British Social Realism // Production Log Ten

We received feedback on our treatment we made with improvements to make, to ensure everything needed is included. To see that post, Click Here. 

This week we conducted our primary research and went and asked our target audience questions and edited them to present them in a Voxpop. This allowed us to gather the most relevant information possible, without it taking up too much time like a focus group would. 

Here is our Voxpop:

We learnt that our audience's favourite BSR films are Kidulthood, because they liked the storyline and Bend it like Beckham because of the cultural elements and having an indian girl aspiring to be a footballer. This allows us to see if we can use certain elements of these films in our own, to make them appeal to our audience more and ideas we can add to our own. I think Kidulthood's storyline is already quite similar to our own, having the character's ages to be in school so it is relatable to a certain part of our audience and there being quite a strong theme of bullying being evident as it was the cause of the character Katie's suicide. This is probably why people who liked Kidulthood, our idea appealed to them. However I think we could make the film more effective perhaps by making Becca, a religious character making what happens to her being seen as worse. This means we could appeal to a wider audience if we have cultural elements like the film Bend it like Beckham. The film is all about coming of age, finding yourself and someone different fitting in which could be useful for our film. Becca is made different through her pregnancy and then struggles with people's views upon it.

Overall, we learnt that our film does appeal to our audience and we were given some improvements to make. Those suggestions include making the character of Becca younger, which is something we are going to definitely change. Becca was initially 16 and we think that if her character's age is 14 or 15, the rape is more shocking as 16 is the legal age for sex in the UK. This also makes her character easier to make look innocent and vulnerable, as sixteen year olds may be seen as more mature. We also learnt that people like the idea of us showing the effects of bullying, and the judgement against someone even though they have not done anything wrong. For example, we show Becca to be innocent and that her pregnancy is not her fault yet in films like "Juno" we see a girl who has willingly had sex and become pregnant through her own decision. 

We also are considering the ways to show the rape as it is a sensitive topic and understand it could be disturbing for some viewers. Currently, we think we will show a different shot, but you can hear Becca's muffled screams in the background so the audience remain aware of what is happening. These changes show how our primary research has benefited us to change the plan for our film to be more suitable to target our audience.