As part of our audience research we must obviously find out who our target audience, and if applicable, an obvious niche audience who we will be catering towards. In order to gage what sort of certification we should be aiming towards, we should first look at films in a similar genre to ours. On the whole, as the below collage shows, popular films of the genre very much take a norm of the 15 rating. The main exception to this is Eastern Promises, which can be explained by its sub genre as a gangster/mob film with the violent and graphic scenes commonly expected.

The specifications for films attempting to be a 15 are shown at the bottom of the post, and we will very easily be able to have our trailer fit these specifications, however what would differentiate our film from one such as Taken (12A) is that we wish to set our film in darker areas of London, with more emphasis being placed on the psychological. In terms of accessibility, making our film a 12A or 12 would obviously increase the age range of our viewers, however older/more experienced film fans may not be enticed by the idea of a serious crime thriller as a 12A. This would lower our viewing figures in the elder age groups, and with the 15-24 bracket being who we are aiming for this would not be beneficial. Having the film as 15 allows for the guidelines of a 12 to be broken, making the film darker and more sinister while still maximising the age range of audience. It is also well known that people younger than the legal age sneak/are allowed to see 15 films so we could include a niche audience of a younger generation.

There is also the perk of being able to conform/replicate some of the things seen in our trailer inspirations mentioned in a previous post, as these are all 15 rated. If we were inspired by 18, the tone and even some of the things shown would not be able to be replicated and as such we would have to be completely original, not taking inspiration from anywhere. 

15 Film Guidelines -

 

Two of the movies we have looked at (Eastern Promises and Taken) both have different ratings and are each at different ends of the spectrum. 'Eastern Promises' is rated as an 18 by BBFC and 'Taken' is a 12A. The 12A rating in 'Taken' means that children who are 12 are allowed to view the film as long as they are accompanied/advised by an adult. As a young woman is being kidnapped and a victim of drug-trafficking it is quite surprising that the rating is so low but as seen above, if the movie falls into the right categories then the rating should follow accordingly. As seen in the 'Eastern Promises' trailer, there are many more open scenes of crime/drugs/sex and violence, which is why it qualifies for an 18 rating and apparently not suitable for anyone below that age.

Our trailer will be more likely to follow the films we have studied that are rated 15 and so we will have to follow the guidelines of this particular age rating. These guidelines are described in the above photos.

 

MT

JL