Target Audience Research for Crime films Our film ‘Infidelity’

Target Audience The target audience of a film is essentially who the distribution companies aim to sell and promote their particular film to. It can vary between age groups, gender, social class and film preferences – (foreign, independent, different genres. Etc.) Promotion consists of two categories: Primary and secondary. A primary target audience being the main focus and direction of which the advertising is aimed at. The secondary is another group which the film may appeal to but is secondary in importance/ significance to the distribution company in terms of selling its product.

The target audience for our film Infidelity would be preferably a young male audience, aged years. Our film has few characters starring in it. The two males and one female, suggests to us that it would be beneficial to aim our film more at a male audience. With the themes of drugs, crime and male jealousy at the heart of our film. Although there is a case to be made with the film also appealing to a female audience due to the strong female lead who is at the centre of the plot, who plays the role of antagonist and sets the murders in motion. Our film could appeal to people younger than 18 because of the teenage themes/ cast but may be too mature for audiences below the 13 year old mark. Due to the explicit violence, and hard drug abuse. The film certificate is an 18+ so we wouldn’t target an audience which would not legally be able to go and see the film – though of course people under the age of 18 would go and see the film, it wouldn’t be as successful aiming it at the age group because of the certificate barrier. Target audience for our film - Infidelity

Target Audience of the Crime genre - Gender Conventionally crime films are aimed at a male gendered audience. This can be broken down via the themes which most crime films cover; many feature guns, sex, violence, gangs, cars and drug use. The stereotype is that a male would receive more enjoyment and a rush than a female from watching films with these elements infused with in it. The themes are combined with the characters in crime films, the stereotypical lead role is often a masculine male with strong male traits – handsome, strong and often with a good set of morals (although they can be slightly twisted due to the nature of their criminal behaviour). However in todays postmodern era of film we are seeing more female actors play the lead roles in films. Although there are not many crime films which convey a female lead. Kill Bill and Jackie Brown are two examples of female driven films from the postmodernist director Quentin Tarantino. Often in cinema history women play bit part roles in crime films. The classic Femme Fatales of film noir come to mind when reminiscing over old crime films. Female characters portrayed as the femme fatale; are shown as the seductive but dangerous women who bring more problems to the main character than they solve. This negative depiction of women can hamper the appeal of these crime films to a female target audience and provide a stimulus for offering ‘eye candy’ for the male audiences.

Target Audience of the Crime Genre - Age The age set for a target audience can be pivotal to the marketing success of a film. An age group can be key for knowing how to sell a film. For example a film trailer for a teenage drama would use contemporary music to appeal to its audience by being more authentic/ hip. The themes and actors used in a crime film will need to be relatable to the age of the target audience. If say a crime film which was based upon the shooting of John F Kennedy and starred Clint Eastwood, the majority of year olds may not know about the significance of the subject matter or recognise the actor. Due to the genre of Crime, the films portray elements which may be unsuitable to people below the age of 15. Many of the crime films have a 15 certificate rating due to the content of criminal activity, drug abuse and sex as well as violence. As well as the moral look on the film promotion in terms of age there is also a view for the business sense of how you promote a film. Statistics state that the majority of people who go to the cinema are aged between 15 and 24, and so distributors will often aim their films toward this age group for maximum commercial success.

Marketing & Production The production companies for films are not generally genre specific. Rather they are divided into categories of financial power and either mainstream/ independent / Art house. Our film would fall into the category of an independent production, with a low budget and unknown actors playing the roles. The film does not require a huge financial backing due to the few settings, no use of special effects or high profile actors. The same applies to marketing/ distribution companies in that there are few genre orientated companies specified to one or two genres of film only. However depending on the budget to which the film operates it can acquire many distributors to exhibit their film internationally if they wanted to. Our film would be shown only in the UK, due to our independent/ low budget we wouldn’t be able to reach international audiences. I don’t feel our film would necessarily appeal to audiences over seas as we have aimed it at a British audience, Infidelity is not a Hollywood styled blockbuster crime film which has a mass appeal. There are a few ways in which independent films can effectively promote their films. The obvious use of cinematic trailers, posters will be used. Also we can gather ideas from other indie films, such as Monsters (Gareth Edwards, 2010). They used a smart phone app called ‘Four Square’ which invited people to participate in events leading to the release of the film in They used elements of the film in the marketing, ‘infected zones’ were set up around particular cities which willing participants would go to via Four Square. Once all the infected zones had been reached, free tickets to see the film were rewarded.