R+P Post 5: How We Plan to Attract/Address Our Target Audience

Our film will attract adults of both genders but certain aspects may appeal to the genders separately. For example, men may find the revelation of the gun more interesting than women, as it foreshadows themes circulating action, conflict and murder; some principle conventions of neo-noir that they expect to see. Furthermore, the lead female character has sex appeal and a seductive nature which is common for femme fatales. For example Catherine's leg cross from 'Basic Instinct' is a more extreme version of our protagonist putting on her stockings.

Ann Savage as Vera in 'Detour' (1945)

Our sequence will appeal to young women as the lead role is a strong-willed, crafty female whom perhaps they can relate to. Some will feel directly addressed. They are also likely to be attracted to the idea of common female stereotypes being challenged. The gun is an arguably male associated object, but in our opening sequence and many other neo-noir films, crime is a convention for femme fatales. However, stereotypical feminine actions such as our protagonist putting on make-up is also relatable to women of this ages (early twenties) as many of them have this daily routine.

The fast paced, mysterious music throughout the opening sequence will appeal to adults and teenagers because it is exciting and creates an atmosphere full of suspense and hints at the interesting and compelling story to be told. Fast paced music is supposed to engage them and I think 'Pump It,' the choice of music for the opening sequence to 'Pulp Fiction' achieves this.

Teernagers and younger adults (15-30 year olds) will be attracted to film opening through the modern twist of the film noir genre, which is communicated through the contemporary, innovative graphics and up to date technology such as the iPad. Sometimes it is easier for this age group to relate to a modern day film as they will be able to see everyday, real life situations. It is realistic to them.

Finally, our older target audience of 40+  will be attracted to our opening sequence as it contains several conventions of the film noir genre, despite it having a modern twist. This is beneficial as some would remember the early days of film noir and those that liked those films should like ours; as long as it stays true to key concepts and conventions.  We believe we have done this through the portrayal of a femme fatale, cigarettes, gun, low key lighting and suspense music.

R+P Post 4: Representation of Social Groups in Our Opening Sequence

The social groups key to our genre consist of gender, age and class.  Our protagonist is a female in her early twenties and she is of an upper middle class background.

Black Widow, 1987

Our female protagonist represents women in their early twenties (up to 25) through various actions. Both her femininity and youth can be seen through her applying make up and putting on her extravagant clothing. Wanting to look pretty is a common inclination for women of this age, and can be seen real life as well as in films. For example the main character is putting on make up in the opening of the neo-noir 'Black Widow.' By doing all these typically associated female routines, she is embracing her femininity. However, with this portrayal of women dolling themselves up often comes with the 'damsel in distress/ drama queen' type character. For instance, the character Rebecca Bloomfield from 'Confessions of a Shopaholic.' At the start of the film especially, she is the typical self obsessed, snobby, popular girl who only interacts with certain people. The most important thing to her is her appearance, thus creating the image that women in their early twenties are constantly thinking about how they look.


Our film challenges this stereotype of the very dramatic, weak female character who cannot deal with a spot on her face, let alone murder, which many films of our genre contain. This stereotype challenge can be seen through her class and her possessions. She is upper middle class and this is connoted primarily through her posh accent, smartphone, iPad and also her house, which is quite big, considering she lives by herself. The accent suggests that she has been brought up in a lavish area, thus that she was born to a wealthy, high status family. Above everything else, she is powerful in the sense she has wealth. These groups are typically portrayed in films as beautiful, intelligent, arrogant, having a mind of their own and a highly ranked job,  and being powerful and in control. We have decided to make our protagonist look beautiful, through the make up and also the alluring clothing, creating sex appeal. An example of a film which depicts a powerful upper class woman is  'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.' Angelina Jolie plays a beautiful, strong and relentless female on a mission and her posh accent indicates that she had a wealthy upbringing. In fact, Lara's father was a Lord, and she went to a school for the elite. In the film, she is on a hunt for an ancient relic and there is a lot of conflict along the way; she could easily die, which demonstrates her strength and reflects how dangerously she lives. Finally, similar to Jodie Foster in 'Silence of the Lambs,' our protagonist owns a gun which is revealed to the audience when she opens a draw, which instantly makes her seem potent. She is a detective like Jodie Foster's Clarice (but she's not as good as she seems) and the gun gives her the image of fearlessness, perhaps ruthlessness, in turn making the audience fearful.

