Westerner - Established in London white, stylish with multicoloured clothing? Jeans and hoodie or cap? Well known brands of clothing, Nike? Intolerant of Arabs and other cultures? Typical western youth? West London regional accent. Is morally good to a certain extent...(swearing?), influenced heavily by news? Intimidated by unknown and other cultures? - Matt Bninski.
Easterner - Arabic, young or middle aged, full beard almost stereotypical, traditional white robe clothing, skullcap or turban? Withdrawn, faithful to family/father and mother, very faithful in terms of religion due to upbringing, peaceful, confusion to the new culture and new cultural ideals? - Dariush Hassanzadeh-Baboli.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Draft Script
Western character: hello, my name is Philip George Baxter and I live in west London. I am studying psychology at university and my hobbies include sports of all kind, mainly football, staying healthy with exercise, reading popular novels and of course socialising with my friends at the local pub.
Ever since I can remember my mother made me go to church when I was young, I didn’t want to then because I guess it was boring for me, but now that I’ve grown up I realized that my parents wanted me to go to church to raise me properly, and abide by certain rules that make us morally good. You could say that it was one long lesson to create a good person. Since I’ve grown older and wiser I’ve realised the context of which Christianity taught, and that it isn’t there to follow devoutly with no questions asked, but I realised that as long as you can call yourself a good person, no matter what your religion God will love you. This teaching has defiantly helped me understand the meaning of good, especially in such a multicultural society as London.
However all of this terrorism on the news and Muslim bombers does not help to make a good name for non western religions, stereotypes start being made and then muslins are thought of as radicalist bombers and strike fear into the population. I’m just an ordinary member of society, right now I just want to finish my studies at university, after get a well paying job, then I can consider about making and supporting a family, I’m sure the majority of Londoners my age want the same as me.
Eastern character: Walahi, my name is Mohammed son of Jaffa, as a child I was raised in Iraq but as I grew older my parents decided to move to England because my parents did not want me to be conscripted into the army for a few years after the age of 17, and also we had heard stories of how this new land was filled with opportunities with very few problems there was in Iraq
being raised in Iraq with very devout parents, I have grown a strong faith to my religion, I have learnt it helps to keep a person morally good and allows me to try to make myself a better person in preparation for my afterlife. However since I have moved here I have witnessed how much things are different, here in London there are very few strong believers compared to Iraq it’s almost like they don’t care about a divine power or they have more important stuff to worry about. And I hate how arrogant and intolerant these westerners are to other religions and cultures that isn’t their own.
I am in fact quite similar to the average westerner if you think about it really, we both strive to achieve religious enlightenment, both cultures do their best in terms of their education to provide a future of financial prosper, this can then continue to stay close to your family and even start making one of your own. Both people want to live in a social eudemonia and be happy.
Ever since I can remember my mother made me go to church when I was young, I didn’t want to then because I guess it was boring for me, but now that I’ve grown up I realized that my parents wanted me to go to church to raise me properly, and abide by certain rules that make us morally good. You could say that it was one long lesson to create a good person. Since I’ve grown older and wiser I’ve realised the context of which Christianity taught, and that it isn’t there to follow devoutly with no questions asked, but I realised that as long as you can call yourself a good person, no matter what your religion God will love you. This teaching has defiantly helped me understand the meaning of good, especially in such a multicultural society as London.
However all of this terrorism on the news and Muslim bombers does not help to make a good name for non western religions, stereotypes start being made and then muslins are thought of as radicalist bombers and strike fear into the population. I’m just an ordinary member of society, right now I just want to finish my studies at university, after get a well paying job, then I can consider about making and supporting a family, I’m sure the majority of Londoners my age want the same as me.
