Brief One

An independent British Film and Television production company, Prime Times Productions, has produced a feature film with a budget of £5 million pounds, partly supplied by lottery funding.

Prime Times has aspirations for its films to appeal to more than the mainstream 16 – 25 youth market and the distributors are looking to release the film in about twenty cinemas around the UK in the hope that it will ‘build’.

Prime Times is also working on a new TV drama series aimed at a youth audience and has produced the TV pilot for the series.

The TV pilot has been sold to the BBC’s digital channel, BBC3, which is targeting a youth audience and is hoping to challenge C4’s dominance in this market. The series is scheduled to go out at nine o’clock on a Friday night and will be one of the channel’s flagship products.

Tasks

(a) Film and Broadcasting

You are a freelance employee of Prime Times Productions, working in its Advertising and Promotions Department. You have been given the task of producing promotional trailer(s) for one of these products. You could choose to create a single two minute trailer or two or three shorter trailers to expand the promotional campaign (totalling approximately two minutes).

Film

The trailer(s) for the film should attenmpt to hook the audience into the narrative, posing questions for the audience that the film will answer. Bearing in mind the film’s target audience, you will need to consider carefully the balance between plot and spectacle. It is expected that one of the trailer(s) will be shown in cinemas showing films that have been given a 15 or 18 certificate. You may also decide to make trailers for a supplementary television campaign.

or

Television

The trailer(s) for the pilot should hook the audience by introducing them to the main protagonists and some of the key locations to be used, as well as creating situations and dilemmas that the series will explore. It is expected that the trailer(s) for the TV pilot would be shown on both BBC1 and BBC3 between 7.30pm and 10.00pm.

(b) Print

You are a freelance journalist who specialises in producing copy about the entertainment industry. You should create two features for different existing publications on the release of either Prime Times’ British film or Prime Times’ TV episode.

You should aim to produce two or three A4 pages for each piece, including images and text. The pieces should be specific to the two existing publications, which you have identified, such as a newspaper, magazine or special interest magazine.

The appeal for the audiences will vary according to the publications that you choose – an article produced for Cosmopolitan magazine would take a very different angle into the story than an article for a specialist magazine such as Total Film and your work should reflect this.

(c) E-media

You are a web designer and content writer, working for an IT company, WEBIT. The company is pitching to create the official website for Prime Times Productions’ new releases. You should create three web pages (the home page, and two others) which will support the release of either its new film or its TV series.

Your internet site will need to cater for both the casual browser and people bringing an existing interest to the site. You will therefore need to include material which supports the release and which, perhaps, goes beyond information that has been released in other media, whilst still trying to capture the interest of people who are new to the product.