Research Into Target Audience

Researching the Target Audience –

The intention of a psychological drama is to engage its audience so they feel like they are inside the character's head; many adults struggle to get to grips with such an intense viewing experience, for example, Inception, which is classed under the mystery genre but can cross with psychological, is an exceptionally demanding film – you must watch it with your full attention to fully understand and gain from it. Another example being Black Swan, which is under the psychological genre category. Following this, psychological dramas are not suitable for those of less than 15 years of age.

From identifying the genre(s) of our film I gathered that the target audience would be for teenagers aged 15/16 to those in their mid-30’s as it isn’t solely a psychological drama, it can also come under a Coming of Age genre which can appeal to teenagers through the music aspect; particularly those interested in starting their own band.

The lowest age group to actually view a psychological drama/coming of age would be around 18 but the certified age certificate of the film can be 15 because there are no strong gory scenes or actual sex acts being displayed; I discovered this through here http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15

By researching individual films and analysing its reviews I found that it was generally those aged from those aged 15 - 30 who viewed psychological dramas. I researched 3 films; these being Black Swan, Sucker Punch and Fight Club, to analyse their general target audience.

Black Swan –

The first thing noticeable is from the age group 30 – 44 and onwards, the votes decrease which indicates that this particular age group does not tend to view this genre as highly as younger age groups. Secondly, it is seen that females have largely viewed Black Swan as well, this could be because of the casting; the fact that it was mainly a female starring cast, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis being the highlight of them, could have drawn more female viewers because of the femininity. However, males also tended to view it as well, possibly due to the starring actresses also but a large factor which may have drawn them in is the sex act both of the leading roles perform as part of Natalie’s (the Black Swan) insanity.

Although Black Swan is certified at an 18 which doesn’t match our certificate, it helps outline our audience because there are a lot of similarities between both this film and ours; excluding the sex acts and occasional blood.

Statistics on the viewings of Black Swan

Black Swan -
Main Actress: Natalie Portman

Sucker Punch –

Upon watching snippets of Sucker Punch myself I found it a very different approach to the psychological genre. I found this site, http://theronneel.com/?p=4470 , which was actually a very accurate review of the film. I too found that this particular type of approach suited those in their late-teens; this could be because the main character was a 20 year old woman. However, it is a very unisex film because, although it is a twisted version of Alice in Wonderland, which is an animated Disney film and primarily known to be a ‘girly’ film, due to the action aspects it can be seen as comic-book associated which is a hobby, more often than not, associated with teenage boys; also the starring female can attract them.

Sucker Punch does follow a particular aspect of a psychological genre however, as the actors and actresses are unknown in comparison to those who play in romantic comedies and heist films.

Sucker Punch -
Main Actress: Emily Browning

Fight Club –

Fight Club’s prime audience would be males aged 35 and under (http://www.moovees.com/review/fight-club.html this link helped; a review of the film) because of the violence involved. It could even be lowered because of the influence of video games such as Call of Duty etc. Another reason males would be interested in viewing this film is because of the actors involved, primarily Brad Pitt who is a world-known actor and has starred in various different genres and succeeded.

Fight Club -
Main Actor: Brad Pitt

Our film doesn't fit neatly into a single genre. It definitely has strong elements of psychological drama but it is also a coming of age film because it deals with teenagers learning what the adult world is like for the first time through a series of dramatic incidents. like many films in this genre, everything starts off well, but things becoem darker and more complicated as the film continues.

I also researched a coming of age film; Eddie and the Cruisers –

This film is a perfect fit to our own film; although it does have differences. It is about a band who make it big and the main singer’s car is then found crashed on a bridge – with no sign of a body in it. So, the main singer is essentially announced dead but the rest of the band have suspicions and therefore decide to investigate further. This film is very similar to ours in the sense it involves a band who make it big, but it is not our main character that dies – our main character is the one who is left retracing his steps to fill the guilt for his sister’s death.

From researching different reviewing websites I came across http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eddie_and_the_cruisers/ and from looking at the reviews left, I can already see that the audience so far is of the late-teens onwards.

Eddie and The Cruisers -
Main Actor: Michael Paré

 Overall, through the research of our particular genres and then associating them with each other I would say that our target audience would be from 15 – 30; mixed gender, possibly more female viewers than male because of the emotional content but it should be appealing to males as well. I also feel that this film type has a strong appeal to a British audience, and that these films can still be internationally successful e.g Bend It liek Beckham and Slumdog Millionaire.