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Who would be the audience for your product?

How do the BBFC (British board of film classification) classify films?


The BBFC classify films, trailers and advertisements on behalf of local authorities who license cinemas. The General Classification Considerations: Context-They consider the context of the film for example whether it includes sex, or bad language or violence. In doing so they take into account the setting of the film, for example if it is historical or realistic and so on. Finally they consider the manner of the presentation for example if it is aggressive through the use of bad language or if it is light hearted. Theme- They will consider the treatment of the theme and how you have presented it. The most challenging themes include issues such as sexual violence or drug miuse. They judge whether it is appropriate at the most junior levels of classification. Tone and impact- A work with a dark or unsettling tone may receive higher classification. They will consider the impact of a work for example, how it makes the audience feel about the particular topic.

BBFCS Guidelines for Age Ratings


Our film would not class as a 12a. The reasons for this is that under the BBFCS guidelines it states that a film would not be classed as a 12 a if it includes work which has a very dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience. Furthermore, it states that there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood unless it can be justified for example in a medical drama. Already in our opening sequence, we create a very unsettling atmosphere, as the audience are not sure as to what is going on, this leaves them feeling uncomfortable and on edge. This therefore makes our work very dark, which goes against the BBFCS guidelines for a 12a film. We decided to make our film come across as dark and uninviting due to the fact it fits under the thriller genre. Moreover, we show the girl on numerous accounts with quite a lot of blood dripping down her face. This would go against the BBFCS guidelines for a 12a film as it there is a big emphasis on the use of blood on her face, through the many close ups on her face, it also cannot be justified as it is all part of a thriller film.

BBFCS GUIDELINES-15
I feel that our film would be classed as a 15a by the BBFCS guidelines. This is due to the fact they state in a 15 film there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat. Also in a 15, violence may be strong. Our film includes a strong threat, as the girl is in danger due to being kept hostage by the man. This emphasises the idea of threat and also horror, as it we show devastating scenes of the girl being in severe pain. Even further, due to the blood on the girls face, this incorporates the idea of violence, which the BBFCS states is allowed in a 15 film. I dont think our film would be classed as an 18 as not many dangerous or sexual scenes are shown. In conclusion our film would be classified as a 15.

The demographic we want to aim our target audience at


Age- 15-30, Gender- both males and females, Ethnicity-open to any ethnicity I have chosen to state that the target audience for our film would be aged 15 to 30. This is due to the fact, for most cinemas, their most common viewers are categorised in this age gap. Also I think it would interest them most, as enjoy all films, including in this case a thriller film. I feel that our thriller would be equally suitable for both males and females. This is because I think they would both be interested in seeing our film as they enjoy thriller based films. Furthermore, due to the fact our thriller film fits under the psychological sub-genre brief, it makes our narrative distinct and interesting. I think they would enjoy constantly guessing what is going on throughout the film. I also think that females would be interested in seeing our film as our protagonist is also a female. I dont think it will make much of a difference if they have jobs. However, if they do not have jobs then it would allow them more spare time to go to the cinema to watch this film. On the other hand in saying this, cinema visits are expensive, so if they have a job then they will get an income of money and wont find it as big a deal spending some money at the cinema to watch a good film. I think they would live in the city. This is due to the fact, that the city withholds many small independent British cinemas. Also in the city there are lots more public transport routes, allowing people to find it easier to get to the cinema if they need to in that way. I think they will be college educated, as this will allow their intelligence to come through when they are constantly trying to guess the aim and subtext of the psychological sub-genre. I stated that I feel the target audience can be any ethnicity, this is due to the fact there is no involvement of discrimination or racism in our film. Moreover, our target audience is quite a wide range, as the issue it is based on is people being kept hostage by another person. This is a big issue globally, so I think our film will interest lots of people of different ethnicitys.

Primary Target Audience


I think our primary audience would specifically be in the age group of 15-30 years old, who have a job and enjoy psychological sub-genre thriller films. This is due to the fact they will not consider the price of the cinema that shows independent films to expensive. Even more so, our victim in our film is in their age group so it is relatable for them. 15-24 year olds make up 40% of the cinema audience as well. Also they still buy films regularly on DVD. This would increase our ancillary sells.

How does our film appeal to this target group?


By using an elderly man, it tricks our target audience into thinking he is a friendly nice man, as this is the stereotypical idea of a man in his age group. This will appeal to our target group, as it creates a new and interesting storyline which differs to those of other thrillers.

By introducing a dog in our film, it allows our viewers to be introduced to a wide range of different characters. It also deepens the idea of a psychological sub-genre, as it makes the antagonist appear innocent, as owners of a dog are meant to be loving and caring. The psychological sub-genre is also highlighted in the photo below of the antagonist writing the word split continuously. People in our target group are interested in this type of thriller as they are constantly guessing throughout the film. This makes our target audience more interested in seeing out film as it is exciting.

By making our antagonist a young teenage female, it allows our target audience to be able to relate to her as our primary target audience are 15-19 year olds. is. Even more so for females as she is a female to. This makes our film appeal to our target audience as it makes them more intrigued to see it.

The genre itself makes the film appeal to our target audience. This is because it is exciting and thrilling to see. We have used blood on the girls face. This heightens the suspense in our film, and makes our target audience more inclined to view it as they want to find out how she got in this state.

We created lots of suspense due to making the audience believe the antagonist was about to enter the room of the protagonist. However he enters the kitchen. The use of quick cuts from the antagonist to the protagonist heightens the levels of tension and suspense. This would definitely appeal to our target audience as they get a nervous feeling when they think something bad is about to happen, and this makes it exciting for them.

What makes our film different from competing thrillers?


Firstly, the narrative of our thriller film is completely different to those of other thriller films. This is due to the fact, weve taken the issue of someone being kept hostage and hurt by another person and adapted it to make it original. We have done this by making the villain in our film an elderly man. This already makes it unusual as people do no think that people of this age group would be capable of committing such a crime. Due to the fact the age difference is such a big gap between the protagonist and the antagonist, it makes it appear to be even more of a suspenseful thriller. Moreover, it makes the audience question why he is targeting such a young girl, this makes our film fit underneath the psychological sub-genre brief. Typical thrillers make the villain a young/old male adult, however we have adapted this idea and made our villain a lot older. Also, already in our opening we created enigma, and got the audience asking lots of questions, for example who is this man and what are his intentions? How did the girl get captured? And so on. Most thrillers, such as se7en and shutter island have quite a basic opening to their thriller. In Se7en, you mainly see a man planning something. However our thriller engages the audience right from the very start of our film. Due to the fact it is an independent British film, we knew we had to make the narrative very intriguing and exciting as we didnt have the same techniques, such as CGI, that bigger blockbuster films might have. The typical perception of a small independent film is that it might be boring, especially for our target audience. However, this is what makes our thriller film different to other competing thrillers, especially independent thrillers, as our narrative is incredibly exciting and interesting.

Who would be our cinema goers?


Chris Watts did a large survey about cinema goers. He found out that 89% of the UKs engaged film audiences still think the cinema is the best place to watch a film. This is beneficial for us, as we want our film to make lots of profit at the cinema. I think our cinema goers would be Indie Mainly. This is due to the fact that many blockbuster films are thrillers. If they saw our film, they would be open to watching a blockbuster thriller. However, they would prefer to watch an independent film, which is what our film is. Indie Mainly goers make up 29% of film audiences. I do also think that Indie only goers would make up the audience of our cinema as well. This is because they really enjoy watching independent films, this means that we wouldnt have to worry about them choosing a blockbuster film over our film as they dislike blockbuster films. Indie only goers make up 2% of the audience.

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