Eastern character: Walahi, my name is Mohammed son of Jaffa, as a child I was raised in Iraq but as I grew older my parents decided to move to England because my parents did not want me to be conscripted into the army for a few years after the age of 17, and also we had heard stories of how this new land was filled with opportunities with very few problems there was in Iraq
being raised in Iraq with very devout parents, I have grown a strong faith to my religion, I have learnt it helps to keep a person morally good and allows me to try to make myself a better person in preparation for my afterlife. However since I have moved here I have witnessed how much things are different, here in London there are very few strong believers compared to Iraq it’s almost like they don’t care about a divine power or they have more important stuff to worry about. And I hate how arrogant and intolerant these westerners are to other religions and cultures that isn’t their own.
I am in fact quite similar to the average westerner if you think about it really, we both strive to achieve religious enlightenment, both cultures do their best in terms of their education to provide a future of financial prosper, this can then continue to stay close to your family and even start making one of your own. Both people want to live in a social eudemonia and be happy.
Draft Synopsis
My short film will be about two main characters of constrasting religions and cultures within a western society, Britain.
A christian and a muslim will compare western civilizations to an eastern civilization in a documentary style production, showing the two societies' similarities and differences in terms of their practices, opinions, points of views and their aims in life. This will be done visually by filming their different lifestyles but the message of the short film will also be reinforced verbally as if the characters are speaking to the audience in the form of a voice over.
The identifiable British factor or theme will be visible in the mis-en-scene and with its multicultural ethnicity.
The purpous of this short film is to show the differences between both religions/cultures due to the possible foreign upbringing but also to impose the fact that their aims and needs in life are very similar. This short film would promote world peace and the realisation that there are not that many differences between race and cultures and promotes unity.
A christian and a muslim will compare western civilizations to an eastern civilization in a documentary style production, showing the two societies' similarities and differences in terms of their practices, opinions, points of views and their aims in life. This will be done visually by filming their different lifestyles but the message of the short film will also be reinforced verbally as if the characters are speaking to the audience in the form of a voice over.
The identifiable British factor or theme will be visible in the mis-en-scene and with its multicultural ethnicity.
The purpous of this short film is to show the differences between both religions/cultures due to the possible foreign upbringing but also to impose the fact that their aims and needs in life are very similar. This short film would promote world peace and the realisation that there are not that many differences between race and cultures and promotes unity.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Research on Film Magazine Reviews
I will now analyse film magazine reviews from British magazines such as ‘Empire’ or ‘Total film’.
The purpose of a film magazine review, similarly to the film’s posters, is ultimately to increase the audience awareness and revenue that the film will receive. The magazine review tries to engage the audiences who read and the article will try to promote the film by giving the institutes or writers opinion on a film that is usually positive and gives a brief overview of the film synopsis. This allows the audience to gain access to an informed opinion without needing to see the film, depending on what film magazine the audience will be reading will depend on the bias the audience will be subject to.
For example there are different magazine producers that make different style film magazines for different purposes and different target audiences, for example the magazine 'Total' usually reviews all its films in a positive light towards its lower class target audience and is rather casual chatty and simplistic, ‘Total Film also tries to incorporate elements of humour with captions from screenshots of the film. As oppose to ‘Sight and Sound’ in which the language is very sophisticated, formal, academic and leaves rooms for the audience to think and make assumptions.
The main film magazines in the UK include ‘Empire’, ‘Total film’, ‘Sight and Sound’ and all of their reviews are very different in terms of their written styles, layout, content, mode of address and their technical conventions.
like mentioned earlier 'Sight and Sound' is a film magazine for artistic purposes for audiences who have a real passion for films and want quality film reviews that still leaves room for the audiences to make inferences into the film. Compared to other film magazine reviews this magazine contains lots of columns in its layout still including pictures however take up less space in order for a detailed analysis of the film. in this edition of 'Sight and sound i have also noticed a breakout box to the right that contains the directors and views on the film, in this case he explains how his film should be thought of 'beyond the framework of heterosexual vs. homosexual' and his filming techniques and characters he portrays. This magazine review expects that the audience already has knowledge of classic famous films and directors by referencing directors other films and using them in comparison. another thing i have noticed is that 'Sight and Sound' that usually includes an introduction that gives a quick sum up of the film in the first paragraph, from this example we can tell the film is about aids in a group of Parisians possibly from an optimistic point of view. in the centre we have a large picture that is contradicting the theme of the film because we witness two couples dressed casually pouring drinks in possible celebration or on holiday looking very happy and if we keep reading the annotation of the picture we are notified that the main character is later diagnosed with aids.
