Who is my audience and how can I successfully target them?

I need to define my audience; this will help me with planning and creating a documentary. This will achieve a better product as I can make it to what they would like. By targeting a specific audience I can get feedback from the right people, so my production can grow so I can make a better product.

My suspected audience is people with borrowed interests. The audience theory this comes under is ‘uses and gratifications’. This means that the audience take part in something in the documentary so they are interested in it. In this case it is skiing. My audience is a niche audience in the UK. This is because skiing isn’t necessary a huge sport. As this is a niche market it will be hard to research information within this group. I think I will be able to cope with this as I’m a keen skier so I know the market and the right people in there to speak to about it.

I want to achieve by my target audience watching this work is that I hope that they’re entertained throughout the Documentary. I hope they also take something from the documentary, for example more information about the sport and the athletes. I also hope to get people who aren’t into skiing to watch it and give me feedback so I can reach a bigger market. 

Filming Equitment infomation

Camera

I am using a Cannon 550d to film my documentary on; this camera has the abilities of what I need it to do. I will be filming on 25fps at 1920x1080p. This will be right settings as I’m doing sport I’ll need more fps and it will flow more. As most of my shoots are in the dark I need to think about my ISO settings on my camera. I don’t want them too high so it has high noise levels, however I don’t want them too low so it’s hard to see. I’m going to use is a 18-200 f3.5-6.3 Sigma lens which will let in a good amount of light with some good quality glass. Another lens I’ll use will be a fixed 50mm at 1.8 which is perfect for interviews and shooting skiing. Having the lens at F1.8 will let in more light so the ISO will not have to be as high which will be for the best. The last lens that I have to use is a fixed 200mm, this is quite impractical it is at F/2.8 so it will be good for lighting with shoots but it’s quite big for the slopes that I’m filming that. However I think I could use it for some good cinematic shots with help form additional lighting.

Sound

When filming my sound it will come from a microphone that I’ve attached to the camera. The microphone I’m using is a ‘Rode video Mic’ this is ideal for what I’ll be filming and the conditions it will be put through. This microphone will be used for filming the skiing and filming the interviews. The only disadvantage to this microphone is that it’s just a little flimsy.

When looking for music for my documentary I need too try finding music that isn’t copyrighted. Here is a list of websites that are royalty free that will be suitable and legal to use on my documentary.

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/music/

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

http://publicdomain4u.com/

http://www.sounddogs.com/

http://www.jamendo.com/en/

http://www.danosongs.com/

All these websites look reliable and I will have to search through them to find the right songs I need. This music is only needed for one part as the rest will be raw sounds from the filming.

Lighting

A major factor with this shooting at the ski slopes is that Norwich is outside so it’s very dark. When filming it will help to use extra lighting as it will make the filming quality better. I’ll need spot lights and generator to do this. I would have to rent these objects out for a night to do this and use the ski slope out of hours as it will look better with the slope lighting off. I’m also planning on doing some daytime shoots so I will not need the extra lighting and it will be something different then the other shoots.

Titles

When choosing my title of my Documentary I need to look at other films names in this genre and field. This is a list below of some to give me ideas and to pick out the best ones and the ones I dislike.

After dark

Eye trip

Refresh

Turbo

Real-time

Long story short

Balance

Every day is a Saturday

Daredevils

These are all titles of films and documentaries in that genre. These names don’t look relevant but when you watch them you realize that they mean quite a lot about the film. I really like the name ‘Real Time’ it stands out and has a nice meaning to it. The name ‘Everyday is a Saturday’ has a good meaning; this is a documentary on freestyle skiers that lead a life what means ‘Everyday is a Saturday’. A name that I have been thinking of is ‘The way They see it’. It’s catchy it has a meaning where it shows how people see there sports and describing it too you with there own opinion.

Props

The props will be different to normal documentaries as the props will be the obstacles tom rides. With the props at Norfolk Snow sports club I won’t have to do much research on them as I’m also a local rider there so I know what they’re like. I will have to think about the lighting of the slope and lighting of the obstacles. With the other slopes that I go to film at I will have to look at the Set up of the slope before and plan around that.

