How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?

As “Sliding Doors” and “Memento” are two main films which have been very inspirational to us when producing our short film, we researched the production companies of these films. “Sliding Doors” had the production companies: Miramax Films and Paramount Pictures, and “Memento” was produced by: Newmarket Capital Group and Summit Entertainment. Both of these films have been produced by low budget production companies, probably due to their plot lines as they make a twist on an original idea. This is risky in the film industry, as it is unknown whether the film will live up to its expectation, hence why it has been produced by a smaller company rather than a bigger one. The types of small low budget production companies involved with “Sliding Doors” and “Memento”, reflect the type of production company we would use to distribute our short film. Also, a low budget production company would be best for us as they tend to give opportunities to films with new directors, hence giving them the chance to be recognised. We would say that our film is most similar to “Sliding Doors”, as they are both British based films. However, within “Sliding Doors”, the use of the American production companies and the employment of the American protagonist helps the film to be viewed by a wider American audience; an example of cultural imperialism. In some respects, we believe our film could also be viewed by an American audience because the name of our film (Intersection) is an American word, so would appeal to their culture. It will also attract them as normally Americans are interested in quintessentially English films.

How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?

Regarding audience research, we conducted a survey on 10 people to help us to decide who the demograph for our film should be. We wanted to create a film for a young yet mature audience and from the results of our survey, we discovered the type of films young people are interested in watching, helping us to adapt our film to suit our target audience interests. We have set the target audience of our film at females aged 18-35 years old. Once we had decided this, we chose to set our characters at aged 20, so this way our demograph have someone to relate to. This is because we know that a reason why people choose to watch films is because they involve characters which are similar to themselves. Furthermore, although the main protagonist for our film is male, the fact it is of a drama genre and relates to emotions and decision making, we felt that it will appeal to a more female audience rather than male.

How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?

When we decided upon the plot of our short film, we researched films which had a split narrative, for inspiration and ideas of shots and editing features which we could maybe incorporate into our film. First of all we looked at “Sliding Doors”, due to it having a similar plot to our film where the protagonist has two different paths to choose from. We also studied the film “Memento”, as this too involves two separate alternating narratives, yet in this film, one narrative is conveyed by black and white in chronological order, whilst the other is in colour and goes in reverse order. The use of different lighting helps to make the storyline easier for our demograph to follow, so is something which we are considering incorporating within our short film. “Traffic”, is another film which employs different lighting for each storyline, hence helping to make it clearer for the audience to follow.  Furthermore, we looked at “The Family Man”, as this film contrasts family life with achieving success and wealth at work, so in this respect it can be deemed similar to the plot of our short film. We also researched “Inception”, paying particular attention to the ending, as it is left for the audience to make their own decision, hence creates audience discussion, something which we want our film ending to produce. Moreover, we researched other editing features which we plan to include, making it interesting for our demograph. For example, “Conversations with other Women” is a film which uses extensive split-screen, helping to juxtapose flash backs from the past with the present. Split-screen is a feature which we are definitely hoping to include within our short film, when Lucas is opening the card in both lives, helping to reinforce the differences between work and family and we got the idea from that film. Music videos have also given us some inspiration for editing features, especially the time lapse shot and the rewind shot. Both of those shots are most commonly seen in music videos and this is where we got our ideas from: The Script’s “Man Who Can’t Be Moved” video and Coldplay’s “The Scientist”. Additionally, the posters for “Sliding Doors” and “Memento” have given us initiative for the construction of our poster. Both of the posters for those films vastly convey the storyline of the films and they have used graphological features wisely to help connote this effectively. Nevertheless, the “Sliding Doors” poster uses the well known actress within the film, as a promotion tool, but this is something we would not be able to do, due to our actors being unknown to the public.