1. PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT
STAGE 1
IDEA GENERATION
& RESEARCH
ETHAN PAYNE
YOU SHOULD USE THIS TO STRUCTURE YOUR STAG 1
RESPONSE. ADD SLIDES WHERE NECESSARY AND
ILLUSTRATIONS. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CLICK ON THE
BOX UNDER THE QUESTION/INFO!

2. INITIAL IDEAS

3. YOUR IDEA
Explain why you have chosen your particular idea, this could be for a
specific reason or a combination of reasons, all specific to you. Provide as
much detail as possible
My idea is a fantasy genre film about a teenage which who attempts to make a
spell to make her laundry to itself however the spell goes wrong and her laundry comes to life.
I have chosen to work within the fantasy genre for a couple of reasons. One reason being that
the fantasy genre appeals greatly to myself and I love to watch fantasy films. This will not only
allow me to enjoy making my short film but the quality will naturally become the best it can be.
My second reason for working within the fantasy genre is because I am going to make the film
light hearted and fun to watch =, having it aimed at a family audience. This now brings me to
why I have chosen a family audience. I chose the target audience because I wanted my film to
be more light hearted and not so serious. Having my film have this style to it will attract a
family audience which will result in a wider range of ages wanting to watch my film which
means more people in total will be watching my film. I have taken inspiration from Walt
Disney’s 1940 “Fantasia”. This film takes something as simple as an animated mouse and
created an entire mystical world full of magic and fantasy. I want to take the style of Fantasia
and put this within my own product. Fantasia consists of upbeat classical music and dramatic
sound effects, these clear fantasy genre conventions take a genre that could be very dark and
intense and made it fun for all to watch.

4. PRIMARY TARGET
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
You MUST conduct a questionnaire/survey/interview or a combination of all three.
Summarise this and add in any other primary research you feel is appropriate.
In this question we see that a majority of people prefer when films
have morals. This appeals to the audience as it gives them a
sense of relief and teaches them a lesson. Films that have a moral
are films such as; Forrest Gump, Schindler’s List, Saving Private
Ryan, The Silence of the Lambs, Toy Story, Shrek and many more.
Personally, I feel that if a film does not embed a moral then the film
doesn’t have a well rounded ending. The fantasy films I have
researched all have morals, therefore I feel fantasy will be a
popular genre to follow through as my film.
This question shows that a majority of people feel that characters
and the storyline attract them most. In my film I am going to have a
very small cast, therefore I can focus more on the depth of the
characters back story to make the characters more likeable to the
audience. A small percentage of my responses have chosen
camera work as the number one thing to attract them to a film. I
am going to use unique camera shots and movements to create
effect within my film. An example of this is using extreme close up
shots to give little away to the audience, this has the effect on
them that they look closer and more intensely to figure out what
they are looking at.

5. PRIMARY TARGET
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
You MUST conduct a questionnaire/survey/interview or a combination of all three.
Summarise this and add in any other primary research you feel is appropriate.
This question shows that 50% of the audience would like to see a
male protagonist and the other 50% of people would like to see a
female protagonist. This result gives me the choice of whether I
want a male or female protagonist. I am going to choose to use a
female protagonist she is going to be a female witch. The reason I
have chosen to use a female protagonist is because there are
many successful fantasy films that have been released in the past
5-10 years that consist of female protagonists.
This question shows that a majority of the audience that
responded to the survey say that they think that the soundtrack
makes the most impact on the film. I am going to look at using
dramatic classical music over top of my film to create the most
impact in the more dramatic scenes, and to use softer music in the
more mellow scenes. The 1940 Walt Disney film “Fantasia” uses
classical overtop of the animation to create effect within the scene.
Also, this film uses rhythmic editing to make the film smoothly flow
throughout. Rhythmic editing is an editing technique between the
footage and the soundtrack/audio that I am going to use during
post production.

6. SECONDARY TARGET
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
Research viewing figures, sales figures, demographic and psychographic
info. Look up article, features or stories related to your potential audience
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) is a widely
successful fantasy film. Harry Potter’s audience age range is
ages 18-24. This is close to my age range as I am looking at a
family audience. My audience is going to be ages 10 – 35 as this
covers ages of an average family. Unlike my film, Harry Potter
has a more intense and in depth storyline therefore my film is
going to be much more light hearted.
The Harry Potter franchise deals with a lot of conventional
fantasy themes such as good vs. evil and the supernatural.
Taking these themes I am going to conduct my film, using the
supernatural to relate to the magical laundry and how it comes to
life after the witches potion goes terribly wrong, and also the
theme of good vs. evil. The witch being the good and the magic
laundry being the evil.
The movie franchise became widely successful all over the
world. The first film alone had a world wide box office of
$974,755,371.
A children's book that has a similar theme to my short film is
“Winnie the Witch”. This is a child friendly, family orientated story
that is uplifting and fun to read. I am going to take elements from
the Winnie the Witch stories and try and incorporate them into
my film.

