Podcast 10

This is our 10th podcast

Podcast 9

This is our 9th podcast

Podcast 8

This is our 8th podcast

Podcast 7

This is our 7th podcast

Podcast 6

This is our 6th podcast

Podcast 5

This is our 5th podcast

Podcast 4

This is our 4th podcast

Who Would Watch A Rom Com?

Conventionally we are targeting a teen audience as this is where most Rom-Coms are aimed at, however we also noticed from further research that they are also targeted at people who are in a long term relationship or marriage which reduces the chances of it being a teen audience therefore it is good to target a secondary audience that being 24-35.


However we think it is wiser to stick to a target audience we can relate to and know what they like than be adventurous and not produce a film that is as good.


For this we think our idea we need to aim at a teenage market at someone who may enjoy things like Wild Child, however we also think it is important to remember our indie background so it is important not to over aspire therefore we looked Submarine to take ideas from that and look at a film that was digitally produced. 

Target Audience Research

The Guardian 

This article shows that although rom coms often get thrashed by the critics the audience still enjoyed them, we felt this was important.

It's also the latest in a long line of contemporary romantic comedies – proving that no matter how progressive we imagine we have become, our dating aspirations remain rooted in centuries-old tradition.

The Guardian

This shows that Rom-Coms are popular with couples especially around valentines day. But now this is changing.

Reviews were scathing, but ensemble romcom Valentine's Day has finally ended. 

Telegraph


Although critics complain sometimes there is nothing better than watching a rom-com. Although the formula is the same and can become repetitive and this is what the critics don't like, however for some people its the best thing - this is the audience we want to target.

I think it is this sense of how comforting movies can be that critics sometimes miss. 

Watching About Time is like being given a big hug, and it is a very nice sensation. 

Marley + Me ( a romantic comedy where everyone is in love with the dog) can reduce me to a helpless happy blubber, and every time Notting Hill is on television (which is surprisingly often) I find myself compelled to watch it, and even mire compelled to sob at the "I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" line. I know its corny, but it doesn't matter. It works its magic every time.

Romcoms tend to defy such rigorous critique.

Richard Curtis is the Mrs Miniver of our times, though rather wittier. His films fulfil the same function of making Britain seem a good place, full of nice people.  

The Guardian

Romantic comedies seem to take over where the fairytales of childhood left off, feeding our dreams of a soulmate;

Now, hot on the heels of It's Complicated, Crazy, Stupid, Love offers further proof that the romcom, rather than desert we middle-lifers, has decided to mature with us. In the US, 64% of the opening weekend audience was female and 71% were over 25. Not that our aspirations have changed much, judging by this script. We still want our hero and heroine to convince us that a stroll into the sunset and beyond is the most likely outcome of initial adversity.

And it is still heroes and heroines we're talking about; despite homosexuality long ago entering the cultural mainstream, a single-sex relationship has yet to be the full focus of a mainstream romance, unless you count Brokeback Mountain where, I believe, the comedy was unintentional; or Mel Gibson and Danny DeVito. "When Harry Met Henry" and "When Sally Met Sarah" are long overdue, and this only confirms how conventional the rules of engagement are when it comes to the romantic comedy genre. Today's cinema audience may be more cynical (and sexually active) than that of our parents but they still demand that verbal foreplay lead to physical consummation, and misunderstandings to love with a capital L. In the world of the romantic comedy, life hasn't changed much since the 1950s.

Ironically for a movie category not renowned for its originality or inventiveness, it's the one arena where women have been allowed to be feisty way before feminism made it de rigueur.

Since so many romantic comedies vary little in their storyline, the success or failure of such movies depends largely on whether we believe in the relationship of the protagonists.

Jezebel.com

Back in the good old days, all a Hollywood studio had to do to make tens of millions of dollars was release a film about a plucky, satisfyingly flawed female protagonist who finds quirky but ultimately bland love with a chesty yet tender-hearted man. Meet-cute, But I Can't Stand Him montage, scene where Everything Changes, infatuation montage, misunderstanding that threatens to derail the whole thing, dramatic gesture to correct misunderstanding, satisfying resolution. Boom. A Rom Com. But over the last few years, box office receipts have been disappointing. Hollywood execs say that audiences are sick of romantic comedy tropes, that the formula is tired. But women aren't tired of the romantic comedy formula at all; what we're tired of is films made by people who don't understand what female viewers want. And we've finally got other options.

The problem isn't that audiences are bored or that technology ruined everything; the problem is that there aren't enough people in Hollywood who understand why women watch romantic comedies making movies — there aren't enough women. Last year, only 18% of directors, writers, executive producers, producers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 grossing box office films were women, a 1% increase since 1998. That's fucking embarrassing. And women want to watch movies; the god-awful Twilight franchise has grossed over a billion dollars, a mostly-female audience is nerding the fuck out on The Hunger Games. Brave, Les Miserables, and Silver Linings Playbook kicked ass in the 2012 box office. There's a gigantic opportunity to snag more female viewers by simply releasing a halfway decent romcom that doesn't depict women as psychopathic brides.

The romantic comedy is very much alive. It just needs to be made by people who understand why the romantic comedy audience watches. Romantic comedies need to be made by ... women. And with an ever-growing class of talented and funny female comedy writers currently working in TV, maybe the next architect of the romantic comedy of Hollywood's dreams has been right in front of it this whole time. If they'd only notice.

Millions of girls turn 13 ever year. Even if people discarded film genres once they caught onto their tropes, studio execs could figure that they've got at least 3 solid years of earnest romcom viewing from most young women before they catch on to the fact that every film is the same.

Initial Idea of Target Audience

We thought about our target audience but came to the conclusion we wanted something that we would enjoy going to see. Therefore we needed to be the target audience the same age as ourselves. 



Which would mean a target audience of 15-24 which we thought would be appropriate as we also know this is the age group that visits the cinema the most, and this would also be the age that our characters would be in our film as we would find it harder getting younger or older actors as we are a micro budget production company and would have to pay for older and potentially younger actors which is something we don't want to be doing the the expense isn't necessary. 


Our genre choice also is popular amongst teenagers so we feel this helps anchor our choice too. We have also chosen to set our film in a school so therefore trying to attract an audience that is not at school is silly therefore the 15-24 will incorporate students at school, sixth form, college or university which keeps many 'doors' open. At the end of the day everyone has been to school so will be able to relate to our film in some way. However we took ideas and inspiration from films we had looked at in detail. 

We thought it would be easier to base our target audience on films we had already seen as if we are taking inspiration from them we feel it must be important to carry on the same target audience as it must be the same or close to theirs. Therefore it was important to look at the films we had looked at in detail therefore we chose ones that we liked and enjoyed and all roughly targeted the same age range for audience. 

Podcast 2

This is our 2nd podcast

Podcast 1

our first podcast