This is an audience profile research for action-comedy fans

1. Audience Profile
The chosen genre for my film is action-comedy, this genre is a mixture of
action & comedy and has been very popular during the last 10 years. I know
this because I looked at action & comedy films that have been released in
the last years, their gross and how much the film made [Figure 1]. With
additional research I establish that some action movies contain comedy
elements such as Men in Black II (2002), 21 Jump Street (2012) & Bad Boys
(1995). These films are very popular among action-comedy fans and are
considered to be action-comedy films as the audience spot both elements of
action & comedy, which is why the directors continued producing several
parts e.g. Bad Boys II (2003) & 22 Jump Street (2014) were released.
Figure 1
This shows that having action-comedy as our genre means that we can
attract audience easier as it is a popular choice with the public and that
individuals would be interested in watching.
From my research the expected age bracket for this genre lies between 12-
40 years old, this because of the language and violence used which is

2. popular among teenagers and young adults. The majority of action-comedy
audience are male, this is because the action element generally attracts
male audience. As it is stereotypical to attract males by the use of violence in
a film, however the comedy element in the film attracts female audience
who dislike the ‘violence’ in the film. We have lost our 50+ year’s old
audience because they prefer a slow-paced which established most of the
conventions in a reasonable pace, which this genre and our movie doesn’t
provide.
Furthermore, I looked at the ethnicity of the audience of action-comedy. For
example ‘Bad Boys’ has a diverse cast from different background and
religions (Black, Asians, Latin, White etc.) therefore I can assume that this
genre appeals to a wider range of races within our audience as we are not
creating aiming our film at a specific ethnicity. Looking at the socio-
economic groups, I think that our film would fit C2, D & E because these
groups will relate to our storyline but our film will also be filmed in locations
that they’re familiar with e.g. bazaars, local parks and etc. Our movie is not
aimed at the groups A, B & C1 because these groups have more
complicated preferences when it comes to films e.g. group A & B want to
watch films that challenge them mentally or films that agree with their views
for example political films.
The advantage of having this genre is that it is popular amongst people our
age (Teenagers), however, this genre has a mass audience which means
that we have to try and satisfy the majority with our film.
Next, I researched the main conventions used by directors to attract their
target audience by watching several action-comedy films and then
conclude what has been used in each of them. Some of my main findings
were:
 Introduction of the main character(s)
o This has been done in the opening minutes so that the audience
can established the characteristic of the character and what they
can expect of him/her during the film.
 Establishing the narrative at the beginning
o The director has established the narrative in all the films analysed in
the opening of the films, this was done because the audience can
connote the narrative very quickly due to their experience and
knowledge of other action-comedy films.
 Establishing the mood/atmosphere
o This is important because it links to the establishment of the
narrative and genre, if the director chooses certain dialogue for

3. the characters than this can connote the genre e.g. in ‘Men in
Black II’ the narrator mocks the Men in Black which connotes a
comedy element to the audience.
 Flashback
o Returning to an import event in the past, so the audience have a
better understanding of the narrative.
I will be using these conventions when creating my film, as they are a great
tool to attract a greater audience, but also to establish the narrative in the
giving time that I have when my final film is produced.
One of the producers & directors that drew my attention when planning my
action-comedy film was David Gordon Green who is known for producing
‘Pineapple Express’. As most action-comedy directors he used the main
conventions and other tools effective in the opening scene to produce a film
of high quality for example he used a flashback and the audience knew this
through the use of costumes and colour scheme.
By looking at what he achieved through the use of the used conventions and
tools, I will try to apply these techniques to my film and hope for the same
result.