Initial Ideas For Specialism Project

Jan 11, 2017
17 min read

SWOT Analysis 1

Product: Kitchen sink drama short film called Apparel

Target Audience:

Fans of kitchen sink dramas such as soap operas, Ben Wheatly films such as Kill List, Down Terrace and High rise and the kitchen sink realism drama in general.
Fans of director Ben Wheatly who is the director this project is based on.
Fans of the drama genre in general
Fans of media that will shock you in multi-genre TV and film.
Fans of British Television and film that represent British socialism and realism, media that showcase what Britain is like as a whole
A general target audience would be lower class British people who can heavily relate to whats going on, if you were to talk about socio-economic factors and the JINCAR scale, this would apply to people in the range of C2 and under, but still wouldn’t rule out the large majority of other JINCAR scale resdients.
If you were talking about target audience on an age range scale, the target audience would mainly be in the age range of people between the ages of 30-60/70 stereotypically because people in this age range stereotypically know the ins and outs of the world at this point and can relate to the situations presented such as family life and living in paid accommodation life etc. I wouldn’t be ruling out other target audiences due to some soaps such as Hollyoaks can be targeted towards younger people due to the flow and the simplicity of the soap as well as storylines and advertising that rapidly bring a younger audience into the viewing of the programme

Idea: Kitchen sink drama about a family online business consisting of about three people that sells concert tickets and music merchandise resale, the family is made up of about 4 people, the mum who does the administrative side of it, the dad who also secretly is part of a hit squad, he also deals with sales and getting the money from the sellers, the psycho maniac son who sorts out advertising and the other son/daughter who sorts out listing. The first segment of the short film is a character introduction to all of them, it will probably be assisted by a voiceover from one of the main characters and will show clips of them doing day to day things such as socialising etc. The second part of the short film will show them doing what they do in their business day to day, selling concert tickets, talking to each other about businesses etc. The final part of the segment is a massive fight scene between the family when something goes wrong with a sale, the family end up in a fight and the house gets trashed, I want it to look like the high rise scene at the end where everything is in putrid, at the end of the film, when some family members are dead, the remaining people figure out what the hell went on and figure out how they are going to get out of this situation, what they’re going to tell the police etc. about the deaths of the certain people and at the end they make a lucky escape and try to cover up what happened.

Strengths

The kitchen sink drama genre represents realism, so would appeal to more lower-class people trying to make easy money and doing low-paid jobs, so by making this short film I will be able to draw in more audience members and more people to appeal to, for example people who like EastEnders and other soaps as well as films by Ben Wheatly who the specialism is based on for this project.
There will be a lot going on within this short film with a lot of storylines and a lot of plot lines which will keep the audiences entertained
It is filmed in the style of Ben Wheatly as it doesn’t focus on a big cast and is filmed in a small space such as a house so as a specialism being Ben Wheatly this is a strength in the production.
It is quite an original idea which takes inspiration from Wheatly film High rise in its ending scenes where the big fight scene happens and it is a big crazy mess, to me having an original idea is a personal strength

Weaknesses

The storyline could be a little confusing and a little detrimental for some viewers but I will try my best to make it less confusing to improve the story.
Dependant on what actors I get, to direct them will be very hard so the short film might not look as good as I think it might due to the acting.
The first section of the idea needs a lot of improvement idea wise or else it’s going to showcase shots of people walking, the flow could get very boring and interrupt viewer companionship.
I would have to do some research into how ticket resale is done to carry out this idea.
I would have to film it very stylistically and edit it stylistically like in the style of Ben Wheatly to make the fight scene look stylistic rather than a huge overreaction, I am going to do some research into the editing styles of the many fight scenes in high rise and learn how to edit, what music to use etc. to make it look like the style of Wheatly’s work.

Opportunities

A house that the film will be set it, will probably use a neighbour’s house, family house or a neighbour’s house to film this in for the main location of the house that the family run their business in.
Various other locations where the shots of the character introduction will be done in, I will probably use streets to show walking scenes just to represent realism.
Will need a good set design with the things as concert tickets, music merchandise, tables, chairs, laptops, paperwork etc., will need a lot of other props as well to make the scene of a mess, will probably make some sort of food fight as well as fake blood, to make this a good short film I will need to make a good set design.
Will need camera equipment such as Sony HXR, Black Magic cameras, Canon DSLR cameras. I will use these as well as other equipment such as tripods, audio equipment such as TASCAM recorders or microphone extension cables for the audio as well as lighting equipment such as Flolights or 2K lights.
Will need 3-4 actors for this, a woman, a man, and two teenagers will be boy and boy, boy and girl and girl and girl, not decided yet.
I will need a crew of about 3-4 people to help me film to make it a multi-camera production.
Will need a creative suite in the form of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe after Effects and Adobe Photoshop as well as sound editing such as Audition.
Will need a good soundtrack for this short film, in the style of Ben Wheatly, I will research the soundtracks he uses, and search around for artists who are willing to let me use their songs for the short film.

