B1: ‘Explore the different audience appeals of your 3 main texts’

My three main texts are…’Skyfall’ (2012) directed by Sam Mendes, ‘Kingsman: the Secret Service’ (2014) directed by Matthew Vaughn and ‘Weekend’ (2011) directed by Andrew Haigh. Skyfall and Kingsman have a more ‘traditional’ representation of masculinity compared to Weekend. The main audience (‘s) for Skyfall are… 1) Fans of the Franchise: these are audience members who have been fans of 007 for a very long time and have seen the films before so they know to expect good quality and also as they are fans of the franchise they really get into the storyline and enjoy watching how bond would get out of a ‘tricky situation’. The fans of the franchise would have seen ‘Spectre’ the 007 film one before Skyfall also directed by Sam Mendes so again they know to expect a good quality film. The way the film appeals to this audience is by keeping the ‘traditional’, brave, masculine Bond character yet still modernising him to appeal to another target audience which are… 2) Women: a lot of women watched Skyfall as they like the ‘manly yet sensitive’ side to 007, they can fantasize about how he could save them or how he could be their 007, and at the same time wishing their partners were more like him. The film appeals to this audience by showing a more ‘modern’ take on the traditional man that he has his weaknesses yet he is so strong and can always save the day yet also care for the women in his life. Another audience Skyfall appeals to are… 3) Men who want to be like James Bond: so whether this is men who have partners and want to be able to be their ‘hero’ or men who are looking for a partner and think being more like Bond could help them! The film appeals to this audience in the same way it appeals to their secondary audience, by showing how a man can have emotions and yet still be strong and a hero and get all the ladies.

The main audience (‘s) for ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ are a range fromm12-40 year olds, this is because having a diverse cast means the audience can relate to the characters, for example Eggsy, (played by Taron Egerton) he is a young guy from a rough background this means the younger audience members can relate to him, and on the other hand the character Harry, (played by Collin Firth)  is a much older sophisticated gentleman which other audience members can relate to. This film has many genres this again widens the audience for example fans of action movies or spy movies or science fiction movies will watch this movie. Boys ages 12-15 can look up to Eggsy and want to be like him and think he is ‘cool’, in a similar way girls ages 12-15 can either look up to Roxy, (played by Sophie Cookson) as she is a strong female character who shows up the boys in Kingsman training, look up to Gazelle, (played by  Sofia Boutella) as she is a very dangerous, powerful ‘sexy’ woman or if not look up to one of the strong female leads they can admire Eggsy as he is a very loveable character. The film appeals the these audiences by showing us a side to Eggsy which we wouldn’t normally see form a boy of a council estate, and also by positioning the audience so we have sympathy for Eggsy, we want Eggsy and Roxy to be together as they are both very loveable characters.

My third and final case study is Weekend, the audience (‘s) for Weekend are… LGBT supporters mainly as this film tackles this issues with being Homosexual. The film is about how this secret gay relationship between two men, Russell, (played by Tom Cullen) and Glen, (played by Chris New) which forms over the weekend, and we are positioned with the two main homosexual characters, we see in one scene they are lying in bed together and then people start shouting abuse through their window! This addresses the issues some people have with homosexuals. This film attempts to show what it was like to be gay in 2011. I feel this film is informative that is why it appeals to supporters to the LGBT community.