QUESTIONNAIRE

 

 

TARGET AUDIENCES:

The target audience is the percentage of people, film makers consider to cater to while making a media product. It can be categorized in two ways, demographic and sociological. These consist of the following; age and gender, income (profession), residence and social back ground. On the other hand attitudinal demographics and sociological can be classified as another category. These consist of; intensions, habits, likes and dislikes, responses, behavior etc.

It is a must for film makers to be aware of all these things of their particular target audience, only then they know how to cater to them. Knowing what age and gender your target audience belongs to help film makers know what kind of films they like, their income levels help them to know what amount they’d be willing to pay to watch a film, and their professional life helps them in analyzing when they have time to consume the product.

Interests on the other hand are very important while making a film. If your target audience has a high percentage of boys between the age of 13 to 25, then you know your product will be consumed most if it caters to genres like action, horror or thriller, but if your target audience has a high percentage of girls between the age of 13 to 25, you should know they’re probably expecting a chick flick or a love story. This is how audience affects your product.

Coming to my own film, I have researched and managed to find out, that for an art film, my target audience consists of multi-sex people, mainly above the age of thirty with high income levels. Also, their interests are more towards consuming whatever conveys an sort of intellect, rather than enjoyment n entertainment. My target audience also consists of art film critics and scholars, who would watch the film in order to observe it completely, including its presentation, construction, story and mise-en-sene.

Their age tells me that they want a mature film with a mature story line, closer to reality which they can relate to. Also, they are grownups, so the use of indirect language throughout the movie can be easily understood, however, media language must be easy to read. These people often come to consume such products with immense interests, mainly due to their habits and likes and also because this film line is small and art films tend to release within gaps, leaving them curious and anxious to watch it.

Income levels make it easier for art film makers. They already know their audience is full of intellectual people with classy and open minded backgrounds having enough money to consume their product, more than just once, or very often. Their backgrounds are mainly from the elite, or educated class, which enables them to critically analyze the product and accordingly, give the truthful response to it.

All these things about my target audience will help me know, what type of scenes I can shoot, what media language I can use, what my mese-en-sene should look like, keeping in mind what my audience is expecting, what type of music they would approve of, and what story would appeal to them to the level that they relate to it.

Media Assignment 1

MEDIA STUDIES AS LEVEL

ASSIGNMENT: COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT START AND END CREDITS OF ART MOVIES.

DHOBI GHAAT:

DHOBI GHAAT , a Kiran Rao film, producer Aamir Khan, is a Bollywood art movie based on a story of four people from very different backgrounds, who’s worlds intersect and leave them forever altered. As they find themselves drawn into compelling relationships, the city finds its way into the crevices of their lives, separating them even as it bringd them closer.

Fragments of their experience-seen through a naïve video diary, black and white images and painting-form a portrait of Mumbai and its people bound together as they journey through longing, loneliness, loss and love.

Followed by the story, the movie is based on an overall a genre more on the artistic side of filming rather than entertainment itself. Coming towards the start credit, after an introduction of the production house, that is Aamir khan production- Eros Entertainment, the scene starts with a close up of a bunch of fake grapes hanging down from the small mirror of a car moving back and forth, creating an impression of the vehicle being in motion, whilst on the devided sides of the mirror, a raw extreme close up of a guy driving the car is taken repeatedly along with the whole scenario around, that is out side the windows of the car is taken.

On the other seat, no one is seen but you can instantly tell that a girl holding the camera is sitting making the video and she delivers dialogues telling the guy about the city and you immediately know that the guy is new to the place and she is intruding him to his new home. Throughout the scene, only use of diegetic sound is used as the girl talks, the guy responds, the sound of the continuous movement of the car as well as the noises from outside, mainly, the sound of the raindrops falling on the windshield.

The director has broken conventions, that is seen when during the entire start credit, when the two characters are in the car, the camera movement is not like the typical camera movements in every other professional film, instead, the film goes on in a way just like an ordinary person would hold onto a camera casually, that is not at all steady followed by the audio that is not super clear but is just how we’d hear out of a recording in our won cell phones or cameras. This has been done in a very clever and wonderful way creating the imagine of it being completely simple and realistic yet so different and attractive.

And the scene shifts to the guy standing on top of a building in an open room, not constructed, having his back towards the camera and his face towards the big shiny city, Mumbai and the colour of the sky changes from dark to light shifting the scene to the next morning where the guy, after doing some manual work, sits and smokes at the same spot where he stood the night before looking at the city, when a non diegetic music starts and the name Dhobi Ghaat appears, and that’s when the film starts.