Threats/barriers

Finding some good actors to be in the short film – if I do not find some good actors or any actors at all this project could turn into a disaster and flop creatively which isn’t a strong factor.
Finding a house to film this short film in, finding a house to film a short film where there will be a food fight and fake blood all over the place will be very hard because some people may not want their house to be trashed, but as long as I tell them the whole thing will be cleaned up after the filming they will probably be alright with it.
Writing a good script based on the kitchen sink drama genre could be a weakness, I will have to do some research on the linguistics side of how people stereotypically talk in in a kitchen sink drama such as EastEnders, some of Ben Wheatly films such as High Rise, Down Terrace and Kill List. If the script doesn’t use the correct language and the research isn’t done thoroughly this could be a downfall critically if this was a large scale kitchen sink drama short film.
Designing a good set and creating a good set inside a house could be a threat, but it will probably be a case of using the things which are already inside the house, will probably do a recce of the house I am filming in to make sure that there is plenty of household items that can be moved around and that can be placed in different areas.
The audio of this production could be messed up and as someone who doesn’t use audio often as a film maker I will need to get some more experience in and do some test audio to make sure that the final outcome will be good audio wise.

Conclusion: I have come to the conclusion that even though this is a strong idea, it is not my best and I will not be going ahead with this idea due to the idea needing more time than I have to film it, it would also be a bigger budget which I don’t have and the actors would be too hard to get for this one.

SWOT Analysis 2

Product: Kitchen sink drama called “HIT”

Target Audience:

Fans of kitchen sink dramas such as soap operas, Ben Wheatly films such as Kill List, Down Terrace and High rise and the kitchen sink realism drama in general.
Fans of director Ben Wheatly who is the director this project is based on.
Fans of the drama genre in general
Fans of media that will shock you in multi-genre TV and film.
Fans of British Television and film that represent British socialism and realism, media that showcase what Britain is like as a whole
Fans of hitman dramas such as “Hitman” and acclaimed Wheatly film “Kill List”
A general target audience would be lower class British people who can heavily relate to what’s going on, if you were to talk about socio-economic factors and the JINCAR scale, this would apply to people in the range of C2 and under, but still wouldn’t rule out the large majority of other JINCAR scale resident’s.
If you were talking about target audience on an age range scale, the target audience would mainly be in the age range of people between the ages of 30-60/70 stereotypically because people in this age range stereotypically know the ins and outs of the world at this point and can relate to the situations presented such as family life and living in paid accommodation life etc. I wouldn’t be ruling out other target audiences due to some soaps such as Hollyoaks can be targeted towards younger people due to the flow and the simplicity of the soap as well as story lines and advertising that rapidly bring a younger audience into the viewing of the programme.

Idea: Kitchen sink drama about a father-son hit man team, the son messes up a job and they eventually have the police after them in a crazy car chase foot race brawl scene that will be set at night. Something scary happens at the end but haven’t figured it out yet.

Strengths

The kitchen sink drama genre represents realism, so would appeal to more lower-class people trying to make easy money and doing low-paid jobs, so by making this short film I will be able to draw in more audience members and more people to appeal to, for example people who like EastEnders and other soaps as well as films by Ben Wheatly who the specialism is based on for this project.
There will be a lot going on within this short film with a lot of storylines and a lot of plot lines which will keep the audiences entertained
In terms of this project Ben Wheatly’s theme of realism and illegality of some jobs such as hitmen and drug dealers etc., so to present this theme within the short film would relate to the Ben Wheatly genre as a whole.
This fits into Ben Wheatly’s style of filming in a small space such as the van as well as the focus on few characters like in a kitchen sink dramas and media about realism
It is quite an original idea but takes inspiration from film kill list, to me having an original idea is a personal strength.

Weaknesses

The storyline could be a little confusing and a little detrimental for some viewers but I will try my best to make it less confusing to improve the story.
Dependant on what actors I get, to direct them will be very hard so the short film might not look as good as I think it might due to the acting.
The storyline definitely needs more work to make it flow, I also need to think about a character introduction within the storyline as well as bringing in a character profile for the two men and the assassinated person, and I will continue to work on this idea if I decide to go through with it.

