RESEARCH STAGE
LO2 2.1/2.2
GENRE RESEARCH
WORLD BUILDING
CHARACTER RESEARCH
MINIATURE RESEARCH
VISUAL EFFECTS RESEARCH
MUSIC RESEARCH
AUDIENCE THEORIES
FOCUS GROUP SURVEY
FOCUS GROUP
INTRODUCTION
This is the beginning of my research stage of the project. This stage of the project is one of the most important areas when it comes to the final product. Since the genre I have chosen is a sci-fi action, the research for this project is going to be much more in depth then previous projects. This stage I will look into areas such as, content research, audience research, and production techniques.
CONTENT RESEARCH
For this project I have decided that the genre is going to be a sci-fi action. In order to gain a further understanding of the genre I need to research into existing media for sci-fi action films. As well as this I need to research into things like, creating miniatures, creating cyberpunk adverts, and creating a set. With this project I want to put a lot of focus into dialogue, as it feels like a weak area in my skillset, so I want to research into how to create Hollywood style scripts, and specifically research scripts in the cyberpunk genre.
GENRE RESEARCH
In order to gain a further understanding of the genre that my project is based on, I wanted to look into the cyberpunk genre, through looking into the history of the genre, codes and conventions of the genre, and the iconography of the genre.
THE HISTORY OF CYBERPUNK
Before the creating of the cyberpunk genre, sci-fi was the predominant genre of film for audiences. This was not until the rise of the fictional writer William Gibson. William Gibson is known as the founder of the cyberpunk genre, since the beginning of his career in the 1970s, William began with writing stories within the noir genre.
(1) Interview with Author William Gibson on His Writing - YouTube
These stories began to touch of future technology, and specifically the term "lowlife and high tech". This term is what is used to describe the cyberpunk genre as a whole. William Gibson is seen as the person that helped influence the first visual moving image depiction of the cyberpunk genre, as well as the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" which was the main inspiration for the 1982 film Blade Runner, telling the story of Rick Deckard in a fallen city of San Francisco.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Off-world: The Blade Runner Wiki | Fandom
This film was what popularized the cyberpunk genre within film. Blade runner made the connection between the film world and the fictional book world that William Gibson created with his stories. However, despite this film being seen as the greatest cyberpunk film, during its theatrical run it lost 2.4 million USD, only gaining 41.6 million USD in box office.
8 Biggest Box Office Bombs of the 80s (collider.com)
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After Blade Runner gained fame for the cyberpunk genre, many films in the future adapted the cyberpunk genre. For example the 1999 film The Matrix took a different approach compared to Blade Runner. This story based its narrative on the government system at the time, making the story more relatable to the audience at the time. Although this film is a different style of cyberpunk it still aligns with the term "lowlife high tech".
After the Matrix's different take on the cyberpunk genre, the technology in film kept expanding, allowing the cyberpunk genre to grow with it. After Blade Runner's "perfect" portrayal of the cyberpunk genre, there was not many mainstream blockbuster films that met the style of Blade Runner, this was until the 2017 film Blade Runner 2049.
Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049" used the wonders of modern technology to best portray the cyberpunk genre. Compared to the 1982 Blade Runner, this film was able to achieve the best look for a cyberpunk film, demonstrating the best cyberpunk world to date.
Blade Runner 2049 was able to build a cyberpunk world for the audience through techniques such as, cgi, miniatures and set design. For example when looking into the production of the film, in order to create the ideal cyberpunk world, director Denis Villeneuve used the technique of miniatures, this technique is seen most commonly in the sci-fi genre. For example, through the Star Wars show "The Mandalorian"
The use of miniatures in Blade Runner 2049 can be seen during the establishing shot near the end of the film. This shot used smaller sized buildings typically built out of foam board. This shot used a mechanical dolly to get a steady shot over multiple passes, this is what added depth to the shot. As well as the use of miniatures in Blade Runner 2049, green screen is also used in order to include the cast into the world that was created by miniatures or cgi.
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For example in order to include the main character into a wide shot, the film used set design on the floor with a combination of green screen behind the actor in order to include the character in the scene and make it seamless for the audience to look at.
Compared to the previous Blade Runner, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner used the modern day technology to completely immerse the audience within the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL5q20Ww0SU
This film was what monumentally changed the creation of cyberpunk worlds within film, and is the main film I want to base my project off of.
