Audience - Ethnicity, socio-economic groups and psychographic profile

Target Audience-

Ethnicity
Our film is based on a teenager girl in a typical high school setting; with a dark past. Our target audience is teenagers of any ethnicity. We are using caucasian females. We chose these actresses due to them bring available; using the opportunities around us.

Socio-economic groups
Socio-economic groups have a large range. They were created to help the government group the population into categories.

A - higher managerial - administrative and powerful jobs, such as; lawyer or surgeon
B -  intermediate managerial - professional and administrative; back manager or teacher
C1 - Supervisory and junior managerial; shop floor supervisor and sales person
C2 - Skilled manual workers, for example carpenter or electrician
D - semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers; assembly line or messenger
E - Casual labourers, the unemployed and pensioners; for example people who live on basic benefits or students

Our film is going to be targeted at the socio-economic group E - students. This is going to be highlighted by the protagonist being a caucasian student girl. This is so that teenage girls can empathise and connect with the protagonist and antagonist of out film. She will be wearing typical girl clothing - clothing brands such as; H&M and topshop.

Psychographic Profile
Psychographic profile fits into groups; much like socio-economic groups. based on personality, beliefs, values, interests and lifestyle choices. The government also uses this grouping to see where different people fit into different categories and compare them. Much like demographic but instead of focusing on the work they do they focus on the behaviour of the audience and their actions.
 For example a group of 16-18 yr olds staying at home and a group of 16-18 yr olds leaving home and having to live for themselves for the first time would be very different audience's. For example if we were aiming the film at a group of 16-18 yr olds that are leaving home, the film could focus on independence.

Age:
Our film is aimed at a teenage audience and a young adult audience, between the ages of 13-22. This is because we believe teens enjoy our genre and theme more , which is teenage murder. As out opening was mostly filmed in a school setting we belie that teenage benefit from this , they can relate and understand the context and setting. Our cast were 16 or 17 and i believe having a cast at the same ages our target audience has benefited our opening , our audience can relate more to our story line, they also feel some kind of connection and relationship as the cast as they have similar features which in this case is age. We used fast pasted editing in our opening , due to the increase in youtube and music videos , fast pasted editing in time with music and beats has become increasingly popular , therefore we used this is some parts of out opening to appeal to our audience , we belive this swill help our opening look up to date. The music we used as a basis for ideas and influences was chosen as its peopler and well known in the younger society. therefore we though basing our music on music that is already popular would give us an advantage and create a more up to date and on trend look to our opening. We would give our opening a rating 12 based on what i read on the BBFC’s website. 

Genre: 
i think the genre of our audience will be fairly split between males and females. Our female actors draw both a female and male audience in but mainly attracting guys due to male gaze. The aspect of violence also attracts a male audience as wifi and horror films are traditionally and stereotypically seen as "male films". The issue of conflict between the girl and the scene in which they get ready draws in a female audience and the aspect of teen conflict also will appeal to a female audience.

Nationality/region:
 Our opening is english that means that our audience will be english speaking. We hope that our audience will become a UK-wide audience and we hope that we would make sales worldwide and over sees.
Our settings include traditional looking english school settings , i think this will appeal to american as it fits the stereotypical image american have on England and i believe that this will appeal to them.
as films such as wild child become very popular due to the english boarding school setting.

Typical audiences for this genre:
Our genre of teenage under and crime is very popular in the movie industry at the moment sue to the break out of series such as scream queens and going back to films such as heathers. The typically audience for the genre such as scream queens is young teens and there is an equal divide between males and females.

Audience I researched
Audience Niamh researched

Character profile - Isabelle

Isabelle is the protagonist in neighbours. At first we want the audience to question who Isabelle is and what she has done to cause the tension between her and Sarah. We want the typical cliche of a popular teenage girl to interfere with the audience's connection to Isabelle and her friends. She may seem like the typical girl in her clique. However there is something that we don't know about Isabelle that creates some narrative enigma about her.
 We see Isabelle in her white clothes with a denim jacket; presenting her as happier and possibly more of a girly character that contrasts with Sarah's darker clothes. Using the mis-en-sen to create the characters.

