Target Audience

BBFC Rating

We have decided to give our film the rating of PG. We wanted to keep the rating quite low so not to limit our target audience. Films of a similar genre such as Pride and Prejudice have also been given the PG rating. After looking at the BBFC website and seeing the description of the ratings and what recent films have been rated at we came to this conclusion as our film will have similar themes. For example St Trinians: The Legend of Frittons Gold is rated also as a PG due to mild sex reference. This would be the case in our film as we have the theme of romance. Another example is My Father My Lord which is again rated as a PG due to scenes of mild distress. This is another aspect that would affect the rating of our film as the distress the main protagonist portrays may be too distressing for young children.


Although in our trailer all the characters who appear are Caucasian I don't believe this will affect our overall appeal of the film and limit our audience. Other films set in the same time period such as The Duchess don't seem to feature non-Caucasian characters and The Duchess made £1,402,200 at the box office in the first weekend so I don't believe this factor affected the films appeal. The reason why non-Caucasians appear in films set in this era is that multi-ethical societies were nonexistent.

Our film will mostly appeal to females due to the themes of romance and drama but also the stereotypical view that Period Drama's are the female domain. We understand that we haven't necessarily incorporated a stereotypical male theme such as action-adventure but we don't think this will dramatically limit our audience. A film that supports this view is Pride and Prejudice which made £2,529,947 in the opening weekend. Pride and Prejudice has similar themes to our film also one factor that appeared in Pride and Prejudice that we've tried to incorporate into our film is the dominant female main protagonist. This is where we're hoping that the male gaze theory will be applied and that this will be a pull factor for the male audience.

At first glance our film trailer would appear to be aimed at the upper class. This is due to the period drama theme which is frequently stereotyped as appealing mostly to the upper class. Our characters in the film are of upper class themselves and throughout the film the characters remain to be portrayed as upper class through costume and mise-en-scene such as the elegant ball gowns and the grand house. By doing this we avoid stereotyping the lower class. One of the main themes in the film is romance which is such a broad genre that we hope this will attract all audiences, whatever their class.

We have decided to not use a voice over in our trailer, we have also chosen not to use diegetic voices from scenes in the trailer. This is due to the fact that we want the trailer to be based on action rather than words and it avoids the problem of regional accents. If we'd decided to use voices we would have to deliberate over what accent would be suitable. If we chose a Yorkshire accent for example it may have limited our audience. Another factor is that without a voice over the trailer can be shown in countries such as America and not have to be adapted for American viewers.

Our film will almost most definitely appeal to fans of period dramas such as Pride and Prejudice, The Duchess and Vanity Fair. Although another audience that our film may tap into is fans of romantic dramas such as The Notebook.

Our film will probably appeal mostly to the heterosexual female. However it may attratct the 'pink pound' due to the theme of love and romance.

Our stereotypical individual that would be attracted to our film would probably be a female of middle class. As our film is a period drama they'd probably be interested in literature and history. This ties in with the film Pride and Prejudice and we hope that fans of this type of film will be attracted to our film.

Institutional Context

I have looked at three different period drama films in relation to their distribution and box office figures. This is so I can have a more in depth look at what would be in store for our film if it were to be released.

Pride and Prejudice was produced by many film makers but the most recognisable are Working Title who come under Universal Pictures. The involvement of Universal Pictures means that their is the basis for attracting the American audience as Universal Pictures is an American based film production conglomerate who owns Working Title. Working Title will therefore be involved with the distribution to the British market and Universal Pictures will be involved with the distribution in America. The involvement of such a large production company means the budget was $28,000,000 (estimated) which is quite a large budget meaning that well known actors could be used to attract it's target audience. These strategies to appeal and be able to distribute both in Britain and America was obviously a success as in the opening weekend the film took $2,865,017 in America and £2,529,947 in the UK.

The Duchess had a similar budget, however slightly smaller to that of Pride and Prejudice, £13,500,000. This again meant they could have well known actors such as Keira Knightley (who also appeared in Pride and Prejudice) and Dominic Cooper. Although there wasn't a production company as large as Universal Pictures their were still relatively developed and experienced ones such as Paramount and BBC Films. This is seen in the opening weekend takings in America it was only $190,426 which is quite low this maybe due to the fact that The Duchess's plot isn't as well known as the plot of Pride and Prejudice. The opening weekend in the UK was high but almost half of what Pride and Prejudice made at £1,402,200. One reason for the takings being lower for this film maybe that it didn't have a previous following as it might of had if it had been a piece of English Literature like Pride and Prejudice.

The budget for Vanity Fair was $23,000,000, again this budget is similar to that of the two previous films I've discussed. Two of the main production companies aren't extremely well known, they are Focus Features and Granada Films. From looking at the box office takings for the first weekend it is obvious that this film was a bigger success in America than in the UK. In America it took $6,268,925 in 1,051 screens and took only £204,693 in the UK in only 139 screens. This also shows the main emphasis was on the American audience.

All these films, as there quite big budget films, will advertise through websites such as YouTube and in more recent times on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They'll also publicise their films with posters on billboards and will set up their own individual websites for the film.

Teaser Poster

Coursework Options

We decided to choose the option where we could produce a Teaser Trailer. We chose this as the idea appealed to us more than producing a short film as it gives you more scope to be more imaginative and more of a challenge in terms of editing as you have to summarise a whole film in approximately 2 minutes. We also preferred the Ancillary Text productions options that accompanied the Teaser Trailer option.


Media Course Work Options

Final Proposal

Genre: Romantic period drama
Setting: Early 19Th Century
Target Audience: 15+
Rating: PG
Music: Non-diegetic music, soft romantic
Locations: A field in the country
The woods
Outside a grand house
Casting: A woman in her late teens woman
A young man in his mid-twenties
A young woman in her mid-twenties

Emeline is a young woman who goes out for a walk in the countryside. She falls and a young gentleman comes to her rescue. They spend some time together and Emeline instantly falls in love with the young gentleman. Although she is left heart broken when the gentleman leaves without giving his name. Emeline believes she's lost her true love and will never meet anyone else like the mysterious young gentleman.

Some months later, still pining for the gentleman, she attends a Ball where her friend introduces her to her husband to be. The husband to be is the same gentleman who Emeline believes to be the love of her life. Emeline now understands why the young gentleman was so mysterious and is left devastated. The young gentleman confesses to Emeline that he feels the same way, that he loves her. Both decide they have to be together but the consequences would be devastating. The only choice they have is to leave all that they know behind.

The trailer will show what we believe to be the most crucial parts of the story. There will be scenes of when Emeline fist meets the young gentleman, when he leaves her without giving his name, when she discovers that he is engaged to her friend and when she is reunited with him.

Anamatic

Assessment Criteria

This is the OCR Media Studies Specification, on pages 70 to 75 you can find the syllabus of how the prouction/coursework is marked, and how the marks are divided up.


Media Spec