Research

Secondary Research


Statistics of UK and republic of Ireland film releases 2010

22 out of 557 films were a Crime based genre making up 3.9% of the Blockbuster market. 6.4% were Crime based genre within the entire market, and 2.5% of UK independent films.


From this we were able to establish our target audience would be within a small margin and therefore we would need to be precise with our primary research to gain the information we needed.


IMDB


IMDB - Information Database
This website gives lists of producers, distributors, actors, awards and even budgets. We used this website a lot to research films for analysis. This came useful because this was information we could not obtain ourselves.


The Primary Research


Adelle and myself created a questionnaire with specific questions which would clearly establish the target audience.

Adelle and myself managed to find 40 subjects to fill out our questionnaires which fitted different age ranges so that the quantitive data received would be of a fair range. For example we split up our age ranges into 16-25, 26-34, 35-44, 45+. From this we would be able to clearly establish a target audience by age. Each age group required 10 participants to fill out the questionnaire, five male, five female, in order to create precise results and the data is non-bias. After  finding the target audience age range we decided to record audio logs from the subjects as part of a focus group in order to establish a more in depth, qualitative data to represent our target audience.

This is the spreadsheet of the entire census results we collected from the questionnaires that we handed out:

(the green shaded area represents a film the participant has watched, the red represents a film the participant has not watched)

From the spreadsheet, it is clear that one age range has viewed more crime-based films than the others. To present the data in a precise and easily visible way, Adelle and myself decided to convey the results into a clear pie chart and also a bar graph.

The pie chart below presents the amount of films seen by the participants, there were five crime-based genre films within the selection given. The data collected represents the amount of crime-based films the participant has seen:

The bar graph below presents the popularity of films on a 1-6 score, for each age group. Each age group is made up of 10 individual scores added together to give a score out of 60:

From these graphs, the target audience can be clearly identified as the 26-34 age range. This shows that the 26-34 age group rated the crime-based genre the highest overall and also had seen the films within the selection provided. This came as a shock to Adelle and myself as we had predicted the 45+ age group to be the target audience as the crime-heist genre is an escapism of the real world

With our target audience identified, we decided to create a focus group based upon a random sample of the participants in order to clarify the target audience and also to find out what attracts them to crime-based genres, what they want to see within a crime-based film, their expectations within the film and finally what social activities they engage in. This would enable us to change our idea for the task based upon what the target audience expect/want to see within the film. The last question about social activities would also give us an idea as what kind of person they are and how their real disposable income would be spent; for example would they be willing to go out and visit the cinema, or would they wait until the film was released to view it at home.

Ident Production

For our 2 minute film opening, we need to create our own Ident. An Ident is the branding identity for moving image companies. Famous Idents include Paramount pictures with their stars around a mountain, and 20th Century fox with their monummental '20th Century Fox' surrounded by searchlights as triumphant music plays.



First Ident Creation
Myself and Adelle have no experience with creating an ident, therefore we used adobe photoshop to create an animated practice version of 'Sunshine Pictures' which demonstrates a simple sequence in which certain layers, such as the clouds, people and sheep move across the screen to reveal the sun.

For our actual Ident, our ideas consisted of sequences containing some of the codes and conventions of a Crime-Heist genre, Such as:

• A Roulette board
• 2 Die rolling
• A pack of cards
• A stack of cash - burning

With brainstormed ideas in our minds we decided to discuss feasability and decide upon a realistic idea. After deliberation we decided that burning cash would not be appropriate and a roulette board is hard to acquire. So we decided on testing: 2 Die rolling and a pack of cards.
Both these are feasable and relevant to the genre we are doing.

Here are a few storyboards indicating our ideas for the ident.

Adelle and myself attemted to film 2 Die rolling, but the die were too quick for the camera we had, the die also moved too fast and would not fill the time required. We could slow this down using Final-Cut express but this did not look realistic. The main problem however was that we had no control over where the die would land, they bounced and rolled out of camera shot conastantly.

We also tested the Pack of Cards idea and fanned them out in camera shot. This proved alot easier and overall looked much more professional. The cards are slowly left behind one by one by the cardholders hand as it moves in a curving motion. This will be a memorable association for the audience.

After deciding to go with the Pack of Cards idea, we used Final-Cut express and Live Text programmes to add sound effects and animated text to attract the audience's attention. These both link with the genre of the film 'Crime'. The annimated text appears on top of an image of blank cards and moves in a slot machine motion, side by side revolving around virtically. The cards and slot machine motion connotates to gambling which has potential and popular crime associated with it. The sound effect as the annimated writing appears is a typewriter, this is a relevant convention of the 'Crime' genre as a typewriter may connotate to the conclusion of a crime, the police officer typing up the report of the events. This also may connect with the opening of the film itself as the character has already been caught.

