Target Audience

Research:

After deciding that our trailer is going to be Crime/Thriller, we then needed to consider what our target audience would be. We decided to look at existing Crime/Thriller films (from our influences), to have a stronger idea as to what it our most suitable target audience:

- Reservoir Dogs: Age Certificate 18
- The Godfather: Age Certificate 15
- Pulp Fiction: Age Certificate 18
- Goodfellas: Age Certificate 18
- Casino: Age Certificate 18

Using the examples above, we can identify that most of the Crime/Thriller films are classified as an age rating of 18 which is a good starter.

As Reservoir Dogs was a main influence for our trailer, we decided to take further research of the reasons for their age rating. We used British Board of Film Classification as a source to gain this information:

Reservoir Dogs case study

The scenes of violence, combined with the bloody injury detail on show (notably that of Tim Roth’s badly wounded Mr Orange), made the classification of the film at 18 almost a formality. But even at that category the notorious sequence in which Michael Madsen’s Mr Blonde tortures a policeman by slicing off his ear, dousing him with petrol and threatening to set him on fire, was considered troubling in terms of its acceptability and was the subject of considerable debate within the BBFC.

Views were expressed that its gruesome and sadistic nature would cause some people to walk out of the film. It was also noted that Mr Blonde’s evident enjoyment of what he is doing ("It amuses me to torture a cop") as he dances around the helpless victim to the strains of 'Stuck In The Middle With You' coming from the radio, glamorised the sadism.

However, the general opinion was that the scene, whilst generating a sustained, intense and disquieting atmosphere of threat and menace, was remarkably restrained in what it actually showed. Apart from an initial indistinct slash to the policeman’s face with the razor, the audience does not see the detail of the ear being cut off as the camera moves away from the action, whilst the horror is suggested only by the sounds of the victim’s cries of pain. There is subsequent sight of the policeman’s mutilated face before the threat escalates as Mr Blonde pours petrol over him and lights a match – only to be shot dead by Mr Orange.

It was felt that the scene carried several mitigating factors that precluded further intervention at the adult category. These factors were: the lack of process in the violence that undercuts what BBFC Guidelines describe explicitly (and what would have been given significant weight in 1992) as ‘dwelling on the infliction of pain and injury’;

• its contextualisation as a crucial plot point that reveals Mr Orange as the undercover policeman whose identity Mr Blonde had been trying to extract from the torture victim;
• its playing on the film’s themes of loyalty and betrayal;
• and the clear establishment of Mr Blonde’s character as an unpleasant, sadistic psychopath with whom a viewer is not invited to identify or to glamorise.

Consequently, the film was passed at 18, without cuts, and went on to enjoy box office success in UK cinemas as Tarantino continued to garner critical acclaim, including some from parts of the UK press better known for their more censorious attitudes towards violence in films.

The work was next submitted in 1993 for its home video classification, but the video release would be delayed until 1995 because of the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill in 1993 and its lengthy passage through Parliament. In response to concerns about the effects of media violence, largely in the wake of the James Bulger murder in 1993, part of the Bill’s remit was to make amendments to the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA), under which the BBFC had been appointed as the statutory regulatory body for video.

The BBFC’s then director, James Ferman, played an active role in the drafting of this aspect of the Bill which clearly had implications for the video classification of works such as Reservoir Dogs. This is because, on its passing into law in 1994, it established within the VRA a specific ‘harm’ test. This ‘harm’ test required the BBFC to pay ‘special regard (among the other relevant factors) to any harm that may be caused to potential viewers or, through their behaviour, to society by the manner in which the work deals with [such issues as] criminal behaviour [and] violent behaviour and incidents’.

The criminal themes and violence (most notably the torture sequence) in Reservoir Dogs had therefore to be revisited in the light of potentially harmful effects – particularly to younger viewers – in the home viewing environment. In fact, the BBFC concluded that these issues could be robustly defended at 18.

The prolonged passage of time since the film release, during which Reservoir Dogs had achieved a wide recognition, meant that the public could not be ignorant of its content. Also the awareness of the kind of material present in a Quentin Tarantino film had been reinforced with the release of Pulp Fiction in 1994. Additionally, it had become clear through critical reaction to Reservoir Dogs that the film was as concerned with clever characterisation and dialogue as it was with violence, and did not have the intrinsic appeal to younger teenagers of more formulaic, mainstream action films.

Reservoir Dogs was finally granted an uncut 18 video certificate in May 1995, a considerable time after its video release in all the other major international markets, which did not prove too disconcerting for Tarantino who was reported to be delighted that the delay had given the film an extended theatrical life in the UK.

1. Which one of the four quadrant(s) would you film appeal to? (Older males (>25), Older females (>25), Younger males (<25), Younger females (<25))

From our research we strongly believe that our film comes older males (>25). From the statistics shown in Q2, we identify that Males aged 18-29 and 30-44 are predominately attracted to a Crime/Thriller. 

Naiem: However, I believe that there is a a a good chance of variation with our film target audience in terms of the age group it appeals to. As our main actors used fall under the age group of <25 this may not be appealing to older males as first suspected. There may consequently appeal more to younger males as they may feel it is easier for them to relate with the film itself therefore our target audience may not follow the trends of our influences. 

