Angel BirdTreatment

Production:The product we will make is a 5 minute short film. It will be released in the summer on approximately August 1st, to meet the needs of the target audience. This is because our target audience are between the ages of 10 and 30 years old. We decided that the release date would be during the summer so that children and teenagers would be on their summer holidays and would be able to view our short film together with their family. We would mainly advertise on the internet with sites such as YouTube and Twitter. This is because our target audience spend quite a large amount of time on social media, therefore there in an enhanced chance of them seeing adverts for our product. Additionally, the features of YouTube will enable us to advertise our product before the trailers of other films of a similar genre. This, again, will maximize the chance of our target audience seeing the adverts for our product as they are likely to use sites like this nearly every day. We may also use adverts in magazines to promote our product as teenagers and those in their twenties tend to read magazines weekly to keep up with news and gossip.

Genre:the genre of our 5 minute short film is a mixture of adventure and fantasy, with some elements of a drama. We decided to make our production an adventure and fantasy because this is the genre which usually attracts the younger members of our target audience. An adventure film is one which explores the unknown, and usually contains an unusual location. Our production explores the feeling of unknown as our main character is thrown into the world of the past that she is unfamiliar with. Additionally, another main genre explored in our short film is fantasy as the plot has a magical element in which our main character is transported into another time. As adventure and fantasy are the main two genres that our film falls within, we wanted to include many of the conventions, so that our younger target audience will be captivated. However, for the older members of our target audience, we will also include elements of drama as our film is quite character driven and contains some intrigue as to why our main character is being chased by two female antagonists at the beginning of our production.

Duration: The duration of our film is five minutes as our task was to produce a short film. As it is five minutes, we need to have a story that captivates the audience throughout the entire production, so that they do not stop watching halfway through.

Target Audience:The target audience for our production are between the ages of 10 and 30. We want our film to appeal to both genders and a quite varied age group. However, we are aware that as all of our characters are female, it is likely that our short film will be more relatable to females. As there arent any main themes that are unsuitable for a young audience, we decided to target the younger generation as well. This is why we decided to have a lot of conventions of adventure and fantasy, as these are genres that appeal to a younger audience. However, so as to target the older end of our audience, we made sure to include some elements of drama and intrigue to keep them captivated by the story. Our sequence is more aimed at a mass audience because the genre of adventure and fantasy tend to appeal to a wide variety of people. I have researched what kind of posters adventure/fantasy films usually have so I can make sure it is appealing to the audience. Additionally, another member of my group has done genre research, so that as a group we can make sure there are some recognisable codes and conventions in our production.Context: As a group we planned to advertise the film on YouTube clips, adverts on the television and in magazines. This was to make sure that the target audiences are the main people who would definitely see the adverts. For example the adverts on YouTube will be strategically placed before clips of other fantasy and adventure film trailers therefore the people watching this will most likely be the target audience. The short film will be gripping the whole way through to captivate the audience for the full five minute sequence. We will make sure to use different techniques to represent the confusion of our main character which will create intrigue within our audience. We wanted to include many codes and conventions of a fantasy/adventure film to attract our target audience, yet we didnt want to make it too stereotypical as then it may be predictable to certain members of our audience.

Outline: The short film starts with a blonde haired girl being chased down the street by two female antagonists. She runs around a corner and into her house. Once in her house, however she can still hear shouting so she gets into her wardrobe and shuts the doors. The surroundings go black and the audience are unable to see or hear anything expect the girls heartbeat. All of a sudden she opens her eyes and it is revealed she has woken up in a garden in the 1970s. Here she tries to figure out how she got there and why she has appeared to change clothes, with the help of a brown haired girl she meets who claims to be her friend. She then opens up to her and tells the girl why she was being chased. Time passes in the garden as the girls talk. Eventually, the blonde haired girl falls asleep, and wakes up in her wardrobe. She climbs out and looks at her watch, revealing that she has only been in the wardrobe for 2 minutes. She hears shouting from outside, looks out of her window and sees the girls who were chasing her. Then, an older woman comes up to the girls and tells them to leave her alone, which they do. The older woman then looks up to where she can see the blonde haired girl in the window. She waves to her, revealing a friendship bracelet. This prompts the blonde haired girl to realise that this is the girl she met when in the garden, just in the present day.

