Media preliminary task

Audience Research

Ideal actors

Im looking for a middle aged man, someone who is an average sized build, who looks physically strong but a hint of mentally weak, not a very confident person maybe due to a bad childhood or a bad event that has happened earlier on in his life. I want my actor to have dark hair, short non styled hair to emphasise the lack of confidence.



Iwan Rheon

Iwan Rheon is a good example of the type of character I am aiming for, but I am looking for him to be slightly older than Iwan. However it still gives a good example, average build, not really styling his hair, dark hair, and looks short of confidence.

Main character name =William Weatherhead

Synopsis for Idea number 2 (Family)

A middle aged man, around 30-35, he seems like an ordinary middle aged man. Walks in what appears to be a family home, and when he enters you get shots of all the different rooms it seems like the average every day family home. Many family photos hanging on walls and scattered around the room, refrigerator magnets, children's toys and teddy bears. You get a quick glimpse of  toys in the corner of what appears to be the living room, suggesting there are children present in this home. But there is only one problem with this"ordinary" house, it is covered in dust and spider webs, something you would not expect to see in a ordinary family home, well you would expect to see a little, but defiantly not this much. Then a shot to the man standing in the hall way, motionless, with a bag around his shoulder that slowly falls down his arm and on to the floor making a loud thud. Made louder than usual as the house is so quiet, a POV shot to show what he is looking at reveals what seems to be the only picture that has been taken care off, it consists of five people, looks to be like his family or people that are close to him. A zoomed in shot of his eye that slowly zooms out, to reveal a tear secreting from his eye, the camera follows this tear all the way down the bottom of this face till it drops off and hits the floor. Then a flash back, the man but when he was younger, around 16-18. Walking down the road back to his house, looking down with every step, with hardly any confidence, the camera then looks up suddenly to see what appears to be sirens flashing, blue and white lights, with the well known police sirens mixed with the ambulance sirens echoing into the streets. Quick shots of what appears to be body bags, and police tape, officers in uniform. Quick shots of the boy running to his house, POV shot showing the desperation in his face as he frantically runs to see what is happening. As he finally reaches the drive, he's met with a police officer, he seems to be rather shocked, the boy explains how it is his house, the policeman's face drops, "Im sorry to tell you.. that your family are gone, we found them in the kitchen, I am so sorry" The boy drops to his knees, curls his back and looks blankly at the floor, crying slowly as the realisation that his family are gone becomes apparent.

Synopsis of first idea

In short: A group of best friends, hit by a tragedy, decide to take the trip of a life time they all once dreamed off.

Steven's film Characters: Billy Nelson, Tom Henderson, Chris Togart, Doug Spencer

The opening scene: (Camera slowly blurs in) focuses to appear four children, running through a open park.(For about 3 seconds), then to a POV shot of Billy being ahead looking back, the camera then zooms out to appear a play area, the children running to see who can get there first. A wide shot of them running, a few quick shots of the surrounding including the sky, trees, and the open shot of the other side of the park. Then blurs out to see another shot, slightly more quick paced, of the children running through the trees and the rec, different shots through gaps in the trees to show them running. Tom shouting "Why am i so good at man hunt?", Chris shouts " Why am i so fast?",  Billy replies "Comon Doug im hardly running", Doug replies "Give me a chance, i have asthma" (Stops and uses his inhaler) All of these will be different shots, but all in front of character running through the woods, to get the face expressions of all the characters. ( idea one for last shot)Then for the last time another blured out shot, to blur back in to a wide shot of a back garden with a slowlly zoom in focus of the four children round a big tree. Different shots to show them attempting to build what seems to be a tree house of some kind. (Idea Two for last shot) A blured in wide shot of a bike track/skate park, all the boys love to bike, but doug is not so keen and see's it as life endangering, Tom, Chris and Billy all go round fine, but when it gets to Doug, he is very hesitant, they manage to pusuade him to do it, but at the curved bank he goes straight over instead of round, the shot ends at Billy, Chris and tom round Doug laughing. The shot slowly blurs out, to reveal a wide shot of a cemetary, quick shots of surrounding areas of the cemetary, then it stops on the shot of people gathered round for a ceremony. The shot will focus on the three main characters from before, Tom, Chris and Doug. There will be shots showing there facial expressions with a vicars voice over the top "Billy Nelson was not just a good person, he was a good friend, a good husband and a good father, he will never be forgotten, and will always be in our hearts forever" The last shot will be zooming out slowly from the funeral up wards then it will blur out.

Audience research

So far i have two ideas, and i am still not sure which one to choose, so i have decided to create a tally to aid with my descion.

Open Cupboard Productions
Ole Mother Hubbard


Film 1
Emily Melvile
Nikki Rance
Patrick Croughan


Film 2
Jack Gould
Ryan Cole
Sarah Wilson
Tom Dallas
Anna Wyatt
Rebecca Curson
Jess Baker
Tom Dart
Jenna Rich
Becki Greef

Feedback of my pitch

The feedback giving from my pitch was usefull in many ways, it confirmed some unsure parts in my movie but also gave me some help in parts such as my target audience, and from this i feel my target auidence needs to be expanded to people of all ages of the characters at least.

My Genre

My genre will  be a subdivision to the usual drama genre, it will provide hints of smart comedy with all the same pleasure of drama.

The genre will be identified in my idea, through consistent themes and concerns.
also by the setting, props, lighting, music etc.