Farah AS Media Blog: target audience and genre research

Target Audience- In our group we have already decided who we wanted our title sequence to be aimed at teenagers15+ both males and females who are all intrested in thrillers/horrors.

Even though I have watched many thriller films/horrors the one that me/group will be using for inspiration is ( IT ) it is about a evil clown. The reason why is because I think this will really appeal to teenagers as many teenagers themselves have either watched this movie or heard about it. Even though the intial idea of this opening title sequence is not essentially something that would happen in a teenagers daily life it is still intresting to explore and watch something that would never happen and because of the familiarity of the film ( IT) the audience will identitfy with the victim in the title open sequence as she is a young teenager who goes to secoundry school and has a pretty "ordinary" life. People either love clowns or hate them. The title sequence also deals with the issue of our minds playing tricks on us which is another thing anybody can identify with.

IT is a 1990 horror television film based on the novel by Stephen King. The story revolves around an inter-dimensional predatory life-form that is simply referred to as "It", which has the ability to transform itself into its prey's worst fears, which allows it to exploit the fears and phobias of its victims while also disguising itself when hunting. The main protagonists are "The Losers Club", or "The Seven", a group of social outcasts who discover "It" and vow to destroy him by any means necessary. The series takes place over two different time periods, the first when the Losers first discover "It", and the second when they are called back to defeat "It", who has resurfaced. "It" mostly takes the form of a sadistic clown called "Pennywise the Dancing Clown", which it uses to lure children and kill them. It takes place in the fictional town of Derry.

It is the closest thing in theory to our open title sequence as our main character Samantha Evans is constantly being bothered by this toy clown ( Grimaldi). Samantha is however not scared of Grimaldi but she is angry at him as he is always appearing near her. Grimaldi usually appears when she is asleep. The only diffrence is this toy clown is not a being of any sort but just a mere soft toy clown which our real protaganist keeps placing next to her. Samantha doesnt work this out till the end of the sequence. Throughout the sequence the audience should be perplexed and wondering what, why and how this clown is always appearing even after she throws it out.

After researching what type of audience IT targeted. I found out that it mainly targeted young females and males ranging from 15-25. I then decided to research more similar movie types. Other thriller films that audiences who watch our open title sequence may be intrested in is Disturbia (2007).

Whilst doing some research I also looked at the diffrent film classifications and what this means for my film. Below is the information that I found on. http://filmguide.wikia.com/wiki/Film_classification

This website has made it clear to me what can and cannot be shown in our film. Our film is a age

In the UK, classification is compulsory for cinema and video releases, excluding screenings at film festivals, and video releases of documentaries. Films are rated by the BBFC.

U_C - Particularly suitable for young children. Video only.
U - Suitable for all.
PG - Parental guidance recommended, some scenes may be unsuitable for children.
12A - Parental supervision required for children under 12. Cinema only.
12 - No children under 12 may watch this film. Video only.
15 - No children under 15 may watch this film.
15A - Parental supervision required for children under 15. Cinema only.
18 - No children may watch this film.
R18 - This film should only be supplied in licensed sex shops, to adults of 18 years or older. Specially licensed cinemas may also show this film.

All this information about film classifications is from the British film board. I accessed all this information on the website above.

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Later in the day I also visited the Odeon Cinema website. I looked on this website because this is somewhere viewers could hopefully see our film. It follows the British Board Film Classifications and is very popular for cinema goers.
Odeon has been around since 1928 so it is practically aoart of British History also Odeon has also built cinemas in Northern Island as well making the company popular in Britain on the whole. It is a very credible cinema. Due to the fact that there are lots of Odeons in Britain there is always one near you, the proximity of these cinemas mean it is accessible by everybody and anybody who chooses to go there. Also the prices are reasonable and the premises are of a good standard. Also many viewers already go to other Odeaon cinemas so showing our film Grimaldi at Odeon would be a excellent idea. Futhermore the flagship cinema in Leicester square is a Odeon and home to most all of the British film premiers and this is where we would like to show Grimaldi.

After Grimaldi is in cinemas, it will be available on dvd and blue ray disc in a years time.Due that fact we thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures of what our dvd/blu ray disk cover would be. As a group we were in a hurry so we decided that the cover of the dvd would be the Grimaldi film poster.

http://www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/classifications/

Thriller Questionnaire

1) What age Category do you fit in to?

a. 15-25

b. 25-35

c. 35 +

2) What genre of film do you like the most?
a. Horror
b. Thriller
c. Romance
d. Comedy
e. Action/Adventure
f. Historical
g. Sci-fi/Fantasy
h. Documentary
i. Western

3) How often do you watch a thriller film?
a. Once every week
b. Once a month
c. Every 3 months
d. Every 6 months
e. Once a year
f. Never

4) On a scale of 1 – 10, how would you rate the thriller genre in terms of entertainment? (10 being highest)
___________

5) Which sub genre of thriller would you find most interesting to watch?
a. Disaster-thriller: A thriller story about mass peril, where the protagonist's job is to both survive, and to save many other people from a grim fate, often a natural disaster such as a storm or volcanic eruption, but which may also be a terrorist attack or epidemic of some sort.
b. Psychological thriller: A thriller that emphasizes the psychological condition of the hero that presents obstacles to his objective, rather than the action. Some psychological thrillers are also about complicated stories that try to deliberately confuse the audience, often by showing them only the same confusing or seemingly nonsensical information that the hero gains.
c. Crime thriller: A thriller story that revolves around the life of detectives, mobs, or other groups associated with criminal events in the story.
d. Techno-thriller: A thriller story whose theme is usually technology, or the danger behind the technology people use, including the threat of cyber terrorism.

6) What type of narrative do you prefer in a psychological thriller?
a. Plot twists
b. Time distortion
c. Crossing narrative strands
d. Conspiracy
e. Binary opposites within character roles

7) Do you prefer the film to either:
a. Challenge the audience actively?
b. Explain the plot fully throughout the film?

8) Have you watched the following films and if so rate them 1-10 ( 10 being the highest)

Panic room

Reservoir dogs

Pulp fiction

Sin city

Hard Candy

Scream

I created this questionnaire when I was brainstorming some ideas for the film. I gace this questionnaire out to 30 people both outside of college and inside of college. The feedback I got from this questionnaire helped me and my group come up with a bigger picture of what people wanted and how we could accomadate those needs with our creative vision, This is when we decided the target age group, theme of film, and the viewer we were aiming it at by finding out how often poeple go to cinema, what their favourite genre is and what films they have seen and how they rated them. I was then able to convert these results into 2 basic graphs. This questionnaire really helped with our research and planning.