audience research

Film Noir attracts mainly an adult audience, due to their dark and gritty themes. They often have complex story lines that require a lot of attention and careful observation, meaning that the majority of the adult audience that go and watch these films immerse them into the world of Film Noir. The original Film Noir was in Black and White and, despite the story lines of murder and crime, showed very little gore and had no swearing at all. This meant the typical audience would be from the ages of 30 – 60. Examples of Film Noir include Casablanca (1940), Suspicion (1941) and The Big Combo (1955), an example of the low gore would be in The Big Combo when a stripper gets gunned down, and we see a limp arm flop down the side of a chair.

The more modern Film Noir, often referred to as Neo Noir, have much more violence and swearing, for the modern, desensitised audience, and the story lines are less complex, meaning they draw in a younger audience from ages 20 – 50. Some examples of Neo Noir include In Bruges (2008), Sin City (2005) and Oldboy (2002), all of which are rated 18 for the excessive amounts of gore, for example in Oldboy when the main protagonist cuts off his own tongue and we see blood pouring from his mouth.

A lot of Film Noir is rated PG by the BBFC, showing how mild it is. The BBFC dictates that “Moderate violence, without detail, may be allowed, if justified by its context”, and a lot of Film Noirs do have a lot implied violence, like in the example from The Big Combo above. One act of violence from In Bruges is when one of the hit men jumps off a tower and hits the ground in what can only be described as an explosion of blood. This amount of violence mean the film got an 18 rating, meaning the audience age would have to go up.

Our opening will be rated 18, because of the drug use and language meaning the audience we will intend to attract will be aged from 18 to 40.BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CLASSIFICATIONSuitable for 15 years and over.
Rated 15 films include the following features:
discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, and violence and are unsuitable for any persons below the age of 15 to rent or buy films of this certificate.18 rated films similarly contain the same elements as a 15 but the violent behavior, language and nudity may be of a stronger nature.
These elements contribute towards the rating of the film and are allowed in films but are not allowed to be focussed too much upon in the film.