Media Main Task Evaluation - Question 5

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

When doing our research we noticed that the comedic elements in our film would be one of the most important parts of attracting our target audience. Because, when you think about it, within this genre, the comedy is the thing that attracts the audience, as they want to go to watch the film and have a good time, and laugh. For example, when we were researching different RomComs and their opening sequences, we watched the film Rumour Has It and the majority of the opening sequence hardly contained any humour at all. We knew that this was what we definitely didn’t want our film to be like, but also Rumour Has It is an American RomCom, and American RomComs tend to focus a lot more on getting the audience engrossed in the love story within the film, meaning the humour isn’t the main focus. Whereas, our is a British RomCom, and British RomComs tend to focus more on making the audience laugh as soon as they can, and the protagonists are usually one big joke. We knew that we wanted our audience to be laughing within the first 2 minutes, because we didn’t want our audience to lose interest in the film straight away if the love story was too complicated, or simply lack luster-which was what happened when we watched Rumour Has It. We thought that the Bridget Jones ‘style’ protagonist, and storyline would be an instant hit with our target audience, and also would be staying very true to the British RomCom genre. We knew that the lovers of Bridget Jones would also enjoy Auntie Babs because of the similarities in character and the situations they get themselves into. The fact that our protagonist is a very quirky, awkward and clumsy woman would instantly draw the audience in, because they would want the best for her. Also, the way we styled and dressed the character would make the audience immediately find her funny, and even if there was a serious scene, her outrageous fashion sense would still give the scene a comedic edge, because she couldn’t possibly be taken seriously in what she wears. We felt that our target audience were more likely to find that sort of character a lot more likeable and enjoyable to watch, as appose to a desperate, middle-aged, lonely woman who doesn’t stop complaining. We also realised during our research that the actors in the film are also very persuasive in terms of getting the audience in. For example, Hugh Grant is known for his numerous similar roles in RomComs, so he has a very large fan base of women that love to watch RomComs with him in. This is why producers choose to use him in so many of the films within this genre, because you get the fan base that comes with the actor. Also, Hugh Grant’s fan base is the target audience for this genre, so that’s why producers want him even more. But, due to our very small budget, and the fact that it was only the opening 2 minutes of the film we could never dream of accessing such an actor, so we decided to cast one of our acting friends from the year above the play the role of Paolo.
So we were able to analyse whether our target audience was correct, we created a questionnaire and asked our class to watch our film, and then answer the questions. Our class is a mix of teenage boys and girls, so this way we were able to find out of what one of our target audiences thought of the film. When we got the questionnaires back we noticed that a very large majority of the class said they would want to continue on watching the film, even the boys-which was a great result for us, because it shows that maybe our film appeals to more than just our target audiences. The information also showed us that the viewers really enjoyed the film, and that it was a clear representation of British RomCom. We also found out that the viewers found the film very funny, as there were comments that expressed how the comedy was very entertaining. The feedback about the comedy was beneficial for my group and I because we then knew that we had written the right sort of comedy for this genre.
My group and I feel that we did successfully reach our target audience, because we felt we had accomplished getting the comedy through in the 2 minutes of film straight away, and we felt what we had written and shot for the two minutes clearly set up the rest of the film, so the audience knew where the love/seduction part of the storyline was going to take them, and what sort of comedy was going to accompany and follow the protagonist. We felt that we successfully assured the audience that the rest of this film was going to be very entertaining, and from the information we gathered we had reached one of our target audiences (teenage girls) and an audience we wouldn’t have aimed to reach. My group and I all feel that our film would be successful if we were to film it all, and if we were able to put it in cinemas etc. We think it would appeal to a wider audience and women would love it, therefore showing that our own interpretation of the British RomCom genre has been an exact one.