Evaluation question 4

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Evaluation - Question 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

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Transcript of Evaluation question 4

Page 1: Evaluation   question 4

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

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To answer this question effectively we must look at film certification and the conventions of each one. So I did some research into the two certifications to make sure we got it right.

We must also look at similar thriller films and their audience and apply this to our own product.

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Film certification

To conduct thorough research into film certification I looked on the British Board of Film Classification website.

I found film certifications were invented to prevent and protect children from viewing unsuitable and harmful content in films.

There is a criteria film examiners must follow in order to make sure each film is given the right certification.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

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‘12’ Certification

For the ‘12’ certification there is both a ’12’ and ‘12A’ certification. The ‘12A’ certificate means any person over the age of 12 can go and watch the film unaccompanied by an adult, children younger than 12 must watch the film accompanied by an adult who must watch the film with them.

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A work which has a very dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience would be less likely to be passed 12A even if the individual issues in the film were considered acceptable under the BBFC guidelines. Following this, due to the nature of our film and it being the sub-genre of a psychological-thriller we would be careful to ensure that it was kept under the strict BBFC guidelines of what was considered to be a 'dark and unsettling tone'. Similarly, if a work is particularly positive or reassuring this may stop it being pushed up a category from 12A to 15.

Dangerous behaviour (for example hanging, suicide and self-harming) may be present in 12 or 12A works but will not dwell on detail which could be copied or present those activities as pain or harm free. In our full film, he commits suicide at the end, however to fit the 12A requirements we will just show the boy walking off the road, we will handle the matter sensitively to give a ideal response to how to respond to suicide for the younger (aged 12) viewers.

The British Board states: ‘Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as disturbing sequences are not too frequent or sustained.'

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‘15’ Certification

For a film to be under the 15 film certification there are no prohibited themes, however the content must be suitable for persons of 15 and older.

A 15 makes a 15 by: strong violence frequent strong language portrayals of sexual activity strong verbal references to sex sexual nudity brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence discriminatory language or behaviour drug taking

A 12 can feature these, however there can't be strong detail and emphasis on them (EG. Drug taking must be done discreetly and non-encouraging to

audience).

At 15 there can be strong threat and menace (as long as it is not sadistic or sexualised) although the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Like the 12 certificate, the BBFC states dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.

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To conclude…

From this certification research I have applied it to my own product and so have concluded that, if our film was released into cinemas/DVD it would be certified as a 12A, as I think it fits more into the criteria set for that certificate than any other (EG. A 15).

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Similar Thriller films

I have looked at multiple thriller films that are similar to ours and looked at their certification to ensure that we have chosen the right one and therefore this will make it even clearer to us that there is already an audience within this category.

For example, The Woman in Black, is a psychological-thriller, and has been given a 12 certificate. This is because the deaths in it are not fully seen by the audience, and whilst the plot is clear and continuously builds the tension, there isn't a lot of emphasis on the psychological side and it also doesn't dwell too much

on how people died etc.

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Another example of a 12 certification psychological-thriller is The Others, in this plot a woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted. This film builds more on the tension than actual action and fright moments and so this fits into 12 certification conventions.

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I looked at a psychological-thriller of which had a film certification of 18 so I could compare it against ours to make sure we had chosen the right certification. I looked at se7en, as I had already analysed the title sequence. It is an 18 because it displays graphic violence and potentially disturbing scenes for younger viewers. Our film does not fit into these conventions.

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To conclude…

From looking at similar thriller products, I now understand that there is already a pre-existing audience and market for this genre in the film certification we have chosen. It has also helped us identify the conventions that 12 certification films possess and apply these to our product.

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Other target audience research

In addition to the previous research, earlier on in this process we conducted target audience research, this included creating a questionnaire and making a survey monkey. Due to our own age and our peers being the same age, it was easier to get feedback and responses from our age range (15+). Most of these responses said that a psychological-thriller most appealed to them, and so this is what prompted us to use this sub-genre for our product. Also, most of the people we asked were female, and so this may have influenced their answers and feelings on films - stereotypically females would want a more emotional/empathetic film more than an action.

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To conclude…

So, to conclude this our target audience is females, aged 12+ who enjoy the psychological element in thriller films because we think this is the ideal audience for our film.