My Target Audience

Audience

Movie	Age Rating UK	Age Rating USA (MPAA)
Word War Z (2013)	15	PG-13
Zombieland (2009)	15	R
Dead Snow (2009)	18	R
Resident Evil (2001)	15	R
28 Days Later (2002)	18	R
Dawn of the Dead (1978)	18	R
(TV) The Walking Dead	18	TV-MA

I did some research on 6 different zombie movies to look at the age rating that was set in both UK and USA. The movies I looked at are horror hybrids as some are comedy and action. I found out that Zombie movies are set for a niche audience because there age rating is ranged from 15 to 18 in the UK. In the USA they are all R rated except World War Z, my guess for this is because Brad Pitt is in it and there for is targeted for a mass audience. The description for an R rating is “Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them”.

 

Having done this research because zombie movies are mainly targeted at a niche audience my movie will probably have an R rating in America and I would hope for a 15 in the UK. The primary target of my movie would be 15 to around late twenties, with an interest in the zombie movies and will most likely be working class, as they are not as posh. They would also be British as that's what my main character is and the British market takes more lightly to violent horror movie. The primary audience will also be male as the main character is male and males usually enjoy zombies more. The secondary audience would be parents that go with there children to go and see the movie, as well as Americans as that's where the movie is located.

 

Genre

My movie is a sub-genre of horror. A sub-genre is a specific part of a big genre; there are many sub-genres of horror such as supernatural, zombie, slasher and others. My movie is also a hybrid because it’s both horror and action. Depending on the genre it changes the target audience.

Opening 8 (my Genre) Dead Snow

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19KagZyU40

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_snow/?search=dead%20snow

Rating: 6.4/10 IMDB 67% Rotten Tomatoes

Release Date: 9 January 2009 (Norway)

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Age Rating: Not Rated

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen

Stars: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan

Budget: $800,000

Gross: $1,937,920

Production Co: Euforia Film, Barentsfilm AS, FilmCamp, Miho Film, News on Request (NOR), Yellow Bastard Production

Synopsis: A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
Intro Length: 2:50

Idents:

Euforia – Normal

Text:

In this movie there are no actors names in the start of the movie and no title sequence. The titles that pop up are:

YELLOW BASTARD PRODUCTION NEWS ON REQUEST & EUFORIA FILM – white bold text.

PRESENTERER EN MIHO FILM PRODUCTION - The Miho Film is red and bold while the rest is white and bold.

EN TOMMY WIRKOLA FILM – The Tommy Wirkola is bold and red while the rest is bold and white.

That’s the only text that appears. The movie starts of with a camera tilting down to the snowy mountains at night. 2 min and 46 seconds in the main title appears, DEAD SNOW. The color used is red but not full red as some parts are darker red and some lighter this clearly identify the bloody gore genre. The background that the text is on is the full moon in a dark blue sky.

Editing:

The only editing used in the intro is cuts. The pace of the cuts increase as the music gets more intense. The text on screen fades away, instead of cuts away.

Sound:

Throughout the opening sequence the music that is played is Edvard Grieg “In the hall of the mountain king”, this is fitting seeing as Edvard Greig is Norwegian and so is the movie. The music is contrapuntal as you wouldn’t expect to classical music in a sequence with zombies. The music is paused for a while when the woman is looking in to the forest. When the shot reverse shot is used all you hear is diegetic off-screen birds, until the zombie jump scar happens then the music starts playing again.

Evaluation:
The jump scare really builds tension as the camera focuses at something in the dark shadowy forest. It cuts back and forth to the actor and the establishing long shot of the forest. The reason for this is because the target audience expect to see zombies but nothing is happening so it rapidly builds tension and supports the horror genre. The fact that all you see in the opening is shadows running through a snowy forest also supports the genre and keeps the TA engaged.