HISTORY OF GENRE INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
When looking into content research for Unit 13, I knew I wanted to gain a further understanding of the cyberpunk genre. In order to do this I looked into the history of the cyberpunk genre, specifically looking into William Gibson, Blade Runner (1982), the Matrix, and Blade Runner 2049. From researching into the development of the genre and looking specifically into multiple cyberpunk films, it has allowed me to gain a further understanding of what techniques are used by big budget films, and how I can include them in my project. Specifically in this research, I looked into Blade Runner 2049 and the techniques used to create that film. From this I discovered that in order to create the world for the audience, they use miniatures, green screen, sets, and cgi. From this I would like to look into the use of miniatures to create the city for my story. This is so I can create the city on a very low budget. As well as this I wanted to look at building a set for my project, in order to have the freedom of dressing a set for the purpose of the film, meaning that I do not have to find a location. Going forward with my research stage I would like to look into researching techniques to create miniatures, sets, and how to add special effects to shots.
RESEARCH INTO WORLD BUILDING
Since I am creating a cyberpunk short film for Unit 13, a large part of the genre is world building because cyberpunk is a fictional genre set in a fictional world. So in order to gain a better understanding of how to create an immersive world for my audience I want to research into films and their techniques to create a fictional world for the audience.
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One of the greatest examples of world building within film, is George Lucas' space opera "Star Wars". This series of films perfectly demonstrates world building within film and specifically the sci-fi genre. George Lucas created a world that had not yet been represented in film.
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One of the ways George Lucas does this is through his use of the Opening Crawl. For example when A New Hope first released in 1977, audience members had no understanding of the world that Star Wars was set in. This is why the Opening Crawl was so important to the story and world that Lucas created. During the opening the audience is already clear on the base line of the story, however it still allows the audience to explore the story for themselves as the film progresses. This is contrasted to the 1984 sci-fi film Dune, in which audience members are overloaded with too much information at the beginning of the film, allowing little to no discovery as the film progresses. George Lucas' simple approach to the introduction helps to set the base line for the world.
In the introduction it is already outlined to the audience the base line of the story, this helps to already build the world without any visuals, this is needed since there was a lack of information on the world before the movie. After the introduction George Lucas then includes world building through script, editing and characters. For example, audience members were not familiar with the term jedi when watching the film, however most audience members at the time had knowledge of what a wizard was. So in order to give audience members more information on what a jedi was, George Lucas uses the script to explain to the audience. During one of the first scenes in which Luke is trying to discover who Obi Wan Kenobi is, the character of Uncle Owen states, "That wizard is just a crazy old man". When later meeting Ben Kenobi, and discovering he is a jedi, audience members can then have an understanding of what a jedi is, as they can relate him to being a type of wizard.
George Lucas creates a world in this story through not forcing information onto the audience like in Dune, but slowly feeding the information to the audience slowly and in a sequence. This is what made Star Wars ab easy concept to understand when the movie first came out.
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One of the best examples alongside Star Wars is the world building of Middle Earth in The Lord Of The Rings. This world is one of the main examples of world building in fictional storytelling.
J.R.R Tolkien was able to create such a deep expanse of a world through the storytelling of the books, and eventually through the films. The fictional world of Middle Earth, like Star Wars, is ever exapnding, with audience members kraving the authors latest expansion of the world, and if the author does not provide that the audience is still left with enough freedom to create there own story.
This is since, unlike Star Wars where the movie was first to come out, The Lord Of The Rings began as a book, so audience members were able to imagine there own world. This style of world building has resulted in Middle Earth being extremely adaptive and open to fan interpretation. Tolkien uses world building in his stories to take the audience away from the act of reading or watching, and instead into imagining the world that is being told to them either through words or on the screen.
World building as a whole is about engaging a passive audience as an oppose to an active one. This is why in a fictional story world building is one of the most vital parts in creating an enjoyable story for the audience.
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-world-building/
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When looking into my project, I would like to allow the world to be adaptable by the audience members, leaving gaps for creativity and therefore creating an ever expanding world, like Middle Earth or the Star Wars universe.
