Target Audience

The genre Romantic Comedies is a mixture of "Romance films" and "Comedy films". Such movies are made mainly for entertainment; therefore do not hold any gloomy or serious elements. When choosing the genre of Romantic-Comedy (or "chick flick"), I knew from the beginning that the target audience for my film was going to be the female audience.

Romantic-Comedies deal with situations that any female can relate to in their present or past life. Such films hold 'girlie' elements of 'dreams come true' and 'happily ever afters', also aided with elements like shopping, make-overs, parties and make-up. Such elements become an instant bore to the male audience, of any age group. The typical male enjoys blood-curling, thrilling action or horror. Hence, the romantic-comedy genre only seems shallow and somewhat stupid to them. My film will, for obvious reasons, not appeal to the male audience. Thus, the targeted audience is instantly the female audience.

However, even in the female audience, there are several divisions. The tastes and interest of females of different age groups, lifestyles, occupations and culture all vary. A woman who is a fashion design student, and a woman who is a lawyer, will most probably have completely opposite tastes in films. A fashion design student will most probably be interested in a movie about young girls from her own age group, with a lot of use of the elements of fashion, style and shopping.(such as, Confessions of a Shopaholic) But the woman who is a lawyer, might find such a movie extremely shallow and boring, and might be more interested in movies related to her profession.(such as, "A few good men") On the other hand, a film with different elements, such as, shopping and fashion mixed with mystery and logic, might appeal to both groups. An excellent example can be the film "Legally Blonde”. Now, I need to decide whether my film can appeal to all the different groups in the female audience, or to just a few. Therefore, I need to see whether my film can appeal to the masses, or only a handful of people.

Girls from the age-group of 6-10 will obviously not be included in the target audience of my film. Girls of this age do not yet have the intellect to get attracted to the kind of film I am going to make. They would not yet be familiar with the thoughts and emotions of the teenaged characters of my film, ultimately just getting confused and frustrated. They are more interested in franchises like "The Disney Princesses" and "Barbie". And girls of this age group who move away from the stereotype of "Girls' might take interest in things like "Batman" and "Pokémon". Such franchises/films are based mostly on fantasy, and since my film does not have any fantasy element, this age group cannot be included in my target audience.

The characters of a 'chick flick' are mostly teenaged, to make the film appealing to the teenaged audience. Since the characters in my film are also teenaged, I can assume that my film will appeal mainly to the age group of 13 - 17. At a certain age, all girls go through the problems of peer pressure, social acceptance and self-actualization. The older girls in this age group will most probably enjoy this film because they can easily relate to it. They have possibly encountered similar situations, or have seen people around them in that situation. In this age group, young girls are in the process of becoming adults, thus, they are still learning about which things hold more importance in life. At the same time, watching someone go through the same situations as them helps them to understand just that, but gain entertainment as well, because they can easily relate to the story. The younger girls in this age group might enjoy this film because they are in the process of growing up, but not yet becoming adults. They most probably have not gone through the same problems as the older girls in the age group, hence, can not exactly relate to the story. What will still make the film appealing to them is the fact that younger girls like the thought of growing up because they finally get permission to do things like make-up, dressing up, going to parties, etc. When they see such elements in a film, they will immediately get attracted to it. They will enjoy the situations and conclusions of the film, but at the same time, their minds would expand to all the possibilities that they might encounter in their lives in the future.

Till about the age of 17, girls will remain typical 'girlie' girls who watch movies mainly for enjoyment. However, from 18 onwards, they start to become a lot more intellectual, rational and logical. Usually, they will start to watch a film for more than just entertainment. They will start noticing things like good or bad direction, strong or weak story, etc. The real question that is brought up here is whether my film can appeal to this age group or not. A few females in this age group might still enjoy this movie because of the humour and because they might have been through similar experiences. Such a film would make them see how much they have learned and grown up, and would thus enjoy it. Women who are a little older in the age group, such as 25 above, might possibly like this film because they want to learn the way teenagers think. They might want to do so to help their own teenaged daughters or siblings, who are in the process of growing up, because it is at the time of growing up that youngsters make most mistakes, and their adults want to teach them how to make the right decisions.

It is not necessary that every female in this age group might be analytical and logical. Some females might just be interested in watching a film that is entertaining and fun, as well as humorous. On the other hand, my film might just appeal to the analytical female audience as well. Since my film introduces a new aspect in chick flicks, that is, the cultural aspect, the film may seem interesting to females who like to learn about new cultures and traditions, as well as about the people of that culture. The film, "Slum dog Millionaire", might not have been as famous as it became if the culture of India had not been shown in it. The culture was so new and unusual that it intrigued the audience to see something different. My film can be seen as any other, ordinary chick flick, but with the element of a different culture and different view points of the people of that culture, the film becomes out of the ordinary.

In conclusion, I can decipher that my film can be watched by a large portion of the female audience. There may possibly be a small amount of women who don't like the genre at all, but the majority of females will most certainly enjoy the film. I can also tell that my main target audience will be girls in the age group of 13 - 17, because of the similarity of age groups and experiences, but I can also expect females of the older age group to be interested in it as well, because of the cultural aspect.