Target Audience

AGE:

15-24? 15-34? Your lower starting point will be influenced by the notional BBFC rating you ascribe to your work (also compare to similar films)– the BBFC’s website has some very student-friendly features to help you with this. You could reference your work from General Studies of course! There is also a double-DVD-ROM set in the library produced by the BBFC. You may argue your film potentially appeals to younger viewers, increasingly able to circumvent these age restrictions through downloads for example, and motivated to do so by aspiring to be like their older peers (e.g. tweenagers). Are your cast reflective of your target audience age? Do you employ any slang, music or other cultural references which might be primarily familiar to a youth audience? How important is the youth audience to the film industry? (You should be able to find articles which demonstrate that cinema’s target your age group more than any other)

ETHNICITY:

If your product does include non-Caucasian characters, this will help reinforce its appeal to a multi-ethnic audience. However, you should not argue your text specifically targets a narrow Caucasian audience, many mainstream productions continuing to side-line non-Caucasian talent but not commercially suffering for this. As always, think of real-world examples here, especially if you are restricted to an entirely Caucasian cast. There is an interesting flipside to this: a range of low-budget, straight-to-DVD films principally targeted at an African American audience (especially within the horror and crime/gangster genres) produced by and starring the likes of Snoop Dogg. The impact of Asian horror over the past decade (e.g. The Ring), not just through the remakes, might be something to consider.

GENDER:

many genres are seen as gendered: sci-fi, action-adventure and horror as primarily male-oriented, period dramas and rom-coms as female, for example. This is true up to a point

– film producers don’t want to exclude half the available audience! The tough, resourceful female character (‘final girl’) at the centre of many horrors (and sci-fi/horror: Alien’s Ripley) helps to draw in a female audience notwithstanding the

crude, exploitative stereotyping of the invariably topless „scream queens‟. The comedy aspect of rom-coms helps males to overcome their reticence – and in both cases, especially for a youth audience, the movie-as-date factor cannot be overlooked! Do make some explicit

SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPINGS:

In crude class terms, ABs are ‘upper class’, C1 upper -middle class, C2 lower-middle class, and DE working-class (see handout for more precise detail).Typically, a complex, challenging text, perhaps relying more on dialogue than action, might be pitched to some part of an ABC1 audience (as are broadsheet newspapers like The Guardian), while a conventional slasher, often with middle-class characters, might target a C2DE audience (somewhat in line with a tabloid like The S*n). If you are employing countertypes within a horror you might argue this would help to draw in the C1s. Some horror films, especially when not centred on teens, gain sufficient critical credibility to draw in that sophisticated ABC1 audience – think of Silence of the Lambs. Plush period dramas typically appeal to ABC1s (the BBC has attracted criticism for super-serving this audience with its high-budget adaptations of the classics), while the typically more basic fare of rom-coms are generally pitched to a less wealthy audience. Again, it is worth commenting on the class profile of your characters.

NATIONALITY/REGION:

Whilst producers will not wish to restrict their potential audience to a particular part of the UK, nonetheless the southern English accent and setting retains something of a hegemonic status. Films featuring northern English, Midlands, Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish accents do face a greater challenge at the box office – although the huge success of Billy Elliot, The Full Monty and others proves this barrier is not insurmountable. This aspect may influence the company you identify as distributor (look at

distributors for Warp, WT, & Film4 productions as examples), but again you should stress you’d hope to tap into a UK-wide audience, whilst perhaps recognising the potential limitations on foreign sales. The contrasting fortunes of the similarly-budgeted films Son of Rambow and Mickybo & Me [a WT film]–  both now in the library – illustrate the commercial advantages of featuring southern English characters, while This is England is more typical of the fate of social realist movies than hits like TFMonty. Once again: address representation – are you stereotyping yourselves?! Using recognisable regional stereotypes could help a film’s prospects beyond the area it reflects.

FANS OF…

Perhaps linking back to your pitch, what existing films would you expect your potential audience to be fans of? If you were designing a promotional poster which film/s might you try and reference to help communicate the idea, but also to derive reflected glory/appeal from?

