Group 3B Film Blog: 5. How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Our Target Audience is

but we also have several other target markets that we tried to reach in order to create the widest appeal for our film to allow us to breakeven.

How 'Turning Pages' will appeal to them:

Our protagonist, Lila, echoes most of out TA's characteristics
The character of Noah may be attractive to them, as he is good-looking as well as sensitive and nice
Enjoy the themes of frienship, indendence and self discovery
Enjoy the romance between Lila and Noah, and aspire for something similar
Admire Lila as an aspirational figure, as she is overcoming her grief and being brave enough to go and live her dreams
Humour
Fear of growing old - can empathize and be inspired
Set in London - glamourous
Might have own bucket list or become inspired to make their own
Pressure of going to uni/getting a job - Lila's similar journey and gap year are very relatable
Like the sunrise setting
In our audience feedback we found that all of our target audience really liked the jump in front of the sunrise

Techniques and tactics we have used:

1.Coming of Age Drama Genre

2. Conforming to expectations of the genre Meant that our audience could recognise familiar features and feel comfortable watching our opening

3. Using Narrative twists/shocks/surprises

The biggest shock in our opening is probably when Noah puts his hands over Lila's eyes, though he walks up quite slowly and it is quickly shown that they are friends. We found that Coming of Age dramas aren't usually shocking, instead being more quirky such as when Donnie wakes up in the middle of a road in the opening of Donnie Darko.

4. Film Style
Our natural lighting, sunrise shots and the general aesthetic and cinematography of our opening would appeal to our art loving target and secondary audiences.

5. Continuity Editing
We used continuity techniques such as...

Shot reverse shot
180 degree rule

6. Build up of enigma
We used props to build enigma using enigma codes, and left several unanswered questions:

Things that will not appeal to them:

The theme of loss and grief isn't usually associated with Coming of Age Drama
Instead of centering on life with an illness before death, our film is more focused on moving on after someone has died
Judging by our opening sequence our script may not be funny enough to attract them

SECONDARY AUDIENCES:

How we have appealed to 16-24 males:

Aspirational male character - Noah
Attractive female characters
Humour
Quirkiness
Gives them an insight into how girls think - allows them to understand girls more
Can identify with themes of independence and living life
London setting - glamourous
Pressure of going to uni/getting a job - Lila's similar journey and gap year are very relatable

How we have appealed to More Mature Adults:

Typically teenage things ie Bucket lists to provoke nostalgia
Humour
May be able to relate to some of the things the trio do
Remember and empathize with themes of independence and self-discovery
Nice cinematography and interesting shots
Drama
Fear of growing old - they can remember what it's like being young

Uses and Gratifications Theory:

Entertainment -The wacky things that are on the bucket list and the humorous scenes they create will entertain a wide variety of people who have or still do get involved in wild escapades	Information -London is an unfamiliar location to much of our audience, and as they travel round completing things on the bucket list the audience will learn about new things and new places along with them
Identifying With Self -Those in the audience that have experienced loss or grief will be able to identify with Lila’s emotions -Much of our target audience will be able to identify with the themes of independence and growing up -Friendship group might echo with real life friendships	Personal Relationships -The audience follow Lila on her journey, and will hopefully start to care about what she does and the struggles she goes through -Groups of friends might watch our film together at sleepovers, or as a trip to the cinema -It will create 'Watercooler moments'

Marketing:

INTERACTIVITY:

We would hold competitions on Facebook and Twitter
Would offer exclusive content like interviews
We would have a relatively simple website that acts as the central hub of our online campaign

VIRAL:

Music video for 'Train To Anywhere'
Clips and trailers
'Create your own bucket list' tool/app where you can share items and ideas on your list with others and meet other people who have similar dreams
Post some of Lila's vlogs prior to the film's opening and encourage viewers to make a video response

MERCHANDIZE:

Badges, magnets, cups and T-shirts with memorable lines from the film on, as well as copies of Lila's notebook.

TV:

As we don't have a very high marketing budget we will not focus our campaign on TV spots and trailers.

POSTERS:

We will use this more traditional marketing method to reach out to our older audience and raise awareness of the film.

BELOW THE LINE:

We hope that 'Turning Pages' might be nominated or win a few awards, much like 'An Education' did, as it was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Oscar for 'Best Picture' to give us oublicity and encourage an older audience to see our film
Similarly, Carey Mulligan was also nominated and won several awards for 'Best Actress', and we hope that the actress playing Lila might follow suit
We would try to showcase our films at film festivals which might help create a buzz around the film, encouraging people in arthouse circles to go and see the film
We would try to have interviews with magazines such as The Gaurdian and Empire to appeal to our older audience, as well as magazines aimed at teenage readers such as Elle, Look and Company