Notes and Ideas on Audiences

1. How are other films in your chosen genre certified?

To help our group find out about different certificates, we looked into the top ten films in our chosen genre and what they were certified as (IMDB).

1. Due Date                                 15 
2.  No Strings Attached                 15
3. The Green Hornet                    12A
4. Red                                        12A
5. Love and Other Drugs                15
6. Tangled                                   PG
7. Just Go With It                         TBC
8. It's Kind of a Funny Story           12A
9.The Dilemma                             12A
10. Life as We Know It                  12A

Looking at these results and thinking about our thoughts on the storyline, we have decided to give our film a certificate rating of 15.

2. Who does your genre target?

Our chosen genre targets a wide range of people, particularly aiming at young adults and teenagers. We found this by collecting data from questionnaires and looking at our mood board. Because so many actors are aged under 30 and as the audience like to identify with the characters in the film, we assumed that our target audience would relate to popular films of now.

3. What demographic groups are you going to target?

There are 6 different demographic groups that our film could be aimed at as our genre is light hearted, sometimes not serious and can be unintelligent at times. By looking and comparing the 6 different groups, we decided to aim our film specifically at group E and partly group D. This is because group E is more likely to include the younger teenagers of our target audience and group D is the group most likely wanting entertainment and relief from life that is humorous and different.

D - Semi-skilled and unskilled. Blue collar workers

E - Unemployed, students and pensioners

4. What audience theories may you apply to your film and its genre?

Audience feedback suggests that people watch comedy films just to be humoured; this is called the hypodermic needle theory. Another theory is called the uses and gratifications theory what states that audiences may see films for four different reasons, entertainment, personal relationships/social insight, personal identity, information. I agree with the first three for comedy films as audience feedback suggests they want to be entertained without having to think in detail. They want to see how someone elses life is and feedback also suggested from statements such as 'i want to learn their jokes' that the audience member wants to be more like the comedian/actor from the film. The opening of comedy films often feeds the audience information about the character using an enigma code, for example 'superbad' showed us that the two characters were obviously close friends shown by their foolish dancing with one another.

5. What hobbies might your audience members have?

Audience members who go watch comedy's wont necessary need a hobbie related to the film to watch it. They may however be like the characters on screen for example, someone who does weed may watch 'Pinapple express' as the whole film is based around weed.

6. What rating would your film get in the UK?

Film ratings in the UK are done by the 'Britians Board Film Classification' known as the BBFC. They will give a film its rating though the local council of each town/city have the right to change the rating in their cinemas if they see fit. The BBFC rate films by several categories but the ones we have to consider for our film is drugs, imitable behaviour, language, nudity and sex. Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail is the 12A rating for drugs. This is more linked to our film as it will only briefly touch upon the topic of drugs. Imitable behaviour should not dwell on detail, meaning if someone does something foolish it should not go into to much detail, this is a 12A briefing and once again applies to our film. Our group debated whether the film would show brief discreet nudity (12A) or nudity but not in strong detail. Our film is not based around sex what brought us to the conclusion to take the discreet nudity path (12A). Sex is briefly and discreetly portrayed, our movie may include a brief sex scene making this section fit also in the 12A category. Finally, language within our film will involve strong language frequently making this category a 15 and the overall rating for the movie a 15.

7. What other media works does this audience consume regularly?

As a predominantly young, mass audience, the media they consume is likely to be mainstream. This may include reality TV shows or soap operas, using popular social websites such as Facebook, listening to popular radio stations such as Kiss 100 and modern artists such as Lady Gaga or Take That.

8. What comparable media works does your average audience member like/dislike?

Adults and teenagers are our target audience who tend to enjoy television medias of verisimilitude and social realism as they can identify with the characters and situations they are in. They also tend to enjoy mainstream music and will immerse themselves in popular artists and bands as well as the lives of others through magazines and newspapers (of a relatively low reading age such as the Sun or The Mirror). Our mass audience consumes media as entertainment and to gain information about the lives of others but not necessarily to educate themselves. They will most likely not enjoy educational, historical media or politics and not often broaden to wider media of niche audiences.  

9. What comparable films has your average audience member seen?

An average member of our target audience would have most likely seen films with  plots following the struggle of the main character(s) and films that include adult themes of teenage struggles, work or school, sex, drugs and relationships. These are common elements in present comedies and are easy to manipulate through irony or sarcasm to create humour. Our audience will have seen films such as Superbad (2007), Role Models (2008) or Due Date (2010) which all include at least one of these themes. 

10. Where would your average audience member shop for clothes?
Our average audience member would be from a youthful generation, and would most likely purchase clothing from young-fashioned shops such as Republic, Blue Inc, Topshop/Topman, etc. As our genre would also attract a certain type of 'film fanatic', they may also buy film and TV quote relevant clothing from stores such as HMV, or order shirts with humourous quotes or slogans from online sellers such as eBay.

11. In what magazines and on what websites would you advertise your film?
The magazines we would advertise in would be film and cinema relative, such as Empire and Screen.We would also aim to advertise the films in top selling magazines such as OK! Magazine and HELLO! Magazine to expand our audience range.

Because our film is targeted at a youthful audience, we'd advertise the film on websites that they are most likely to use. A popular website used by our audience members would be social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, as they would also allow users to interact and socialise. Another ideal type of website to advertise the film on would be an online gaming site such as Miniclip or Free Online Games, as it would reach our target audience.

12. At screenings for which films (in cinemas now) would you show yours film's trailer?

Because our film is a comedy, it would be sensible advertising the trailer for other comedy film screenings as it will attract a similar audience. It would be ideal to show our film trailer in screenings for films such as Little Fockers (2010) and The Dilemma (2011) as the comedy style is similar and they also appeal to a youthful AND mature audience.

Emily Wallace

Scott Collins

Charlotte Morrison

Devon Dalton