SEXUALITY:

Just as a typical film will still centre on Caucasian characters, so will heterosexuality be the default mode for any romantic aspects. Again, do not say you are targeting a heterosexual audience, but simply consider if you’re including anything which could help to draw in the ‘pink pound’ – being careful about stereotyping! It’s not uncommon to see token, heavily stereotyped, gay characters, notably the usually very camp gay best friend in many rom-coms.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILE:

You could also describe a typical would-be punter in terms of wider lifestyle and interests (e.g. a lager-drinking Sky Sports subscriber, S*n-reading Guy Ritchie fan, or a Sky Arts-subscribing, Guardian-reading liberal interested in classic literature and history)

– 

and if you really want to challenge yourself, do a little research on ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’  (there is a fairly good Wiki on this). You could also look at the box-office performance of recent films comparable to your own in terms of genre/narrative.

TYPICAL AUDIENCES FOR THIS GENRE:

Research audiences for your genre. If you can find articles exploring aspects such as age range, typical gender etc., great –  but at the very least have a look into the institutional side of this: box office figures especially. Is yours a currently successful/popular genre? You could try some kind of opinion poll or questionnaire (you could use a blogger gadget for this) to test out whether your supposed target audience is accurate.

Audience groups I'm doing

Final Cut - with out Ident

What is on this cut:

• All the scenes shot
• Titles
• The soundtrack 

What isn't on this cut:

• My ident and Naimhs ident

Audience Feedback:

• 
  

Character profile - Sarah

Sarah is the antagonist in the opening two minutes. We first see her getting out of bed much like Isabelle. Showing that they are binary opposites in character.

 In the beginning our idea was for the audience to see Sarah; when they first see her we want the audience to feel sorry for Sarah. A sense of narrative enigma about Sarah. We don't know her past, we see her on the outside of the clique. Compared to films such as mean girls; generally the girl on the outside is the protagonist. the girl clique is intimidating and tend to hurt the protagonist. However in Neighbours Sarah is the antagonist. We portray this by Sarah watching the girls. But there is confusion as too why, which becomes clear at the end. the audience are sure what Sarah's motives are until the end of the two minutes; where things begin to clear up.

 We wanted Sarah to come across as dark and mysterious in comparison to Isabelle. Her clothing was darker that Isabelle's and her bedroom was different. Helping the audience realise what the distinction is between the protagonist and the antagonist. 

Feedback for improvements

1) Although you have attempted to keep up with the media terminology in your blog, there’s room for improvement. There needs to be more use of it throughout your blog and when you are describing your own film, think about denotation and connotation and signifiers and add these terms to your descriptions (in pink. Or some other colour!)

2) Your analysis of Donnie Darko and Heathers are very good but you also need to blog on the conventions and history of your chosen genre.

3) Your production schedule (call sheet) needs adding with dates and times. There generally needs to be more evidence of planning. You could also add any communication between you, Niamh and your actors to show evidence of planning.

4) Your rough cuts need to be more in number and with more detailed explanations – what works, what doesn’t work, what needs to be improved etc.

5) Finally, you need to gain some audience feedback on your most recent cut. Ask friends from your target audience to watch the film and collect feedback from them either using video or a questionnaire etc.

Feedback - audience

I have had multiple people watching my opening, some people from our target audince and some family members.

Target audience - teenagers // media students
   Rough cut Three

• The music fits well with the timing of the shots.
• I lilke the title of neighbours, where it is placed with the background looks good, it looks like it is under lining it bringing your attention to it.
• The continuity of the shots are well edited.
• Edit the music to have more of a rythmn, gradually building up because at the moment it is quite similar throughout.
• Slow down the beggining shots of Sarah and Isabelle so we can get a good idea of what they look like and who they are.
• The scenes from their bedroom to the school jump quite a bit - there is no connetion. (Because we hadn't shot the scene inbwtween just yet, we have now addded this scene - 12th of Feb).

Target audince - teenagers // friends
   Rough cut Three

• It's good I like it.
• I'd proabably watch it if I new more about it.
• It all flows really well together.
• The music brings it all together really well.
• I like the ending, it sums everything up and leaves you wiyh a sense of mystery.
• The editing of sarah following the girls in the graveyard works really well (the overlapping of the shots - girls walking away from sarah).
• Maybe inprove on the colour scheme - some of the scenes were different colours to the others.

pre- production planning

Me and Niamh decided that we would have four actresses playing the roles.

