Evaluation Question 4

Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The primary target audience for my thriller opening ‘Thief’ would be people in the 16-24 age range. My film would appeal most to this particular audience because of the youth casting and the theme of crime. They would enjoy crime/gangster thrillers as youths are interested to see how other teenagers act in certain situations, as they have maybe been in one of these themselves or are curious as to what they would do if they were to find themselves in one. The contemporary settings of the city locations that I have used will entice a younger audience, as they could visualise themselves with these common settings and is therefore a realistic representation. Many teenagers and young adults are fearful of being mugged in the street - especially by someone younger than themselves - and would therefore feel embarrassed and demoralised so perhaps would not report it. Many of these crimes go unreported due to these reasons. Also, audiences of this age group can relate to the character’s attitudes, behaviour and opinions identifying with them about being unemployed. The characters are communicating to the audience about the major flaws in society and so they would understand the issues easily. Female audiences would also be able to empathise, especially with the character Eve White, whose vulnerability and naivety causes her to be a victim of an unprovoked attack from a teenage boy. This demonstrates how females are portrayed by the media to be the weaker sex (both mentally and physically) and have the qualities of Eve which can lead to sexism. However, the character Scarlet Fraser breaks the mould by appearing tough, intelligent and independent which is a positive representation of women that they will prefer to watch, as it creates a better image of females and by using a strong femme fatale creates the sense of power. On the other hand, the male demographic might be slightly annoyed as I have portrayed male behaviour in a controversial way, as Will Block is seen to be arrogant and focussed on getting what he wants without thinking about the consequences.

The film Kidulthood (2006, directed by Noel Clarke) is specifically aimed at teenagers, as the cast is made up of mostly teenagers and it conveys issues that are sometimes common with them such as bullying, suicide and mugging. This makes it successful because it portrays these issues to a wider audience and the film’s popularity has increased due to the performance of the young actors and concerns raised.



This is a trailer from the film "Kidulthood"

"Kidulthood explores the lives of teenagers in London in Huda's interesting and controversial 2006 British drama. The British media runs riot on any story they can get their hands on and exploit, and in recent years have developed various forms of stereotypes, none more so than the stereotypical "gangster teenager" who swears every other sentence, drinks, does drugs and has a violent motive towards others and this ideology is explored by Doctor Who star Noel Clarke. Clarke dives deep into the lives of numerous teenagers to bring out the personalities of the teenagers, and his character Sam is a stereotype of a teenager, the use of violence and swearing portray the villain of the narrative. I'm usually against stereotypes being used in films but in this case it is interesting to see how these stereotypes feel about being branded that way, when the teenagers walk into a shop and are accused of a crime they didn't commit just because of their image as this stereotype the media has created."

This is a quote about the film from a 24 year old member of the public.