WORLD BUILDING RESEARCH INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
For this area of the research stage I wanted to look into fictional world building, since it is a large area of the sci-fi genre, and specifically the cyberpunk genre. In order to gain a better understanding of how to create a fictional world, I looked into two of the largest genres for world building, sci-fi and fantasy. In particular George Lucas' Star Wars universe, and J.R.R Tolkien's Middle Earth.
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When looking into these worlds, one thing I noticed that both writers do is they not only provide structure for the story, but they allow the world to be interpreted by the audience members. This is something that I want to include in my project as I believe it will allow the film to become more immersive for the audience members.
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As well as this, in Star Wars, the use of characters was also vital to the world building.
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Going forward with the research stage I would like to research into character design as I believe this is one of the main parts of world building. I would also like to look into audience theories since the audience plays a key part in world building.
CHARACTER RESEARCH
Like world building, characters within the cyberpunk genre are vital to the audiences immersion within the film. So in order to improve my project, I need to research into characters within sci-fi films. For this I want to look into audience theories like Propp's theory on characters, and I want to look into existing sci-fi characters in order to help influence the characters that will be portrayed in my project.
When looking into creating characters for my project, it is vital that I look into Vladimir Propp and his theory surrounding characters.
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Vladimir Propp's theory states that there are 8 character types. Propp gained this information through studying old fairy tale stories. Propp believed that each character type could share other characteristics with others, and characters could take more than one role.
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The Villain
This character is the main antagonist of the story. This characters role in the story is to contrast the hero, getting in his/her way.
An example of a villain in a film is Voldemort in Harry Potter. This character's main purpose within the films is to try and kill Harry Potter. In the films the protagonist and antagonist completely contrast.
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The Hero
The hero in most stories, is the lead for the entire story. This characters role is to usually look for something, like a quest, or is trying to solve something. An example of this character type in Harry Potter is the main protagonist Harry Potter. Especially in this film the story is based on the hero of the story.
The Princess/Heroine
The princess/heroine, in most stories, is the reward that the hero receives upon completing their quest. This role can either be a character, for example Princess Peach in Mario, or it can be a thing, like the death of Voldemort in Harry Potter.
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The Helper
This character is the person that is responsible for helping the hero achieve his quest. An example of this character would be Ron Weasley. This character plays a huge role in helping Harry to defeat Voldemort.
The Dispatcher
The dispatcher within a story is the character that sends the hero on the quest. This character plays a key part in the narrative of the story, starting the action within the story line. An example of this character type, would be Dumbledore.
The False Hero
The false hero character type is someone that is set to deceive both the hero and the audience. This is done through multiple ways, however it is most common that this character appears to be good but in reality is bad. An example of this is Tom Riddle in the story. At first it appears that Tom is trying to help Harry, however it is later discovered that Tom is Voldemort.
The Donor
This character has the role of providing the hero with the support needed to succeed in their quest. For example, the character of Hagrid. This character is responsible for supplying Harry with the resources to start his schooling at Hogwarts.
The Father
The father character role is responsible for rewarding the hero upon completing the quest. This character is normally predominant at the end of the story. For example, in Harry Potter the father of the story would be the Weasley family, since at the end of the story they are responsible for rewarding Harry for his efforts.
From researching into Vladimir Propp's theory surrounding character types in a story, I have gained a further understanding of each character roles and how they play a vital role within the story. From researching into this theory, I have noticed that every character role evolves around the hero. This is due to most stories evolving around the hero character, therefore all the characters support the hero within the story. When looking into a character driven story such as Harry Potter, it was evident that Propp's theory is still used within modern cinema, and is something I would like to take into consideration when creating characters for my story.
CONTENT RESEARCH INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
For this stage of my research I wanted to look into the content that was going to be included in my project, in order for me to better understand how I can improve my idea. To do this I looked into different areas such as, the history of the cyberpunk genre, world building within fictional stories, and character research. In order to gain this information I researched into examples of existing media.
For example when looking into the history of the cyberpunk genre I looked into, William Gibson's books, Blade Runner (1982), The Matrix, and Blade Runner 2049. From this research I gathered that despite the cyberpunk being a sub genre, it was still adaptable with the style of visuals and story line. As well as this I discovered the different techniques that were used in order to create the film. Doing this research has helped to influence my project as I believe some of the techniques that were used to create these films can be used to create my film and make it of a high production value.
