How have the audiences been constructed for three films?By Catherine May

American

Hustle

Age• The age rating for the film product is a 15.• I believe the films targeted audience is young adults, such

as the 16-24 age group. • This is because they have used iconic, newly popular

casting such as Bradley Cooper who has featured in films that are adored by this age range such as the hangover films, and Jenifer Lawrence who appealed strongly to the age group of age 16-24 in The Hunger Games. Therefore this casting would catch their interest and attract people of this age to the film.

• The colours used for the official American Hustle franchise are black and yellow. Yellow represents youth and innocence, and the black creates a contrast to this implying the film has rebellious aspects, making it strongly appealing and aimed for the young adult age group, who stereotypically strive for this image of themselves.

Age

•The font used is extremely 70’s style, and on the website and during the trailer 70’s style music is played for the person of interest to endure. Therefore I believe that they have targeted at people who specifically have an interest in American history, which could appeal to students at Uni under my predicted age range who are studying aspects of this topic.

Age

•The website has also used convergence and provided direct links to official pages on social networking sites of the film. This implies that the targeted age is young adults, as due to developments in technologies the younger generation are more exposed and are therefore strong users of social networking sites; more so than older people.

Gender

•The advertisement for American hustle contains three males and two females, suggesting almost equality in the divide between the gender of characters within the film. The slight imbalance and a male in the centre of the poster does suggest that it is slightly focused on the male gender, and makes male appear of dominance and power in the film which could attract more male. This could however also attract female audiences, as they may wish to watch the dominance and power of the male figures.

Gender•From my statistical yearbook research, I

have discovered that the genre which the gender is not generally affected by is Drama; which one which American hustle fits under. I therefore believe that the film targets both genders and does not wish to specify specifically one or the other. It is not explicitly targeted one or the other, for example like a rom-com would be for female.

NRS Social Grade• I believe that the NRS Social Grade of the audience

could range from E, as this includes students who may be studying American history or have large interests in the topic to B; the middle class. This is because people who are of higher knowledge and understanding may wish to go watch a film in aspects that they have studied or show interest in. I do not believe that the class A social grade would partake in the audience, due to the ‘hustle’ aspect of the film which reflects it includes trouble and people of lower class which these members of society may not have interest in this.

Characteristics and values•The font used is extremely 70’s style, and

on the website and during the trailer 70’s style music is played for the person of interest to endure. Therefore I believe that they have targeted at people who specifically have an interest in American history, which could appeal to students at Uni under my predicted age range who are studying aspects of this topic.

Characteristics and values•It could also therefore appeal to anyone

with American history, relatives or a personal interest in this time.

•The word “Hustle” reflects drama and crime, and therefore the audiences characteristics would have to appeal to actions of this nature in order to enjoy the film.

Shadow

recruit

Age•The age rating is a 12A.•I believe the age group targeted is ages

12-18. This is because although it is a thriller due do the police theme and guns incorporated, they are not represented explicitly in a threatening way and therefore it represents that it is intended for a younger audience; as it is kinder to the eye and less dramatic or revealing as thrillers intended for a younger audience.

Age•On the statistical yearbook I discovered

that this age group has above average audiences in many thrillers such as Taken 2 (54% of the audience) and The Dark Knight Rises (43% of the audience). This implies that this age group are strongly connected to thrillers and that therefore the targeted audience must relate to them in order for the film to be a success.

Age• The layout of the website is extremely plain,

simplistic and straight forward and therefore this leads me to believe that it is targeted to a younger teenage audience such as 12-18 year olds, in order to allow them to independently function the website and engage interest in the films franchise.

Gender•Due to the blue colour theme used

throughout the franchises advertising methods such as the website and official poster, I believe that this advertisement generally engages and attracts the male audience more so than the female audience. The font is also in a bold black type, which is also not feminine and does not jump out to the female eye as something which is targeted at them.

NRS Social Grade• I believe this film could attract many types of

social grade. This is because I believe as it is aimed at a younger audience, the social grade E would be a strong percentage of the audience to the film. However individuals who are of a higher social grade, such as C2, C1 and even perhaps even B may also partake as audience members to this film, as they may have interest in thrillers that revolve around criminology and knowledge and experience with the police force and therefore be attracted to the film for these factors.

Characteristics and values• The film appears extremely involved with police

and criminology, due to the blueprint loading sign on the website, and also the mechanical transitions used in both the trailer and on the website. Therefore I believe that people who will show appeal to the film will have interest in this field, and also have the value of a mind set that enjoys making calculations and detect clues and hints within the film that could lead to the ending result.

The Smurf

s 2

Age• The Smurfs 2 is rated a U and therefore has no

restrictions on what age can attend the screening. I believe however it is targeted at children aged 5-10 and also families such as parents or carers of these individuals.

• The bright, attractive primary colours used in the poster and trailer such as blue, red and yellow attracts the younger simplistic minds and directly attracts this age of audience as it the colours often learnt first at this age and also colours that are associated with younger generations.

Age• I also believe it is targeted towards this younger

generation of audience due to the semiology used in the promotional posters such as the fashionable “peace” sign. This is because it is widely used as a ‘pose’ by this younger 5-10 year old audience making the media more appealing and fashionable to this audience.

Age• I also believe they have targeted the parents or carers

of these children, in order to persuade them to feel easy-going and less reluctant to take their children to go and view the media.

• They have achieved this by maintaining ‘The Smurfs’ basic original image that this elder generation will mainly be familiar with from when they were younger and used to view the cartoon (1982 is the year the original cartoon was released).

• This familiarisation will appeal to the older generation and make them wish to view the media as a kind and happy memory and to see how it has developed over the years.

The original Smurfs programme

Gender• I do not believe that the film is gender

specific. This is because, although the characters are blue which can stereotypically be classified as a ‘male colour’, many more colours are incorporated into the main poster and trailer to the film. This includes all aspects of the primary colour spectrum and some secondary colours too, suggesting it is meant to be attractive and appealing to either gender’s human eye, non specifically.

GenderIn the poster and trailer of the official “Smurfs 2” franchise, they have also incorporated ‘Smurfs’ and people of mixed genders, reflecting it is both a girl and a boy film. The girl ‘Smurf’ in the poster is blatantly represented as a stereotypical feminine character with blonde, long hair in a white dress, making it strongly apparent to the younger girls that it is appealing to them. On the other hand, the male ‘Smurf’ is stood rigidly with his arms folded looking what this generation of young boys would consider ‘cool’ – making it appealing for both male and female young childern.

NRS Social Grade

•I believe as targeted at young children, the NRS social grade that will be the highest part of the audience is E. I do however believe this could range up to the social class of C2, as skilled manual working parents who take time and passion towards their children are likely to accompany the child to the film.

Characteristics and Values•Due to the bright, simplistic colours applied to

the formation of the animation and it’s advertisement, I believe the film appears to have a ‘feel good’ factor and is simplistically cheerful. I therefore understand that the characteristics of it’s audience would reflect this strongly. This is because individuals who are optimistic would seek to go to naively relaxed and endure in the excitement it will take them on; not to go and see something sad and upsetting.

Characteristics and Values•The Smurf’s are iconic for teaching and

promoting the correct values of ‘doing the right thing.’ They simplistic level allows the younger audience to understand right from wrong in the film, and therefore promotes positive values in the younger audience who endure in the media. This may also encourage parents or adults with sensible characteristics to be motivated to watch the film and take their children to it for this purpose.