Who Are My Target Audience?

PG

After looking at several Romance films, I have found out that certificates are not a good reference to target audiences, they just rate content. For example, both Sleepless in Seattle and Enchanted are PGs, but they target different audiences.


Sleepless in Seattle targets a more adult theme, Tom Hanks' character is a widow with a son who is searching for more love. Enchanted is based off Fairytales and for people to believe in the romance from fairy tales and therefore the certificate reflects the audience in this case.

The romance genre targets 16-45 years olds, however this is not exclusive. The target age group of any given film is usually reflected through plot and the age of the main characters, this is why my main characters are teenagers and the plot reflects teenage life (school and fitting in.)

PG

Media Institutions

For the name of my distributor, I decided to use a different language like the company Buena Vista. Buena Vista, I found, was Spanish for 'Pleasant viewing'. Since my film is a romance film I decided to make a romance-specific distributing company. Because of this, I picked the French language, a language associated with love. From this I got Bellamour, which, when correctly written as Belle Amour, means Beautiful love. I believed the company should only be in one word.

It would be a relatively independent company that, if necessary forms alliances with major companies. This, however, is not always needed as romance films do not tend to need a big budget in comparison to films from other genre's because they're very close to real life.

In terms of a logo, I considered the logo of New Line Cinema. The logo is of a bit of film so I considered using a film clapper.  I altered it into the shape of a heart to convey that it works with the romance genre.

Characterisation

The main character, Jo Timbers, is the only character to be properly introduced. This is because, according to the conventions of the romance genre, the main character has to be liked by the audience.

Jo's character brings up issues of the representation of Gender and Social Class. Mis-en-scѐne is the main tool I use to represent Jo as such. Her costume is plain grey but, to appeal to my female audience, still has some sense of style to it. Her bag as no designer label and appears to be quite used. She is seen as 'normal' and easy to associate with because she's a lot like the target audience. Her parents are represented similarly. The setting is of a house that is incomplete (the stairs are not finished) suggesting little money. 

In my clip, the representation I make of the working class is that hey are intimidated but the higher class (the reaction shots of Jo to the letter and to the school.) This is important to my narrative as the new school creates the 'problem' as the higher class appear to treat her as inferior but she still finds someone to be with. The family is very close and they are supportive, setting up the disequilibrium as she feels quite alone at the school. Her parents are represented as her support network. Class is relevant as it firstly creates the obstacle that is a convention of my genre. It also conveys a moral message to my audience regarding aspiration that their background should not hold them back and they have the ability to do what they wish. 

To represent my female character as likeable, I represented her as clever (moving to a more renowned looking school) but modest as she still shows nerves regarding moving school where others would be over confident. She still seems very girly with her style of clothes and this makes her more appealing to the audience as she is easily relatable to them and would not alienate them. During the whole film, she would innocently fall in love (she does not try to seduce him which makes her more appealing.) She also becomes the victim of the obstacle (he leaves her) making her more appealing and we side with her easily.

Using, Developing, Challenging Forms and Conventions

Genre

My media product uses the forms and conventions of the romance genre. This is done in different ways:

Music= My song is "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", a classic love song. This song is about the obsession and 'crush' stage of love, making it, perhaps, more suited to Teenage love (as we assume their love life is full of crushes. This, therefore, corresponds with my film's plot and the lyric 'Let Me Love You' (which, incidentally, is the title of the film) conveys an impression of an obstacle. This song was also used in a teen film with Heath Ledger singing it (10 Things I Hate About You - Modern interpretation of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' another romance film targeted at female teens. The song is used as a form of serenading to convince the girl to go out with the boy.) My version of the song is sung by John Barrowman. The song was released in 2009, giving it a more modern sound. John Barrowman himself is known among teenagers as Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood (Cert: 15). He is an attractive young(ish) man which targets my female audience. The music creates anticipation for love, it is a positive song. The other music (drumbeat) also creates anticipation. It's a twist on the drums set before an execution to create a more positive form of anticipation. This introduces her nerves as she approaches the Disequilibrium.

• Plot/Characters = I introduce the girl in the pair first, which is a convention of the romance genre (as I saw from the film 'You've Got Mail' - where the man and woman fall in love despite a diffence (he was the boss of a major corporate chain of book shops whilst she works in a traditional single bookshop) the woman is the first of the couple to be introduced. This is arguably an issue of class though more so of the ideals. Another film that uses this convention is Pride and Prejudice; which is all about social class. Mr Darcy is very middle-class and Elizabeth Bennett is of lower-class yet despite this they fall in love. I also give the girl more screen time, which makes the girl more easy to create a relationship with as she receives the most screen time, targeting my female audience. This is shown through eyeline matches and close-ups so the audience can understand the characters though processes. She is also seen as very girly and likeable. Her parents embrace and she gets embraced, showing the love and support in her house. Her parents' relationship could be an aspiration for the protagonist to reach. Jo is moving school in my opening sequence, showing a potential for a new start from which the audience could consider a new love. She falls in love with someone who welcomes her to the new surroundings. They are pushed apart (obstacle) before reunited. 

• Title Sequence = My title sequence develops the romance genre as the credits appear on love hearts, similar to valentine cards. The 'i's' are dotted also with hearts, showing the theme of love. The title itself is in pink, the use of red (on the hearts) and pink (on the title) conveys the romance genre and show that my target audience are female. My distribution company logo uses the conventions of the heart. 

• Location= It's set in 'real time' and in 'real life' a convention of the romance genre. It is also set in real life settings for the character (school and home) which makes it easy to relate to. The romance genre is an escape and showing that good things can happen to ordinary people is one form of escapism - it is almost a sanitized version of real life.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Narrative Theory  

Hero (Protagonist) meets the Agent of Change (Cause of disequilibrium.) which creates a Problem. The protagonist goes on a Quest to reach the Resolution of the problem. In the romance genre, the problem is usually some kind of obstacle to love, in my product's case it was class.  

 

The other theory was the idea of the Equilibrium (normal life) is altered to turn into the Disequilibirum (a destruction of normal life) then resolved into the same or a different Equilibrium. In the romance genre, the last equilibrium will be being with a new love. The initial Equilibrium is presented as Jo's normal life. We see her at her house and we meet her parents. She is in a supportive family.  The disequilibrium in my clip is the school, she is standing alone as she prepares to walk into the school. The disequilibrium would go on to be that she has no friends. She meets the boy and they fall in love. They fall out during this sequence. The latter Equilibrium is when  the boy apologises and the couple 'fall back in love.' 

 

Narrative Codes   

Enigma Codes   Action codes

Who is she?
Where is she going?
The Bag = School

 Who's he?
Embrace = Friend/parent?

 They must be her parents.

 Why does she have to go so far?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Letter 'Ipswich School' Must be moving school. 'received application to our school.' 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The titles and the music tell us there will be romance.

 

 

 

 

 

 Image of school = must've moved school

Why has she moved school? 

My Final Product

New Script and Story board

Script 2
Bellamour Productions - logo and name.

Radio = Good morning, that time of year again! Back to School. Here at Cable FM we decided to brighten your day with John Barrowman's rendition of 'Can't Take Me Eyes Off Of You'... to all those who want to find love this term.

First film

This film has a few continuity errors and is far too long. It's missing the title of the film and the music wasn't properly edited. I will re-film the first half (the part in the house) and edit it in. I have decided to make changes to this section to make it more interesting and give more context, i.e. A radio presenter at the beginning to introduce the setting.