Unit 11 : Scriptwriting for media products

1. Have needs/ expectations been met for the client brief and target audience?

For this unit i have been asked to write a script for my Unit 41 short film "accidental hitman". The genre of our short film is an action/thriller. A basic synopsis is that the narrative follows a Normal man who faces many different problems along the course of the story as he is forced to take on a job off a hitman for a mysterious client. For this unit we worked in a group so jobs such as finding locations, writing the script were given to multiple members off our group. We would then have to gain feedback for our script from a client. We would then take their feedback to make amends to the final script.

Our target audience for our film is males between the age of 16-25 as the film features characters of a similar age. Therefore these ages we've chosen will relate to the film the most as the characters will be more relatable as they will be dealing with similar issues as characters within the film. The target gender is male as our film features only male actors and the action genre stereotypically focuses on males more than females as it features themes such as violence and strong language. In terms of demographics, the dominant group who would watch the film is urban venturers, as the audience would mainly consist of students and young people who can relate to several characters within the film as they are around the same age group and could be facing similar life problems such as managing money and trying to find a job which are problems our protagonist is dealing with in the diegesis. We would probably target an ABC1 social grade of B or C1, middle class / lower middle class, as this social grade will be earning enough income to see the film and free time to spend on viewing a film at the cinema.

One way in which the script relates to the target audience is through the quote "If you were having money problems why wouldn't you talk to someone, what about your family?" this relates through phrases such as "money problems" our audience can relate as at their age money problems will be a major concern as they may be struggling to mange their income and may not have much income in order to suit their current living situation. It also relates through the word 'family' this will be important towards a younger audience as they will be most likely still living with their parents because of this they will still have a strong connection with their family as it is something they are dependent on to live as they provide food and shelter which someone off a young age and perhaps a low income may struggle to provide themselves.

2. When we talked to the writers group they stated that in order to improve the narrative of our short film we needed to firstly work on adding varied camera angles within dialogue exchange. When we look at the script we have a lot of static shots that dont have a lot movement or depth to them. This is important as by adding varied camera angles as they allow the audience to identify which characters are dominant or subordinate in the narrative. It also keeps the scenes interesting and fluid as they do not feel static and boring so it helps out with the pacing off scenes.

Another improvement from the Writers Group was to use music in order to pace the scenes. Good music can help set the tone of a scene. It helps to define the genre in which the film is set in for example for our main action sequence a good piece of music can help set up the scene for the audience and can help establish the preceding events. Also music helps to pace by having the scene play out according to how the music is orchestrated, it helps to stop the scene being too dragged out by having music dictate how long a scene is. Good music also helps the audience connect too the scene as having slow music can calm the audience while intense music can excite the audience, it helps to ground the scene and adds a layer of depth.

A positive we received from the writers group was that our narrative followed a single protagonist. This is good as it makes it easier for the viewing audience to connect to that characters story as the audience will be following the protagonists story and will be there to experience how the character develops and how the diegesis changes around him. Also because of our chosen target audience of 16-25 yrs our audience can connect with our protagonist easier as he is the same age and dealing with problems that the audience maybe dealing with such as money management and handling money.

3. To recap what the writers group said needed to change, we needed to add a variety of camera angles into scenes with characters conversing. We will address this by reading through scenes with dialogue and add in various angles that could help enhance the scene for the audience. For example in the scene where the protagonist meats the antagonist for the first time we included a low angle shot when the protagonist (John) says "are you Michael" this immediately shows that John is the subordinate in the conversation. Another example of how we corrected this is in the same scene is when the antagonist (Michael) says “I never made you come here I left that decision up to you and here you are.” this shows that Michael is dominant over john and has power over him. This is important as by having these varied camera angles as they allow the audience to identify which characters are dominant or subordinate in the narrative. It also keeps the scenes interesting and fluid as they do not feature static shots over and over again so it helps out with the pacing off scenes.

Another improvement we had was to add music in several scenes in order to add more depth to them. This would help our short film fit in with conventions of the thriller genre as many thriller films use background music to establish the tone of the scene in tandem and introduce important elements to the plot, it also helps to change the audiences mood by misleading them or confusing so the following sequences could come as a complete surprise to the audience. For example during the first scene where John (protagonist) leaves his house to go to the job center we originally didn't have plans to add any music, however after viewing different thriller films we realised that music would be a key element to our film in creating compelling scenes and helps the audience understand what is happening on screen and play with their emotions. We then looked for soundtracks on incompetech, a website that offers royalty free music, we then chose 4 different tracks that we felt would fit into our diegesis. For example in the first scene we added a happy track in order to solidify our protagonists good intentions, however as the film progresses the music becomes more and more intense in order to reflect the situation that our protagonist has been pulled into and the presence of the antagonist.

4. Our script is written in a informal manner this is to make the film feel grounded in the the real world by having characters talk in a way that is natural and/or familiar to a general audience. For the house style of our script we have written this in courier new and in size 12. We used this as it meets the conventions of scripts and looks professional. On our script the scene location and information is justified to the left of the script. In the script dialogue is justified to the center and each row must contain no more than six days. The camera shots are justified to the right of a script. Our script is written in peer to peer as we are not educating anyone. We need to add more shooting script conventions such as the time of day and location descriptions.

5. Our short film is suitable for children under the age of 18 as we decided that our film would have the age rating of 15 for example in the BBFC guidelines for a 15 age rated the violence maybe be strong but should not dwell as in our film there is moderate violence however it does not dwell on detail such as emphasis on injuries or blood so we are within the BBFC guidelines. It also does not include any discriminating language as this type of language would break the BBFC guidelines for a 15 rated film. Our film would be appropriate for pre-watershed scheduling as firstly it does not include any discriminating or mature language that would not be suitable for children to view. Secondly it does not feature any graphic violence that could cause shock or fear in younger audiences the violence shown is not dwelled on and can . Too gain permission for music we would need to contact the owner off the music directly too gain permissions and have legal proof we have rights to use the piece of music however we did not have to contact anyone about permissions as all music we used in our short film is covered under creative commons. We got our music from incompetech (welcome to horrorland).