Exam Question 08/01/2020

How do mainstream films target and maximise their audiences? refer to Straight Outta Compton. (10)

Mainstream films target and maximise their audiences by using a big star to be a main character within the film as audiences will be more likely to watch the film as a bigger star would be much more recognisable and this is shown in Straight Outta Compton as the film consists of the American Hip Hop group N.W.A claim to fame as the producers of the film are the actual members of N.W.A so the film has a big industry backing for the film to be advertised. The target audience for Straight Outta Compton is younger audience due to the viral marketing campaign that was number one trending hashtag on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at its peak and this was achievable by using a meme by allowing people to make memes with the Straight Outta Somewhere website for free and having a link to share the meme you have created on to any social media. once you have finished to have the memes shared a lot quicker and have a much bigger reach to their target audience also the website is controlled by Beats as the logo is present in the top corner and the biggest form of advertisement that happened with the marketing of the film was controlled by Dr.Dre's own company and gave them free advertisement for both beats and Straight Outta Compton. To be more specific the target audience for Straight Outta Compton is young males which is shown in the trailer of the film as a pool scene showing half naked women everywhere reinforces the male dominant audience they are trying to attract.

They are trying to attract older and younger audiences as the subject of the film would attract an older audience as the popularity of the Hip Hop group around the 90s would attract people who alive during that time and find of the group would be attracted to watch this film but also a younger audience for example a reference during the film where ice cube says "bye Felicia" is a cultural reference that younger audiences would recognise which shows that they are trying to attract a wide range of people at different ages  

Independent Film: I, Daniel Blake

An independent film is a film with a much smaller budget than mainstream films and makes you  ask questions about the plot as its usually ambiguous due to the characters or plot unlike mainstream films where it is very straight forward with its characters and plot as they don't create stereotypical characters by creating a stereotypical hero and villain. Independent films is usually more for cultural expression and art to express themselves whereas mainstream film is usually for escapism entertainment as mainstream films are more linked to commercial success and making a lot of money and dominate the film market as these films are advertised to a wide range of people unlike independent films where it has a much more niche target audience.

A good example of an independent film is I, Daniel Blake which was directed by Ken Loach who is a left wing socialist and consists of a widowed man who has a heart attack and is not allowed back to work through his cardiologist, however he is deemed fit to work after a work capability assessment and is frustrated to learn that his doctor was not informed about this decision, and applies of an appeal a process and struggles with his benefits. Ken Loach who is known for making drama films about ordinary people with no extravagant plot or exotic characters as he believes that working people's struggles are inherently dramatic as many of his films are about working class people.with his plots having underlying themes of politics which has had a negative effect on his films as they have been shelved because of this. Loach's films usually take place in the United Kingdom and focus on the working class and their struggles as his 2007 drama called It's a Free World which consists of an ambitious working class British woman try to improve her lot by making her own business.Ken Loach's target audience is high brow middle class older audiences which is shown in the trailer as it begins with the Palme d'Or film festival award winner this is shown before showing anything else and shows who help fund the film which is the British Film Institute and other funding from France and shows that independent British film making is a lot harder because British film companies cannot shell out million on films like Hollywood. Also this film was funded by the publics money as it shows the British Film Institute logo and the partnering of the National Lottery and the BBC film logo and these two companies would only fund a film if it was very important to society if it was released and the BBC's slogan is Inform , Educate and entertain. however the film would usually have a low budget due to it being an independent film and the location of filming also the actors as the main actors have very little experience with acting and a lot of characters in the film are just ordinary people as Ken Loach did this to make the film feel as realistic as possible as having a well known actor would ruin the realistic dramatic atmosphere he is trying to create for example the two main characters Dave Johns who plays Daniel Blake is a stand up comedian and Hayley Squires who plays Katie is an actress who is usually on TV and has rarely had any film roles at that point.

The trailer for the film quickly presents the intended target audience of middle class high brow older film fans due to the slow steady editing with a non diegetic soundtrack of slow classical music to help build a dramatic atmosphere as the trailer begins to slowly fade between clips of the film and reviews from film magazines like sight & sound which reinforces the target audience being high brow middle class film fans as that magazine is intended for this niche audience. However the trailer begins to pick up the pace of the editing as the fades between film clips get quicker as the music becomes louder to build a bigger dramatic effect to show the audience the genre of the film and to attract a younger audience due to the message of the film being about the struggle of working class people and having an older and younger main characters having the same struggles representing the young and the old people therefore creating a wider range for an audience. Also the film has a more left wing leaning political view as the director is a left wing socialist and he expresses his political views in his films causing backlash as his films have been shelved due to these left leaning political themes within his films and usually right wing reviews of his films are usually poorly rated.  

