The target audience for my advertising campaign is for both females and males age 18 – 24. I have decided to give my film a rating of 18 meaning that no persons under 18 can see this film as I don’t feel it would be suitable. It will appeal to the female audience because it will show the male being below the female and it will appeal to the male audience because the male is still a main character and will appeal because it’s showing the male that he doesn’t have to be a dominant character in order to be masculine. The male audience may also find it amusing that the female is above the male and will feel confident that the male characters in the film were weak and they were better than them boosting their egos. In society women are fighting for equality in all aspects for example the work industry. By using the female characters above the male character in my advertising campaign will encode to my target audience that women have more authority but also including the male character will show that the male is still an important role. My target audience will be Class C1 and C2 either studying at a college or university or working, each person entering into the real world.
Due to the stresses of society going to the cinema to chill out and gossip with friends will sound like the ideal solution. My film includes mixed ethnicity therefore will appeal to all cultures and race. Seeing the film the audience will aspire to the representation of the character as they will want to establish themselves in society and in a sense will see that in life you will have to overcome obstacles. At this age the audience will be self conscious and want to be recognised highly in society. Therefore the female audience will aspire to the adverts as the female characters have established themselves in society and gained respect from the opposite sex.
In any genre there are codes and conventions, which familiarise the audience with the type of text they are being invited to consume. Repetition of these codes and conventions is a key element in the way an audience understands and relates to the text. For example the iconography, which an audience may associate with this particular genre, such as, haunted houses, knifes, guns, violence, blood, villains and heroes.
The codes and conventions of horror films are male orientated. The narrative structure of horror films always have a “hero” and a “villain” who are both stereotypically males. In “the haunting” the institution fool the audience into believing that the female is in control and trying to save he house and her friends when in reality she is doing what the evil spirit is telling her to do. The film I am going to be advertising will challenge dominant stereotypes and ideologies as the female characters will be in control. This will be a strong selling point for my film as being in the 21st century more women are independent and are fighting to be equal to men so the audience should be able to relate to the representation of the characters and give the audience faith. The title of my film is “When darkness falls” because when it’s dark strange scary things happen to the Taylor family after they move into their new dream home. The title already encodes to the audience that something bad is going to happen when darkness falls. Stereotypically in a horror film the hero is like a robot, he never makes a mistake which is unrealistic in modern day society. The hero in my film will make mistakes and make wrong decisions and find out false information creating a climax enticing the audience. This will appeal to my target audience as in society you will come across obstacles in life that you will have to overcome. The women in the film will carry out some masculine task such as taking responsibility and trying to save the family while the male character will be like the understudy of female character and all though try to protect family he still needs the female. Society and the institution often play on female fears in advertisement about them not being able to cope without a male as stereotypically women can’t be without men. The advertisement will give the audience confidence that they don’t have to have a male to live. And it will show that the male is under the women and she is in control. In horror movies as well as having a hero there is always villain in this cause it is spirits from a previous family living in the house.
Having observed and analysed several posters, DVD covers, Billboards and websites of both modern and classic horror movies they all include similar conventions with what they are representing. “The haunting” and “Cold creek manor” all use black in the background encoding darkness and danger and also red which encodes danger, horror, blood and evilness, setting the mood of the genre to the audience so they connect with the advertisement and become aware of what they are going to watch. On all the advertisements I researched the film stars names are placed at the top connoting to the audience that they are important and encodes there celebrity status.
My initial idea is to move away from the traditional view of women being inferior gender that lack power. I looked at an advert that was advertising a film “The women of all horror movies” and there was a woman being presented as dominating a man. She was standing above the male with a knife in her hand and covered in blood encoding to the audience that she is in control of the man, she has the power. This type of film is becoming more recognised with today’s society showing women’s status and values are changing. I want to encourage this presentation of women in my advert by using similar conventions to my researched advertisements in order to please my target audience requirements and to make my advertising campaign successful.
