This document discusses the target audience for the film "Donnie of the Dead" produced by Spikey Films and Scope Productions. The primary target age is 15-24 who will be able to identify with the main character Donnie, a clumsy buffoon. It aims to attract both male and female viewers through genres of horror, romance, and comedy. While Donnie is middle-class, the film does not explicitly target any economic group. With dialogue primarily in a southern English accent, the target region is England but the film could reach worldwide distribution through streaming services. The film does not limit its cast or audience by sexuality.

1. Our target audience
Spikey Films and Scope Productions

2. AGE
Our Target age would be around 15-24. The characters in our film opening are in their early 20's. The Uses and Gratifications theory is
applicable here, as we would want our audience to identify with our characters, especially Donnie. Donnie is an archetypal buffoon,
with some of the slapstick clumsiness of Charlie Chaplin, though also a simulacra of Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost. Although he is
the archetypal buffoon, the film would progress into Donnie ending as the Proppian hero, winning over the Proppian prize. With our
protagonist having no female gaze, it means more of our audience will be able to see themselves in the same situation as Donnie.
Linking to identification, many teens/early adults will identify with the short portrayal of romance in the opening. Towards the end of
our opening, Donnie sees a girl that he fancies however it is clear she has no interest. This character is called Mia Jones, and she is the
Proppian prize/princess in this production. This then links to Laura Mulvey's male gaze, with the young target audience being drawn to
this character (similar to Emma Stone in Zombieland, with our costume being heavily influenced from that). The costume of Donnie
connotes his character archetype, wearing loose fitted clothes (with no known brands) and uncool glasses. The audience could identify
with Donnie again when he is seen changing into a Rick and Morty T-shirt. The audience attracted to the comedy side could watch
Rick and Morty as well, therefore it is a useful link . Another aspect that plays a part in attracting the age range is the mise-en-scene
clearly portraying Donnie as a heavy drinker. When asleep in the living room, there is clear mise-en-scene of beer bottles, cigarettes,
soda cans and more lying around. Donnie portrays a life with freedom and a lack of responsibility (despite having a job), which the 15-
24 age range will identify with. The zom-rom-com is often preferred by this age range as well. We researched this by putting together a
quiz for a wide age range, finding out what they knew/enjoyed from the horror/zombie genre. The results of this information are
elsewhere on this post.

3. AGE
With our genre being zom-rom-com, it means it is vital to have gore and violence in our production. Along with that, profanity would be used for
verisimilitude. If our film was to have a BBFC rating, it would likely be 15. This would impact the box office (as less ages will legally be allowed to go
to cinema and watch the movie, overall impacting our box office). There are several cases where a production company have expected their movie to get
a BBFC rating of 15, but got 18, heavily decreasing the expected success. I have done more research on the impact of BBFC ratings and MPAA ratings
on Warp and Working Title movies (and the controversies surrounding them), which can be found on my 'The Film Industry' post. The general idea
explored was whether BBFC treat big 5 distributed movies better than indie movies.
Our secondary target audience would be slightly broader than our primary target audience, with opportunities to attract younger and older audiences.
Despite the BBFC rating suggesting the minimum legal age in Britain is 15, digitisation is becoming increasingly dominant in the industry due to
convergence. This means young teenagers and even 'tweenagers' would have the opportunity to watch the movie, with many distributors placing films
on websites such as Netflix. Our opening would attract this audience because this age group aspire to be like their older peers. The youth are extremely
vital to the film industry, with teenagers/young adults having the greatest access and understanding of digitisation. This is especially important for
smaller distributors or production companies such as Warp. With the usual unlikeliness of reaching cinemas, it is vital to reach an online audience.
Our film would attract an older audience because the interests of our protagonist are slightly old fashioned, with Donnie singing Ghost Town by The
Specials, a song that gained popularity in the year 2000. An older audience of 25-40 could identify with the character as they could've listened to the
song when they were younger. Baby Driver is an Edgar Wright film that reached success revolving around older music, however this contrasts with The
World's End, which could be considered a relative failure while also being evolved aeround older music. As our character posesses attributes that an
older audience would identify with, I feel as though it would be success amongst a secondary audience. A reason The World's end was unsuccessful was
because a younger audience struggled to identify with the characters, however our characters are younger than those in The World's End.

4. GENDER
Our aim is to target both genders, as the gender gap in horror is small (although likely skews towards
males slightly). Identification from the Uses and Gratifications Theory is heavily applicable here,
with our protagonist being male. Although the romance genre is preferred by a female audience, the
male audience can stereotypically identify with the element of rejection/'friendzone' that Donnie
experiences in the opening (Donnie thinks Mia has an interest in him but is rejecting when she is just
trying to save him from the zombie). It is also important to consider there is an attraction to this genre
from the male audience, as they might consider a romance film for a date. This is less applicable
though; due to how small and low budget our film is (therefore not reaching cinemas). Donnie is a
stereotype of a man, being messy, clumsy and careless. With Donnie and Mia both being central
characters to the plot, it is likely our aim will reach both male and female audiences.