Indie/ Riptide Analysis

Indie 

An abreviation for independent music which is produced independently from commercial record labels or produce from smaller record labels and this process of creating music usually takes a do-it-yourself approach as they have no help with recording or publishing from record labels. Also the term Indie is sometimes used to describe a genre like indie rock or indie pop which typically has an alternative and niche audience but these artists usually have a record label backing them and do not independently produce and distribute their music and usually have an acoustic sound. and the targeted audience for indie music is white middle class

Vance Joy-Riptide 

Riptide is an example the Indie genre of music as it has an acoustic sound which is synonymous with this genre recently especially Indie pop and the music video for Riptide has no total narrative structure and does not show the Artist perform but has an interpretive approach as the music video will change and match the lyrics being sung for example at the beginning of the song the first few lyrics are " I was scared of dentists and the dark" and the music video showed a women which we believe is in a dentist as she has what seems to be dentist equipment in her mouth and a lamp moving in the dark also another example of the interpretive video is when the lyric "taken away to the dark side" is sung a women is disturbingly dragged out of her bed and as the music video progresses it becomes more and more disturbing another example of this is the lyric "running down to the riptide" and the music video matches the lyric as it shows a riptide this use of an interpretive style is used to give lyrics more attention to the lyrics shown in the video.

The colour red is shown throughout the

Mainstream film: Straight Outta Compton

The main differences between independent and mainstream films is the budgets as mainstream films usually have massive budgets whereas independent films have much smaller budget also mainstream films tend to focus on more conventional forms of storytelling and don't try to challenge the audience whereas independent films usually make the audience question and think about the narrative.

An example of a mainstream film is Straight Outta Compton as the budget for the film was $50 million and were co-financed by Universal pictures and legendary pictures for $28 million the film was produced by members of NWA and a form of advertisement for Dr.Dre's beats and his huge success with that being shown at the ending of the film and places Dr.Dre as the main character showing his success develop throughout the years and the other events portrayed in the film are mostly all realistic however some events were not shown like when Dr Dre's assault charge as Dr.Dre seems to become the main character by the end of the film so that event was not shown to make the audience more sympathetic towards Dre as the audience would have a totally different perspective of him if that event would be shown and would mainly be a negative perspective of Dr.Dre also as he was one of the producers of the film so he could chose whether he wanted certain events shown and a scene in the film that was created to appeal to a modern mainstream audience is the scene where Ice Cube (O'shea Jackson.Jr) kicks a girl out of a party for causing trouble and dismisses her by saying "bye Felicia" which is a reference that modern audiences will understand and is an example of the N.W.A biopic being enhanced for cinematic purposes and is a reference to a comedy "Friday" which stared Ice Cube.

The trailer for Straight Outta Compton begins with showing the main character's positions in their lives before N.W.A was created and does this by showing conversations between Dr.Dre and Eazy-E and having close ups on their faces or has the camera on their faces which is the same as when Ice Cube is shown in the trailer it shows that he is still in High School and faces police brutality and racism which are prominent themes within the story of  N.W.A and this is highlighted in the trailer as multiple scenes show the police attacking the main character for no reason other than their race. The lighting which is used is somewhat low key to as the scenes which have this type of lighting are the ones showing Compton and this could have been used to show the realism in the film as its based ona true story as is expressing to audiences what it was like to live their the editing used changes as the beginning the editing is slower using a lot more fade ins and outs but also using cuts as the beginning is establishing the characters but by the second half of the trailer the editing becomes faster as a N.W.A song begins to play non-diegetically as the scenes start to have more action within them showing the crazier parts of the members lives when they became famous.

The advertising campaign which was used by Beats was the #StraightOutta meme this  was used by lots of celebrities with no money endorsement by beats and also ordinary people created memes with this hashtag and within the first day it became the number 1 trending hashtag on  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook which ultimately gave the film a lot of free advertisement. This form of advertisement was used to appeal to the mainstream audience which is young adults so a meme would be the best form of advertising for a young audience and the hashtag used helps give audiences a way to share.

The rating the BBFC gave the film an age rating of 15 due to the violence and nudity which is in the film whereas the director's cut of the film was given an age rating of 18 due to the added scenes.