Furthermore, another area I researched during content research was the world building within fictional storytelling. From this research, I have discovered that one of the most vital areas within the cyberpunk genre is the creation of a world for the audience. Since the genre requires a separate world to normal, the world building in the story is key to the audience's immersion within the film. Doing this research has highlighted to me that allowing the audience to create their own expansion to the world is the best way to create immersion, so I would like to be able to create a world that doesn't suffocate the audience, and allows audiences to stay engaged with the story.
The final thing that I looked into within content research for this project was character research. I believe that, like storytelling, the characters of a story within the cyberpunk genre are extremely key to not only the story line, but to the audience's enjoyment of the film. For my research of characters, I looked into Vladimir Propp's theory of character types. This theory helped to demonstrate the key types of characters within a fictional world. Since Propp created the theory from studying fairy tails, the theory works well when it comes to a fictional story. For example, to fully understand the theory I compared Propp's theory to Harry Potter to see if it fit with each character. Upon doing this, I discovered that the theory very clearly fit into the film, with each character playing their own role. One thing in particular that I noticed about this theory was that all characters within the story all revolve around the hero, therefore forming the story line. Since finding this out, it has helped me to understand how to shape my story, and the importance of character development within this project. Going forward I would like to put more focus into my characters, as I believe it plays off well with the story. One thing that I noticed when completing this research for the project, was that character types, and world building go hand in hand, and are both used to support one and other. So when creating my project I would like to focus on creating a world that supports the characters, and creating characters that feel like they belong within the world.
PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES RESEARCH
For this stage of my research I would like to look into production techniques, this is so I can gain a better understanding of how to use certain techniques when filming. Since this project is in the cyberpunk genre, I will need to use multiple techniques to make the film as immersive as possible. For example, the use of miniatures, sets, visuals effects, and sound design.
MINIATURE RESEARCH
When looking into creating a film in the cyberpunk genre, a big part of it is creating a world for the audience to be immersed in. So in order to do this I would like to look into the creation of miniatures, and the process of filming miniatures within a film. At first I wanted to look into how to build the miniatures.
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For this I looked into a video from the youtube channel Slice Of Life. This video shows the behind the scenes of their cyberpunk short film "Slice Of Life". This video looks into how to build, light, and film miniatures. In this video, they demonstrate the process for creating a cyberpunk building. The techniques they used for this were using cardboard boxes for the base layer. This was in order to gain an easy base to shape the building around. This is extremely useful for me since I am on a short budget and cannot afford lots of foam board.
Since the cyberpunk genre is very interpretable it allows me to be more free when creating the buildings for the city. For example in the video, they begin to add random items onto the building to add texture. These items consist of, old telephones, motherboards, and fans from computers. These items just helped to give the building texture and allow for a more abstract feel to the buildings, and therefore the city. One other thing that this video demonstrated, was the use of 3D printing to create items for the building such as, wires, pipes, air conditioning units, and other small high detail items.
When it came to the painting of the building, this video demonstrated multiple different techniques in order to not only paint but weather the building. For example, when painting the building, they used grey primer with hints of black and white paint to add contrast and depth to the building. As well as this, one of the most important steps to creating a complete building is the weathering stage. So for this they experimented with different techniques such as brown paint, or using metal filings and spraying water and vinegar over them to create real rust on the building. All of these techniques are what pull the building together and make it fit within the world.
BUILDING A MINIATURE
All of these techniques put together on one building allow the building to fit within the cyberpunk world. As well as this, these techniques are all used to create realism within the building, making it more immersive for the audience.
All of these techniques put together on one building allow the building to fit within the cyberpunk world. As well as this, these techniques are all used to create realism within the building, making it more immersive for the audience.
LIGHTING MINIATURES
When creating miniatures for a film, not only do the miniatures itself play a big role in selling the visuals to the audience, but the lighting of a miniature set is the main way of creating depth, and make the miniatures as realistic as possible. In order to gain further insight into lighting miniatures I looked into a video, once again by Slice Of Life, on the process of filming a Japanese temple miniature. Although this is a separate video from their cyberpunk video, the techniques that they use on lighting transfer over. For example, in this video it explains the importance of shooting in passes and lighting each pass separately. These passes are, info pass, beauty pass, fog pass, practical light pass, matte pass.