5. GENDER
With the zombie genre targeting both genders, it is important to use this genre to attract the female audience with the aspect of 'final
girl' (a theory by Carol Clover) being used frequently in the horror genre. We were unable to portray the final girl in the opening,
however we still researched and compared the theories of Laura Mulvey and Carole Clover. Laura Mulvey is responsible for producing
the 'male gaze' theory. This theory suggests that the female character is used as a device to attract a male audience through physical
attraction. We used the device with our Proppian princess, Mia Jones, wearing a tight black dress, highlighting her figure. Linking to
male gaze, there is female gaze (when a female audience is attracted to a male character on the film). This could be applicable to Eddie
Pegg, the character that saves Donnie from the zombie in the opening. He is first shown wearing a long black trench-coat, with 'cool'
glasses (influenced from Simon Pegg's character in The World's End, who is portrayed as a 'lady killer'). The females will feel Mia's
countrtypical 'badass' bravery are aspirational. The fact that our film is a hybrid genre, it means we are more likely to target a wider
audience (not quite four quadrant though).
After researching the industry and the various feminist theories, we looked into the Bechdel test. Lots of movies fail this test, including
our Donnie of the Dead. If a movie is to pass the Bechdel test, it will attract a larger female audience, however we chose to fail as we
wanted to stick closely to the Shaun of the Dead template, which succeeded in attracting a female audience.

6. ECONOMIC GROUPING
Our main aim is to target a middle-class audience (C1C2DE), however we chose not to have any devices to limit our audience to this
class. Once again, the uses and gratifications theory is applicable, with our main character being middle-class. With the use of
exposition in the mise-en-scene, it is clear he lives in a good house, however it is unclear as to how big it is, and Donnie clearly
doesn't take care of it (connoted through the mess in the living room specifically). His costume doesn't have any brands, however
when still dressed in his work clothes, it is clear Donnie must have a job. We decided to use a lot of 'mess' in the mise-en-scene
making it clear that he can afford alcohol, cigarettes and a phone. The phone is an old android phone with a cracked screen. We
chose this as if we were to suggest the character was upper-class, we would have portrayed him as having an interest in materialistic
goods, therefore owning premium price items. Along with this, the group of characters get into a large well-kept Skoda. Although it
isn't their car, it still suggests these character live in quite an expensive area, however there is comedy in the idea that they are
unaware on how the car works and all the functuons of the car. We are being highyl steotypical with our characters, similar to The
Brothers Grimsby. This is a very different approach to films such as Tyrannosaur and This is England, presenting a much more
nuanced picture, once again, developing on the comedy element.

7. NATIONALITY/REGION
With the only dialogue in our opening coming from the Proppian princess, Mia
Jones, our target region would be across England. This character has a posh
Southern English accent, meaning it can be understood by a wide audience.
With our protagonist being from Zimbabwe, it means his accent is slightly more
niche, however it is not particularly noticeable and would not limit our worldwide
distribution (although with the size of our production, the distribution would be
around the setting of the production, in London, in Arthouse cinemas).
Indie movies don't tend to limit their actors to just white, as the frequently used
genre, social realism, is realistic and closer to the real world than what big 5
production companies portray. With our inspiration being taken by Working Title,
it means our intentions with cast would be closer to Shaun of the Dead.

8. SEXUALITY
Although our cast is entirely heteronormative, our production has no limits to the sexuality
of our audience. A homosexual audience could fit in the secondary audience,
stereotypically liking the same elements as the female audience, being romance. In the
opening, there is an early hint of romance between our protagonist, Donnie, and the
Proppian prize, Mia Jones, whom he is clearly attracted to. This is a device to attract our
secondary audience. We have focused on the commercial aspect, and we were
concerned with any LGBT+ character simply appearing as stereotypical in the confines of
a 2min film opening. Working Title films tend to use heteronormative protagonists. Strand
Releasing, a distributor that generally distribute LGBT+ mives, are yet to distribute a
Working Title production.

9. WARP VS WORKING TITLE
We felt it was important to compare and contrast Warp and Working Title audiences to apply to our film
opening. Warp often focus on appealing to a narrower audience, with their focus being on creating a creative
concept that they consider artistic. This contrasts with Working Titles focus, with their aim being to create the
largest box office possible. This is why they will use a specific regular order to attract a four quadrant audience.
They will have devices that attract a worldwide audience, by following certain schemes that are proven to work.
They use Todorov's narrative theory, stereotyping and Propp's archetypes and they use genre's that attract the
four quadrant audience (with the Cornetto Trilogy being an example of this). Warp often produce Social Realist
movies. This is a genre that has no worldwide appeal and require no CGI/SFX, therefore being easier to produce
with smaller budgets. We have taken aspects of both subsidiaries in our film opening, following the usual
schemes that are followed by working title, however the size of our production and budget limit our audience. A
production for an American audience would highlight the upper-class as better than working-class, however
Warp usually surround working-class characters. We have not used working-class characters in our opening,
therefore being more open to an audience either side of middle-class.