The antagonist - Sarah
The antagonist - Isabelle
Second girl - Amy
Thrid girl - Rian

Here is some evidence for our planning of filming:




















All the actressess were flexible and everything went to plan.
We did have some last minute filming (on the 11th of February) due to poeple not being avalibale on the same day. Howveer we worked around this and on the 12th we went in to school and editing the final cut.

We were planning on getting all the filming done before the christmas holidays; however we decided to not rush into this and film some scenes after, for example scene 3 (entering school). We did have some help from parents to convince our actresses to film with us. Making the time of filming shorter by gving us lifts where possible.




















We also gave them some incentives, e.g food. We bought popcorn and chocolate to say thankyo0u for all their hard work seeing as thry had coursework they needed to be doing as well.

My chosen genre - Black/dark comedy

Black Comedy - humour that makes light of a dark situation

Films related to black comedy:

• Heathers
• Pulp fiction
• Bad Santa
• Horrible bosses

All these films are making light out of; what in realisty is a bad situation, a humourous situation.

Horrible bosses - follows three friends who murder their overbearing and abusive bosses.
Directed by: Seth Gordon
Written by: Micheal Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathon Goldstein
Box Office: $210M
Horrible Bosses

This film relates to our opening due to the fact that it is a black comedy adn is based arouond murder. Although we dont show the murder in the first two minutes of out opening we are giving the audience partial information to connote that the protagonist is a killer. This is portraying narritive enigma for our target audience. This gives a sense of mystery for the audience. Making them want to watch the reset of the film.


Our target audience is teenagers, our opening is based on a group of teenage girls in a school, there will be a lot of narritive engima during the first two minutes to keep the audience involved and wanting to watch more. The fact that the end scene will be the antagonist crossing off faces on a wall leaves the audience to decode what is going to happen and possible what happened for the antagonist to be doing this.









Pulp fiction - based aorund gangster stories

Production diary seven

Rough cut five

Feedback:

• the music works - however it sounds like it is on a loop
• where is the changing point (volta) in the music
• the titles don't fit the genre

What is in this cut:

• titles
• title of "Neighbours"
• non-diegetic music created on garageband
• all the scenes 

What isn't in this cut:

• Final titles 
• scene three
• ending

Evaluation Of Neighbours PLAN

 Plan-


Intro -

• Initial ideas, pitch - school typical cliques
• combined with Niamhs - social realist and feminine
• started to get ideas - outsider killing the popular clique

para 1 -

• We had to write a storyboard, screen play and call list to get an idea of what we will be filming and in what order
• Who would be taking part in our film
• when we would be filming and where
• whywe chose these areas to film

para 2 -

• we started filming - graveyard first
• then we started to edit
• naimh filmed her cousins
• we then filmed the getting ready scenes
• then walking through the school
• filnally we filmed them walking out of their house 'neighbours'
• shot around the school

para 3 -

• editing processes
• what songs we chose to influence our music
• we started to create the music

para 4 -

• what went well
• feedback

para 5 -

• evaluation of what we could've done better
• feedback

• 
  

Rough cut four

This was my initial idea for titles.

• Feedback was that it didn't really fit the genre of the film.
• The genre being black comedy the sans-serif text didn't really make an effect on the genre of the film.
• The text was too friendly and comical.
• The placement of the titles are good - using the shots effectivly.

Production diary six

Feedback and Targets

Targets: What still needs to be done 01/02

Deadline - 12/01

• Still need to film the section of the letter being read aloud for an over voice.
• Still need to film Sarah and Izzy leaving their house showing the audience where they live - giving the reason behind the name 'Neighbours'.
• Need to continue creating music for the introduction.

Feedback for exam section 2:

EAA: 11/20

Ex: 9/20

T: 4/10

Total: 24/50

Decent attempt but there are some major problems too. In order to get higher marks, i need to make sure that the examples you use are specific to the points i am making rather than general guesswork. So if i want tot talk about social media, i need to write about how this technology was used in a specific case to market a film. If i don't do this, my marks will be severely limited. I had the whole internet to call upon, so it should have been fairly straightforward to find an example. Also, i need to talk more about piracy too, as this is a form of digital consumption that has a big impact not he industry.