Title  

Red or Black

 

Target Audience

Initially, I decided to target an extensive audience from the ages of eighteen to fifty years old. The decision of choosing a broad target audience relates to the primary theme and addiction within the plot – gambling. Secondary research has been essential in discovering a suitable target audience. As the production will be a British production and set within England, I will be targeting at viewers who are also living within England. Elementary research shows that the legal age to gamble within the UK is eighteen. For this reason, I originally decided to establish the age of my target audience from eighteen onwards.

 

However, further research into a suitable target audience has enabled me to alter the age range for my intended viewers. A recent article from the BBC shows the majority of gamblers are between the ages of twenty-five to thirty-four. ‘Those aged between 25 and 34 are the most likely to gamble, with 40% of that age group having participated in at least one form of gambling in the last month.’ I have decided to minimise the age of my target audience not only due to this statistic, however the addition of primary research. I collaborated with a current animation student who also has previous experience of working in a betting shop. From viewing the addiction of gambling first-hand whilst working, he noticed that the age group most affected was between the ages of ’18 to mid 30s’. I conducted my own primary research and created a short questionnaire for current gamblers and addicts alike to fill out to understand a suitable target audience. The results were also similar with the younger generation admitting they struggle with a gambling addiction, specifically the male gender. For the reason previously stated, I will be targeting my audience at 18-35-year olds that struggle with a gambling addiction or excessively gamble more than they can afford to. I will focus on targeting the male gender due to the primary and secondary research collated, however I will not dismiss the female gender.

 

Genre

Docufiction

This short film will be portrayed throughout the style of a hybrid documentary that combines the elements of a fictional drama with a documentary segment. Also known as a docufiction, the short film will begin and end with a fictional segment whereas the middle will contain the documentary section.

 

Duration

Secondary research has enabled me to outline a suitable duration for the short film, between eight and ten minutes.

 

The writer’s name and contact information

Filmmaker: Mitchell Hurley

Email: mitchellhurley97@gmail.com

Phone No: 07446087565

 

Short logline and tagline

A risk that’s not worth taking.

 

Introduction to key characters

The section will be separated into two segments in order to distinguish the actors from the documentary and the characters from the fictional drama.

 

Documentary Clients

During the documentary phases, there will be a variety of clients that feature and explain their opinion of gambling, as well as essential background information and how they have managed their addiction. The clients featuring during the interview process will consist of Matt Zarb-Cousin, Antonio Parente, Brian Chappell, Gregg Armstrong, Alex Macey as well as Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones.

 

Matt Zarb-Cousin gambled from an extremely young age and managed to get trapped into the addiction without even realising. After successfully winning money on the first number of attempts, he soon began to lose his winnings rather quickly and as a result became addicted. Due to the addiction, he began to campaign for betting terminals to have a maximum stake of two pounds in order to reduce the losses of many gamblers and ultimately manage the addiction. Matt is also the co-founder of the company ‘GamBan’ which is an application that is aimed to prevent gambling. The application can be downloaded on any Android device, and once installed, it ultimately restricts anyone from gambling online.

 

Antonio Parente is an ex-gambling addict who was targeted by the betting company Flutter. Antonio struggled with the addiction of gambling after chasing his losses multiple times. However, the betting company was not measuring the responsibility of Mr. Parente’s gambling as they were effectively allowing him to lose his money. The company were therefore sued for not being responsible like their adverts state, however Antonio was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to close the case. Throughout the film, Antonio will describe his past experiences with gambling, and highlight the VIP gambling schemes that companies employ to lure addicts and gamblers alike.

 

Brian Chappell is an additional recovering addict who has also been targeted by betting companies after losing large amounts of money. Brian will continue to talk about the VIP gambling schemes that betting companies employ, as he will also be able to give real life examples of how this has been exploited within the world of gambling. Brian has initiated his own committee called ‘Justice for Punters’. During the film, he will inform how people within the gambling community have their own consumer rights as they can battle for fair play.

 

Alex Macey is a recovering gambling addict whose addiction has led him to lose £250,000 over the course of his life. He believes that the betting industry has ignored the problems of addiction that is frequently apparent in regard to their customers. He also dismisses their advertisements of ‘betting responsible’ because he believes they do not behave responsible when customers lose large amounts of their own money. Alex has partnered up with Gregg Armstrong, as they have both collaborated on a project called ‘Gamble Recovery’. During the film, the two clients will be partnered up together, as they explain how they handle specific cases that are related to addictive gamblers within Gamble Recovery.