Genre - Main Task

Genre: Genre is the class or category in which a media text falls in to.

For my Main Task i have decided to work with Adelle Auckland. After much thought we decided to create a film opening based on the Crime genre.


Crime Fiction: Is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives.

There are many sub-genres for Crime, combinning Crime and another genre to create a more complex, in depth genre. Some of these are listed below:

Crime-Thriller
Crime-Drama
Crime-Gangsta
Crime-Detective
Crime-Mystery
Crime-Horror
Crime-Action
Crime-Heist

Our original thoughts and ideas fitted perfectly into the Crime-Heist genre.

Codes and Conventions of the Crime Genre

• Police
• Balaclavas
• Dark Clothing
• Weapons
• Money
• Women
• Alcohol
• Gambling
• Villains
• Expensive commodities

Codes and Conventions of the Heist Genre

• Banks
• Vaults
• Plans
• Darkness
• Secrecy
• Technology
• The Team
• Love Interest
• Doublecross
• Lovable Rogue 

Crime-Heist: A Crime-Heist film is a film that has an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. This genre commonly includes a loveable rogue(s).

Loveable Rogue: A Loveable Rogue is predominantly the antagonist of the film. However within crime-heist films the antagonist is seen as a protagonist even thought they break the law, often for their personal profit, they are usually nice and charming enough and make an emotional connection or receive empathy from the audience. Loveable Rogues are a key factor in a crime-heist film, it places the audience on the side of the rogue.

Examples of Crime Moving Image

Oceans 11 (2001)

Directed by Stephen Soderbergh

        Genre: Crime Thriller

Danny Ocean wants to score the biggest heist in history. He combines an eleven member team, including Frank Catton, Rusty Ryan and Linus Caldwell. Their target? The Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. All casinos owned by Terry Benedict. It's not going to be easy, as they plan to get in secretly and out with $150 million.

Oceans 12 (2004)

Directed by Stephen Soderbergh

     Genre: Crime Thriller

They pulled off one of the biggest heists ever and now they have another job to complete. Ocean's Eleven, which consisted off Danny Ocean (Clooney), Rusty Ryan (Pitt) and Linus Caldwell (Damon) and others, all thought they would be able to enjoy their money, but someone has other plans. Terry Benedict (Garcia) is still fuming after losing his money and wants it back. The team now have the job of getting all the money they spent back, or risk being thrown in jail.

Oceans 13 (2007)

Directed by Stephen Soderbergh

     Genre: Crime Thriller

The last time we saw Danny Ocean's crew, they were paying back casino mogul Terry Benedict after stealing millions from him. However, it's been a while since they've come back together, which is all about to change. When one of their own, Reuben Tishkoff, builds a hotel with another casino owner, Willy Bank, the last thing he ever wanted was to get cut out of the deal personally by the loathsome Bank. However, Danny and his crew won't stand for Bank and what he's done to a friend. Uniting with their old enemy Benedict. They're not in this for the money, but for the revenge.

The Bank Job (2008)

Directed by Roger Donaldson

Genre:  Action Crime Genre

Business is slow for Terry Leather, a London car dealer, married with children. He's an artful dodger, so Martine, a former model with a thing for him, brings him her scheme: a bank's alarm is off for a couple weeks, so let's tunnel into the vault. He assembles a team, not realizing her real goal is a safe-deposit box with compromising photos of a royal: she needs the photos to trade for avoiding a jail sentence.

Chaos (2005)

Directed by Tony Giglio

Genre: Action Crime Drama

In Seattle, detective Quentin Conners is unfairly suspended and his partner Jason York leaves the police force after a tragic shooting on Pearl Street Bridge, when the hostage and the criminal die. During a bank heist with a hostage situation, Conners is assigned in charge of the operation with the rookie Shane Dekker as his partner. The thieves, lead by Lorenz, apparently do not steal a penny from the bank. While chasing the gangsters, the police team disclose that they planted a virus in the system, stealing one billion dollars from the different accounts, using the principle of the Chaos Theory. Further, they find that Lorenz is killing his accomplices

The Hustle (2004 - Present) TV

Directed by Otto Bathurst

Genre: Crime Drama

Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but which return a higher reward than simple confidence tricks.