Evaluation Question FourBy Thalia Barrett

Who is my film aimed at and why?

My film is a Zombie film aimed at males over 35, some of the demographics to which exist in my target audience are their gender. My media piece is mainly aimed at males where as my secondary audience is aimed at females, this may be because typically women didn’t enjoy the gory aspect of zombie films as much as what men did as well as men enjoying the stereotypical strong male leading characters and eye-candy females. Additionally, my target audience would be from a C2 category, a middle class background, this may be due to the fact that many zombie films are involved on normal housing street estates so through the use of such locations and settings it means that my target audience are able to feel more involved and are able to relate to characters within the film more rather than an audience from another social class. However, there is no specific ethnicity or race within our target audience as this not only enables our film to be seen by a wider range of viewers but also means that there will be no racial biasedness within the media piece and if there was then a comedic affect would take place upon the audience.

My secondary target audience is females under 35; these too originate from the C2 category, middle class and tended to be parents and a family environment. It could be that as my second target audience are typical parents that through such a media piece as my zombie film it creates a sense of escapism for them, this could also be why they generally think that there should be more strong leading female characters in zombie films, so that like males over 35, the have something to relate to.

Why did I choose this as my target audience?

I choose this as my target audience because although it isn’t people of my age to which I can’t associate myself with, however, this has meant that I am able to cover a wider variety of media aspects and techniques in order for it to be a somewhat more successful piece of work as I am capable of incorporating both some aspects that I can associate whilst also exploring aspects of zombie films to which I previously wouldn’t have considered using, so within that feature it has meant that my media piece will be more unique and effective so that my target audience will thoroughly enjoy the film opening.

What helped me to determine my target audience?

I use materials from websites such as The UK Film Council to help me discover more about whom my target audience would be as well as, identifying more information about my media pieces’ genre.

Below it highlighted the fact that the zombie genre is in fact spread across varies other conventional genres which included Horror, Disaster and Thriller. This was a significant revelation as it accentuated the concept of suitability in relation to the target audience and as both my first and secondary target audiences that through their ages this meant that my media piece will appeal to a

wider ranged audience rather than if they had suggested that if was only suitable for the population of twenty one years of age.

Through such research it demonstrated to me that as this genre is older than us I will need to carefully create this piece in order to both stick with the genres traditional conventions especially so that it would appeal to my older and main target audience of males over 35, whilst also breaking traditional zombie film opening conventions in order to appeal to my secondary and younger target audience of females under 35.

BBFC Classification

After assessing the BBFC Classification towards films I came to the conclusion that my media piece will be rated a 15. We have come to this conclusion due to the fact that within our film there will be no conventions of discrimination, drugs, or nudity present, this will immediately also make our audience less restricted and wider as it will be more assessable rather then it being an 18 rating, this is significant as this means that our viewing audience is less limited. We specifically classified our film as a 15 because of its moderate use of horror, violence and the themes involved such as death and terror, as this would especially not be suitable for audiences for example of a younger age such as for twelve years old. We also came to this conclusion after realising that the utilisation of language isn’t a significant problem as it does not include any inappropriate linguistics within the film opening as any narration used will be that of natural dialogue, to which does not include even any mentioning of sexual, religious or racial associations as the level of offensive language used is none, this also helps in reducing limitations on who would legally be allowed to watch this media piece.

Discrimination None present

Drugs None present

Horror Mild usage

Imitable behavior Mild usage

Language None inappropriate language used

Nudity None present

Sex None present

Themes Death, Terror

Violence Mild usage

How is my film opening likely to be released to the public?

The likely hood of the releasing or my film is that it would be through a quite a large multiplex cinema as the target audience is a more mainstream audience rather than a niche audience as the zombie genre, as I stated earlier, is a genre which has been spread across a range of other genres and hence covers various aspects of media and concepts or everyday life, this means that more people will enjoy the film opening and would hence be more successful being released in a larger cinema as this would enable not only more viewings but also the opportunity to make more profits.

Target Audience Member Profile

I interviewed Mr Quinlan and asked him about his occupation and went into detail the specific a aspects of zombie films that he liked. Through these questions it will allow me to understand in depth the psychographics of my target audience.

Name: Mr Quinlan

Age: 57

Occupation: History Teacher

Mr Quinlan likes music which is old country music. Likes old country music because it’s relaxing and helps him to focus on things one at a time. But, he dislikes 21st century heavy metal, he finds it to be extremely distracting and painful to listen to. He also enjoys action movies as well as zombie film, he especially enjoys these films like these when they include simple comedic elements. He significantly dislikes romance films and finds them 'cringe' and untasteful such as 'The Note Book' and 'About Time'. He additionally, likes reading the 'Lincolnshire echo' on a regular basis, he find it thoroughly informative and believes that it 'doesn't beat around the bush'. He also enjoys watching the news in the morning before work or listening to the news on the radio. Mr Quinlan in his spare time especially likes sports such as cricket and watching his daughter play county netball.

Why would he want to see my film?

Because in my media piece I have incorporated news reports and aspects of television within my piece which would appeal to him and my target audience, especially as I have included factual detail into the events and situation which is happening. Additionally, as my target audience enjoy more traditional music and although I haven’t used country music I have used traditional opera throughout my piece which should appeal to him as it doesn’t include 21st century heavy metal which he specifically stated would ruin the film for him. He would also enjoy watching my media piece as it will utilise a combination of both modern and older aspects of the zombie genre as my main target audience is males over 35 this will gravely entice them but also through featuring some more modern elements my film will appeal to a wider audience as well.

Through me having interviewed Mr Quinlan who is member of my target audience, so It has allowed me to be able to fully analyse my target audience and proceed with creating my film opening with great confidence that from this research my film will be successful.