The document analyzes how the audiences were constructed for three films: American Hustle, Shadow Recruit, and The Smurfs 2. For American Hustle, the target audience is identified as young adults aged 16-24 based on the casting and 1970s aesthetic. Shadow Recruit targets ages 12-18 given its 12A rating and police thriller genre. The Smurfs 2 aims at children aged 5-10 and their families by using bright colors and familiar Smurfs characters. All three films seek to attract both male and female viewers through gender-balanced representations.

1. How have the audiences been
constructed for three films?
By Catherine May

2. American
Hustle

3. Age
• The age rating for the film product is a 15.
• I believe the films targeted audience is young adults, such as the 1624 age group.
• This is because they have used iconic, newly popular casting such as
Bradley Cooper who has featured in films that are adored by this age
range such as the hangover films, and Jenifer Lawrence who
appealed strongly to the age group of age 16-24 in The Hunger
Games. Therefore this casting would catch their interest and attract
people of this age to the film.
• The colours used for the official American Hustle franchise are black
and yellow. Yellow represents youth and innocence, and the black
creates a contrast to this implying the film has rebellious
aspects, making it strongly appealing and aimed for the young adult
age group, who stereotypically strive for this image of themselves.

4. Age
• The font used is extremely 70‟s style, and on the
website and during the trailer 70‟s style music is
played for the person of interest to endure.
Therefore I believe that they have targeted at
people who specifically have an interest in
American history, which could appeal to
students at Uni under my predicted age range
who are studying aspects of this topic.

5. Age
• The website has also used convergence and
provided direct links to official pages on social
networking sites of the film. This implies that
the targeted age is young adults, as due to
developments in technologies the younger
generation are more exposed and are therefore
strong users of social networking sites; more so
than older people.

6. Gender
• The advertisement for American hustle contains
three males and two females, suggesting almost
equality in the divide between the gender of
characters within the film. The slight imbalance
and a male in the centre of the poster does
suggest that it is slightly focused on the male
gender, and makes male appear of dominance
and power in the film which could attract more
male. This could however also attract female
audiences, as they may wish to watch the
dominance and power of the male figures.

7. Gender
• From my statistical yearbook research, I have
discovered that the genre which the gender is
not generally affected by is Drama; which one
which American hustle fits under. I therefore
believe that the film targets both genders and
does not wish to specify specifically one or the
other. It is not explicitly targeted one or the
other, for example like a rom-com would be for
female.

8. NRS Social Grade
• I believe that the NRS Social Grade of the audience
could range from E, as this includes students who
may be studying American history or have large
interests in the topic to B; the middle class. This is
because people who are of higher knowledge and
understanding may wish to go watch a film in
aspects that they have studied or show interest in. I
do not believe that the class A social grade would
partake in the audience, due to the „hustle‟ aspect of
the film which reflects it includes trouble and people
of lower class which these members of society may
not have interest in this.

9. Characteristics and values
• The font used is extremely 70‟s style, and on the
website and during the trailer 70‟s style music is
played for the person of interest to endure.
Therefore I believe that they have targeted at
people who specifically have an interest in
American history, which could appeal to
students at Uni under my predicted age range
who are studying aspects of this topic.

10. Characteristics and values
• It could also therefore appeal to anyone with
American history, relatives or a personal interest
in this time.
• The word “Hustle” reflects drama and crime,
and therefore the audiences characteristics
would have to appeal to actions of this nature in
order to enjoy the film.

11. Shadow
recruit

12. Age
• The age rating is a 12A.
• I believe the age group targeted is ages 12-18.
This is because although it is a thriller due do
the police theme and guns incorporated, they are
not represented explicitly in a threatening way
and therefore it represents that it is intended for
a younger audience; as it is kinder to the eye and
less dramatic or revealing as thrillers intended
for a younger audience.

13. Age
• On the statistical yearbook I discovered that this
age group has above average audiences in many
thrillers such as Taken 2 (54% of the audience)
and The Dark Knight Rises (43% of the
audience). This implies that this age group are
strongly connected to thrillers and that therefore
the targeted audience must relate to them in
order for the film to be a success.

14. Age
• The layout of the website is extremely
plain, simplistic and straight forward and therefore
this leads me to believe that it is targeted to a
younger teenage audience such as 12-18 year
olds, in order to allow them to independently
function the website and engage interest in the
films franchise.