On goes the film till the end credit starts where the girl is in the car, the guy runs to her all the way from his place crossing a ridiculous traffic jam till he finally reaches her and hands her over a piece of paper, leaving her while a smile on her face and tears in her eyes and the entire game of constant diegetic sounds converts into non diegetic sounds, when a background music starts and the film ends.

DELHI SIX:

The film Delhi Six, director and producer Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, is another Bollywood art and adventure movie having the story of a guy living abroad all his life going to stay in the old streets of Delhi with his grandmother, where he discovers, within a period of time every thing he had missed all his life that comes to him as a completely amusing and climatic adventure where he manages to fall in love with a girl who is in every way, different from him, and so he learns to happily adapt to the environment shown in the movie till the time he stays there.

The start credit of this film is fast, short and mildly amusing. It starts with the use of non diegetic sound, when a third party narration is done followed by an extreme long shot of the precious “Delhi”. And then the scene shifts to inside a room showing a man in bed, not speaking within the frame, but having a voice over explain how he is so used to his daily life, and then suddenly the camera movements and the background music go fast, quickly showing shots of the over congested houses in Delhi from their tops creating a very hyper, adventurous and interesting image when suddenly the man is shown again stuck to a wall on his roof top, urinating, when he slowly looks up and something falls onto him and he screams. That’s when a simple wall with a beautiful pigeon sitting on it is shown and the name of the film appears along with the movie’s soundract giving the movie its final start.

COMPARISON:

The main similar features between these two films are than, frist of all, they are both within the same art and adventure genres. Secondly, they both, to some extent, they both have stories based on their city lives in India with the introduction of a character who is new to the cultures and trends and overall the city itself. The difference would be that, both films have a completely different use of audio and editing. Dhobi Ghaat has used deigetic sounds more often whereas Delhi Six has used diegetic sound a lot in the entire film.

In both the films, the setting is exceptional as it allows you to instantly know when and where the scene is portraid. Characterization and dialogues do the gaming. The dialogues, either within the text or as a narration or voice over tell the audience about the story and concepts of the films. Camera shots do their own magic. In the first movie, it starts with a close up of grapes while in the other movie, the start credit appears with an extreme long shot of the city.

The end credits. However are different. Dhobi Ghaat has a moreover depressing ending where the two characters part, whereas in Delhi Six, the end is on a happy side having the audience satisfied by the hero and heroin having to be together.  Iconography of the two films still remains slightly similar as the shots of the city are taken repeatedly making their theme more obvious.

Delhi Six was still more of a commercial film as compared to Dhobi Ghaat. Dhobi Ghaat was more simple and more artistic. This was mainly due to its different kind of use of camera and audio.  

However,  coming towards another Hollywood film, Run Lola Run, is another reference to me for my film even though it is quite different from the previous two films mentioned. I chose Dhobi Ghaat and Delhi six as my reference films since they both had the story of a new character coming to a new place and had shots of cities which I plan on doing in my film too, when a child is unknown to the events taking place in the famous Empress Market, here I’d like to take a long shot of the market determining where and when the event is taking place. On the other hand, Run Lola Run has appealed to me due to its very interesting and adventurous starting credit where a chicken is running through the market and every scene and shot of the market is taken exactly as I plan to for my film.

By : Sakina Ali.

GENRE ANALYSIS:

Different film industries have several media institutions, that are production houses responsible for the financing, distribution and publicity of media products, mainly films. Usually, these institutions buy films under particular genres that they consider worthy to be publicized by them. Due to this reason, every film is based on a particular genre and at times a combination of sub genres.  Before starting, let us see what the word ‘Genre’ really means. INTRODUCTION – A media text is said to belong to a specific genre, as it adopts the codes and conventions needed to create and represent that genre in accordance to the expectations of its target audience. At times, texts from different mediums, belong to the same genre. ’Audiences’  have a set of expectations to a media text and what it contains according to its genre in terms of transportation, representation, costume, mise-en-sene, characters, setting, sound tract etc. We can relate these to the term ‘genre-specific’ elements. These are what the audience expects to find while experiencing a media text. For example, having a horror or thriller theme, the audience would expect things like, dark lighting, a quiet old place, a heroin in white, very obvious diegetic sounds etc. However, having the same sorts of genre-specific elements, horror and thriller are still two different genres, as horror relates to super natural activity while thriller caters more to reality.

