Target Audience

The genre I am doing for my opening sequence is comedy-drama. For this task I have done research on who my potential target audience would be. This is will help when making my opening sequence as I can decide what would be suitable for my target audience.

To gain information i used the BFI statistical yearbook, this showed me thing such as:What classification is usually given to my genreHow readily is the genre I am looking madeHow popular is this genre

The genre I am doing is comedy-drama.The BFI year book doesn't include sub-genres into their statistics so I have looked at dramas and comedies and looked up some of the films mentioned to see if they fit into both categories.

PopularityThe BFI statistical yearbook showed that the drama genre was the most common genre of film made in 2015 and comedy was close behind it.

It also showed that some comedy-drama films got into the top 9 release of independent film in 2015. These films were the Second Best Marigold hotel and The Lady in the Van.

ClassificationThe comedy-drama genre is a very versatile one and includes many different type and can go from mild and for children and then can show some very serious situations, however, it shows that the most common classification given to comedy-dramas is PG and 12A.

The classification 12A was the most commonly watched classification films in 2015. This means that comedy-dramas is attractive to a wide audience and there’s many people who enjoy comedy-dramas so it’s likely to get an audience.

As it’s quite a young target audience they are likely to be quite involved with social media and new types of media.

GenderI don’t think that there is really a gender specific audience that watch comedy-dramas. However, in many which I have looked at and that have influenced my ideas for an opening sequence have a male protagonist character. This may cause a more male audience as people may like to see characters they can relate to.

The Four C’s (Cross-cultural consumer

characteristics)Young and Rubicam, an American advertising agency, developed this theory of categorisation of consumers. This method categorises people in terms of their personal aspirations. The four C’s are:• Mainstreamers• Aspirers• Succeeders • Reformers

I think that the category of consumers which would be most interested in my films would be reformers. This is because they want to make the world a better place and my film because it’s a comedy-drama it would look into a situation which might relate to an event in the audiences life as it isn't sci-fi or anything ‘out of this world’. The film could inspire them to change something in their life or view something differently.

Why would they watch it?

People use certain medias like film for purposes personal to them. Even the same piece of media can cause different reactions and satisfactions from each person.

Butler suggests at four broad types of use. These are:• Diversion• Personal Relationships • Personal Identity

I believe that comedy-drama audiences conform to all these types of uses as comedy causes a diversion and is a great way for relaxation and can especially help if someone is down. I also think that the other two link because of the drama. This is because of the situational aspects and they can take things from the films which might help their personal relationships or may help them to understand a situation in their own lives better.