Questionnaire

So, I have created a questionnaire to hand out to some people in order to gain a bit more knowledge of what my target audience want and so I can create some audience profiles. 

Here is my final questionnaire and my reasons for asking each question. 

Question number 1 asks the gender of the person filling in the questionnaire. Obviously I asked this question to find out whether the person is male or female. This will help as i can then break down my results into male and female. My target audience is mainly female however I am obviously not ignoring the male opinion!

Question number 2 asks the age of the person filling in the questionnaire. This question was obviously asked to find out the persons age. By finding this out I can target my opening sequence to suitable age groups.

Question 3 asks which social class the person belongs to. Social realist films normally follow the lives of those in the working class bracket and so this would be the obvious class to aim the opening sequence at however I think that the people in the middle class bracket would also enjoy this film.

Question 4 asks which genre you prefer to watch. I am asking this so that I can build up my character profiles and also to see how popular social realisms are.

Question 5 asks where you like to shop for your clothes. This also helps me to build up my audience profiles but it could also reinforce which social class this persons comes from. This could help me get an idea of what my characters could wear and what sort of style they could have.

Question 6 asks what you enjoy doing in your spare time and question 7 asks why. These questions are also to help with my character profiles but it could also give me some ideas for the general hobbies for me to focus my characters lives around. 

Questions 8, 9 and 10 are asking you which type of music and bands you like and how old you like the music to be. This will give me an idea of which types of music to use, if I decide to use music within my opening sequence. These questions will also help me to produce my audience profiles. 

Question 11 asks which social realist films you have seen. This will give me an idea of who watches social realist films and whether they watch the ones which are more heard of or whether they have watched a range of them.

And finally, question 12 asks you which social issue you would prefer to see in a social realist film. Although I have already chosen my main idea, if it becomes clear through this questionnaire that something else is considered more important to the people I have asked then I can add it in as a smaller issue or I may even have time to change my idea.

The conventions of a social realism

These are the conventions of a social realist film. I am going to stick to these conventions when producing my opening sequence as I know that it will make my work more effective.


When watching the opening sequences of 3 different social realist films I noticed that shot types and the way you use your camera is very important. Social realisms use a range of shots. They can also be quite slow or fast depending on the mood of your opening sequence and also your music. The camera can also be used free hand, in a sense that it makes your opening sequence look more gritty and could also been seen as a point of view shot. This is England uses a range of camera angles which really helps the story to be told. 
Also, during the opening sequence of many social realist films not much of the story is given away. This leaves the audience open to ask questions within their minds which keeps them hooked and wanting to watch on to find out how the story evolves.
Many if not all of the characters in social realism films come from working class backgrounds. This convention is very, very important as it really allows you to get across some of the 'rough' lifestyles some of these people may lead. Kidulthood uses this convention very well. Immediately we know that a lot of these children come from 'rougher' areas. This makes us feel more emotion for them.
Throughout the opening sequences there is a lot of speech. This allows the audience to know exactly what the characters within the film know. This also lets the audience find out quite a lot of information about the characters if you, the producer, want them too!
One of the most important conventions of a social realist film is definitely location. The area in which you film needs to be quite 'run down' or 'rough' which unfortunately is going to be difficult here in Bury St Edmunds. All social realist films do this well as it is such an important convention however, I think that Kidulthood is also a perfect example for this. 
Editing is also used very carefully in the opening sequences. Not always are the audience presented with straight cuts. Sometimes yes, but only when it is effective. Otherwise we see cross dissolves or fades and the camera also uses zooms. Kidulthood, again, is a really good example of this, the camera techniques make it look like we are surveying the children which is appropriate for the story as there is a lot of crime involved. 

Decision time!

Although I like all the ideas I have had I think I am going to base my opening sequence on the idea of bullying and intimidation towards families because they have a disability. 

Although I don't have someone with a disability to use I think the best way around this would be to not show the disabled person. I decided against the divorce idea because I don't think it is quite 'gritty' enough. I decided against the gang culture, and social group violence because I think it's a more obvious social issue and so i'm worried my ideas wont seem original. 

To start I was thinking I could have a shot of someone cleaning a word off of someones front door. Maybe the audience could then be taken back in time to different events happening which would make the viewer feel uncomfortable but it would also make them feel emotion for the characters being targeted. I know this is only a rough outline and it doesn't contain much detail but I am going to conduct a questionnaire to find out a bit more of more target audiences feelings towards this issue etc. My target audience is in fact, women aged between 25 and 40. The women I am targeting are white women, of a middle class background.

Research into disability...

I just found this article and felt it was appropriate to one of the story lines I am thinking about for my opening sequence. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/8263027.stm 

Research into divorce...

I have just found this article which I think fits with one of my possible ideas of a farther killing his children because he reacted badly to he divorce his wife asked for. This is not the original news story I had thought about however this is very similar.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7650163.stm

Research into social class bullying and gang culture...

I have just found another article which I think is appropriate to my second idea. This is the news story of the radio interview I had previously heard and where my idea came from.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7316601.stm

Horror, social realism, horror, social realism, horror, social realism?!?!?

I originally felt that I wanted to use the horror genre for my opening sequence because I thought that it would be easier to a find location etc however after looking at the opening sequences of horror movies I remembered how much I hate horror films! I also noticed that they were all very similar to each other and so I think that it would be hard to get across originality. 
So, I have made a decision to go with a social realist opening sequence. 
I am still not sure on my final storyline however I have had a few ideas. 


I was trying to think of some issues in today's society which I could focus my opening sequence around. I tried to remember issues I had heard on the news and this is what I remember. 
I recall hearing of mothers who take their own lives and their disabled child's life because of severe bullying in their neighbourhood. I thought this would be a really good issue to focus on because it hasn't been focused on before but also because it's something, I think, people need to be more aware of. I don't think many people understand how the mother is feeling and how low she must have got in order for her to take her own child's life and so these are some of the feelings I would like to get across if I decide to use this idea. 






My next idea came to me whilst I was listening to the radio. A mother was talking a few years after the death of her child. Her daughter was killed by a group of 5 youths as she walked home with her boyfriend. She was killed because she was a goth. I think that this would be a good issue to focus on because many people will see gang culture crimes and social class bullying happen every day in different extremities. 

As I was speaking to my mum about this earlier she gave me another idea. Divorce and it's effects. We thought about that man who jumped off of a balcony with his children because his wife had filed for divorce. We think that this would be a good issue for a social realist opening sequence because it is also something that people experience all of the time but also because It's something that doesn't have to become very clear within the first few minutes.






All of these ideas, I think, are suitable for an opening sequence under the genre of social realism.