A different film magazine review is called ' Total Film' which is aimed at a completely different audience, possibly for the younger or less educated audience. in this magazine we can see a very different layout and style, firstly at the top of the page we see a large picture with the magazines logo and section title in the top left corner, on the bottom right of the picture there is a caption for the picture that often makes an attempt to create humour out of the picture. In this example we see a nuclear stricken waste land and the caption says ' after another muddy year, they vowed it would be their last Glastonbury'. Secondly we only have two main columns containing the analysis of the film. The small column on the left of the magazine is called a call to action in which the magazine tries to include the audience by suggesting other films of the same genre or category and directs the audience to an internet site with more reviews.
One good idea in this magazine film review that I have noticed that no other magazines include is a predicted interest curve where the magazine tried to show the quality and entertainment of the film throughout its duration in the form of a line graph.
By analysing these different magazine film reviews I have noticed a few typical conventions that always occur in magazine film reviews depending on the company. However in a serious magazine film review directed at an intellectual audience the magazine will always include certain conventions such as the magazines 'house font' which is the company’s choice of font or fonts that don’t change over time. These are the typical technical codes and conventions for the magazine film review media:
Section title
Headline
Strap lines/taglines
Introduction
Subheadings
Breakout boxes
Columns, usually in three
Pictures
Graphics and logos
Font and typography
Call to action
Issue information
Subheadings for images
The purpose of a film magazine review, similarly to the film’s posters, is ultimately to increase the audience awareness and revenue that the film will receive. The magazine review tries to engage the audiences who read and the article will try to promote the film by giving the institutes or writers opinion on a film that is usually positive and gives a brief overview of the film synopsis. This allows the audience to gain access to an informed opinion without needing to see the film, depending on what film magazine the audience will be reading will depend on the bias the audience will be subject to.
For example there are different magazine producers that make different style film magazines for different purposes and different target audiences, for example the magazine 'Total' usually reviews all its films in a positive light towards its lower class target audience and is rather casual chatty and simplistic, ‘Total Film also tries to incorporate elements of humour with captions from screenshots of the film. As oppose to ‘Sight and Sound’ in which the language is very sophisticated, formal, academic and leaves rooms for the audience to think and make assumptions.
The main film magazines in the UK include ‘Empire’, ‘Total film’, ‘Sight and Sound’ and all of their reviews are very different in terms of their written styles, layout, content, mode of address and their technical conventions.
like mentioned earlier 'Sight and Sound' is a film magazine for artistic purposes for audiences who have a real passion for films and want quality film reviews that still leaves room for the audiences to make inferences into the film. Compared to other film magazine reviews this magazine contains lots of columns in its layout still including pictures however take up less space in order for a detailed analysis of the film. in this edition of 'Sight and sound i have also noticed a breakout box to the right that contains the directors and views on the film, in this case he explains how his film should be thought of 'beyond the framework of heterosexual vs. homosexual' and his filming techniques and characters he portrays. This magazine review expects that the audience already has knowledge of classic famous films and directors by referencing directors other films and using them in comparison. another thing i have noticed is that 'Sight and Sound' that usually includes an introduction that gives a quick sum up of the film in the first paragraph, from this example we can tell the film is about aids in a group of Parisians possibly from an optimistic point of view. in the centre we have a large picture that is contradicting the theme of the film because we witness two couples dressed casually pouring drinks in possible celebration or on holiday looking very happy and if we keep reading the annotation of the picture we are notified that the main character is later diagnosed with aids.