Character breakdown:

The Brown Haired Girl in the Garden (Clarissa): Marisa Cox, aged 17, white, female, protagonist. This is the girl who Alexa meets in the garden when she travels back to the 1970s. They talk and get to know each other a little bit. She saves Alexa from the two girls who were bullying her when Alexa returns to the present day.

The Blonde Haired Girl who travels back in Time (Alexa): Amy Cole, aged 17, white, female. This is who the production is revolved around. She is the first person who the audience see in the sequence, and relate to. She travels back in time and meets Clarissa.

The Two Female Antagonists (unnamed): aged approximately 17, female. These girls play a small, yet essential role in our sequence, as it is because of them Alexa feels the need to climb into her wardrobe and escape. They are present at the beginning and end of our short film.

Visual elements:

Lighting: the lighting in our sequence will be fairly low key at the beginning of our sequence when Alexa enters her house to highlight the fact that she is in danger and feeling scared and isolated to the audience. However, when filming, we need to make sure the lighting is high enough to see the characters clearly. Near the middle of our sequence, when Alexa wakes up in the garden, the lighting is high key to show the change in setting and emphasis the fact that Alexa is safe in this environment. During the ending of our short film, when Alexa returns to the present day the lighting will be a mixture of high and low key to show that she is back in the environment to start with, yet it infers that she has some hope of solving her problem. This is later revealed to the audience as the older version of Clarissa who helps Alexa at the end of the sequence. To get this balance we may be able to manipulate the lighting slightly during the editing process.

Camerawork: we are planning to use a variety of shots, angles and movements to entice the audience the whole way through our sequence. We will use many close up shots of Alexa at the beginning of the sequence to show the audience her fear and help them relate to her character. However, during the middle of the sequence, we intend to use a point of view shot and dutch tilt to help the audience relate to Alexas confusion. We will place the shots carefully so information is revealed about the story and setting which will preserve the suspense so that the ending has maximum impact on the audience.

Editing: to edit our footage we will use Final Cut Pro. When editing, we will put an effect on when Alexa is in the garden which changes the colour of the footage. This will highlight the change of time to the audience.

Setting: our production is set in both the house of our protagonist, Alexa and the garden of our other protagonist, Clarissa. These locations will hopefully help our audience relate to their characters as they can see where each character spends their time. For example, Alexas room. We aim to try and make the character of Alexa most relatable to the audience as this is who the sequence mainly revolves around. Actors: Amy will play the role of Alexa as she is experienced in drama and as she is part of our group, she knows how we want the part to be played. Marisa will play the role of Clarissa. Marisa enjoys drama so will be suitable for the role.

Props: the main props we will use are the picnic set up which will highlight the change in location. Additionally the costumes will allow the audience to figure out that the time period has clearly changed. Near the end of the sequence, the main prop is Clarissas friendship bracelet that help the audience realise that she has come to help Alexa in the present day.

Costume: the costume of Clarissa will be typical clothes from the time period, however Alexa will alternate between modern day wear and clothing from the time period. This is to highlight the change in location during our sequence, and will also help the audience gain more information from the surroundings which allows them to try and figure which time period Alexa is in.

Audio elements:

Music: we are going to use non diegetic score music in the background of our production to enhance tension and build atmosphere throughout. We may also use diegetic music when in the garden to highlight the time period to the audience.

Effects: we will add effects after the footage has been filmed, such as birds singing in the garden and the shouts of Alexas bullies near the end of the sequence.

Institutions: Our production company is called Dead Air Productions. We wanted a name that would relate to television or film in some way. Dead Air relates to television as it is a reference to the static shown on a TV screen when there is nothing broadcasting. The logo we made is shown to the right.

The logo depicts the static within an old television screen with the words, Dead Air written across the middle. Our film will be distributed on YouTube because it is a short film so is likely to capture the attention of the target audience on this platform. Additionally, as the budget of our film is not very high we will be unable to distribute it in cinemas. As audiences can access YouTube at any time of the day this will help to target people who work (our socioeconomic groups are C1, C2, D and E) therefore can watch it when they have spare time. We decided not to target a higher socio-economic class as if the person has a more important job then they probably wouldnt have time to watch videos on YouTube in the evening as they would either be completing work or working from home.

Representations: We have decided to include some main conventions of the adventure and fantasy genre as this is what will captivate the younger members of our target audience. However, we have also decided to include elements of drama to intrigue the older members of our audience. Additionally, as we want the audience to relate to the character of Alexa most, we made her look like the stereotypical victim: young, with blonde hair. This creates sympathy for her character at the start of the sequence.