Despite having such elements, texts from the same genres are not always the same. Genres are defined as dynamic, since their boundaries keep changing. Media texts often challenge codes and conventions, while still being able to define certain parts of the usual genre categorization. To an audience, genre texts could get very boring if they keep following the same predictable conventions. This can result to people not wanting to consume new films, rather revisiting their old favorites.  But what are codes and conventions really? CODES AND CONVENTIONS – You can call these stereo types. We relate to codes and conventions in any media text without even knowing. When you go out to watch a romantic comedy, you expect good looking heroes and heroins, nice and slow sound tracts, intimacy, herion crying, hero proposing and all that with a a touch of comedy having funny dialogues and scene, but if you go and watch ghosts and weapons, you wont be sure if that the movie you paid for now would you? These expectations are what make codes and conventions important in catering to a particular genre. So who are genres important to? PRODUCERS – These give a pattern of construction while having an established audience that makes it easy to market to. Also, when working for the same genre over and over again, specialization is experienced and also, a producer has a big choice to those specific starts who act for the particular genre. Fans of genres also know the codes and conventions, so not much work into reinventing the wheel all the time is needed. DISTRIBUTORS – This creates a clear channel of marketing and distribution as it has a targetable audience and fans are easy to attract and persuade into buying other texts within the same genre.

In order to attract your target audience to the fullest, you can always combine genres. For example, if you plan on making a horror film but in your survey, you find out that more people tend to watch romantic movies more than horror, you can always keep romance as a sub genre and your film is now a romantic-horror and you may have attracted more people by now. However, your combination of genres must be relevant. That is, you can combine a romantic comedy, with a hint of action, but in this case, horror would not be considered as an option. Or you can combine thriller and action, but comedy here would not seem very appropriate. This is because you can play with codes and conventions to a certain level, but you need to make sure your media language remains easy to read. You must never cheat your audience, since your audience is who will really decide if your product is good or not, despite all the money and effort you put in it. Codes and conventions differ with industries. A Hollywood horror would be different from a Bollywood horror. Hollywood makes it more realistic while Bollywood makes it more exaggerated. Hollywood would probably use action, or bible words in the conclusion, but Bollywood mainly uses their Hindu teachings in their conclusion and would last for longer, usually three to four hours. A Hollywood chick flick would have a rich pretty looking girl with the best wardrobe, the best house with a swimming pool, the most expensive and trendy car, a pet that she carries along and the best looking boyfriend, however in Bollywood, their girls and women are shown in big houses with usually two staircases wearing heavy jewelry, flashy colorful ‘saris’ which they stay in all the time even while going to bed. Film industries in different countries have different conventions in accordance to their own trends and cultures. An art film by Bollywood would be very different fron that of Hollywood, having local faces with very prominent Indian accents and showing completely different cultures and a completely diffenet representation and contruction even though the genre’s the same.

So basically, genre does not simply rely on the text but also the way all micro, genre specific elements are put together to one macro level and then the text is contructed. This is what really allows us to distinguish between different genres.
Coming to the genre of my own film, as written before, i'll be making an art film. So what are the specialties of' an 'art' film? After observing a number of art films, i have managed to notice how the representation, construction, audio and mise-en-sene, along with the story is done. Firstly, as these cater to the nieche market rather than the mass market, they tend to be more 'realistic' and ordinary in an artsy way, and way less glamorous and are not made with the intention of hitting the box office to a high level. They have a low level of audience to whom they cater to and the director and producer do not aim to produce a blockbuster. Film critics and scholars define art films as 'those with the formal qualities that mark them as different from main stream films, which include, amongst other elements, a social realism style; emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and focus on the thoughts and dreams of characters, rather than presenting a clear, goal driven story.
They tend to have ordinary looking actors, mainly of the country the industry represents, or whatever kind of culture is represented in the movie, and they also tend to have a narration or a voice over of someone with a very cultural accent, that makes the feel more strong and creates the mood for the serious and truthful story or scene being presented. They do not usually have the typical 'Indian' songs after every fifteen to twenty minutes and tend to go on fast even if the film is long, say three to four hours.The audio on the other hand, is usually cultural or whatever's appropriate to the story, again, it does not have to be very glamorous with hundreds of actors and a whole new choreography of an item song. Usually, colored filters are used while shooting, mainly yellow filters, giving that very 'artistic' look the audience tends to enjoy. The mise-en-sene is again, very ordinary yet so extra-ordinary. It show's things simply the way they are, making it look familiar and alien to the audience at the same time. A market scene would appeal to us differently if its captured within an art film with the most amazing camera use, than it would in reality while we are in the market doing our daily chores. Art films directors often do that. They know what their audience would like to see. They use camera angles and audio techniques accordingly. A scene covering the most beautiful and eye catching scenery would do perfectly with slow and steady camera movements. Art films are like an epitome of all these things represented in a very unusual and attractive way.

TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS

A media text is highly dependent on a media institution. This is what derives worth and expectations from the audience apart from just the actors themselves. These institutions, despite having a number of sectors at times, usually tend to master a particular type of production. They play a big part in the publicity and importance of any media representation under them. There are several types of  media institutions today. Some of these are :
1. BBC
2. WALT DISNEY
3. DREAM WORKS
4. PARAMOUNT
5. FOX
I personally would consider an institution like BBC as it has a variety of different media representations available and working under this institution would create a wider span of types of films one would would like to make. On the other hand, BBC has a great number of followers of different age groups and every film or media text is made with the aim of being attracted by a great audience. Such an institution leaves a film maker with more choice of what he or she would like to produce and will automatically create an impression and reputation of the film itself.

MEDIA HOUSES: EROS ENTERTAINMENT PLC

 MEDIA HOUSES: EROS ENTERTAINMENT PLC

Eros Entertainment India’s rapidly growing media institution that has managed to cater to a number of films and productions and is growing to over 1% CAGR and is likely to cross US$ 23 Billion by 2014. It had undergone vertical integration, that is. It does not only produce and commissions films but also distributes them through different means of media, digital or non digital, that is, through cinemas, digital and home entertainment along with television syndication.

It was established it 1977 and has been able to achieve the position of being the lead institution since over three decades and had been able to create a global platform for Indian cinema. It has a great span of distribution covered across 50 countries in approximately twenty seven different languages. It has the name and value of being able to produce around seventy films within a year, having 2000 film titles in the Indian film library.

It is one of the largest film production owners of the industry along with being the largest and most common to have blockbusters as well as the ‘side kick’ art movies that may not break box office records but to the art film philosophers and critics, tend to be good media products. It produced famous movies like RAB NE BANA DI JODI, WANTED, BILLU BARBER and other blockbusters along with other films they may have not broken box office records but still managed to be a part of Bollywood history. It, being a public limited company, managed to obtain a listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London stock exchange.

Institutions

Keeping media institutions aside, that will be explained further within this text, lets come to the entire film industry first, since only if you know the industry, you know the institutions it comprises of. For my media product that I will be making, I choose BOLLYWOOD as my industry. Bollywood is the name given to the film industry of Mumbai and is a huge industry, well known just like Hollywood itself.  BOLLYWOOD STYLE: Indians love films. Around fourteen million people in India go to watch a film on a daily basis, that is a 1.4% of the entire population on a billion people and they all tend to pay an equivalent of an average Indian’s daily wage rate. That means more than double the number of feature films produced in the United States. Bollywood films tend to be at least three to four hours long, and have ‘intermission’. They usually follow a similar pattern, that is, ‘masala’ or in other words the spiced entertainment. Their film would be the stereo typical film with a dozen of songs covering hundreds of dancers, choreographers, top stars, where the guy meets the girl, no as such physical contact, a lot of action and always a happy ending. However, those were stereo types. They make a number of artsy films too along with others, but they’re name is joined to the scenario given above. India is a country of several spoken languages, so other parts of the industry remain unknown to an extent, however the Mumbai Bollywood leads the industry in film production, having Hindi films are their main elements. Bollywood films are becoming increasingly popular and have now become an international obsession.