The info pass consists of lighting the miniatures with all of the lights on in order to gain the most information for tracking the miniatures to add effects to the shot later on in post production.
The beauty pass when shooting miniatures is lit with all of the lights turned off except for a few lights from the back of the miniatures. This pass is done to give the miniature a highlight on the edges.
The next pass is one of the most important passes when it comes to creating immersion and realism. The fog pass is when fog is used throughout the set, and lit from the back, in order to create separation between the front and the back of the miniature, it can also be used to show movement within the lights since the fog allows light beams to be created.
After this pass, one of the other deciding facotrs to making the miniatures look real has to be done, this is called the practical light pass. This pass consists of turning off all of the lights and only using the practical lights within the shot. For example, the lights of a building, or the sun in an exterior miniature. In order to create the practical lights in a building a light can be placed within the building, and then individual windows can be cut out to show the light coming through. This techique means that a realistic effect can be created, but on a budget.
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The final pass when shooting miniatures is called, the matte pass. This pass is similar to the info pass, however, only a few parts of the miniature is selected to be lit. This pass is done so in the post production stage of the project, these sections can be placed in front of any visual effects that are added. For example, in a cyberpunk city, cars can be added behind the buildings, giving the effect that the city goes deeper than just the foreground.
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For this section of research I looked into the process of lighting miniatures for filming. In this research it demonstrated to me that not only do you need to light the set very specifically, but you also need to film in passes and light each pass seperately. This has helped me to gain a better understanding of what I will need to do when it comes to creating the miniatures with lights, and how I will need to light the miniatures.
MINIATURE INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
For my production research I specifically wanted to look into the process for creating and shooting miniatures. So when doing this I looked into videos from Slice Of Life in order to gain the best understanding of the process for miniature shoots. Specifically in these videos I was interested in the building of miniatures, and the process to light and shoot miniatures.
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When looking into building the miniatures, I discovered a lot to the process. The video I researched for this was a video on creating a miniature building for a cyberpunk city. This meant that I could best relate to the video, and learn the most since I am going to be creating a miniature cyberpunk city. This research has helped to give me inspiration on the different techniques that are used to create the most believable miniatures. As well as this, it has helped to demonstrate what type of materials I will need to create the miniatures, therefore preparing me for when I build the miniatures.
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I also researched into a seperate video in order to give me the best understanding of how to light, and shoot miniatures. In this video it covered areas that I was unsure on. For example, shooting miniatures in different passes in order to get the most realistic look. Looking into this research has helped better prepare me for how I am going to film my miniature scenes.
VISUAL EFFECTS RESEARCH
Within this project, I wanted to include some visual effets in order to best sell the film as it being cyberpunk. Specifically I would like to look into how to create a rain effect, since my city is constantly raining, and rain is a convention of the cyberpunk genre. For this research I am going to look into a video from Film Riot, in which they explore how to make cinematic rain with vfx. Looking into how to recreate a rain effect, for Unit 13, is going to be crucial to the look and feel of my final project, since this effect plays a big role in setting the world that I am trying to create.
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When first looking into getting rain in my project, it was a logistical challenge since I thought it required real rain. However, after looking into the process of creating rain in a film, I stumbled across the ability to create rain within the post production stage of the project. So I decided to watch a video from Film Riot to better understand how I could achieve this effect. This video can be broken down into multiple sections to make it easier to focus on each section. These sections consist of, the assets, rotoscoping, adding rain, ground rain, and misty haze.
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The assets section of the video describes the assets that are needed to create this effect. For example, in order to create the rain effect, you first need the footage that you would like to add the rain effect to, you then need stock footage of the rain falling from the sky, and then you need a shot of the rain hitting the floor. In order to get these shots for the effect, I would gain footage from stock footage websites.
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After this Film Riot then explains the rotoscoping section of the video. For this section the video explains how to rotoscope, in order to track the subject that is in the frame. The video demonstrates how to do this using the software after effects. In this software you need to duplicate the layers in order to have one layer for rotoscoping. Furthermore, instead of manually rotoscoping every frame, the roto brush tool is able to rotoscope the subject for you making the process a lot easier, saving time in the post production stage. After this has been done it now allows for the visual rain to be added.