7. IDENTIFY TARGET
AUDIENCE
For this you should summarise your primary and secondary research,
through this you should then be able to produce an audience outline that
you intend to target. For this you could also produce an audience profile.
I have concluded that my target audience is going to be aimed at a family audience. For my
primary research I created a survey asking people questions that are in relation to my film. The
age range of people that answered my survey were rather wide ranging from 16 – 22+. Also, I
have relations to several people who answered my survey and know that some were ages
30+. This gives me a clear insight on what my audience wants to see within my film as the
opinions have come from a wide age range.
For my secondary research I looking into the audience for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone. This films falls into the fantasy genre and is the most light hearted of the Harry Potter
films therefore fits best with my own film. The audience for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone appeals to a younger audience than the later films in the franchise where they begin to
get darker and more intense.

8. AUDIENCE APPROPRIATE
CONTENT
The BBFC has a list of restrictions of what cannot be included in a PG rated film. These are:
• LANGUAGE – When making a PG film that is going to be aimed at a family audience,
language is something that must be very restricted when younger viewers are going to be
watching. Strong language that can be offensive is strongly prohibited, and this is
something I am going to avoid during the production of my film.
• IMITABLE BEHAVIOUR - Dangerous behaviour posed as safe or fun is highly prohibited
within a PG due to the younger audience. My film is going to contain no violence of any
fashion and no dangerous possessions such as knifes will not be shown in my film.
• THREAT – frightening sequences and situations where the characters are in danger are
prohibited from being prolonged or intense. In my film I am not going to include scenes that
are overly frightening or scary for the younger viewers.
• DISCRIMINATION – discriminative language and behaviour is outlawed within a PG film.
For such a young audience to view this type of content would not be appropriate, therefore
my film is not going to contain discriminative content or stereotypes of certain groups of
people.

9. AVAILABLE
RESOURCE AND
MATERIALS
(AUDIT)

10. CONSTRAINTS ON
PRODUCTION

11. PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT
CONSIDERATIONS
Think about how you intend to manage your project, considering all that you
have assembled in this file. Are there areas that will need more work than
others? How do you intend to go about getting your production made?
The main aspect of my film that I think will need the most time will be the post production. I am
being very ambitious with the amount of motion graphics and compositing I intend to do. My
schedule will need to consist of more than enough time for me to be able to produce all of the
SFX to the highest possible standard or my film will result in being rushed or unfinished.
Another aspect of my film that is going to take up rather a lot of time is the production itself. I
need to film in two separate locations (studio and on location). I need to allow myself enough
time to capture all the footage I need and extra for post production as it is going to be
unrealistic to be travelling back and forth from location to studio day by day to get all my
footage.
Some of my resources and materials might need a back up plan as on the day of production
they might not be available. For example, my cat may not be able to be found or may not want
to stay still while I hold a camera on it, therefore I will need another plan of what to include in
that short part of the film. Also if any equipment such as tripod, slider, shoulder mount etc.
results in being faulty on the day, another used of the camera will need to be planned so the
camera position and movement will not be dramatically effected.

12. MODIFICATIONS AND
REVISED FINAL IDEA
Have you had to alter your idea based on the research you have performed?
Have you had to modify your idea due to your pitch/proposal? Or any other
reasons? Track it here and justify what you have decided to alter
At this point in the project I have not had to change anything. I have had to take
into account my time management and that it is going to be difficult to get all of
production and post production finished within a small space of time. However it is
doable and I am ambitious.
When it comes to changing anything I can possibly see myself changing the name
of the film. At the moment my title if “The Laundry” however this is quite bland and
straight forward and I would like to think of something slightly more creating and
fun. Despite my possible want for changing this, I have not yet thought of another
title and I may not think of another until later on in the project. This is something I
will have to overlook in my evaluation.

13. TEST SHOOT – GREEN
SCREEN
In this clip I have tested my green screen technique using a regular green screen and a green
morph suit to create the illusion that the clothes have come to life. As you can see the green screen
keylight technique hasn’t quite worked properly. This is due to the difference in the shade of green
between the morph suit and the green screen itself. This may become an issue due to the fact that I
have already purchased these suits and the money has already come out of my small budget.
However this imperfection can be perfected with some lighting changes. Simply by enhancing the
lighting on the suit and dimming the lighting on the screen will allow these two separate tones to
become more alike.

14. TEST SHOOT – MAGIC
WAND
In this clip I have tested my magic wand VFX technique using particle effects and Photoshop
created shapes to create the illusion my actor is casting a spell. I am happy with how this
experiment came out and I like how the layers of sparkles and glow follow the wand in the circle.
However I would like to add some more layers of sparkles to add depth and perhaps play with a
more layered glow that incorporates come different colours. Doing this will make the magic SFX
look far more dramatic and will become the focus on the screen which is what I want the audience
to look straight at. This is something I will need to consider in another test shoot or in experimental
in post production.