A different film magazine review is called ' Total Film' which is aimed at a completely different audience, possibly for the younger or less educated audience. in this magazine we can see a very different layout and style, firstly at the top of the page we see a large picture with the magazines logo and section title in the top left corner, on the bottom right of the picture there is a caption for the picture that often makes an attempt to create humour out of the picture. In this example we see a nuclear stricken waste land and the caption says ' after another muddy year, they vowed it would be their last Glastonbury'. Secondly we only have two main columns containing the analysis of the film. The small column on the left of the magazine is called a call to action in which the magazine tries to include the audience by suggesting other films of the same genre or category and directs the audience to an internet site with more reviews.
One good idea in this magazine film review that I have noticed that no other magazines include is a predicted interest curve where the magazine tried to show the quality and entertainment of the film throughout its duration in the form of a line graph.
By analysing these different magazine film reviews I have noticed a few typical conventions that always occur in magazine film reviews depending on the company. However in a serious magazine film review directed at an intellectual audience the magazine will always include certain conventions such as the magazines 'house font' which is the company’s choice of font or fonts that don’t change over time. These are the typical technical codes and conventions for the magazine film review media:
Section title
Headline
Strap lines/taglines
Introduction
Subheadings
Breakout boxes
Columns, usually in three
Pictures
Graphics and logos
Font and typography
Call to action
Issue information
Subheadings for images
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Research on Film Posters
I will now analyse a few film posters especially into their technical conventions and characteristics. The purpose of a film poster is to advertise the product to the target audience, the poster tries to encourage the audience to view the film and the poster would be very much for the financial, commercial processes of the film such as incorporating third party endorsements to increase the products revenue being the core reason and purpose of the posters. These film posters appear in dense public areas to increase the amount of people that see the posters, this can include in the underground, on billboards, busses, newspapers anywhere that the advertisers can get a range of audiences or the target audience to see the poster. The more the film producers pay out for adverts in more forms of media will increase the amount of people that are aware of the film and a range of audiences using different forms of media. Film posters alert the audience to the genre and/or theme of the film and let the audience recognize popular actors/stars casted, with an indication of the plot or events, this could influence the audiences opinion of the film after seeing the poster and effect the audiences will to see the film.
A less contemporary poster which is more of a classic Hollywood mainstream film is the official star wars poster. I believe that this classic poster is a good example of the producer’s attempts to interest the 1977 audience into this new futuristic space theme. Similarly to the gladiator poster this film also has a tagline saying 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' this is to let the audience know a bit about the films theme. Next I have noticed that the majority of film posters have the main character or protagonist on the films poster, this is often done to alert the audience to the actors, if the audience likes the work of certain actors, these actors will influence whether the audience would like to see the film. From the background the audience infers future information about the theme or genre of the film from the spaceships, robots, and the bright ' futuristic' light. As we move down the poster we see the title of the film in its trademark font that has developed over the years, also used in the credits of the film, and below we can find the billing block that includes the actors, producers and third party corporations . However, I noticed this poster dedicates a lot of space for the billing block and less space for the title of the film to accompany room for the montage of pictures, this is not usual in contemporary posters, they usually have the title clearly visible and the billing block very small.
Over time the posters were merely to advertise a mainstream film that was 'coming soon' and the aim of the poster was to interest the viewer, and recently there has been an increase in the attention for the advertising market in film posters. This attention is causing the conventions of film posters to develop in order to sell the product more efficiently to the audience; one method of this is called specific audience advertising which is explained below.
For the most effective advertising in posters, producers create a range of specific audience posters designed to sell the film most efficiently by targeting different groups within the audience such as age or gender. For example two posters of the same film could be released with one poster having a pink backdrop that would be aimed at girls; the other would have a blue backdrop targeting boys.
A good example of this is by the producers of the Harry Potter posters:
In this more contemporary example of the official 'Gladiator' poster I have noticed a few things that the majority of other mainstream film posters share in common.
Starting from the top working down, I noticed a catchphrase from the film known as a tagline, or slogan that sums up part or the whole film to the audience. Between this tagline we have our main character Russell Crowe with a sword and roman armour with an extra diagetic gaze pictured at a low angle suggesting power, this extra diagetic gaze involves the character looking directly at the camera in order to engage the audiences. Secondly we can guess the theme of this film by the characters armour and the background where we can see part of the Collusium. Underneath we have the names of the director and the main character in appropriate style and font to the roman era and finally in much larger letters we see the title of the film 'Gladiator'. Underneath the title in the small print are producers, advertisers and other third party corporations.
From researching a range of existing mainstream film posters I believe I can clearly identify the technical conventions of a film poster. I have noticed that in all film posters semiotics are used, this is the messages or meanings we can understand from the film poster from looking at the signs, symbolism, written messages and visual images. This is how the producers of the poster allow the audience to quickly process a lot of information about the film from visual imagery in the short space of seconds that people will spend looking at the poster. For this reason advertisers consider all the visual imagery, colours, titles fonts and even layout with the aim to increase the chances that the people that see the poster will also go and see the film.
There are many codes within film posters. Technical codes are considered when producing a film poster and this includes the use in the construction of a text, e.g. if there is a tagline included or film title or billing block. There are film posters that do not have a tagline or even a visible title.
Secondly written codes are considered carefully, this is the range of contexts in which words are used in the text itself, e.g. the actual words themselves that create a tagline or title.
And finally the last codes are symbolic codes, these are the system of signs embedded within the poster in the forms of connotations of images, colours used and even the font style. All of the technical conventions of film posters have to be considered within technical, written and symbolic codes to make sure the right audience is being targeted and that the audience is making right inferences into the film poster and about the film.
Through extended film poster research the typical conventions of a film poster include:
Names of the main actors or popular stars.
A picture/s of the main actor or an iconic image that is linked to the film.
The film Title.
A tagline, slogan or caption about the film.
Background imagery.
The billing block.
A less contemporary poster which is more of a classic Hollywood mainstream film is the official star wars poster. I believe that this classic poster is a good example of the producer’s attempts to interest the 1977 audience into this new futuristic space theme. Similarly to the gladiator poster this film also has a tagline saying 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' this is to let the audience know a bit about the films theme. Next I have noticed that the majority of film posters have the main character or protagonist on the films poster, this is often done to alert the audience to the actors, if the audience likes the work of certain actors, these actors will influence whether the audience would like to see the film. From the background the audience infers future information about the theme or genre of the film from the spaceships, robots, and the bright ' futuristic' light. As we move down the poster we see the title of the film in its trademark font that has developed over the years, also used in the credits of the film, and below we can find the billing block that includes the actors, producers and third party corporations . However, I noticed this poster dedicates a lot of space for the billing block and less space for the title of the film to accompany room for the montage of pictures, this is not usual in contemporary posters, they usually have the title clearly visible and the billing block very small.
Over time the posters were merely to advertise a mainstream film that was 'coming soon' and the aim of the poster was to interest the viewer, and recently there has been an increase in the attention for the advertising market in film posters. This attention is causing the conventions of film posters to develop in order to sell the product more efficiently to the audience; one method of this is called specific audience advertising which is explained below.
For the most effective advertising in posters, producers create a range of specific audience posters designed to sell the film most efficiently by targeting different groups within the audience such as age or gender. For example two posters of the same film could be released with one poster having a pink backdrop that would be aimed at girls; the other would have a blue backdrop targeting boys.
A good example of this is by the producers of the Harry Potter posters:
This audience specific poster is aimed towards the young female audience by advertising the narrative of a possible fantasy based romantic theme that could be interesting for the fans once noticing the second protagonist from the trio in the background indicating a plot of romance. This can be supported by the 'lovely' pink lanterns shining above that wouldn’t be in another audience specific poster directed at or even the official release poster. This is the official film poster for ‘Harry Potter and the half blooded prince'. In this poster the 'Harry Potter' logo isn't even completely visible which is a different option, this is because of the familiarity with this franchise. I also noticed that in this official poster the release date is made clearly visible, a marketing technique.
In this more contemporary example of the official 'Gladiator' poster I have noticed a few things that the majority of other mainstream film posters share in common.Starting from the top working down, I noticed a catchphrase from the film known as a tagline, or slogan that sums up part or the whole film to the audience. Between this tagline we have our main character Russell Crowe with a sword and roman armour with an extra diagetic gaze pictured at a low angle suggesting power, this extra diagetic gaze involves the character looking directly at the camera in order to engage the audiences. Secondly we can guess the theme of this film by the characters armour and the background where we can see part of the Collusium. Underneath we have the names of the director and the main character in appropriate style and font to the roman era and finally in much larger letters we see the title of the film 'Gladiator'. Underneath the title in the small print are producers, advertisers and other third party corporations.
From researching a range of existing mainstream film posters I believe I can clearly identify the technical conventions of a film poster. I have noticed that in all film posters semiotics are used, this is the messages or meanings we can understand from the film poster from looking at the signs, symbolism, written messages and visual images. This is how the producers of the poster allow the audience to quickly process a lot of information about the film from visual imagery in the short space of seconds that people will spend looking at the poster. For this reason advertisers consider all the visual imagery, colours, titles fonts and even layout with the aim to increase the chances that the people that see the poster will also go and see the film.
There are many codes within film posters. Technical codes are considered when producing a film poster and this includes the use in the construction of a text, e.g. if there is a tagline included or film title or billing block. There are film posters that do not have a tagline or even a visible title.
Secondly written codes are considered carefully, this is the range of contexts in which words are used in the text itself, e.g. the actual words themselves that create a tagline or title.
And finally the last codes are symbolic codes, these are the system of signs embedded within the poster in the forms of connotations of images, colours used and even the font style. All of the technical conventions of film posters have to be considered within technical, written and symbolic codes to make sure the right audience is being targeted and that the audience is making right inferences into the film poster and about the film.
Through extended film poster research the typical conventions of a film poster include:
Names of the main actors or popular stars.
A picture/s of the main actor or an iconic image that is linked to the film.
The film Title.
A tagline, slogan or caption about the film.
Background imagery.
The billing block.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Audience Research
The BBFC guidelines state that:
18+ Certification
LANGUAGE: There may be frequent use of strong language (eg 'fuck'). But the strongest terms (e.g. 'cunt') will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
IMITABLE TECHNIQUES: Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
DRUGS: Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse
12+ Certification
Films certified 12 often have mild restrictions to strong language (eg 'fuck') therefore such words have a tendency to be used infrequently and racist remarks are a great cause for concern. These films are very strict on the violence presented in them. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, and any misuse of drugs must be limited and should not be promoted or instructional.
15+ Certification
In such films any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, use of illegal drugs or any other activity likely to encourage bad behaviour are permitted however they have to be exceptionally justified by the content of the film.
I am aiming to target an audience of young adults and youth at the ages of 15+. In such films we often see an interpretation of youth today, therefore allowing the aimed audience to relate to the film. These films represent teenage life and therefore attracting them to be interested in the film by directly relating, this teenage audience is also a good group to introduce educational short films that could tackle difficult issues but have a moral or a hidden meaning to the short film.
My target audience of 15+ will be slightly less informed then 18+ which gives me the opportunity to inform them on the world they are growing in, at this age the youth is finding their legs through puberty into adulthood, a time where a youth feels independent but also confused by hormone fluctuations. This part of their life in which by this time they have many social friends/groups and may be introduced to new things and ideas for example alcohol. I believe that this age can be very important in deciding the future in terms of balancing out the youth’s social life and work, and that it is good at this age to start being informed and pointed in the right direction in life.
