Introduction
This report will outline ideas that I had for the film-making part of my Production management unit, and will also show how i developed my final idea, as well as research into target audience.
Research
18.8 million people aged between 6 and 64 are estimated to play video games in the UK; and on average games aged between 11 and 64 spend 8.8 hours playing games per week in the UK.
Of these gamers, different percentages use different devices to play games:
- 24% use consoles to play games
- 11% use handhelds to play games
- 24% use computers to play games
- 21% use smartphones to play games
- 16% use tablets to play games
The male-female split in the UK is 58% male and 42% female with the largest age/gender demographic being 15-24 year old males.
PEGI (Pan European Game Information) provides age ratings for games as well as showing warnings for what the game involves.
There are 5 age ratings:
- 3: Suitable for all ages. May contain very mild violence in an appropriate context for younger children, but neither bad language nor frightening content is allowed.
- 7: Suitable for ages 7 and older. May contain mild or unrealistic violence (e.g. violence in a cartoon context), or elements that can be frightening to younger children.
- 12: Suitable for ages 12 and older. May contain violence in either a fantasy context or a sporting action, profanity, mild sexual references or innuendo, or gambling.
- 16: Suitable for ages 16 and older. May contain explicit or realistic-looking violence, strong language, sexual references or content, gambling, or encouragement of drug use.
- 18: Unsuitable for persons under 18. May contain extreme or graphic violence, including "violence towards defenseless people" and "multiple, motiveless killing", strong language, strong sexual content, gambling, drug glamorization, or discrimination ("stereotyping likely to cause hatred").
The warnings are as follows:
Violence- May contain scenes of people getting injured or dying, often by use of weapons, whether realistically or in a fantastical or cartoonish manner. May also contain gore and blood-letting.
-7, 12, 16. 18
Bad language-May contain profanity, sexual innuendo, threats, and all manner of slurs, insults, and epithets. May be an influence or encourage children.
- 12, 16, 18
Fear/Horror- May contain scenes and plot elements too disturbing, overly suspenseful or frightening to younger/sensitive players.
- 12,16,18
Sex- May contain references to and scenes of sexual attraction or sexual intercourse. May also contain nudity (sexualized and otherwise) and characters dressed in suggestive clothing.
-12, 16, 18
Drugs- May contain references to illegal drugs or a fictional substance that has parallels to real-life illegal drugs (in use, possession, or sale), may influence or encourage children.
- 16, 18
Gambling- May contain elements that encourage or teach gambling.
- 12, 16, 18
Discrimination- May contain scenes, behavior, or references to cruelty or harassment to a group of specific people such as race, religion, ethnicity, gender, ability, or sexual preferences.
- 18
Online-
- 3, 7, 12, 16, 18
As I found during research, the uk games industry has a target audience as young as 15, and this fact would create another target audience- their parents or guardians who buy the consoles for the children.
Pen profile: Derek is a 34 year old male who lives in Essex with his wife and their 10 year old son. He works part time in Tesco, however has always looked up to David Beckham as he wanted to be a footballer, and looks up to him now as he thinks he is a good dad to his children. Derek spends a lot of time with his son on the weekend and plays games on the playstation with him such as fifa. He is a very family oriented man.
Ideas
My ideas are going to involve parents/ families as I know that the typical playstation audience is teenagers as young as 15 and on average they do not have their own income; therefore relying on parents to buy their games consoles and games for them.
Idea 1 is going to show a young boy playing fifa in his front room, then playing football in real life in a garden setting. The advert is then going to show an older boy playing fifa to portray the idea that the child has grown up playing fifa and that it is as much a game for children as it is for adults. The only personnel I would need for this idea are the young male and the older male. The thumbnail for this advert would show the younger male playing football.
Idea 2 is going to simply show a family at Christmas playing a multiplayer game such as Just Dance as it shows that the playstation can bring people together and be fun for all the family. As well as these reasons, I also believe that over the Christmas period adverts which are Christmas themed are more likely to do well with a family audience if families are looking to buy a generic present that everyone will enjoy. The personnel I would need for this idea are two parents and two young people. The thumbnail for this advert would show a younger person playing just dance with an older person.
Idea 3 will show two siblings battling on a game of Mario-kart with one playing as Mario and one playing as Luigi which enhances families spending time together and bonding over a playstation. The only personnel I would need for this idea are two older children. The thumbnail would show the two siblings shoulder to shoulder.
Possible constraints of these adverts include working with younger people as it can be difficult filming them, however a solution I have for this possible problem is to work with children whom I already know such as family friends.
The most time I would need is two days to gather all of the footage needed to complete this advertisement as I would need to add in time for extra takes due to working with young people.
As there aren’t many resources I need for this project, this means
that the budget for this project would be low.
With needing the main focus of the advertisement- the playstation I could lend it
from someone in order to film this advertisement and that therefore would not
cost anything.
To hire a Black-magic pocket cinema camera and tripod for two days
would be £41 a day for the camera and £8 a day for a tripod which totals up to
£98 for camera equipment for two days.
Adding in additional costs for audio equipment and lighting would
be around £100 for two days.
Taking £100 as payment and £100 for food and travel costs over the
two days would then make the full budget £398.
Since all of my filming could be done at the actors house as the settings I need are a front room for all ideas and a garden for idea two I would have to abide by the privacy law in a way that I would not give away their location or show parts of their house that they did not want showing. I would also have to use un-copyrighted (royalty free) music and sound effects in my project to abide by the copyright law.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths-
Strong ideas that I would be able to produce.
Weaknesses-
Time Management
Opportunities-
A chance to develop my time management skills
Threats-
Actors not being available.