 

Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones is a psychiatrist, as well as the founder and director of the only gambling clinic within the United Kingdom, the ‘National Problem Gambling Clinic’. Run by the NHS, Henrietta deals with important cases that involve highly addictive gamblers. During the short film, Henrietta will describe her role within the clinic and how this has aided many people across the United Kingdom. As well as her role within the clinic, she will also analyse the psychology behind the addiction of gambling, as well as examine the core reason to why people gamble.

 

Fictional Characters

The fictional section of the short film will feature a minimal cast of eight actors. There will be five actors that will be sitting down on chairs, whilst gambling online using their mobile phones. They will all be directed towards the sixth actor who will be dressed like a roulette dealer, as they will manage the roulette table. The final two actors will act as the production crew as they film the roulette dealer. This will be set within a dimly lit room and will effectively symbolise online gambling and how easy it can be to virtually bet online.

 

Who, what, when, why and where?

Documentary Segment

The people involved with the segment will be Matt, Antonio, Brian, Alex, Gregg and Henrietta who will all discuss their role within the gambling industry and how they are currently creating awareness or handling delicate gambling cases. The interview process will take place within each of the client’s offices, which will add a layer of diversity as all the rooms will be different. Each room will be decorated with minimal props to add composition and colour to the space. The interviews will be taken at the start of the new year, leaving myself enough time to prepare and develop appropriate questions, as well as time for the post-production phase. Furthermore, these interviews are necessary because they will help in fulfilling the primary purpose of the short film in creating and spreading awareness about the addiction of gambling.

 

Fictional Segment

The people involved within this segment will be the characters such as the online gamblers, the roulette dealer as well as the film production crew. The production crew will be handling cameras as they film the virtual casino. The roulette dealer will manage the roulette table and will repeat the phrase ‘Red or Black’. The remaining actors will be sitting down on their phones whilst gambling online. This will be filmed within a small nightclub which is dimly lit. This will be stylised in a way to show an online casino. This will be filmed at the beginning of the new year, which will provide me sufficient time to prepare for filming as well enough time after the production for the editing process. The focus upon online gambling through a fictionalised form is necessary within the short film as it will highlight the events of the addiction and establish an addictive gamblers lack of self-control. The combination of fictional and non-fictional segments will ultimately create awareness on the addiction of gambling from multiple perspectives.

 

Act One

The opening act will be introduced with a short title sequence related to gambling. This will then shortly be followed with the introduction to the fictional segment of the short film. A long shot will establish the setting of a dimly lit room with five anonymous people sitting down, all looking at their phones. In the distance a roulette table and dealer will be seen, with a production crew around them. This setting will symbolise an online gambling scenario. The introduction will show all angles of the setting, as the anonymous people begin to gamble online using their phones. The camera will focus on the roulette dealer, as they spin the ball on the roulette wheel. They will say the line ‘Red or Black’ as it cuts to black. The line ‘Red or Black’ will echo as the short film transitions into the documentary segment.

 

Act Two

The following act will then focus on the documentary section, where all six clients will begin to discuss their role within the gambling industry. Clients such as Matt, Antonio, Alex and Brian will describe their past experiences of gambling and how they have become addicted. It will then be important to explore how they have reacted to becoming addicted, and what they are currently spending their time achieving. It will also be important to explore their campaigns for safer gambling around the United Kingdom, as well as Henrietta’s National Problem Gambling Clinic. Henrietta will also explore the psychology of the addiction, as she examines why people feel the need to gamble more than they can afford to, and how they can manage their addiction. It will also be important to display the application founded by Matt that disables people from online gambling (Gamban). Ultimately, this act will attempt to highlight the dangers of the addiction and will aim to create the necessary awareness in order to prevent people around the United Kingdom from experiencing a similar journey such as ex-gambling addicts and clients within this section.

 

Act Three

The final act will transition back to the fictional segment of the docufiction and will continue on from the opening act. This will be shown through the anonymous gamblers actively gambling as some begin to win and others begin to lose. The production crew will continue to film virtual casino, as the dealer continues to manage the roulette table. One by one, the gamblers will fade away to symbolise that they have lost their money until the last one remains. The dealer will then repeat the phrase ‘Red or Black’ as the last anonymous player prepares to bet. Before betting, they lock their phone and decide to close down the application. The lights within the room immediately turn out as the film cuts to black. A gambling statistic regarding suicide appears on the screen. To conclude the short film, the title ‘Red or Black’ appears on the screen followed by the tagline ‘A risk that’s not worth taking’.