Evaluation Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teenagers who are both male and female and middle aged men would be the audience to my media product. This is because our opening sequence consists of many action scenes which would be seen as more targeted at the males rather then females. We also involved romance in our film in order to focus more at females. The contrast between the action and romance will increase the audience range allowing our film to be aimed not just at male teenagers but at females as well. We wanted our opening sequence to be the best it could be despite us not having the best camera equipment, our script, our camera shots and our story line will be enough to draw all audiences in no matter what sex they are.

The age rating for our film is 15 therefore this immediately prevents a certain audience from watching our film which is children under the age of 15 but this also shows that our film is aimed at teenagers. The action in our film is not too violent and appropriate language is used so we were allowed to keep it at 15 even though we have a scene where the audience can see my character bleeding. There is also a gun in our film which meant we had to up the age rating by a couple more years and the fact that the story was based on mobs/gangsters also meant we had to increase the age rating, me and my crew were wanting our film to be a 12A but after research we concluded that the age had to be 15.

I went on the British Board of Film Classification's website and found this information:

What does the 15 symbol mean?

 No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD.  15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Are there any limits on what sort of theme a work can have at 15?

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Is 15 really stronger than 12A?

 Yes. 15 works are stronger than 12 or 12A rated works and could include any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

How much strong language is there in a 15?

There could potentially be a great deal. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (eg f***).

Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (eg 'c***'), although continued or aggressive use will not normally be passed 15.

What about discriminatory or offensive terms?

There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this.

However, at 15 the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

How much sex and nudity is allowed at 15?

At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, as long as there is no strong or graphic detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category and may involve some nudity and movement. Though nudity may be allowed in a sexual context there should be no strong detail.

There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

There can be strong references to sex and sexual behaviour, but especially strong or crude references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context.

Heterosexual and homosexual sex and sex references are treated the same.

Can there be strong violence?

Yes, at 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

Easily accessible weapons may not be glamorized.

What about sexual violence?

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

What about horror works?

Many horror films are rated 15. At 15 there can be strong threat and menace (as long as it is not sadistic or sexualised), although the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Can you see drugs in a 15 rated film or video?

At 15 drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.

The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances like aerosols or solvents is unlikely to be acceptable at 15.

What about dangerous behavior or things teens might copy?

We consider the risk of potential harm to impressionable teenagers. For example, dangerous behavior such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.

I have drawn this on paint by copying a image into paint and colouring the the skin colour and clothing, i drew this because this is what the target audience will appear like. This is the sort of clothing our middle aged men target audience would be wearing and this is the look they would have. In my drawing you can see the man is wearing dull colours with a hat which and a small beard gives off a intimidating and older look. He also holds a bat which indicates he is not to be messed with.

I also drew this on paint starting from scratch. This drawing was pure imaginary, a image i had stuck in my head after watching my clip back so i decided to draw what i was seeing in my head as it was the audience we were targeting at. This drawing looks more teen as this would be the younger audience our film would be aimed at, he's wearing bright colours which make him stand out and he has his hair styled showing that he wants to look good as he's young. He looks tough due to him slightly leaning back showing he's relaxed may whatever the situation be. 


I asked two of my friends, one male and one female, to analyse my opening sequence once they had viewed it. Here are there responses: