PLANNING: BBFC Certificate

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the film industry in 1912, which is responsible for the classification and censorship of films in the UK.

Classification is the ‘process of giving age ratings and content advice to films and other audio-visual content to help children and families choose what’s right for them and avoid what’s not’.

The BBFC produce and publish guidelines which influence all classification decisions. They are regularly updated, and the product of public consultation, research and experience, reflecting current views on regulation. The guidelines determine the age category of each film: U, 12, 12A, etc. 

After researching these given guidelines on the BBFC website, myself and my production team decided that our film ‘TRU 2 U’ will fit into the 12A-rating: suitable for anyone aged 12 or over to go and see the film unaccompanied. Our BBFC film certificate was produced using PowerPoint to edit our film name onto a template.

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

Audience Profile 

I planned how to reach my specific target audience to know who they are and what their interests are. I created an audience questionnaire to research the age, gender, ethnicity and social class of my target audience. I found out what their media needs and wants are so that I could create a film that will satisfy them. Ultimately in order to market my movie I had to find out the best way to reach my target audience. 

I have looked at Bauer media, NME and Empire to understand how they define audiences. This has helped me to create my own target audience profile. 

1. Who is my primary target audience?

Female 15-35 year olds. 

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

Comedy, Rom-coms, romantic films. 

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky. 

4. What brands do they prefer?

Zara, PrettyLittlething, Boohoo, Apple etc. 

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

It is a coming of age film which explores the difficulties of being a teenage girl. 

6 . Why should my audience watch my film? 

Because it is relatable, but also enjoyable for many people - men as well as women. 

PLANNING: FILM IDEAS

 

PLANNING: TREATMENT

TRU 2 U 

                                                                                                              coming of age movie examples:

For our film we considered a coming-of-age comedy featuring a teenage girl finding her way in life through hardships of friendship and love. Set in a secondary school in surrey, the film follows our protagonist Lara's journey of self discovery.  Lara– a shy, awkward teenage girl discovers the hard way that there’s more to life than popular boys and superficiality. After undergoing a makeover by popular girl Becca, Lara receives attention like she has never received before. The odd-looking outsider transforms from an ‘ugly duckling into a beautiful swan’ with the assistance of her ‘friend’ who later becomes jealous and resentful of the ‘new beautiful and cool Lara’ that she has created as her minion. Audiences ask here ‘is this the real her?’, relaying the idea that people do not need to change in order to fit into societal norms. Lara in turns learns that these people are not her real friends – only on the surface. After losing who she once was, Lara eventually learns the meaning of true friendship and true self-worth and self-identity through discovering her own image and voice. Our film portray the important theme of of growing up and moving from one part of your life to the next that every audience can relate to. 

RESEARCH: TARGET AUDIENCE & SIMILAR FILMS AND COMP LIST

 COMP LIST

COMP LIST by Laura Souter

Kezia Williams, of Entertainment One UK, on the FutureLearn Film Distribution by the Film Distributors Association, speaks about how film distributors build a 'comp list' of comparable films that their target audience would enjoy. 

She highlights the importance of knowing your target audience. She asks questions like "what drives

 them to the cinema" and "what interests do they have". She also says distributors will compare data 

of films that are similar in their genre, selling points and story. The target audience and budget is

 formulated from what box office take was like with previous films and the types of audience that 

saw those films.

 The target audience can be analysed to find the gender gap, and which cinemas

 the target audience usually frequent.

Today we carried out similar research

KEZIA WILLIAMS: Really important to understand who your audience is and what motivates them and what’s going

 to interest them and drive them to go to the cinema. So you start, often, by examining similar films that have been 

released in the past– comparable films is a way in which we refer to them in the industry– and create a set that we

 can then look back at data so we can look at lots of different data and do research, really, on those comparable 

films to identify who the audience was on those films. So it might be that we look at demographic data and think 

about, did it skew more male or more female? What’s the age group that it appeals to?

Does it have multiple different audiences that that can appeal to?

 And there’s lots and lots of cinema-going trends that you can dig into from that comparable set. We’ll also look at

 box office data to understand regionality, to look at the cinema-going skew– so did more people go to a certain 

cinema chain to see these comparable films? Right down to which cinemas performed. So it might be that there’s

 a cinema in London that had a fantastic box office share, and that’s an important aspect for us to consider. And 

then once you really understand who the audience on those comparable films were, you can start to talk about

 the differences and similarities between those films and the film that you’re working on.

