AUDIENCE ADMISSIONS

Mark Kermode, writing in the Guardian (December 2015), offers a review of film in 2015. Mark Kermode is a British film critic, musician, presenter and writer, whose article draws conclusions about what types of film were successful in the past year and what trends he notices. This interested me because I believe our own production features certain aspects of successful filmmaking that Kermode references.

First, we are a small independent production. Kermode notes that indie films have ways of securing distribution nowadays through alternative means. Our film is based on a small scale, independent production and it is therefore unlikely to have a standard theatrical release. However, notes Kermode, many platforms are used to compensate for no traditional cinema release. For example, Netflix released Beasts Of The Nation and Netflix was the provisional tool for its release. Furthermore, smaller productions, such as ours, use social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

The film website is important in attracting audiences. They give the audience exclusive content and more information about the film itself. In terms of viewing the short film and trailers, Youtube and Vimeo are two of many other platforms that are perfect for audience viewership as Youtube and Vimeo are used daily with a sixth of the population using these platforms. For example, Magnolia and IFC release films on most platforms simultaneously, but they are limited on a number of theatres they can book their films and the technical ability is lacking to release films simultaneously. 

This is the path my group and I are going to take, releasing the film on various platforms as it gives room for flexibility for the audience to view our product at home, the cinema or any other place of comfort. In the Guardian article, Kermode emphasises that this is going to be a re-occurring theme in the future and this creates synergy, offering access to online platforms and social media networks, giving the audience the best experience possible for viewing our product.

Secondly, our film features women's issues, with its narrative of trafficking and its tale of vulnerable females and an assertive female business woman. Mark Kermode talks about the 'role of women in film' and it links into our film featuring females in strong leads as the article is pleading for equity for women in films. For example, Suffragette was a film in which the majority of the cast was females and the film is about women's right and the historical content behind this. This is a prime example of Kermode's points, that 2015 was a big year for women in film roles and are becoming more dominant. Another example of female domination on the big screen is Girlhood written and directed by Celine Sciamma and is about a celebration of female friendship which was a top-grossing film of 2015. This leaves us with the fact that we have predominant female roles in the casting and crew. 

The films talked about are Inside Out, Spectre, Mad Max: Fury Road. These films are prime examples of having very strong female protagonist leads and these films also cover women's issues, such as the Bechdel Test. The Bechdel test is an example used in most film productions. Our film does not pass this test because we do not have two women talking to each other at all. Although this is the case, we do instead have a majority of strong, independent female cast and crew. Our film trailer has a strong and compelling female characters who play big roles.

Our film production A Question Of Identity is a smooth-running, rapid paced and enticing film with a lot of suspense and crisis. The genre is an action/thriller, which audiences of 18 years of age and above both female and male we believe will be most interested in this product and is our target audience . Furthermore, we feel that it can compete with the current and continuing audience fascination of high productions because we have critically assessed these films' criteria and we think that our film has fast paced action, strong storylines and dominant female characters.During the process of making the film, I learnt that many films base their stories on current affairs, which we believe we have achieved throughout our storyline.

Mark Kermode has stated in the Guardian article that the appearances of women have been steady but progressive throughout the course of 2015. For instance, Suffragette was a very successful and high grossing film and this covered women's historical struggles throughout the 20th century. This had cast and crew full of strong women. It included actresses such as Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter. This film also had a very strong female production team, emphasising the sheer dominance of women in the film industry and imprinting their mark. A Question Of Identity takes a similar structure and it shall be a product that we feel will attract both genders. The female qualities speak for themselves in the film, which we feel will show the significance of women's qualities. 

Kermode stated in the Guardian article that for blockbusters and superhero films, independent cinemas were a catalyst to it's success because the Kodak 35mm film stock is able to allow independent film makers to upload their films onto current online technologies such as Youtube, which is a heavily popular website. Tom Antos is a perfect example for this. He makes indie films on his Youtube account. He is a film director and cinematographer with twelve years of experience in animation and has 193,963 subscribers and on top of that, a total of 49,615,900 views on his Youtube account alone.  

•   Paragraph 3: target audience and different platforms besides cinema. Comparing Facebook, Twitter and marketing with the main large franchises. Intending on putting our film on different platforms such as Vimeo and Youtube, Synergy. 

Paragraph 4: Talk about the Bechdel test. Strong female production cast and talk about the year of female domination.