Different industries follow different styles that can be recognized through their completely different use of codes and conventions. The codes and conventions of Hollywood would completely differ from those of Bollywood. Question is, what are these codes and conventions? To make it short and understandable, you can call them stereo types, that differ from genre to genre within a particular industry. For example, the conventions of an English horror film would be different casting a different impact on the audience as compared to the conventions of an Indian horror film. BOLLYWOOD-CODES AND CONVENTIONS :  A horror genre film- as codes and conventions have it, an Indian horror film would usually have a lot of candles used in the mise-en-sene, a very exaggerated use of diegetic  sounds, like, the sounds of footsteps, or the heroin breathing, a clock ticking and other things we don’t normally notice in other films, is done, in order to create the required ‘mood’ for the film and this film would usually be a combination of a sub genre, with horror and romance. –  Coming to a romantic film, this would have different codes and conventions. An Indian romantic film, being the most popular genre, must have, firstly well known, good looking stars. The story would have the guy n girl meeting, wouldn’t have much of a use of intimacy, although a background music each time they see each other is a must, followed by a song every twenty minutes later, with a beautiful scenery with the guy and the girl singing and dancing, having the girl wrapped up in a very eastern kind of outfit. Intermission and climax is a must. Usually a third party involved interfering in their love, however, leads to a happy ending later. This genre usually collides with action as a sub genre and so it’s a romance-action movie.- Now followed by this comes comedy. This one’s fairly easy to understand. It would it’s expected comedians doing the role, usually fast pace having the particular Hindi-slang kind of use of language and is usually a combination with romance and action.- Action, one of the most versatile genre, that collides with all genre’s if needed, has its own codes and conventions. Weapons are a must, followed by heavy music, harsh street language, money cases and all sorts of attractive women play their own part in creating the entire feel. Clothing plays its own role, if there’s a street gangster, his way of dressing will be different from that of an underground rich posh ganster who you’d probably see in the most expensive suit.- Now coming to the Indian art films. They are different and less in number since the target audience of India for such films isn’t all that great. Their purpose is to convey a message, not to be a blog buster. It usually makes the Indian accent more prominent, in order to give the realistic feel, very artsy shots and camera angles, ordinary looking actors, slow, emotional and usually cultural music. Also usually has a narration or a voice over and would never be a glamorous film. It tends to collide well with romance, action and adventure but not so well with horror or comedy.

Keeping industry aside, now we come towards institutions. These are the sole financers and distributers of all films produced within an industry. They buy films of the types of genres they accept and like to finance. No movie can release without an institution. India has a number of institutions too. A few of these are, Eros Entertainment, UTV, Sony pictures, Dharma productions, Yash Raj films, Red Chilly etc.

Starting with Eros Entertainment, this is well known to be one of India’s biggest leading media and entertainment institution and has been under business since almost three decades. It has a core trade in production, acquisition and distribution of filmed text under several distribution ways like theatres, television and other technical media applications. It has a vast level of distribution considering genres of films. It distributes all kinds of film, including art, drama, comedy, adventure, horror, action and romance. This is one of the reasons why it is so big. It also works as a jewelry business otherwise, and this is rare since institutions, especially in Hollywood, don’t have this concept of having other side businesses as well. The company has started from being a distributor and now is known to be an aggregator. It has offices nearly all around the world. A few names of movies it has distributed are Desi Boys, Rock star, Ra. One, Zindagi Na Mile Gi Dobara etc.

Next we can take a look at UTV, which is another huge institute. It also has a vast distribution of films and has the honor of being one of the oldest institutions of Bollywood. It also gives importance to a number of films with completely different genres whether, art or drama or romance or whatever. It is a privilege to directors and producers to have such institutions buying and distributing their films. It caters to major art films, like Rang De Basabti, that has been one of Bollywood’s big success. So, films of mixed genres are likely to be distributed and financed by such institutions.

Coming to Dharma Productions, again, a very huge institution formed by Shri  Yash Johar in 1976. It has always been able to achieve its goals by producing high quality cinema that is accepted and appreciated all around the world. It has produced movies like ‘Dostana’ , ‘Dunya’, ‘Muqqdar ka Fiasla’ etc. But these are still towards the side, it has produced india’s biggest blog busters that have broken box-office records without a fail. It had produced the famous ‘ Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ which did not just break records but also gathered a number of national and international awards. And this kept going on till movies like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum’ and ‘My Name Is Khan’ were produced and once again broke records to a great amount. This production house is famous for distributing and financing drama and romance related movies and has the reputation of being a very honest and clean institution and had been able to prove it over the years.

To me, as I am making an art film, I would go for an institute like Eros Pictures or UTV since they distribute films that belong from the same genre that my film does. And in order to attract such an institution, it is important for a producer and director to keep in mind all the codes and conventions of the film industry, and how the particular institution like it, and once this is done, the film manages to attract its target audience and if the institution knows that this film would sell since it has the capability to attract its audience, it will make money, and this motivates the institution to buy and distribute the film as it can see success and profit within its self as well as manages to keep its status and recognition noticible.