W H AT D O YO U K N O W A BO U T YO U R A U D I E N C E

TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH

WHO IS/ARE THE AUDIENCE(S) FOR SOCIAL REALISM FILMS?

To answer this question I will be researching film sites like IMDB,, MUBI and Love Film.

IMDB The Internet Movie Database is a massive library of films from a huge range of genre’s, this means social realism is not exactly easy to find, As you can see here its not even on their list of genres :

Despite this IMDB actually does store a Large group of social realism films:

What I can tell from this site about the audience of social realism films is that they are well educated and find real life issues that are otherwise difficult to think about as they portray both sides of an argument very intriguing, You can tell this from the reviews the users have written for example this review: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur3372272/comments where a user has explained how the film ‘Boy A’ shows both sides of a difficult situation and asks the audience if they could forgive someone like the main character ‘Jack’, it is the most liked review of this film and that tells me that the people who watch it like how the film tackles real life issue’s.

WHO IS/ARE THE AUDIENCE(S) FOR SOCIAL REALISM FILMS?

LoveFilmLove film is much like IMDB as it to does not have social realism listed as a genre and if you were to search for it all you would get it a handful of news articles that mention the phrase, but again they do hold on to a large amount of dramas that would be classed as social realism and from searching through the site enough I can again find well written reviews on those films from the public that state them as social realism:

MUBI

So far the only direct reference to social realism films by a site is MUBI, I don’t mean it was sitting in the genre section or advertised on the main page but with a fair amount of searching you can find this page: http://mubi.com/lists/free-cinema-british-social-realism which has a list of all the British social realism films on the site. This does give me a good insight on my audience, as you can read on their about page http://mubi.com/about , they are not a huge or popular site but they are built around film especially social realism, so I can tell from this that the audience for social realism is not a huge demographic that major sites would pay attention to but a small group of film fans that are dedicated to the genre.

Here you can see another poster of bullet boy that was made and it has elements of a social realism advert but some parts that are not , the image of the boys younger-self is a bit strange for a social realism advert as I think it takes away from the realism, but the way in which in blends in with the singles shot of the boys older self symbolizing again that the film follows his life is what I and any other social realism film fan would expect from a social realism film.

WHO DISTRIBUTES SOCIAL REALISM TEXTS?

There are a few small companies who distribute mainly social realism films in the UK such as:

Artificial eye and warp films are Independent companies in the UK who distribute a large amount od social realism films such as Fish tank and Four lions, Cineart is located in Netherlands and distributes a large amount of social realism films .

1. What does the promotion and publicity tell you about the kinds of audiences the distributors are trying to reach (Where do they advertise? What format is the Advertising? Register/Lexis/Syntax?)

This Is a very typical advertisement for a social realism film, it Is a very plain advert that looks realistic, it looks realistic as it is a profile on one single person which means it revolves around their life, he is wearing a hoody , had a black eye and is holding a gun which builds a lot of effect in the advert as it suggests a lot about his background and what will happen in the narrative which is appealing to social realism film fans as they like films on real life issues and this poster subtly shows a lot of that, the bruise on his eye explains that point well, most Hollywood and mass media films would have a perfectly photoshoped image of an a-list actor but this poster shows a beaten, dangerous and somewhat worried man which brings the reality of the film to life.

HOW IS THE AUDIENCE REACHED BY THE FILMMAKER/DISTRIBUTER?

Most film adverts are on popular sites such as this one: But for most social realism films and short films the traditional forms of advertising like billboards and poster, TV ads and internet ads arenot able to made or bought with they're budget, and so they have to advertise another way which reaches their audience.Social realism films are usually advertised in film magazines such as ‘Sight and Sound’, The sight and sound magazine is everything filmAnd is subscribed to by big film fans, it is also full of film advertisements from many genre’s,Including social realism films which is the best place for them to advertise as people who read thisParticular magazine are huge film fans who understand the social realism genre which is why it contains articles on social realism films unlike most mainstream magazines and internet sites.

Distributors of typically social realism films are not huge companies as social realism is not a well recognized genre and so it has a small audience, because their audience is limited and because there are usually small companies there is very little advertisement made by them, it is difficult to find a means were they can reach their audience in a inexpensive way, but distributers of social realism films can manage some publicity through articles on films which the are distributing or have helped publish and since the people who read these articles are film fans they manage to reach their audience.

Another unique way in which the are reaching their audience for free is through social networking sites such ad face book and twitter, this way the can be viewed by a massive range of people all over the world and it is completely for free.

THROUGH WHAT CHANNELS ARE THE FILMS CONSUMED?

FestivalSome of the best social realism films are nominated for a huge amount of film festivals, from some of the most respected events like ‘Cannes’ to student film festivals like ‘Cinemagic Belfast’, and this festivals have a range of unique audience types that include people in the industry and fans.

In my research into social realism films I concluded that most Film festivals tend to only attract those who are interested in:• In the industry • In the films as entertainment or inspiration• In the directors for example a producer looking for a skilled director• Or have had or do have a part in the festival• Are their for support or as a fan • Or even sometimes those who are in the area of the festival and simply support it.

TheatricalSome social realism films manage to get displayed at Cinemas, but it is very rare and when they do it is usually only a few short films that are shown together, this way they can show more mainstream feature films meaning even less of a chance for a social realism film to get noticed by an audience.

DomesticFor the Largest audience of social realism, their fans and the academic audience the main place they are watched is online on community and distribution sites like Mubi and IMDB, and the audience ranges on each of theses sites from film fanatics and academic/fans.

HOW DOES THE AUDIENCE SHARE VIEWS/ KNOWLEDGE/

INFORMATION ABOUT THE FILM?

http://twitter.com/#!/WarpFilms

http://www.facebook.com/MUBIdotcom?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/#!/MUBIdotcom

http://www.facebook.com/warpfilms

Reviews on films is how the majority of audiences for films share opinions, and it is also the best place for me to find out about them and what the audience of social realism films are like; I found this review of bullet boy on IMDB and it shows me how smart the audience from their use of language and from how much they read into the films the watch: “authority throughout the film is unfailingly depicted as white and vaguely adversarial” it means when I come to making my film I need to consider how strong film critics will read into everything I show, so to have a better understanding I have researched into ‘Joeythebrit’ the writer of the review more, on imdb he has written a staggering 165 pages of reviews each page consisting of about ten reviews meaning he could have potentially written 1000’s of reviews on this site alone: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1174539/comments these reviews include recent films like limitless to old films like the phantom of the opera which mean he is a huge film fan and from other reviews like bullet boy I can see he watches a fair amount of social realism films which tells me that the series fans of social realism really understand all genres and aspects of films.

There is a lot off audience interaction found on social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter, there is four links to relevant sites where you can see 1000’s of people who have liked and wrote about film companies and films.