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When adding the rain to the footage, Film Riot pointed out a vital point that is key to making the video look so real. This technique is done by analysing the footage and looking at the areas where the rain would be most interactive. For example, since I want to shoot a majority of my project on night shoots, there will be lots of lights. So when adding the rain, adding more definition on the lights will help to sell the image to the audience, making the shot more immersive and less noticeable. Another thing to take into consideration when adding the effect is the sky in the shot. One thing that also adds to the atmosphere of the shot is the sky, so in order to create that atmosphere, in a night shoot, I will need to make the sky black by using a mask and lowering the opacity of the sky. When combining these features it allows the rain overlay to blend in the best with the shot that the effect is being added to.
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One of the thing that differentiates a rain overlay to a well edited rain vfx, is the attention to detail. However, another thing that sells the visual effect the most is if the mise-en scene, for example, if the sky is raining but the floor does not react it will make the shot less believable. So to get around this Film Riot use stock footage of rain hitting the floor and overlay the footage over the original shot. Another way they include the rain on the floor is by wetting the floor when shooting in the first place, this is since it is way harder to create the effect that the floor is wet. One way to blend the overlay into the original shot is to play around with the opacity of the overlay, and the colour over the rain to fit the colours of the lighting. All of these effects are used to best immerse the audience member.
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The final step to creating the rain effect for a shot is to include a misty haze over the top of the layers. This effect is used to create definition for the main subject in the frame, and to create depth. In order to make this effect, a new adjustment layer is made in which you then use an effect called optical glow. After this the layer just has to be adjusted to best fit the lighting of your shot, otherwise the effect will make the image look overexposed. After putting all of these effects together the final shot will come together producing a realistic effect, interacting with lights and the ground, as an oppose to just a rain overlay on the shot.
VISUAL EFFECTS FINAL CONCLUSIONS
When looking into the production techniques stage of Unit 13 research, I wanted to pay specific attention into the creation of visual effects. To do this I looked into a video from Film Riot. In this video it demonstrated the individual steps to creating a rain effect during post production. Through watching this video, it has given me a far better understanding of the process I need to go through when I am in the post production stage of this project. One thing that I picked up on, that I wasn't aware of before watching the video, was the importance of changing the rain overlay to adjust to the orginal shots. For example, changing the rain highlights where there is a practical light in the scene. This will help a large amount when it comes to the addition of this effect in my project, helping to add to the realism. Going forward into the problem solving stage, I would like to test this effect on a shot in order to give me a first hand experience of creating the effect.
RESEARCH INTO MUSIC
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One of the codes and conventions of the cyberpunk genre is the music that is included throughout the film. So during the research stage of this project I want to look into scoring music for my production. So in order to gain the best understanding of what music to include in my project I wanted to research into the music from the cyberpunk genre. Specifically researching into the music and sound behind the Blade Runner 2049 film. For this I am going to look in a video by "SoundWorksCollection".
In this video, it describes the influence behind the films soundtrack. In order to create a sound that would best fit the film, the sound designers took a lot of inspiration from the first Blade Runner film, since it is in the same universe, the sound designers wanted to keep the same audience from the first film, but change the music to fit the new story. Despite the music being based off the first film it still changed and adapted a lot to fit the style of Hans Zimmers cinematic music.
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When it came down to the music in this film, lots of the tracks were created to be not so much a song, but more of like an ambient sound. This was done after listening to Van Gellis' original soundtrack. So in order to replicate this, sound desginers used things like wind chimes and guitars in order to create a ghostly sound, which matched the dystopian feel of the film.
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In order to create the most immersive experience through music, I want to get a composer to score my film. After doing my research into the soundtrack for Blade Runner 2049, I realised that in order to best replicate this, I would need a composer as an oppose to using the service artlist which is what I normally used on my projects, although this proved to be a great tool, it didn't provide me with my exact needs, so I believe to have both a positive impact on how I view the film, and how the audience view the film, it was best to find a composer to score my film.
MUSIC RESEARCH INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
From researching into music, I believe that my knowledge of music in films has improved dramatically, especially in the areas of film scoring. My reasoning for choosing to research into this subject was led on by my research into world building. Since I want to create the most immersive experience for my audience members, I am heavily relying on both the audio and visuals combined to create the immersion I need. So from researching into music, it really defined to me how I can get to that stage. The main thing I took out of this research was the fact that I needed to step away from the pre recorded audio tracks from music services, and aim torwards a more tailored sound track made specifically for my requirments and my needs on the film. This research has really helped me to discover my needs for the film, and assisted me on what to do within the pre production stage of the project.
PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
This part of my research stage for this project proved very useful for me. Going into this section, I knew it was going to be extremely useful for me to look into, as there are a lot of new techniques that I wanted to experiment with when filming. So for this stage I looked into three areas, miniatures, visual effects, and music. The first thing I looked into when researching into production techniques was arguably the most important for me. The research into miniatures was vital for me to research, as the city shots act as the backbone for the world that I am creating for my audience. This stage was extremely useful for me to research, one of the only regrets from this stage was the fact that I did not get to experiment with the miniatures. This would have been extremely useful as it would have given me the best understanding of how to create a miniature effect with limited kit.
After the miniature research I decided to look into visual effects, particularly into the recreation of rain. For this research, I also found it very key to look into as the rain in the world that I am creating is a reocurring theme, and helps to outline the continuety between the locations when filming, it is also a code and convention of the cyberpunk genre. This research gave me a lot of information on how to create the effect, both simplistically, and detailed. Doing this stage also helped to highlight a problem, so it will be important to return to this subject when doing my problem solving stage.
One area that I wanted to look into, that doesn't fit in with the visual aspects of the project, was the music of the project. This stage was something that I had never previously looked into, so at first I found it a struggle to research into. However, I realised that one of the main things I wanted to look into, was how the music was made, where the inspiration for the tracks came from, and its importance to the film. For this I gained all of the information from a video about the film Blade Runner 2049, this video helped provide me with the knowledge on the inspiration behind the audio from this movie. Researching this stage has really highlighted what I want for my project in order to create the best experience that I can. Going forward with this project, I need to look into music as a section in problem solving, as I already ran into an issue when researching this area.
After researching all of these areas, it has given me a lot more confidence for the production stage of my project, however, it has also highlighted many problems that I will encounter, which I wouldn't have discovered when planning to film. So this stage has proven very useful for me to prepare myself for production.
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION
This is the audience research stage of my research stage. In this stage I will be looking into primary research on my audience, and trying to discover my target audience. In order to do this I will use surveys, and focus groups tyo discover who I am aiming this production towards.
FOCUS GROUP SURVEY
In order to best gain an understanding of my audience, I decided to conduct some primary research. To do this I chose to use a survey, so I needed to ask my audience some questions in order to understand who I am aiming my production to, and what content I want to have within my short film.
When creating these questions, I ideally wanted to tailor the survey towards finding out what content people wanted in my film, but it was also made to discover what my audience was like in regards to age range and gender. The main question I wanted to take the most inspiration from was "What content would you expect in this film?", since I have never made a cyberpunk project I was not sure on the content that people expected to see, so it was vital for me to know this information in order to make a project perfect for my audience.
FOCUS GROUP PRESENTATION
When doing this focus group, I really wanted to demonstrate to my audience what my project was intented to be, and my ideas with the world, and the characters. For this focus group I presented my ideas to 8 people over a discord call. I found this way of doing the focus group very effectivem, because I believe it allowed me to reach a further audience then just doing the focus group with my friends.
FOCUS GROUP ANSWERS
AUDIENCE RESEARCH INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
When looking back on this survey tried to get a range of ages, for example I got a majority of people (37.5%) being 0-18, 25% of people being 19-25, 12.5% of people 25-30, 12.5% of people being 30-40, 12.5% of people being 40-50, and 0 people being over the age of 50. This information has helped me to identify that the age range that I will be aiming my film towards are within the age of 0-18, so instantly from this information I now know to keep the content not too mature as it is aimed a a fairly young audience.
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After asking the age range of the people doing my survey, I wanted to find out the genders of my audience. Since my project is not structured to a specific genre, the gender of my audience was not anything that would change the content of my video. This is something that I wanted to do to allow my product to be open to every person that watches it, therefore expanding my audience.
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The next question in my survey was quite an important one for me to figure out since it impacted the rest of the questions that I had asked in my survey. This question was "Do you like the sci-fi genre". To this question I got a 50/50 split of yes and no. Because I did not get specifics on this question, I decided to look further into the question, and looked at what genders said yes more. From this I discovered that, 3 men said they liked the genre, and one female said they liked the genre. Although there were less women that filled out the survey, it still demonstrated that there were a higher percentage of men that liked the sci-fi genre than there were females that liked the genre.
