Of these subgenres, my short film falls into tragedy. A  tragedy, as Webster's Dictionary defines it, is “a medieval narrative poem or tale typically describing the downfall of a great man; a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror; the literary genre of tragic dramas.” This originally derives from the Greek language where tragedy meant suffering and devastation of humans. 

Shakespeare's plays were often tragedies; Romeo and Juliet, as well as Hamlet, are just a couple of examples. Romeo and Juliet show the story of two kids in a forbidden relationship who ultimately die for each other. This demonstrates the tragic end of two good characters as a result of love. However, Hamlet demonstrates that although many tragedies include the death of a hero, it is not true of all pieces of this subgenre. This play revolves around revenge as Hamlet goes out to avenge his father by killing his uncle, but they all die in the last act. 

My short film fits into this sub-genre perfectly because it demonstrates the idea of a good character becoming broken by the end. My main character will experience a dramatic end as well as be presented in a realistic manner. The death of a child is a traumatic and emotional situation, which can often lead a person into depression, or in my character's situation, a manic episode. 

Group Meeting

 Today was my first group meeting!

 I got to talk with four other students which all gave me very useful insight into my project. The dilemma I was facing was coming up with scenes to film. My initial idea was for the story to take place in a house where the woman is hiding with the kidnapped child. During the five minutes of the short film, she will be inside the house with the cops surrounding them where she reflects on her life and ultimately turns herself in. However, my classmates explained that it might be a little hard to feel empathy for the main character if she kidnaps a kid from the start. Instead, they suggested that her kidnapping take place at the end, where the audience has already formed an emotional attachment to the character. Another piece of advice they gave me was to use flashbacks sparingly, or else it may confuse the audience from constantly shifting between past and present. 

With all of their advice in mind, I have a much better idea as to how I want to portray this story. The story will begin with her taking a kid around town and when she sees certain objects she will have a brief flashback. Within the first minutes, it will become apparent to the audience that the kid is not hers and she has kidnapped him. The next minute will become overwhelmed with paranoia and guilt as she realizes what she has done. When she goes to the police station to turn herself in, it is revealed that there was no kid. The main character was in fact struggling with mental health issues after dealing with the loss of her son, so this was her coping mechanism. 

I really like this new idea because it is easier to humanize this character as well as give the audience a plot twist. However, I am so indecisive that I will come back on tomorrow and see if there is anything else I want to change!

Calendar

 Before I go any further with this project, I thought it would be necessary to briefly map out my schedule in order to complete everything on time; I also kept a couple of extra spare days just in case anything goes wrong. The calendar begins today and consists of what I will be doing and what my blogs will be about from now until April. 

2/22-2/28- For this week I will be defining my character and plot as well as creating a storyboard to help me plan since I am a visual learner

3/1-3/7- I will write the script/ screenplay for the film, accurately define my target audience in relation to the genre, and cast my actors

3/8-3/14- I am going to define the fonts I will use as well as research and define set design, costuming, and light schemes

3/15-3/21- I will film for 3 days and edit for 3 days after that (These blog posts could be behind the scenes of shooting, editing software information, and obstacles I may have faced)

3/22-3/28- Seeing as this is spring break, I will take this week lightly and focus on researching examples of social media accounts and ad postcards in relation to my TA and genre

3/29-4/4- I'll create the social media accounts and postcards and give myself 2 days for each in order to include detail

4/5-4/12- Final reflections and CCR 

This is only a quick layout so this schedule might change, but this definitely helped me set deadlines and be more organized about all my tasks!

Character Development Research

 Hey guys! Today I am going to be building on the story idea I talked about in my last post. I realized that in order to accurately portray empathy for a villain, there needs to be character development found in the kidnapper throughout the short film. In order to gain more understanding as to how to create such a complex character, I researched the movies, Maleficent and Joker. 

Maleficent is a spinoff from the original movie, Sleeping Beauty.  This movie shows the backstory of the villain, Maleficent, specifically what drove her to become a villain. As a child, she lived an ideal life in the forest where she met a human boy named Stefan. Throughout the years they became closer until Stefan's father, the king, orders him to kill her in order to be named as his successor. Unable to kill her, Stefan betrays Maleficent and cuts off her wings. He becomes king and his wife gives birth to Aurora, whom Maleficent later places the sleeping curse upon. Despite her trying to kill the king and Sleeping Beauty, the audience cannot help but feel pity for her, especially after seeing how she became the villain she is and by who. 

Joker is a movie that presents the story of the Batman villain, the Joker. As a failed comedian Arthur Fleck tries to live his life with the intention of being praised and making a difference. However, seeing as he is mentally ill and has a condition where he laughs uncontrollably when nervous, everyone in society often looked down upon him and viewed him as a joke. It wasn't until Arthur killed someone that he finally began to feel something. He took it upon himself to kill those who ridicule him as he spiraled into darkness. Though he kills many people throughout the movie, Arthur is the product of a mistreated mental illness, which is pitiful among viewers.

The purpose of both these films was to provide a new perspective to a classic movie by humanizing the villain. Maleficent, often seen as a monster, was portrayed as a traumatized and broken creature as a result of loving the wrong person. Arthur Fleck, the Joker, was deemed as a heartless killer when he was actually a mentally ill man broken down by society. What made the audience empathize with these characters was their relatability. Villains are often hated because they appear to be evil and wicked with the intention of causing harm. These films show how there is another side to the story, and present the case of a villain who became bad due to life experiences that many people face such as heartbreak and bullying.  

This definitely helped me understand what it is I need to do for my own movie. Stay tuned for the character development of my own character!

Welcome Back!

Hey guys welcome back to my blog! 

For this year's portfolio project I decided to work on a short film because it's a project I have still not done. Last year's project was a movie intro, and the other options were to do movie trailers or documentary excerpts, all of which I had already done. When completing these projects I often thought of what the ending to these pieces would look like, but since it was never required I could not do it. For this reason, I was excited to choose the short film package, where I am able to develop the beginning, middle, and end of a topic of my choice. However, my problem lied in what I wanted this topic to be. 

After speaking with my teacher we narrowed the genre down to a drama that will make the audience realize that not everything is what it seems. My idea is to present a seemingly villainous character that will be humanized by the end of the film. What I came up with is the following story: A woman has kidnapped a kid and is stuck in her house while she is surrounded by the cops. For the duration of the film, she will be presented as cruel and heartless for having abducted a child, but by the end, it is revealed she is a broken and mentally ill woman who had lost a child of her own. What I think could be the most difficult is being able to make the audience empathize and feel pity for a criminal. In order to do this, I am going to be relying on sad music to set the tone and warm-hued flashbacks to indicate that her life was not always dark.  

I will be posting about this in more detail tomorrow, but I needed to write down what I had so far as a form of brainstorming!