Decision Making

Throughout the research and planning of my media product, I made the majority of my marco decisions and aspects of my micro decisions during these part of my coursework. First and foremost in order to create a film I needed to have a least a brief idea of a film plot. I came up with various plots that I either did not believe strongly enough in or it would be simply too complicated to show through a two minute trailer. My original ideas included aspects of a dystopia society, where a group of people are determined to rebel against their leader. But I felt as though these ideas were simply too complex to communicate to audiences through a trailer and would leave my consumers more uncertain whether to watch the film or not. My final plot decision came to me whilst I was watching the 1985 the Breakfast Club and I came up with the idea of a murder-like twist to it. The Breakfast Club was a cinematic success and is still popular among all generations, Another film that I found inspiration from was the not so well known 2010 film Detention, directed by Joseph Kahn. The film centred around high-school students who are being targeted by a serial killer.

Detention was a 2010 film directed by
Joseph Kahn.

The Breakfast Club follows the story of five
teenagers attend a detention together on a
Saturday and they each tell their story.

My completed plot idea now centres around five teenagers who are all from completely different social groups and are serving an after school detention. These characters have certain traits that will ultimately clash with one another, making the plot more compelling. These five unlikely friends then work together to make it through the night when they discover that a murder is on the loose in the school.

The title for my film took a while to produce. I was originally very indecisive about what I wanted my film to be called. I created a mind map of potential titles and from this I chose my top five favourites ('D3AD FIV3', 'The Shadow Room', 'In The Dark', 'Detention' and finally 'When In Darkness'). From this, I decided to see which titles were the most popular in my audience questionnaire that I disturbed via Google Forms. When In Darkness was the most popular title among the others and this was part of the reason I selected for my film. Additionally, I also really liked this title as the title communicated aspects of the film, the word 'darkness' related to how characters will be submerged in darkness for the duration of the film. I felt as though When In Darkness suited both my plot and my genre of thriller.

My characters were a prominent aspect of my film and I wanted to make each and every character an outstanding and unique individual that would add up to make an unlikely group. One important aspect is firstly using a female as the protagonist, so my film will challenge the gender divide in the film industry in terms of female protagonists. Popular existing female protagonists include Lara Croft and even the character of Jessie from Pixar's Toy Story. These female heroes became immensely popular among females and were strong role models to young girls, meaning that my film would appeal to a much wider audience. So, I created the slightly nerdy yet definite character of Veronica 'Ronnie' Calder, a character obsessed with Game of Thrones and science, she is selfless and doesn't shy in the face of fear. I felt as though I had created a female character who defied gender stereotypes of females being passive and coward in fear. Veronica's character represents the positive internal development individuals go through in life changing situations.

The character of Finn Lester was a contrasting character to Veronica. Unlike Veronica, he is popular, he is active in sports and is very artistic. I liked the character of Finn because he has a lot of depth to him, though to his peers he appears to be nothing more than a pretty face, he is a creative and proves himself by sticking with those who need him and dismisses the labels that society place upon individuals. I created his character to represent how people and society will presume certain things about a persons personality because of their outside appearance and behaviour.

Billie White was also an important character in terms of representation. She is a character who comes out with outrageous yet truthful statements about society. She is also bisexual which is a particularity under-represented community in the film industry and media. Bisexual representation is viewed as important, an article I discovered stated that: 

For bisexual representation, it helps bisexual youth see themselves on television, and it helps everyone understand that bisexuals are really not that different from anyone else.

Therefore Billie's representation will be an important part of my film. Other films that have included a bisexual character include Lisbeth Salander from the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this character in particular had a very positive and original representation, many articles describing her as a feminist hero that appeals to different kinds of consumers because of gender ambiguity that pulls males and females, the young and old. I take inspiration from this representation as I want Billie to have a similar positive in-look on bisexuality.

Jessica Brookes is another interesting character in terms of representation. She is a blonde the not-so-stereotypical blonde. Blondes, within the media and films, are seen to be dumb and air-headed, these types of characters include Karen Smith from Mean Girls. Jessica however is a character who is smarter than even the 'nerds' (who are always viewed as the most smart characters), she excels in all of her subjects and has an excellent vocabulary. She is a character who does not hold her tongue when talking to others. Her character represents how misunderstood certain individuals are due to stereotypes.

Percy Swanfield may be the first character to sadly be killed, he is by no means an unimportant character. He's a timid bookworm, who is determined to prove himself. In his time during the film, he accompanies Veronica and Finn in situations that could have potentially cost them their lives. He proves to be loyal to his new found unlikely friends. Finally, I created the character of Coren Vincent as used him as the mysterious villain. As the headteacher of a school, he is an individual that many place a high amount of trust in him and will lead audiences to question who they should trust in the film.

My filming will take place entirely within a school location. The obvious reason for this is because my film sets place entirely within a school and this would scare audiences a lot more. A school is something universal that everyone who watches my film can relate to, they can visualise themselves in my film, place themselves in my characters shoes and create a much more realistic experience for them. Many people are much more scared by realistic situations than paranormal experiences, ones that could potentially happen in their life. I chose specific areas in a school because they would act as hiding places but also places that the villain could break into easily, for instance, toilet cubicles, which would connote aspects of being trapped.

My chosen target audience is aged 16-25, are both male and female and are within the E-C1 bracket. I chose this specific target audience for various reasons. Firstly, I selected this age bracket because my questionnaire geared me in this direction but also because this is also the age bracket of my characters and people who are 20-25 will still identify with the school setting. I wanted to have a target audience that would be able to identify with the characters within my film and also be able to relate to them on a personal level which is why I came up with the idea of having them from completely different social groups with completely different personalities so that audiences can see different aspects of each character in themselves. My target audience being within E-C1 bracket is practical for my film as it would allow for those who use social media on a regular basis be able to view the trailer and enjoy it. In this bracket, students are what stuck out to me as students are what my characters are, allowing for this audience to empathise with these character. I chose to stray away from aiming the film at A or B audience as they will not be able to enjoy, understand or relate to the film and this is due to individuals within this bracket having a much different interest. Using both gender also allows for my film to be gender neutral and I believe that aiming for one specific would have made my film too stereotypical and predictable.

The USP for my film is that I will choosing is to challenge typical character conventions and introduce under represented community to a large audience that are powered by social media. The inclusion of a bisexual character will allow for to appeal to those who are also bisexual and will open to the LGBT+ community. I feel as though challenging expected character types will be profound upon my audiences and will lead them to realise that stereotypes are simply social concepts and how misunderstood everyone really is.