It is important to know who the target audience for your film is because it tells you how you should represent your film as different age groups like different kinds of themes. It is also beneficial as you can focus on making the film as best and interesting as possible for that target group, whereas if you didn't know what your target group was, you would be guessing and using wrong themes which may not work well.
Here is an example of examining the horror film: "The Haunting in Connecticut" and how they represent age/gender/class into target audiences:
In "The Haunting in Connecticut", there are obvious representations to the threat and victim. Firstly, the victim is a male teenager which is the typical stereotype from a psychological horror. Usually in psychological horrors, the main victim has some kind of problem/gift for example in Sixth Sense, where the child can see ghosts, however in this film the teenage victim has a severe cancer which adds to his vulnerability as a victim.
In this film, the stereotypes of age and gender are followed from psychological horrors, but yet it still adds a significant amount of fear in the audience.
The threat in this film isn't seen so it is hard to put it in a particular social group, but the threats from psychological horrors aren't usually seen anyway as the pain is done mentally, so there is a representation there of a stereotypical psychological.
In this film, I think that the stereotypes of age and gender follow the normal psychological horror, as even though we don't see the main threat we can see what it can create and how those smaller threats effect the victim mentally and physically.
From this, we can understand the target audience would be of around 16-25 as it has the main themes which interest them such as ghosts and fear of the unknown.
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The five films I have chosen to research into for there target audiences are;
The Sixth Sense
Haunting in Connecticut
1408
Paranormal Activity
Black Swan
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The Sixth Sense's certificate is a 15. We can gather that this film has parts which wouldn't be appropriate for younger children because of the rating.
Also, from the following IMDB user ratings, we can gather what the kind of target audiences are.
We can see from this user rating chart that the overall target audiences are very widespread in that people under 18 all the way up to 45+ have rated the film equally. Although, Females under 18 do have the highest average votes. The fact that they are all very widespread could be due to that the film doesn't attract any particular sex or audience so the film can be targeted at any audience.
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The Haunting in Connecticut's certificate is again a 15. As I have seen the film, I can agree with this certificate as the film is quite scary in parts and has darker themes, which would not be suitable for a younger audience.
Here are the IMDB ratings, showing the main target audiences.
We can gather from these user ratings that most of the target audience were mainly people under 18. This is understandable due to the fact the film is aimed at teenagers as the main character is a young teen. The females again are the highest average user rating. Even though the film doesn't exactly single out any particular sex, it seems that females were the ones who watched the film the most.
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1408's certificate is also a 15. Again, I have watched the film and can agree with this certificate as it does include themes which would scare anyone who is younger.
Here are the IMDB ratings, to show the main target audiences.
We can see here that the main target audience is the under 18's. Also, the main sex are males under 18. As I have seen this film, I am quite surprised that it's the under 18's as I would have thought people in there 18-30's would enjoy it as it makes you think and plays with your mind. As our film we want to create is based on films such as 1408 & Haunting in Connecticut, having the main target audience as under 18's can tell us that will be our target audience.
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Paranormal Activity is a 15, and I believe this is correct as the film is quite scary.
Here are the main IMDB user ratings.
We can gather that the main target audiences are the under 18s and 18-29. I think this is correct as it is a horror that the younger generation would enjoy because of its story and themes. As it is based on ghosts and is our film, we can see that the main target age group we are aiming at are again the under 18s. Also we can see that the main sex is males, which would be due to its themes of killing and such.
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Black Swan is a 15, it should be certified an 18 in my opinion for its gruesome nature.
Here are the user ratings on IMDB.
We can see the film does not appeal to people aged 30+. This could be due to its more disturbing scenes which older adults may not like. However, it seems pretty equal with people under 18 and the 18-29 target audience. Males under 18 seem to have the most average votes. The film is obviously targeted for the younger generation for its more scary themes which a younger generation would find interesting.
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Finally, we can gather from the certification and the IMDB ratings that the target audiences for the kind of horror we want to create would be the under 18s of any sex. We would need to follow the same kind of themes as these films in order to accomplish this.
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QUESTION 5
1. When planning our film, we watched multiple films and researched them to find the right target audience which would represent our script and themes the best. We believe our target audience of 16-29s would like our film because we have themes of hauntings which from our research is very popular with this age group.
2. We targeted a particular age group only because we wanted our film to be universal to any gender, race, etc. We targeted this particular age group by using a teenage actress. By doing this, our teenage target audience will be engaged more, rather than if it were an older actor.
3. We used Wollaton Hall as our location and only one main prop which are vintage photos. In general conventions from psychological horrors, our location was perfect and conformed to conventions as it was empty/desolate, vintage and old, it wasn't furnished a lot and had the right colours, which will definitely attract our target audience. These kind of indoor locations are normal for psychological horrors for example the main room in "The Haunting in Connecticut" was the kind of look we were going for.
4. Our victim is a teenage girl, so this is very appropriate to our target audience which are among the same age group as they can relate to a younger actress rather than an older one.
5. The title sequences were inspired by "The Haunting in Connecticut" using lots of old photos (which were our continuos prop). I feel this would engage our target audience as you want to know what the photos are about and how they will relate to our film. Also, the images are quite scary and abnormal which will definitely draw our audience in.
Here are examples of our title sequence:
We can see that our choice of photos are very vintage/old and can be seen as quite scary.
From these images, we want our audience to want to know what they're about and what it has to do with our film.
6. For our music, we want it simple yet effective. As I do a lot of sound to film as a hobby, I understand what sound is needed to make a film effective. Normally, strings will attract an audience and during steady shots were there is no action involved, deep sounds from pianos are very spine chilling. When it comes to action scenes we have added lots of different thunder sounds which have been edited to sound more sinister to give a fearful effect.
7. Here is the feedback sheets from our whole media group about what they thought about our first edit and what we would need to improve on.
In general, everyone thought it was really well done, and they enjoyed it. However, there were little things like parts which were too long and audio problems, however they can be easily sorted.
Overall, we are very happy with the comments and they will help us a lot with editing our piece some more.
In a "15" certified film their are many things which give it that rating in terms of content. We can gather this information from www.bbfc.org.uk
Suitable only for 15 years and over
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.
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In our film, we can aim for the "15" certificate as our film as it states in the Horror section that there is a strong threat which will be haunting our character. However, we could use 12A, but some themes such as the level of horror we could include would not be substantial enough to our target audiences of under 18s and 18-29. Also, looking at the films researched such as Haunting in Connecticut and Sixth Sense, it can be justified that our film is a 12A as the horror isn't as bad as Haunting in Connecticut, but is on the level of the Sixth Sense.
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