On the other hand Umed took a different perspective of the possible variation in our target audience in which Naiem identified and found a strong factor which would mean that our target audience would follow the statistics of our influence:

Umed: The use of costume and props are characteristics which can counteract the possibility of a younger male target audience as Naiem suggested. The costume used such as wearing suits means that people who wear suits are deemed to be referred as working men and professionals which would overshadow the use of young actors. Also, the use of props such as knifes,guns, cigarettes etc gives a depth impression that the actors used are older males as you wouldn't expect an 18 year old to possess such weapons and therefore overcomes the conflicts between our target audience. 

We also believe that our film would less likely appeal to a female audience mainly as it doesn't contain themes in which females prefer such as romance and love. Also the lack of female characters and the concept of just males dominating the world would therefore mean females would take less interest as it is hard for them to associate with our film. 

2. What are the target audience for the films you looked at when looking at your influences?

For our research in target audience, we used IMDb as a source to help us identify the target audience of our film influences. We used this, as it provides concise statistical information of what type of age groups are influenced as well as what gender were mostly influenced. We also thought that this was an easier way to look at the relationships between all of our influences and establish what is our target audience. 

Casino

With Casino, overall we can see that males were more influenced by the film than females (170,730 / 19,418).
Average rating by males is 8.2 and by females is 7.8.
Also, the age category of 18-29 from both males and females outweighs the votes of the age category under 18's.
In both 18-29 and under 18, we realise that votes were made significantly by males compared to females.

The Godfather

With Godfather, overall we see that males were more influenced by the film than females (571,079 / 87,958). 
Average rating by males is 9.2 and females is 8.9.
Also, the age category of 18-29 from both males and females outweighs the votes of the age category under 18's. 
In both 18-29 and under 18's, we realise that the votes were made significantly by males compared to females.  

The tradition tends to follow with the rest of our influences:

Goodfellas

Male votes of 362,129 in comparison of female votes of 47,760.

Average rating by males is 8.8 and females 8.5.

Again, the age category of 18-29 from both males and females outweighs the votes of the age category under 18's. 

And in both 18-29 and under 18's, we realise that the votes were made significantly by males compared to females.  

Pulp Fiction

Male votes of 611,909 in comparison of female votes of 113,299. 

Average rating by males is 9.0 and females is 8.6. 

Reservoir Dogs

Male votes of 137,165 in comparison of female votes of 46,533.
Average rating by males is 8.4 and females is 8.2.









Overall, we also recognise that the ratings of males are more higher than females in all of the film above. This therefore shows that males tend to enjoy the experience of watching films with the theme of a Crime/Thriller than females. The tradition of using male actors as the main characters is a key feature which is highly effective towards the data.


3. Are there any other audience groups that your film may appeal to?

Interestingly, we believe that males aged 45+ would also take high interest of our films. Using the data above, this indicates that even the age group of males 45+ has more number of votes compared to the age groups of males under 18. This could possibly be due to the fact that men are more aware of the dangers in reality and are more likely to come across events of a crime/thriller film than a younger males. With younger males, they are more appealed by comedy/drama's mainly because it represents a lifestyle of young adults. For example, the film Ted. 

This shows that the age category of under 18 is higher than the age category of 45+ despite the range of under 18 is smaller than the range of 45+ as this film is rated as 15. The results of the age category under 18 is mostly coming from the ages between 15 and 18 where a small minority of the ratings are from under 15 year old children in comparison of the results of the age category of 45+ which comes across a wider scale.








4. What other 'niche' factors could be considered about how you might appeal to an audience?

The choice of using young actors in such a film is a characteristic which is unique in a crime/thriller film. In doing so, this could be useful to the 'new' generation as we tend to represent the older generation through young actors who are part of the new generation. 

5. What different 'tribes' of youth may be especially interested in your film?

We believe that mainstream blingers would be interested to watch our film as a crime/thriller film consists actors who have a mentality of a gangster and who is cool. This is shown via the elements of props i.e. money and costume i.e. suits. 

6. Would your film be limited to a UK audience or might have a global appeal?

I believe that our film has potential to have a global appeal as our film doesn't only consist a stereotypical British representation. 

7. What limitations are there on your production?

As our film is British, this limits the chances of having a wide-base audience. Most American films have a very global appeal due to high costs of production. Also, we are not funded by any established production company and only have a restrictive budget which would limit audience awareness as there is limited advertising available. Our film also does not contain any famous or popular film stars meaning that this would also have a significant impact on the marketing aspects of our film. Most famous and popular actors have developed a fan-base or relationship in which to any films they feature, loyal fans would tend to watch their films. 


We then decided to conduct a online survey as a collective data, to give us an impression of what our potential audience is:

We realised that most of our respondents were in the age group between 18-24 and 25-35 which follows the trend of our target audience research (films such as reservoir dogs and pul fiction). We also realised that there was equal number of respondents for each gender were both
females and males agree at they watch our film from our 25 word pitch as well as watch a crime/thriller. There was some variation with what was our respondents favourite genre however that was reasonable as it is stereotypical for females to romance, animation and drama rather than the likes of crime, action and thriller. Lastly, respondents also agreed that our main target audience should be older males >25 though younger males <25 came close and we did receive a small minority who believed that our film could also target older males >25.