Opportunities

A house that the film will be set it, will probably use a neighbour’s house, family house or a neighbour’s house to film this in for the main location of the house that the introduction to the main characters will be set in.
Various other locations where the shots of the hitman scene will be done, dependant on how the story develops I will probably use a house or a field or something similar to this where the hitman will do the killing.
Will need a good set design with the stereotypical things that you see in hitman movies such as guns, assassination profiles, and ski masks as well as things inside a house that you would see in a kitchen sink drama such as Eastenders or Ben Wheatly films.
Will need camera equipment such as Sony HXR, Black Magic cameras, Canon DSLR cameras. I will use these as well as other equipment such as tripods, audio equipment such as TASCAM recorders or microphone extension cables for the audio as well as lighting equipment such as Flolights or 2K lights.
Will need 2-3 actors for this, a man, a teenaged boy or young man between the ages of 17 and 30 hopefully, I will also need someone to be the victim of the assassination as well as a few extras.
I will need a van to film that the scenes of them driving away and in a police chase will be set in.
I will need a crew of about 3-4 people to help me film to make it a multi-camera production.
Will need a creative suite in the form of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop as well as sound editing such as Audition.
Will need a good soundtrack for this short film, in the style of Ben Wheatly, I will research the soundtracks he uses, and search around for artists who are willing to let me use their songs for the short film.

Threats/barriers

Finding some good actors to be in the short film – if I do not find some good actors or any actors at all this project could turn into a disaster and flop creatively which isn’t a strong factor.
Writing a good script based on the kitchen sink drama genre could be a weakness, I will have to do some research on the linguistics side of how people stereotypically talk in in a kitchen sink drama such as EastEnders, some of Ben Wheatly films such as High Rise, Down Terrace and Kill List. If the script doesn’t use the correct language and the research isn’t done thoroughly this could be a downfall critically if this was a large scale kitchen sink drama short film.
Designing a good set and creating a good set inside a house and inside a van as well as the place where the assassination takes place could be a threat, but it will probably be a case of using the things which are already inside the house, will probably do a recce of the house I am filming in to make sure that there is plenty of household items that can be moved around and that can be placed in different areas.
Filming in a van or filming a van could be very dangerous and would have to do some test footage and work with different grips for cars etc., if this proves too hard I will probably get a few shots of the van driving really fast down a road and record some scenes inside the van whilst it isn’t moving and apply some recorded sound effects behind the footage to give the illusion that its real I will probably also use lighting to give this effect.
The audio of this production could be messed up and as someone who doesn’t use audio often as a film maker I will need to get some more experience in and do some test audio to make sure that the final outcome will be good audio wise.

Conclusion:

I have come to the conclusion that even though this is a strong idea, it is not my best and I will not be going ahead with this idea due to the idea needing more time than I have to film it, it would also be a bigger budget which I don’t have and the actors would be too hard to get for this one.

SWOT Analysis 3

Product: Kitchen sink drama called “Money Hunger”

Target Audience:

Fans of kitchen sink dramas such as soap operas, Ben Wheatly films such as Kill List, Down Terrace and High rise and the kitchen sink realism drama in general.
Fans of director Ben Wheatly who is the director this project is based on.
Fans of the drama genre in general
Fans of media that will shock you in multi-genre TV and film.
Fans of British Television and film that represent British socialism and realism, media that showcase what Britain is like as a whole
A general target audience would be lower class British people who can heavily relate to whats going on, if you were to talk about socio-economic factors and the JINCAR scale, this would apply to people in the range of C2 and under, but still wouldn’t rule out the large majority of other JINCAR scale resdients.
If you were talking about target audience on an age range scale, the target audience would mainly be in the age range of people between the ages of 30-60/70 stereotypically because people in this age range stereotypically know the ins and outs of the world at this point and can relate to the situations presented such as family life and living in paid accommodation life etc. I wouldn’t be ruling out other target audiences due to some soaps such as Hollyoaks can be targeted towards younger people due to the flow and the simplicity of the soap as well as storylines and advertising that rapidly bring a younger audience into the viewing of the programme

Idea: Kitchen sink drama about an old woman who is in debt and a bailiff is bothering her to collect her debt constantly, she hides in the strangest places within her house to get way from this bailiff and she is going crazy over it, she then calls her son who lives about an hour away to come and help her out to try and bail her out, he is a successful gang member but still doesn’t have enough money to bail her out, he lives with his mum for a couple of days whilst a fellow member takes care of business where he is from, when they let the bailiff in to try and talk about how they can figure it out the son gets very angry and when he discovers the bailiff has come on his own he decides to kill him in an extremely brutal way, after this he has to figure out how he is going to dispose of the body, the mother is shocked at her son’s moves when dealing with the situation.

