intro to audience
TRANSCRIPT
What is a Target Audience?
You have done work on target audiences for your own films you have recently completed.
Talk to the people around you (who weren’t in your group) about…
Who your target audience was
How you came to this conclusion
(if your target audiences were different) why?
What is a Target Audience?
“Who would stand in a queue, outside in the freezing cold, at night, in January to see this film?”
How does media define its target audience?
Gender, Age, Socioeconomic status, Rural/Urban, Race, Family status, Special Interest
(Political/Religious/Music/Art/Relationship etc.)
Mass Target Audience vs Niche Target Audience
Global Target Audience vs Local Target Audience
Global Target Audience
Universal stories with universal appeal (relationships/ traditional boy meets girl kinds of stories/ Famous stories that everyone would know)
Universal Themes (Love/ Revenge/ Journey)
Universal experiences (Families/ Jobs/ Relationships)
Traditional Stereotypes
Wide range of traditional characters (Age and gender)
‘Safe’ humour
Not too violent (Rating of about 12)
Others films with global appeal?
Issues with global appeal?
Can you think of any problems with trying to make a single film appeal to a global audience?
East is East, a British film, has been received very well in both America and France, two territories which have had a completely different 'take' on it.
Due to phonetic and language differences, the French working title was Fish and Chips!
Does it matter that the film is received by different audiences in ways not necessarily intended by the filmmaker?
Issues with global appeal?
Global audiences do not all speak the same language.
Global audiences have their own cultures, film preferences and interest in stars and genres from films made in their own countries.
Global audiences may see a film in very different circumstances to the ones originally intended by the producers. Seeing a blockbuster on a small screen or on a large screen may elicit different responses.
The Local British Audience
Specific UK Culture and History
Well known UK stereotypes
Social Realism
Nostalgia/ Heritage Films
Satirical Humour
‘British’ stories and Ideas.
Your task…
In pairs, choose one of the films below that you have both seen.
In 5-10 bulletpoints, describe how it appeals to a British Audience using points from the slides above, and evidence from the film to support this point.
Extension – add 5 more bulletpoints describing how it had global appeal
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Trailer
One of the highest grossing British Films in cinema history
Wide target audience 20 -40 yrs (less diverse)
Universal themes, witty dialogue, stereotypical quirky British characters, favourite American genre, American star (Andie MacDowell), mix of personalities
The success of FWAAF meant that many UK film makers started to make film with ‘universal’ appeal rather than British appeal
‘Really American films with an English accent’
Don’t deal with the social struggles/issues but instead have ‘insignificant story lines’
The Boat That Rocked (2009)
Trailer
Target Audience – large and diverse
Teenagers/Young Adults – type of humour, use of actors that would be recognisable from other ‘teen’ films (e.g. Gemma Arteton – St Trinians), rebellious spirit, Release in the April half term, stereotypes, colours on posters are bright
Older people reliving the 60’s – the music, the setting, the historical story and references, well known director for this group, classic British stereotypes, Poster is like The Beatles (Abbey Road) or Andy Warhol work
The Boat That Rocked (2009)
Target Audience – large and diverse… and difficult!
What made it appeal to one audience was what would put off the other
Very heavily male cast and the only female characters are not that positive…
R15 rating also cut out a lot of its target audience (DK was 12!)
Failed to appeal to enough of either group in both the UK and US market
How do American Institutions try to appeal to British
Audiences? Use examples from this years Oscars…
And other contemporary films.
Case Study – Bend It Like Beckham
Trailer
UK Target audience was approx. 12-25 year olds, aiming specifically at the female market.
Given the rise in interest in football amongst young women in (e.g. the growth of women’s football clubs, more women watching the game and the recent ‘player as superstar pin-up’ phenomenon), it was thought there was an untapped female audience for a movie about football that had two strong female central characters.
It obviously appealed to the Indian audience also due to it’s Bollywood pastiche elements and specific cultural references
It could be seen as both a ‘chick flick’ and a ‘date movie’ with its mixture of football, comedy, romance and a young attractive cast appealing to both male and female audiences.
Case Study – Bend It Like Beckham
The film also benefited from the media interest leading up to the World Cup in Japan, and the frenzy around David Beckham’s toe.
The UK poster and adverts emphasise the comedy aspects of the film over the sport (bright colours, smiling faces, press quotes such as ‘you’ll be grinning from ear to ear’… ‘hilariously fresh’… ‘the best British comedy since Bridget Jones’s Diary’.
Bend It Like Beckham was released in the UK in April 2002
On its opening weekend, it took £2,000,000 across the country and its total box office was over £11,500,000.
The film was released in the United States in March 2003 where it has now so far grossed 28 million dollars.
Extension
Using the above notes on THE BRITISH AUDIENCE and THE GLOBAL AUDIENCE…
Use a large piece of paper to draw an example of the ‘stereotypical’ British Audience Member and Global Audience Member…
What do they look like? What do they wear? Eat? Behave? Enjoy? Dislike? Say? How much money do they have? What kind of car do they drive? Participate in the film process etc…