R+P Post 3: Our production and distribution institutions

Distribution
The institution responsible for the distribution of our film 'Unlawful' is Lionsgate. It is a Canadian-American film production and distribution studio, which is also based in other countries, including the UK. The production company is a division of Lions Gate Entertainment, based in California. Lionsgate was a credible choice because as well as its success in distributing a high number of films with a range of genres, there were also several crime thrillers. Two examples are 'Captivity' and 'Narc.' 'Narc' was made in 2002 and contains themes related to our filming such as revenge, resisting the law, the dangerous world of drugs and murder. These films are American but the company has also distributed British films, such as 'The Theory of Everything,' produced by Working Title Films and BBC films. Furthermore, there is a new branch off Lionsgate - Lionsgate UK, which has distributed a British crime thriller called 'Blitz.' It is about a cop assigned to take down a serial killer who has targeted other officers, and this plot inspired a couple of our ideas.

Production

Our production company's logo

Our production company is called Starlight Pictures and it is a British company based in London. Many of the most successful British and international film production companies are based in London (such as Heyday Films, Eon Productions, Goldcrest Films) and the existing excellent transport links are not only useful for travelling but also for company collaborating purposes. Moreover, there are film studios nearby.Our name is unique and it specialises in the darker themed genres such as British crime thrillers, horrors and action but is also responsible for films of other genres. This is similar to 'Hammer Film Productions which produces films with genres such as noir and thriller but is especially known for its Gothic, horror films made between the 1950s and 1970s. Our company is nationally known within the film industry in the UK but is perhaps not quite a mainstream film production company, for example it can fit in with the status of 'Big Talk Productions.'

R+P Post 2: Our Target Audience

Our primary target audience are fans of film noir and neo-noir between the ages of 15 and 30. We are targeting men and women but would expect men to be slightly more in number overall. The story appeals to men because there is a lot of action, conflict and violence which, according to our research, interests them the most. According to BFI, in 2013, 69% of the audience to thriller film 'Captain Phillips' were male and 52% of the crime drama 'Trance' audience were male. Furthermore, the main character is an attractive female who has sex appeal.The story will appeal to women as the protagonist is a strong and independent female who essentially carries the film. Additionally, there are some romantic aspects. 'Dead Man Down' is a 2013 crime drama which targets men and women through the trailer. The woman is seen to be a complex and powerful character, not just pretty which attracts women and there is lots of action such as car chases for the men. Our film is a certified 15 due to its strong violence, sexual content and drug references and strong verbal language. Teenagers aged 15 and above would be attracted by the certificate, as they are included and will find the themes exciting. Moreover, the modern, neo-noir film twist is likely to be more visually attractive to them as the graphics are more imaginative and the action is more realistic. Relevant films include the 15 rated film 'Lucy' which has some strong bloody violence, and the 15 rated film 'A place beyond the pines.' This has strong violence, language and drug use.

Our secondary audience are crime fans, action fans and older adults (30/40+).  Neo-noir should appeal to people who like crime films because crime is a fundamental aspect of our selected genre. Action fans are within this category because our film has themes of violence and murder; action related scenes. 'Dead Man Down' is an example of a film with several action scenes but it crosses over with crime too. (The trailer can be seen above).The genres often integrate and we would expect the audience of that film to be interested in our film too. Regarding those older audiences, some of them may remember the popular years of the genre or, more generally, possibly have more time and money than younger audiences, therefore they may go to the cinema more often and like the look of our film.

Finally, our tertiary target audience are romance fans, particularly couples of a range of ages. Our story touches on the romance genre in parts of the film. But most importantly, it is exciting to them as they enjoy the thrill and the suspense in places, which brings them closer together. An example of a film noir involving romance is 'In a Lonely Place' (1950). Laurel falls in love with Dixon and when he is questioned on his involvement with a murder, she stands by him. 

R&P Post 1: How we intend to work as a group

My group (from left to right: Amy, Shayam, myself)

Shayam, Amy and I decided that the most important task to do first was to organise our weekly meetings for the next seven weeks so that we could get all our ideas together and sort out what we had to do next. We arranged to make the total time of the meetings add up to approximately two hours per week. Then we set up a group chat on Facebook where we could discuss some of our research and any queries we had about what to research. We also set up a Facebook group page where our most significant findings can be seen. These include photos and links that scrolling up a chat would be difficult to find. We came up with rules which included:

1. To be on time to the meetings
2. To discuss any issues and problems and resolve them as a team
3. To feedback on our individual research. Although working as a team is important, individual effort was also necessary.

My group at a meeting

Our Facebook page