TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

1Distribution, Exhibition & Consumption

Katie Ranns

DISTRIBUTION

The Iron Petticoat Made In Britain

Dealers The Guinea-Pig

Carlton Video

The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Carlton has been branded on air as 'ITV1' since 28 October 2002, and as 'ITV' since 14 January 2013.

Art

ifici

al Eye

Fish Tank

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Love Like Poison

Artificial Eye is a British film distributor, specialising in foreign-language and art house films for cinema and home entertainment

Many of the distributers of social realism films are non profit companies and organisations that care little for profit and more on the aesthetics of the film. Their purpose is to spread the artistry of film

British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation set up to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the UK.

BFI

Above Us The Earth Get Carter Under The Skin

Kes

PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY

“ASTONISHING” “Electrifying Performance” – terminology not typically used for ‘Blockbuster’ films; aiming for sophisticated audiences open to different views/opinions and are not easily offended – the nazi symbal tattoo. Blurred and colourless background indicates that the main focus is in fact the character and not his story/location, grey suggests a serious tone.

The poster here is clustered with colour and action, the typography is bold and red meaning that it is trying to get your attention immediately. There is near to no text apart from the actors, title and copy rights leaving this poster to have very simplistic lexis and syntax.

On the other hand, this poster is promoting itself to a entirely different audience. The typography is most certainly neisch due to the terminology used, “Poignant” and “Sensitively buzzes”, it is unlikely that anyone other than it’s intended audience would understand this use of lexis. There are many reviews from critics and film festival awards the film has won, thus showing that respected film critics have seen the film and found it successful; these film critics, such as Sight and Sound, may have an acquired taste in filmography and therefore their reviews may not apply to, say, a mainstream audience hence why this poster is considered more social realism than anything else.

ADVERTISEMENTFilms targeted for mainstream consumers would have themselves advertised inside a gossip magazine, or on every advert break in a program, they’d be seen on buses and on large billboards etc. They can do this because they have a much larger budget than most social realism films and their target is anyone they can attract because of their popular features/a list stars/plot.

Empire is also a major multiplex cinema company and shows adverts and films that put the most ‘bums on seats’. Companies such as Empire care little for the artistry of film but more on how they can make money from it.

The advertisement of a social realism film is much different in the sense that although they have a much smaller advertising budget, they have a particular audience demographic who would appreciate the aesthetics of the film much more than a mainstream audience. These audiences tend to be, in some way, more sophisticated so would not be looking in gossip magazines nor watching mainstream television programs.

Sight and Sound magazine is a respected article funded by the BFI so those who are a fan of BFI may begin reading Sight and Sound, then they may subscribe to a magazine/website of this type to keep up to date about any new ‘sophisticated’ film releases.

Sight and sound has been publically criticised for its “snobbish” reviews, which means that they have an acquired taste for films and movies. Being a very harsh critical magazine means that they also have a particular audience that may value their opinions and reviews.

REGISTER/LEXIS/SYNTAX

When advertising for a movie, the syntax used when advertising/reviewing can greatly define the type of film.

Generally, if the terminology is quite simplistic and describes more on what happens in the film rather than the meanings in it, it usually signifies that the film has little depth and may be simple so every audience has the capability to understand it.

Social realism advertising mostly involve a lot of media terms and phrases as the audience viewing them has a better understanding of these terms than most. There are usually awards/nominations on posters/dvd covers to signify that their effort was recognised by respected critics and audiences.

EXHIBITION AND CONSUMPTION

ARNOLFINIThe Arnolfini is not just a social realism cinema but one supporting the arts; it is a neisch cinema. The layout of its website clearly shows that it is catering for a certain taste due to its aesthetically peaceful design. The plain white wash background and condensed information is simple yet pure, compared to a main stream site of young taste that results in colour, action and cluster of stuff-stuff-stuff and more stuff.

The inclusion of a calendar suggests that Arnolfini aims to attract students as their lives tend to be busy. The slideshow featured on the first home page has no sudden popup videos but a slow calming slideshow which give you a choice whether to interact with it or not.

There are no distractions, such as adverts, but it purely focuses on drawing attention to what’s important; the galleries, bookshops and reading room are features which, say a teenager, would be uninterested in as well as the lexis, like “delve”, are complex phrases for the well informed and educated audience that Anolfini applies to.

Cornerhouse is indeed very similar to Arnolfini; there is the white pure zen background, the typography is simplistic, there is a calming slideshow which gives you choice as well as the simple sub headings and a calendar designed specifically for busy people e.g students.

The films exhibited by Cornerhouse are said by actual Cornerhouse to be the workings of artists who have purely made the films for the artistic eye; not everybody has the capability to see the art within so this shows that the website as well as Cornerhouse itself have designed themselves for a specific audience. There is also a feature in which you can sign up to a newsletter, giving the audience a chance to develop a closer relationship with Cornerhouse.

However, there is a feature in the top right hand corner which allows the user to share anything via mainstream social networking sites. Cornerhouse are attempting to become more popoular by using this mainstream marketing scheme.

There is a feature where you can read or write movie reviews once you’ve gotten onto the film title you wanted. Anybody and everybody can be a critic – its an opinion free-for-all. There is not a feature to search up any specific genre of film which is a major debunk since any film fan may not know what film title or tv series to watch; if you do not know the film title then there is no chance of you being able to find it easily other than hours of scrolling. The film reviews on a social realism film , if you find one, are written by anyone so may be an unjust and not truly analytical view – you may not be able to trust it as they may not be familiar with certain media aspects and social realism concepts that make the film great but they perceive as “boring”.

Although LoveFilm is dedicated for all film lovers, it markets itself as mostly a mainstream movie/tv distributor; the adverts shown on t.v, radio etc are that of the mainstream culture. The homepage for their website is clustered with various movie choices, giving the user little time to think about what it is they really want to watch.

Although lovefilm and IMDb are partnered, IMDb is a source of information about the making of the movie, the actors themselves, box office, budget, profit etc rather than a viewing site itself. There are multiple playlists of trailers listed by their genre and a feature to create your own watch list for later. Each heading contains even more subheadings so the user is able to obtain a dense amount of detail on what or whomever they’re researching or interested in.

The advertisement of the films are a mixture of both mainstream and less known but critically successful films.

The website is full of reviews and opinions yet the reviews are much more precise and critical rather than LoveFilms viewers who may have misunderstood the film and therefore call it “rubbish”. This shows that the main users of this website are those seeking research about the ins and outs of a film as they may be a student or even an artist wanting to create a piece of media.

KES – IMDB FILM REVIEW

The viewer clearly understood the film and the reference to Loach as “his best film” shows that this viewer has experienced many other of Ken Loach’s creations.The lexis used shows that the viewers who review on IMDb are more sophisticated than LoveFilm, supporting the fact that IMDb is a more reliable site for distribution and reviews.

FISH TANK REVIEW - LOVEFILM

Although respectable film critics congratulated Fish Tank for it’s incredible acting and moving address of issues, the majority of the audience who have viewed this on Love Film are very harsh and appear to be quite ignorant, “Pass me the pills” one responds.

The responses are unfair because it is these public voices that diminish the artistic value of a film because they are unaware of the critical components which build social realism films.