PLANNING: ADVANCED PRODUCTION

PLANNING: TASKS 

1. The name of our film: Tru 2 U 
2. The name of our Production Company and our co-production companies: TFL Productions and star studios 
3. The name of the director that will appear in our trailers: Malcolm Duffy
4. The name of the 2-3 main actors that will appear in our trailers: becca, jake, Lara  
5. (Optional)  "From the director of..." 
6. The names of the film festivals where our film will be screened (more festival names here): Puglia festival of love, Venice film festival, London film festival 
7. Pull quotes from reviews etc; wording: The Times, 'witty, brilliant and down-right jolly'  'beautiful coming of age story'
8. Our location recce - take photos and collate in an attractive way + written explanation
9. Our target audience: teenage girls 
10. Social groups and issues in our film... students, young people, romantic high school relationships, coming of age, finding your true self
11. Our props list - photos + stereotypes + clothing
12. Our social media - write down decisions about who is taking responsibility for which platforms: Instagram - Fifi, Twitter- Lulah, Facebook- Laura 
13. Our music - we researched (this type of music) as the background track... and narrowed down our choice to include... 
14. Our call sheets are being written by ... Laura

• how you plan to frame shots - identify establishing shot, wide shots, two- shots, three-shots, CUs, ECUs,
• words of any other inter titles
• release date - decide on wording: 1/07/22

RESEARCH: WHEN ARE TRAILERS SHOWN?

Its important to release a film at a time where it will generate mass success. This is often achieved by considering the time of year. For example, horror/thriller films are most likely to excel in October for the widely celebrated holiday Halloween is celebrated here. This connection will therefore draw upon a wider range of audiences for audiences will want to watch scary films during this holiday period. Similarly,  Mumma Mia did extremely well because of its release in mid July 2018, for the setting and the themes presented within this film can be described as summery. Romantic films in February, Easter films in March etc. A films release date - and month - determine how successful a film will be and how well it will be received by audiences. 

Case studies: 

Toy Story 4 - the last sequel - was released in the summer to appeal to a wide audience.

As it is a sequel, audiences know what kind of conventions they should expect. The positive imagery spoken within the trailer: 'it's all gonna be alright',  'make happy memories' aligns itself with what Disney is famous for: family time, coming together, supporting each other. 

Summer is a perfect time to release a feel good family film which features a summer holiday. As it is released during the summer holidays, this allows for families to visit the cinema and enjoy the experience together. The trailer depicts summery scenes of a fun fair: 'schools out' sort of feeling, which is relatable for children.

Lastly, the song 'God Only Knows' by the beach boys used within the trailer is upbeat and feel good and reminds parents of their own summers when they were younger. This therefore is engaging for older audiences, not solely for the young children demographic. 

The Brink:  

The genre is political which is a main talking point. The film includes real footage which makes it feel more real – this can be described as the USP of the film. Audiences who are interested in the subject will want to become more knowledgeable through watching the film which offers an insight into the truth of the events .The film offers behind the scene footage/unseen evidence which is intriguing to many people. 

This films target audience would be adults because is the subject matter requires existing knowledge of politics and secondly because it is heavy and covers mature themes. The film targets a right wing audience. The film offers big politicians such as Nigel Farage, Piers Morgan, Steve Bannon so allows for audiences to identity with the leaders they support. The films release time is important for it was soon after the elections. This is a successful idea for the election will still be spoken of frequently and prominent to audiences. 

Yesterday: Audiences will love this film because of the iconic music of the Beatles which people love and adore. The target demographic is wide, for older generations will enjoy the music they have grown up to love, as well as younger adults who listen to the Beatles music even today. The USP of this film is 'a new take on the Beatles' which is an interesting idea and will spark interest. 

The film has a 'summer feel' because of the music concerts and the festival vibe depicted within the trailer which involves audiences and makes us feel like we are partaking. Audiences who themselves take part in festivals - Reading, Boardmasters - will identify with these scenes. The blue skies, sea etc remind us of summer and the film is therefore cleverly brought out during summer to create the mass revenue. 

Written by the makers of Love Actually, audiences are also promised comedy. This is clearly shown in the trailer through the short dialogue at the end: 'Hey Jude are you sure?' - 'Yes much better'. As well as the drama which is presented through the romantic relationship between the protagonist and Lily James, comedy creates light relief and is important in drawing an audience into cinemas. Famous actress Lily James alongside extremely famous guest actors Ed Sheeran and James cordon creates 'buzz' from already adoring fans who will continue to support them by watching the film 'Yesterday'. Lots of attention can be generated through a star cast.