Strengths

The kitchen sink drama genre represents realism, so would appeal to more lower-class people trying to make easy money and doing low-paid jobs, so by making this short film I will be able to draw in more audience members and more people to appeal to, for example people who like EastEnders and other soaps as well as films by Ben Wheatly who the specialism is based on for this project.
There will be a lot going on within this short film with a lot of storylines and a lot of plot lines which will keep the audiences entertained
The themes of death from most of Wheatly’s films pops up in this, it will also be filmed in the style of Wheatly as well as the theme fits into the style of filming in small spaces such as a house.
This film dependant on how it’s filmed and how it’s edited could create an emotional experience for the viewers when the mum is being harassed by the bailiff and the son comes to save them.
It’s an original idea which takes inspiration from Down Terrace and to me having an original idea is a personal strength.

Weaknesses

The storyline could be a little confusing and a little detrimental for some viewers but I will try my best to make it less confusing to improve the story.
Dependant on what actors I get, to direct them will be very hard so the short film might not look as good as I think it might due to the acting.
The last section of the idea needs a lot of improvement idea wise in the part after the son kills the bailiff, I need to figure out a consequence storyline or else it’s going to become a bit of an anti-climactic ending where nothing happens and there is no closure. This wouldn’t fit into the Ben Wheatly style of something big happening at the end of the movie.
The storyline needs a lot of work with character profiles and introduction, the end of it where the killing of the son happens needs some work, but if I go onto making this idea I will make sure that the script and storylines will be better than in the original idea development.

Opportunities

A house that the film will be set it, will probably use a neighbour’s house, family house or a neighbour’s house to film this in for the main location of the house that the introduction to the main characters will be set in.
Various other locations where the shots of the son driving down to his mums or the outside of the mums house will be shown.
Will need a good set design with the things as concert tickets, music merchandise, tables, chairs, laptops, paperwork etc., will need a lot of other props as well to make the scene of a mess, will probably make some sort of food fight as well as fake blood, to make this a good short film I will need to make a good set design.
Will need camera equipment such as Sony HXR, Black Magic cameras, Canon DSLR cameras. I will use these as well as other equipment such as tripods, audio equipment such as TASCAM recorders or microphone extension cables for the audio as well as lighting equipment such as Flolights or 2K lights.
Will need 3-5 actors for this, an old woman to play the mum, a middle aged/young son from the ages of 25-40, a policeman/policewoman who is called to the scene dependant on how the story develops
I will need a crew of about 3-4 people to help me film to make it a multi-camera production.
Will need a creative suite in the form of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop as well as sound editing such as Audition.
Will need a good soundtrack for this short film, in the style of Ben Wheatly, I will research the soundtracks he uses, and search around for artists who are willing to let me use their songs for the short film.

Threats/barriers

Finding some good actors to be in the short film – if I do not find some good actors or any actors at all this project could turn into a disaster and flop creatively which isn’t a strong factor.
Writing a good script based on the kitchen sink drama genre could be a weakness, I will have to do some research on the linguistics side of how people stereotypically talk in in a kitchen sink drama such as EastEnders, some of Ben Wheatly films such as High Rise, Down Terrace and Kill List. If the script doesn’t use the correct language and the research isn’t done thoroughly this could be a downfall critically if this was a large scale kitchen sink drama short film.
Designing a good set and creating a good set inside a house and inside a van as well as the place where the killing of the bailiff and other scenes throughout the short film could be a threat, but it will probably be a case of using the things which are already inside the house, will probably do a recce of the house I am filming in to make sure that there is plenty of household items that can be moved around and that can be placed in different areas.
The audio of this production could be messed up and as someone who doesn’t use audio often as a film maker I will need to get some more experience in and do some test audio to make sure that the final outcome will be good audio wise.

Conclusion:

After much consideration I have decided to go with this idea, this is because I feel as if this is my strongest idea out of the three, my reasons for this are that this film will be easier to shoot I only need three actors, it is similar to Wheatly’s style but then again doesn’t completely steal an idea which I feel my hit man kitchen sink drama and the apparel short film would have, I also feel as if this has room for a bigger storyline expansion which will be good when coming to film the short film.