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After asking the previous question, I wanted to find out people's reasons for either liking or disliking the genre. From asking this question, I discovered that a lot of people liked the creative freedom that the genre provided, allowing the creators of the films, and the audience to be very creative in the story. However, there was a lot of people that stated that sci-fi films were not their thing. There was an even split between who liked the genre, and from everyone that stated they liked the genre, it was clear that their main reasoning for liking the genre was the creativity behind it.
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To gain a general understanding of what style people liked within the sci-fi genre, I wanted to ask what film was their favourite within this genre. Upon looking at the results, I instantly noticed that the Star Wars series of films were mentioned the most. I believe that part of the reasoning for the large number of Star Wars fans, is because the film is now seen as the norm for audience, in regards to the cyberpunk genre. For example, before Star Wars, Star Trek was the norm for sci-fi, but due to the promotion of the series, and the films incredible advancements with echnology, audiences were quick to forget about previous sci-fi films. One thing that facinated me was the little mention of any of the Blade Runner films. In the answers only one person mentioned Blade Runner as their favourite sci-fi film. However, when it come to asking if anyone knew any cyberpunk films, most people mentioned Blade Runner. This has pointed out to me that most audience's view cyberpunk as its own genre, compared to a sub genre of sci-fi. As well as this, when it came to asking this question it pointed out to me that, like star wars and the sci-fi genre, most people now view Blade Runner as the definition of the cyberpunk genre, so I believe taking inspiration from this film is the correct this for me to do.
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My biggest question that I needed to ask my audience was "what content would you expect in this film". This question was vital for me to know, since it heavily impacts my future for the project. From asking this question, there was a slight variation in the answers, however there was one thing that stood out to me, and that was that most people expected a dark city. This was reasurring for me to know as I wanted to include a miniature city as an opening shot. I think this is best as it really adds depth to the world, and scale. Another thing that someone mentioned was the darkness of the city. This is another thing I needed to look into, as it is a convention of the cyberpunk genre, and is something that aesthetically I wanted to do in my film.
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So from doing this survey I have had my ideas influenced, and it has allowed me to fit my film to the target audience.
RESEARCH STAGE EVALUATION
When looking into the research stage of Unit 13, I really wanted to spend a lot of time looking into different areas, for example content research, production techniques, and audience research. When looking into the content research area of this stage, I really wanted to look into different theories, for example looking into Propp's character theories. I believe that my decision to look into these theories has definitely left me with a better understanding of how I want to create my film, in regards to creating characters. Another thing I specifically wanted to look into, in regards to the content research, was world building. When looking at creating a short film in the cyberpunk genre, I knew that world building was going to be a key area to research. After looking into world building in Star Wars, I believe that it really helped influence my decisions when it came to how I will structure my story in order to best immerse my audience. One of the main things I took away from this research, and is something that I will implement into my film, is the inclusion of city shots. Especially within the cyberpunk genre establishing shots of the city are key to give the audience context, so this is something that I will look into including in the content of my film.
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When moving onto the production techniques research of my project, I knew that it was going to be one of the most important stages of research, since everything I researched, heavily impacts the visuals of the production. So for this stage I wanted to look into the areas of the production that I knew would be weak. For example looking into creating miniatures, and vissual effects like rain.
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After looking into world building in the content research, I realised that one of the most influential areas of research in production techniques was my research into miniatures. Since I had very little understanding of miniatures, I really needed to research into not only building the miniatures, but the process of filming them. So from doing this research, I believe it has led me nicely onto the next stage of the project, looking at the problem solving stage.
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For the final section of my research, I wanted to look into the target audience for my project, so to do this I decided to present my ideas to a focus group, and get audience feedback through a survey. In doing this I gained lots of feedback onto what my target audience is, and what they are looking for in regards to my short film. This has helped me to understand what content I want to include, and when it comes to the pre production stage, it will help me with writing my script.
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In conclusion, I believe that this research stage has really helped me to highlight my future stepping stones of the project, and has given me a better understanding of areas that I was weak on, therefore strengthening my weaknesses, especially with regards to certain theories.