The obstacles will be different so it doesn’t get tedious while watching. These pictures below will act as a mood board for ideas when planning some shots. These pictures are from other ski films and photos I have seem which will inspire me. These photos will also help me in different shot types while filming.

http://www.newschoolers.com/photo/572504.0/telemark-slide?c=3&o=3

http://www.newschoolers.com/photo/439490.0/Nose-Press-on-Tube?c=3&o=3

http://www.newschoolers.com/photo/444834.1/DISASTER!?c=3&o=3

http://www.newschoolers.com/photo/521919.1/LEANIN?c=3&o=3

http://www.newschoolers.com/photo/384727.4/Alexandra-Nicole-nosegrab-on-box-at-Leysin?c=3&o=3

http://www.newschoolers.com/photo/212779.5/Blindsoul?c=3&o=3

These pictures have a range of rails I could use and think about setting up. I also already have ideas for some set ups so I need to write them up when I start planning.

Costumes

The skiers will not have costumes as they don’t have too. The only thing I have said is not to wear offensive clothing.

Researching Terms

Democracy
Defintion "A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives." via google
In my own words: Everyone gets a vote on what happens in thier lives.
Wiki definition "Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives"
Constitutional monarchy

Media Democracy
Wiki Defintion "Democratic media is a form of media organization that strives to have the principles of democracy underlying not only the production of content, but also the organization of the entire project."
x factor?

Web 2.0
Wiki defintion "A Web 2.0 site may allow users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies"
facebook aka

'F it" trailer

The “F’ it” trailer is a snowboard trailer which is quite different. This trailer starts off with the sponsors but in a shutter photography way; it works well. Then it goes to snowboarders talking while shots of them walk around and having fun. Then it gets to the snowboarding. The format to this video is very different to the other trailer I looked at; this one has a section or each snowboarder. The music is quite old but it works. It’s not an up tempo beat but it goes with the filming done.

This trailer has mild swearing and one shot of nudity in it so you can see it’s target market are for 18 years and older. The shots used are very dramatic with the angles they use, very obscure. They also use good framing, using trees to really make the snowboarder stand out. They use shots which are very technical as well. For example they use a shot where they have the background as a time lapse and the foreground with a snowboarder riding. They use slow motion quite a bit as well; this helps you focus on the trick without being rushed. At the end of the trailer it introduces the filmers which is different but its good filler.

Eyetrip trailer

http://vimeo.com/12966778

This is a video trailer for the film 'Eyetrip'. It's made by a production company called 'Level 1' they are the biggest skiing company for producing freestyle skiing films. This was realised on September 10th 2010 and was premiered on that day in Denver.
There were 4 things i looked at while watching this to analysis it, they were Sound, Editing, Mise en scene and Camera shots and angles.

Eye trip starts of with some very cinematic shots; they are shots of the scenery. Nearly all the shots are time lapses and they pan across. All the skiers seam to be looking up at the sky, the time lapses are the entire sky too with the clouds moving among the mountains. There is an ambient music with voiceovers of the skiers of how they’re feeling. This effect makes it seam mystical.

The first music fades out to a shot of the first skiing you see. No music comes on till after this shot. The only sound you hear is the raw clip sound. This shot fades out then all then skiing start with the music. The music is very up tempo and has a beat which the clips go along with. They have jump shots which fit in with the music. I like this a lot, it works and shows great editing. The angles they use to shoot it are very dramatic but they work well, they also have some normal shots. They link up the shots very well so you can see the same trick in 2 different viewpoints. For some of the shots they have an audience reaction to make it have a different feel. In this trailer there is a good balance between rails and kicker. It ends with the name of the video, the sponsors, the skiers, the filmers and editors. It is a good animation to end with.

This trailer is very professionally made. It does it purpose which is advertise a film well and makes me want to buy it. It also has advertisements in the video for companies who sponsors the skiers. This makes people wanting to buy the brands as their favourite skier skis on them. The companies pay the production company to highlight there brand. It does effect sales and the people who ride in the film as the sponsors will try to push the production company to get them shots in the film. 

What i'm doing this year

i have choosen to do Brief 7. "An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximatley five minutes, together with two of the following three options:

• a radio trailer for the documentry;
• a double-page spread from a listing magazine focused on the documentary
• a newspaper advertisement for the documentary

Definition of 'documentary': 'the use of the film medium to interpret creatively and in social terms the life of the people as it exists in reality'
i am going to a documentary on skiing. It is going to be on extreme sports. The extreme sport that i'm going to do is Freestyle skiing.

The reason for doing this is because i'm a keen skiier and this will boost my interests in this project. I'm basing my filming at Norfolk Snowsports club but i will travel around to different slopes. The skiiers i'm going to be filming are people i know and they are very keen to get involved in this.