If my target audience was 18+ then the effectiveness of these educational type short films would decrease in my opinion, younger minds are easier to influence and mould. Therefore according to the BBFC's guidelines, my portrayal of violence, offensive language, injury and blood must be limited or justified by the content of the film and the portrayal of drugs must be limited, not promoted or instructional. This is especially true when educational videos are shown to the class by teachers, the teachers are cautious of what messages are portrayed to the students and the typical way a teacher decides whether a film is appropriate is the age certificate of the film. If I make an educational short film I must be careful of what concepts or messages I portray to my certificate age group to make sure the content is appropriate for my audience.
In terms of my target audience I also have to consider how they would gain access to my product, in this generation the youth/teenagers are experiencing less contemporary medias such as the newspaper, radio and even television, and replacing these media institutions with the internet due to its wide range off access and compatibility with all medias. Now convergence is allowing all form of media on the internet from radio to newspapers that can be accessed all over the world. Therefore to achieve the highest viewing rate for my target audience it would be best if my production was made available online possibly via the video sharing site http://www.youtube.com/
Another way my product could be viewed is at short film conventions or competitions, this method will allow contract signers and advertisers to want to get involved in my products funding or distribution.
18+ Certification
LANGUAGE: There may be frequent use of strong language (eg 'fuck'). But the strongest terms (e.g. 'cunt') will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
IMITABLE TECHNIQUES: Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
DRUGS: Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse
12+ Certification
Films certified 12 often have mild restrictions to strong language (eg 'fuck') therefore such words have a tendency to be used infrequently and racist remarks are a great cause for concern. These films are very strict on the violence presented in them. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, and any misuse of drugs must be limited and should not be promoted or instructional.
15+ Certification
In such films any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, use of illegal drugs or any other activity likely to encourage bad behaviour are permitted however they have to be exceptionally justified by the content of the film.
I am aiming to target an audience of young adults and youth at the ages of 15+. In such films we often see an interpretation of youth today, therefore allowing the aimed audience to relate to the film. These films represent teenage life and therefore attracting them to be interested in the film by directly relating, this teenage audience is also a good group to introduce educational short films that could tackle difficult issues but have a moral or a hidden meaning to the short film.
My target audience of 15+ will be slightly less informed then 18+ which gives me the opportunity to inform them on the world they are growing in, at this age the youth is finding their legs through puberty into adulthood, a time where a youth feels independent but also confused by hormone fluctuations. This part of their life in which by this time they have many social friends/groups and may be introduced to new things and ideas for example alcohol. I believe that this age can be very important in deciding the future in terms of balancing out the youth’s social life and work, and that it is good at this age to start being informed and pointed in the right direction in life.
If my target audience was 18+ then the effectiveness of these educational type short films would decrease in my opinion, younger minds are easier to influence and mould. Therefore according to the BBFC's guidelines, my portrayal of violence, offensive language, injury and blood must be limited or justified by the content of the film and the portrayal of drugs must be limited, not promoted or instructional. This is especially true when educational videos are shown to the class by teachers, the teachers are cautious of what messages are portrayed to the students and the typical way a teacher decides whether a film is appropriate is the age certificate of the film. If I make an educational short film I must be careful of what concepts or messages I portray to my certificate age group to make sure the content is appropriate for my audience.
In terms of my target audience I also have to consider how they would gain access to my product, in this generation the youth/teenagers are experiencing less contemporary medias such as the newspaper, radio and even television, and replacing these media institutions with the internet due to its wide range off access and compatibility with all medias. Now convergence is allowing all form of media on the internet from radio to newspapers that can be accessed all over the world. Therefore to achieve the highest viewing rate for my target audience it would be best if my production was made available online possibly via the video sharing site http://www.youtube.com/
Another way my product could be viewed is at short film conventions or competitions, this method will allow contract signers and advertisers to want to get involved in my products funding or distribution.
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