SF Research

1. STAGE 2
RESEARCH +
EXPERIMENTS
Connor Wiffen

2. The results of my survey show that Action and
Comedy are the most popular genre of films with
Drama following behind. Most people who took the
survey prefer a more definitive ending to an
ambiguous one that leaves you thinking “What
happened next”. The results also show that people are
willing to watch a film that doesn’t have any dialogue
which is good for my film due to the constraint of not
being able to have any.

3. This information shows
that ages 12 – 39 years
old are the most
frequent moviegoers so
it would be a smart idea
to have a target
audience within that
frame.
Men generally prefer a
more action orientated
genre while women are
more likely to prefer a
wider range.
These statistics detail the most popular movies in
2014 amongst the age groups 7 – 14 and 15 – 24,
these include films from a wide range of genres
like from thrillers to comedies with Superhero
movies scoring high in that demographic
These statistics detail
the most popular
movie over a 23 year
period with Adventure
being the highest
grossing genre of
them all as Action
follows in 2nd and
Drama in 3rd.
This shows how companies market films to teens by
giving them little bits of information before the movie
comes out so that they stay interested throughout the
marketing process.

4. My primary research shows that Action and Comedy are the most popular
genre of film although my own Short Film doesn’t align itself with any genre
in particular. Another aspect shown is that the demographic prefer a more
definitive ending to an ambiguous one but yet again my Short Film won’t
exactly be able to have a fleshed out ending due to the length being
restricted to around 90 seconds and the nature of the film’s plot.
My secondary research shows that a demographic of teenagers from 12
years old are the most frequent moviegoers so it would be wise to focus
within that range for the audience of my film.
The intended audience for my film will be anyone from 12 years old and
above who like a somewhat strange plot that slightly messes with their mind
and leaves them questioning what just occurred before them.

5. The plot of my film doesn’t contain any violent or sexual themes so a
classification of 12A should be acceptable. This rating should therefore be
appropriate for the target audience stated before, not only is a
classification of 12A within my demographic but it also means that a wider
range of people will be able to see it which is a key component of making a
short film – you want it to be seen by people. As seen by the research I
have done, people in this demographic do have a fondness for the type of
movie I want to produce.

6.  Over-the-shoulder shots
An Over the shoulder shots draw the audience in by
creating a sense of intimacy and familiarity which will
help me convey the normal everyday atmosphere of
the start of the film (However give the viewer the
sense that something might be up to put them on
edge). These will also be good for showing the
character reading and looking around the room when
needed.
 Tilt shots
A Tilt shot could be used as a way of framing the
character reading and introducing them to the
audience but may be difficult to implement due to the
movement needing to be extremely fluid.
 Panning shot
A Panning shot could be used to show/follow the
character looking around the room and with a tripod
will be pretty easy to implement.
 Close Up Shot
Close Up shots could be used to show each of the
time related objects i.e Clock, Hourglass and Timer
in the centre of the frame before swapping to a wider
shot.
Film techniques for students
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvybQ5RpMkc
This video details ten of the essential film techniques
that students can implement into their own short films
whilst also expanding upon post production
12 Tips for Better Film Editing
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/12-tips-
for-better-film-editing/
This video details ten of the essential film techniques
that students can implement into their own short films
whilst also expanding upon post production

7. Black Mirror is a widely popular Television
series which comments on modern society in
extremely interesting ways in the from of
separate seemingly unconnected stories, these
usually contain some sort of plot twist that
takes the viewer by surprise in a way and I
would like to have the ending of my own film
give the same effect and hopefully lead them to
question what they just watched.
Story:

8. I already take a lot of inspiration from the YouTube channel
KatrinDepp with how they edit sound and footage together
seamlessly so you are unable to distinguish a clear divide between
them whilst viewing the footage. This will make my film a lot more
effective at being a viewing experience as shots will change relative
to a sound (A clock in this case) – establishing this formula will
make the sudden change to silence more impactful to the audience
and make them feel as uncomfortable as the character in the film.
Editing:

9. Camera:
The shots and angles in this short film are
ones I would like to emulate for my own work
as they detail the character reading in an
effective way. However my film needs to
have the atmosphere of a everyday life to
give the illusion that nothing can go wrong so
when it does, the change is more impactful.

10. EXPERIMENTS
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
Be prepared to add extra slides

11. The filming of the first experiment
took place in the stairway at College
with the use of a camera and tripod
where we focused on rather basic
shots to start out with. The only
interesting angle we used was one
where the camera is placed looking
down through the middle of the stairs
as the centre character walks up
them to show this simple act in a
more appealing way. The rest of the
shots were basic static ones of the
central character doing what was
storyboarded earlier before. We did
have to go back and film some extra
footage to better flesh out the
experiment.

12. Beginning with putting the
recorded footage into an
assembly edit before adding
everything else. Because of the
simple nature of the experiment
there wasn’t much in terms of
editing it visually apart from
cropping footage to better fit the
overall product and flipping the
scene for the ending. Most of
the editing took place in the
audio side of the experiment
where we used Royalty Free
sound effects/music from
various sources to enhance the
visuals.

13. For the second experiment we used a sound
recorder to create our own sounds to apply
to the given silent footage from ‘Shaun Of
The Dead’. We split into small groups and
recorded sound effect from around the
College grounds – For the ambient noise we
used a somewhat quiet area to fit the scene
appropriately so needed to make sure there
wasn’t anyone around. To replicate the
footsteps we just got someone to walk in
place as they watched the original footage to
better keep them in time with the actor on
screen, for the zombie sounds we had two
people make separate zombie like noises.
However when we returned to the class we
noticed that we didn’t have a recording of
someone running and slipping so
compromised by using a royalty free sound
effect from YouTube as well as some music
to be played in the shop.

14. For the final product I will carry over the use of a sound recorder to
record the sound effects for the product as it works well and saves
the hassle of needing to find a sound effect which works for the
scenes online. However I will use the same sources for the royalty
free sounds if the need does arise. I didn’t particularly use anything
that I would carry over in the editing process but using Adobe
Premiere more does make me more familiar with the program as I
usually use Vegas Pro to edit. The planning element of the first
experiment will be an aspect to avoid due to there not really being a
plan for the scenes which proved detrimental to the end product

15. Time/Personnel/Cost/Technical/Location/Organisational:
With only one day to film I could end up with not having enough footage or no
footage at all.
Camera issues may occur which will interrupt the recording process.
Actor may be unable to film, this will mean I would need to find someone as soon as
possible.
The filming location may not be available which would lead to needing to use the
back up.
Budgetary constraints could lead to not being able to do a few of the scenes I’d like
to do so finding someway around that would be necessary.