The Target Audience

I believe that the production that I am creating would be a 12 certificate as there will be use of mild weaponry, sexual scenes and smoking/drinking. It is said that film noir is mostly aimed at the male character due to the crime scenes and therefore I believe this too would however, there is a rise of females that enjoy black and white films recently.

The screenshot below is from YouGov to determine what the audience type is for the film noir: Double Indemnity. As you can see it is mostly males aged from 55 that prefer the film. I agree this would be correct as the film is from 1944 and therefore I did not assume that it would interest younger customers due to the release date, although those that take media or photography may be more interested in watching this noir. I agree similarly that males would be interested in my noir production due to it being about crime and completely black and white. The records also show that my assumptions are correct, it also shows that the two biggest professions that people watch this are in is law and media and publishing. 

The next screenshot below is from the same website on YouGov, however this is showing the typical audiences for the film Gone Girl. Now this film is much more recent from 2014 and as you can see from the statistics below does not appeal at all to those that are interested in Double Indemnity. The film below appeals more to females from the ages of 25-39. This film however is not a film noir or a black and white film, this production is a thriller based on a young couple that have many secrets. I have chosen to contrast these films because even though Double Indemnity is a film noir I do not feel the audiences with mine would be the same because it is a lot more recent. Due to the storyline of Gone Girl with the main character seeming like a victim yet turning out to be the villain in the story is why I had chosen this film to contrast audiences with mine. In my production the femme fatale will seem to be the victim at the start when she is miserable and heavily drinking, however when the voice-over comes in then the realisation that actually she has some dark secrets that have been exposed and that she is the villain not the anti-hero. 

I found the below Slide-share very interesting and helpful when it came to looking at who my target audience will be. This made me think about some factors I need to look into as to who will be interested in my production. I felt it made me think more about gender, age, occupation, sexuality and the importance of education. As the above website did YouGov. The very last part of the Slide-share is very important and interesting as it talks about different types of audiences as opposed to mainstream, the succeeders and reformers. 

How media producers define their target audience from mattwako

National Readership Survey (NRS) demographic categories

Social Grade	Social Status	Occupation
A	upper middle class	higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	middle class	intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	lower middle class	supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	skilled working class	skilled manual workers
D	working class	semi and unskilled manual workers
E	those at lowest level of subsistence	state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

The Demographic classifications in the UK and the ABC1 grades refers to the social grade definitions, which are used to describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle antics, statistical research and analysis. The national Readership Survey is a non-profit but commercial British survey concerned with monitoring, analysing and providing estimates on the number and nature of people who read Britain's newspapers and consumer magazines. The social grade definitions by the NRS are widely used as a generic reference series classifying and describing social classes, especially for consumer targeting and consumer market research by the advertising UK media and publishing sectors. 

The Pete Buckinghams Audience Types research is extremely useful when thinking about audience types for a production. All this research has made me really think about who i believe would be interested in my film due to the storyline and how recent it is. 

Conclusion

I believe that from looking at all this research I have found out who my target audience would be I feel it would interest females more than males due to the little crime and the thriller between the character of the femme fatale. I also feel the 'impulsive materialists' will enjoy the production due to enjoying more of a mature nature in the sense of film-dinner-drinks. 

First Draft Production - please fill out the survey

Please could people watch this two minute video I have created and complete my two minute survey. It will take less than five minutes of your time. My idea is set on a femme fatale that has just done a horrible thing -killed the anti-hero that she realises she loves-. The more surveys filled out the better, thank you!

I have also added this onto Facebook sites for the best results.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Q87LSNR



The First Production from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

Tutorials

I had found these hair and makeup tutorials to really define my mise-en-scene more for costume rather than just props being used. I have many props to add to the production however, I would like to have more on the makeup and costume side of the props. In the 1920's costume and makeup were a large thing for females, you can see this on an earlier post named 'Research for OTS'. The below video is what I will use to create the rough 1920s hairdo that will be shown in my production, it is quick and simple and I can make it look scruffy as my femme fatale needs to be upset and almost drunk. This hairstyle will be perfect.




This below video I will use the simple makeup ideas as they are very sophisticated and elegant, yet very subtle. This works well with the period that it is made from. Both videos were very useful and I am glad that I decided to look on YouTube for short tutorials as these were very helpful in understanding the look needed to pull-off the time period.

Final Props and Costume

 

The social media aspect of looking for props worked! I managed to get all props for no cost at all from a generous lady not far from Norwich. She has allowed me to borrow a headpiece, flapper dress, black T heels, beads, dress gloves and a scarf. This means that the femme fatales costume is finished apart from the make-up I would like to add. I am still searching for a hat for a my male character, the everyman, but if I cannot find a cheap option costume then I will get my actor to wear a suit and boots. Making sure that I use much smoke as effect. I have added photographs of the props below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am very happy with the props I have chosen and discovered however, I would like to think about smaller things I will be needing such as whiskey glasses, decanter and such. I have also got a cigarette holder and a shisha stick so I can add smoke into the production as this is a typical convention of the time period and flappers.



Film Noir General Characters

Throughout Film Noir there are a handful of characters that are especially important to the genre and the narrative. Each character plays a vital part of setting the scene and the script. The general characters are as follows:

The Everyman:

The everyman is often an ordinary individual that seems rather dull and has a normal profession such as a salesman. However, this individual gets less dull throughout the film as there is always a woman that distracts him and gets him in trouble. As the everyman is an ordinary character it makes it easy for him to be identified in the real world. When the genre of Film Noir first came about the men were often intrigued by these new American films because they can be relatable to them, (especially profession wise) making them feel they can do anything. An everyman often holds the role of protagonist but he is no hero, he is also often the narrator for the action.

The Femme Fatale:

The femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and sexy young woman whose charm ensnares her lovers. This character is linked with the everyman as she seduces him to carry out her little plan, which is often to kill her other half for his money. The femme fatale plays an important part of Film Noir because she is there to portray how many men thought women were acting after the war. They believed that they needed to send out a warning to men that all women should be brought back into their places: stay at home and look after the children whilst the men did all the work again. As you can see the Film Noir genre did not change this as many women now tend to have working roles. The femme fatale is often very flirtatious towards the everyman to make sure that she can keep an eye on him and keep her plan running smoothly.

The Girl Next Door:

This character is also typically a very young lady however; the girl next door is often polite and better for the everyman than the femme fatale is. Many get the two mixed up during the start of Film Noir films but towards the ending it is obvious which lady is who as the femme fatale often ends up killed, in danger or in some kind of trouble but the girl next door generally leaves the film harmless and possibly with the everyman.

The Henchmen/Henchman:

A henchmen is a faithful follower especially one that is prepared to engage in crime or violence by way of service. In Film Noir the henchmen are the typical gangsters of the 40’s/50’s who tend to follow the villain by way of order. For example the henchmen in The Killers are Al and Max who serve their leader and decide to murder ‘The Swede’.

The Villain:

The villain in Film Noir is the henchman’s leader and he is the one to order them to engage in crime or violence. The villain is usually against the everyman and is filthy rich with a powerful ego. The villain is often the femme fatale’s husband in some ways in which she wants him murdered to gain all his wealth, this is where the everyman comes into the scene.

Reflective comment:

Eventually I would like to add some photographs or examples of each character from both neo-noir and just film noir films that we have watched as a class.