Digital Technology

Target Audience

My target audience is very conventional to my film genre as teenagers will find a teen genre film more interesting than adults e.g. middle age. I think there is a gap in the teen/documentary market as they all convey the themes e.g. school parties and proms and not the friendship built through school. I am making my short film a bit of a twist on a teen film as I am going to make it a documentary style. A teen plot is typical based on love, rebellion and arguing with parents but I am going to challenge this by making it about a growing friendship. But I am doing a more realistic topic e.g. stress as everyone goes through it. I think I am attracting a mass audience as everyone has been to school and can relate and don't want to exclude certain types of people. 

Where could my short film be shown?
The short film business is quite small therefore there isn't many places to present my short film. However I can show my short film on YouTube and the website 'Short of the Week' but short films are not shown on TV.

Plot Synopsis

A teen documentary evolving around 'Beth Tierney' and her everyday life. Through her everyday life she shows how she doesn't get stressed out about her approaching GCSE's. She does this through her hobbies e.g. dance, art, friends, family and holidays. This film is an educational documentary for teens as it explains how she becomes more relaxed and less stressed through her hobbies.

Storyboard

I chose to draw out my storyboard so I could make it more in-depth and detailed even though this is a rough outline. I have wrote about what kind of camera shots I want to use and some editing techniques. I have shown a rough plot but it will be more clear in the plot synopsis. The locations through the short film are shown in the drawings e.g. main characters bedroom,dance studio and a park.  As there is only 10 pictures in my storyboard it is a summary of what my short film is going to roughly look like.

Claude Levi Strauss Theory

• He studied a lot of myths and legends from around the world.
• In the mid 20th century- Claude and Roland Barthes came together and understood that certain words were more about the understanding of the differences than the actual meaning.
• Words act as symbols for society ideas and meaning of the words was a relationship, than a fixed thing which is the relationship between two opposite words e.g. good and evil, black and white and boy and girl.
• From this theory I have understood that the use of 'binary opposites' is effective on the audience and can be effective in short films to show opposite stereotypes.

Roland Barthes Theory- 5 codes

• Texts are either closed or open.
• Hermeneutic code (HER)- makes you want to know more as they avoids the truth and drops clues and frustrates the audience.
• Proairetic /action code (ACT)- it adds suspense to the text and builds up tension.
• Semantic code (SYM)- it adds additional meaning.
• Symbolic code (REF)- symbolises within a text and contrasts and creates a greater meaning and develops characters personality.
• Referential code (SEM)- refers to anything to the text and adds knowledge through scientific, historical and cultural knowledge. 

Rick Altman Genre Thoery

• He believes that genres usually defined in terms of media language and codes, landscapes, characters or even stars and certain ideologies and narratives.
• He was a theorist and critic and believed:
• a genre is a useful category, because it bridges multiple concerns.
• genres are defined by a film industry and recognised by a mass audience.
• genres have clear, stable identities and borders.
• I have thought about my genre in depth and have thought about my target audience and whether my story and plot would fit in my genres.I can relate this theorist to my found knowledge of teen and documentary film language.

Bordwell and Thompson Theory

• They didn't come up with a complete narrative theory but came up with interesting ideas.
• But believe that chains of events within media from causes effects on a relationship occurring in time and space and a narrative shapes, thinking about where and when it will take place.
• Portraying through using effects to show time and space including flashbacks, forwarding in time, slow motion and speeding up.
• I would like to alter time in my short film e.g. speed up and slow motion as it gives a good effect in the chains of events.