15. Gender
• Due to the blue colour theme used throughout
the franchises advertising methods such as the
website and official poster, I believe that this
advertisement generally engages and attracts the
male audience more so than the female
audience. The font is also in a bold black type,
which is also not feminine and does not jump
out to the female eye as something which is
targeted at them.

16. NRS Social Grade
• I believe this film could attract many types of social
grade. This is because I believe as it is aimed at a
younger audience, the social grade E would be a
strong percentage of the audience to the film.
However individuals who are of a higher social
grade, such as C2, C1 and even perhaps even B may
also partake as audience members to this film, as
they may have interest in thrillers that revolve
around criminology and knowledge and experience
with the police force and therefore be attracted to
the film for these factors.

17. Characteristics and values
• The film appears extremely involved with police and
criminology, due to the blueprint loading sign on the
website, and also the mechanical transitions used in both
the trailer and on the website. Therefore I believe that
people who will show appeal to the film will have interest
in this field, and also have the value of a mind set that
enjoys making calculations and detect clues and hints
within the film that could lead to the ending result.

18. The
Smurfs
2

19. Age
• The Smurfs 2 is rated a U and therefore has no
restrictions on what age can attend the screening. I
believe however it is targeted at children aged 5-10
and also families such as parents or carers of these
individuals.
• The bright, attractive primary colours used in the
poster and trailer such as blue, red and yellow
attracts the younger simplistic minds and directly
attracts this age of audience as it the colours often
learnt first at this age and also colours that are
associated with younger generations.

20. Age
• I also believe it is targeted towards this younger
generation of audience due to the semiology used in the
promotional posters such as the fashionable “peace”
sign. This is because it is widely used as a „pose‟ by this
younger 5-10 year old audience making the media more
appealing and fashionable to this audience.

21. Age
• I also believe they have targeted the parents or
carers of these children, in order to persuade them
to feel easy-going and less reluctant to take their
children to go and view the media.
• They have achieved this by maintaining „The Smurfs‟
basic original image that this elder generation will
mainly be familiar with from when they were
younger and used to view the cartoon (1982 is the
year the original cartoon was released).
• This familiarisation will appeal to the older
generation and make them wish to view the media
as a kind and happy memory and to see how it has
developed over the years.

22. The original Smurfs programme

23. Gender
• I do not believe that the film is gender
specific. This is because, although the
characters are blue which can
stereotypically be classified as a „male
colour‟, many more colours are
incorporated into the main poster and
trailer to the film. This includes all
aspects of the primary colour spectrum
and some secondary colours
too, suggesting it is meant to be
attractive and appealing to either
gender‟s human eye, non specifically.

24. Gender
In the poster and trailer of the official “Smurfs 2”
franchise, they have also incorporated „Smurfs‟ and
people of mixed genders, reflecting it is both a girl and a
boy film. The girl „Smurf‟ in the poster is blatantly
represented as a stereotypical feminine character with
blonde, long hair in a white dress, making it strongly
apparent to the younger girls that it is appealing to
them. On the other hand, the male „Smurf‟ is stood
rigidly with his arms folded looking what this generation
of young boys would consider „cool‟ – making it
appealing for both male and female young childern.

25. NRS Social Grade
• I believe as targeted at young children, the NRS
social grade that will be the highest part of the
audience is E. I do however believe this could
range up to the social class of C2, as skilled
manual working parents who take time and
passion towards their children are likely to
accompany the child to the film.

26. Characteristics and Values
• Due to the bright, simplistic colours applied to
the formation of the animation and it‟s
advertisement, I believe the film appears to have
a „feel good‟ factor and is simplistically cheerful.
I therefore understand that the characteristics of
it‟s audience would reflect this strongly. This is
because individuals who are optimistic would
seek to go to naively relaxed and endure in the
excitement it will take them on; not to go and see
something sad and upsetting.

27. Characteristics and Values
• The Smurf‟s are iconic for teaching and
promoting the correct values of „doing the right
thing.‟ They simplistic level allows the younger
audience to understand right from wrong in the
film, and therefore promotes positive values in
the younger audience who endure in the media.
This may also encourage parents or adults with
sensible characteristics to be motivated to watch
the film and take their children to it for this
purpose.